oh monkey bread, how you thwart me!

"Children are the world's most valuable resource and its best hope for the future." ~ J.F.K

Happy Earth day!

Now on to the monkey bread. Last night we made monkey bread, sweet delicious, gooey yumminess that we all enjoyed thoroughly....and seriously within 5 minutes Boy was in his out of focus, can't be reasoned with mood....that quickly I saw the reaction to the milk, totally bizarre. It seems like now that we have been on the diet for a while, the more quickly I will notice a milk attack.

I understand the entire theory behind why this happens to some children and especially children on the spectrum, but seriously? That much of a reaction to just some simple milk? It makes me question the use of milk at all. Why do we as humans ingest the milk of a different species? That's totally weird.

Things that make you go hmmm.....

got milk?

"Excess on occasion is exhilarating. It prevents moderation from acquiring the deadening effect of a habit." ~William Somerset Maugham

Ah, we had milk in excess for certain over the weekend! Chocolate bunnies and chocolate eggs and cheese pizzas and grilled cheese sandwiches...oh did boy get to "cheat" and oh are we paying dearly for it now.

Not only do the milk products affect his behavior and personality, but they also do a number to his tummy...which I still am in shock that he does not have an "official" gastrointestinally diagnosed issue, but I guess overall children with Autism tend to have these issues.

So now we are back to more strictly enforcing the no milk products rule. Thankfully we don't have to truly be strict or use force because he does understand how milk affects his mood and his body and he agrees that milk free is the way to be.

special note about casein free diet

Here is a special note of something I discovered about the casein free diet....

Be careful of lunchmeat! I didn't even think to look, but found that there is milk protein in some lunchmeats...who would have thought it!

Also, we bought vegan cheese slices to make grilled cheese sandwiches...boy ate it, but didn't think it was all too great. We also bought soy pudding, which is a huge hit!

things that make you go hmmm?

So, my favorite brand of bread is Aunt Millie bread. You can find Aunt Millie bread just about everywhere and it comes in a variety of types/flavors - wheat, potato, sour dough, white, italian, etc.

Well, when we started our milk-free journey I was much disappointed to find that my Aunt Millie bread contained milk products...all varieties, bummer!

But then...

My husband found that some stores carry Aunt Mille bread from "Perfection Bakery" and if the Aunt Millie bread came from Perfection Bakery there were NO milk products. And, that seems to be across the board for all bread, bun products...if it is stamped Perfection Bakery, then there is no milk.

huh?!

How can that be so? Isn't the Aunt Millie bread a certain recipe that each bakery follows no matter which bakery bakes it?

Apparently not...very interesting...very interesting indeed!

pancakes in a can?

You can now buy organic pancake batter in a Redy Whip type of can...sounds bizarre right? Well, it is milk-free so we bought some and tried it out...


All in all, they weren't too bad. They weren't as fluffy as I would have liked, but Boy liked them!! Bonus -- no mess to clean up...

wow! everything I'm looking for wrapped up into one site!

Alisa - thanks so much for your comment on my blog. It brought me to your website www.godairyfree.org, which appears to be every possible thing about milk-free diets that I am looking for....all wrapped up into one website!

Seriously? Ice cream without milk? GENIUS!

I can't wait to try out the recipes!

First on the list are the frosting recipes...the peanut butter fudge frosting sounds almost too good to be true.

Thanks again for your post and your help in introducing me to such a great site!

wanted: a tasty milk-free cake/frosting recipe

"Only a life lived for others is a life worthwhile." ~ Albert Einstein

We are having a birthday party this weekend so I am in search of a tried and tasty milk-free cake & frosting...

Got No Milk?

and all is right with the world

milk, no milk, milk, no milk

So as I stated in a couple of posts, Saturday was super milk infestation day (I think I will now forever refer to the consumption of milk by Boy as an "infestation") and Sunday we paid the price. Yesterday was a no milk day and we had a great day. This morning was a great morning also.

Could it really be that the elimination of milk products (casein specifically) produces such a dramatic affect in behavior?

From what I have read, here are the supposed reasons:
When you consume casein (in milk products), your body breaks it down into by products that some believe are leaked through the intestines and into the blood -- studies show that autistic children are more likely to have gastrointestinal issues including leakage. (We certainly have gastrointestinal issues with boy!) There have been studies done that show that these by products are more commonly found in the urine of autistic children versus non-autistic children. "Casein has been documented to break down to produce the peptide casomorphin, an opioid that appears to act primarily as a histamine releaser." -- wikipedia.

So basically - children consume milk, aren't able to break it down and rid their body of the casein by products...those by products may be leaked into their blood or it could just be the fact that it doesn't pass through their systems normally and behavioral issues arise. From what I have read, the opioid act like a drug in their systems.

I swear I have been extremely skeptic about all of this, but I've seen results. Could the changes between Saturday/Sunday be just a coincidence? I'm not sure. I will certainly test the theory again in a few weeks and introduce milk products again to see if we get the same results.

When checking ingredients for milk, look for these items: milk, milk protein, casein, sodium caseinate, calcium caseinate.

still milk free

We are still doing the milk free diet while we await results of the latest blood workup being done. We believe we have noticed significant behavior changes in boy now that he is milk free, although we have had almost one mess up each day!

We aren't even starting the gluten until after all of these tests are done for boy. If we are on the gluten free diet when he has an endoscopy then those results will be inconclusive too!

A lot of inconclusiveness going on...I think it is just a ploy to keep getting my $30 copay...

Speaking of which, has anyone watched the Michael Moore documentary on health care? I am sure that it is not 100% accurate, BUT it is convincing!!!

always good to know someone...

We got lucky! We were able to get an appointment tomorrow at 9:15am with the gastro doctor! I am so thankful to get an appointment so quickly to eliminate that crazy window of worry!

I will blog everything that we learn...I need to make a list of questions...

1. What can he eat?
2. What can't he eat?
3. How long before his small intestines heal?
4. Are there any enzymes he can take that will help digest the gluten if he does happen to eat it?
5. Can he have milk?

hmmm....what else......

blood work up - update

Boy tested positive for celiac disease. I just KNEW something different was going on with him. I haven't seen the doctor officially yet, but my guess is we will be treating this with a gluten free/milk free diet.

Initial thoughts: how will we survive this? I know we will, you always do whatever is necessary for your children...but how? I give huge amounts of credit to people who are doing this already for themselves or their children!

Next steps: we are going to meet with a gastro doctor and our own pediatrician to discuss.

This explains so much, so in one way the news is horrifying and in another it is a relief to just have the information so we can move forward. Moving forward with a diagnosis feels like you are accomplishing more than just eliminating and seeing what happens...I'm so not scientific enough for the "eliminate and see what happens"!

I will keep everyone posted and if there is anyone out there with recipes...I would much appreciate them :)

milk free products

Here are some of our favorite milk free products so far...he is eating a lot of cereal with soy milk, toasted pb&j and little pizzas!

milk is taking over the world!

I cannot believe how difficult it is to find milk free products! We are surviving...cannot believe I thought the milk free would be the easiest to do!

My pediatrician ordered a whole panel of blood tests for my son, including a celiac disease test. We should get those results soon, but reading the symptoms of celiac disease he only has two of the symptoms - bathroom issues and irritability.

Boy is doing very well with the diet though. I am so proud of him. Before he eats anything, he will ask "does it have milk?"

He really enjoys the soy milk in his cereal...I still won't try it! Tonight I made him milk free pizza using soy cheese...he ate the whole thing. WOOT!

At the same time I am battling the fact that he lost 3lbs since March, which may not seem like a big deal except that he looked skeletal to begin with in March. He is 100th % for height and 90% for weight, the doctor says he is fine, but is concerned that he did lose weight (I think it was because of noise issues in the lunchroom during school, he would not eat). So, I am goal oriented to fatten him up a little this summer!!

I will try to document some of the milk free foods that we have found that he will eat -- he is a SUPER picky eater, so if he will eat something, then anyone would eat it!

Thanks for your comments on my last post! It is nice to see that people are following and have been struggling with the same issues. We are not alone!

we have survived!

We survived the first day on the casein free diet! He even ate cereal with plain soy milk...it didn't smell too good!

Good job!

I explained to him why he had to eat differently than the girls and he was ok with it.

casein free breakfast

So here we go, day one of the casein free diet. Boy was I ill-prepared! Note to self, buy soy milk and pray boy likes it.

I pulled out the Eggo waffles from the freezer, clearly states "contains milk". Hmm, ok put that back. I'm working from home today so homemade waffles will probably take too long to make.

Riffle through the cupboards. Ok, how about peanut butter toast. Peanut butter ingredients look good...

My white bread has no milk, whey, casein, caseinate, sodium caseinate..good so far, but it does contain HFCS. Ugh.

My wheat bread has no HFCS, but contains whey, milk...Oy!

This is going to be interesting.

diet

Today boy had food allergy testing done. I was hoping to do the food allergy test and see if he was allergic to gluten, casein, wheat and then I could just eliminate that substance from his diet...I hate trial and error! Unfortunately, just because he had negative results on the food allergy testing, it does not mean that gluten, casein, wheat will not have an affect on him. The doctor stated that he could have an intolerance to those subjects.

So.

The doctor suggests that we eliminate one at a time for a month and then reintroduce to see if the symptoms return with the reintro. He suggested we start with casein as it is the easiest to eliminate.

So.

Tomorrow we start casein free diet. No cereal (unless soy milk), no yogurt, no cheese, no icecream...things should be interesting.

I'll keep you posted!