The Difference

Well, it's been 2 weeks, 2 days since Ethan has gone gluten free. Not without it's mistakes...thanks a lot McDonald's!!! (for those of you who aren't aware, their french fries as of Monday of last week were considered by most to be gluten free, until Wednesday when McDonalds released a statement saying their fries do include wheat and milk!!)

So, after his gluten fries on Monday, he had some issues on Tuesday and Wednesday that we didn't realize were due to the fries...until we looked back.

However, on Friday for the very first time I was able to sit with him to do an art project. For those of you who know Ethan...he just doesn't sit still. Most of the time we just wrote it off as toddler behavior, but then I noticed that some of his little friends, at the same age were able to sit and focus for longer periods of time...not my guy. Well, it's changing. We sat down together and actually painted a foam airplane! That's right folks, I said paint. Plus, while it was drying, he helped me make some delicious gluten free choc. truffle brownies. He actually wanted to sit there and help. He broke some eggs, mixed the batter, helped to poor etc. I've never been able to get him to do these things before. It's very exciting.

Now, beleive me, he is still very much an excitable, powerful, independant toddler. But, it's so nice to see him doing some of the same things his little friends can do, and enjoy it.

It's amazing to us, what a difference it has made just changing his diet. Although he hasn't gained much weight yet, he's stablilzed at 24.5 lbs and not losing anymore. It's hard to believe that more general pedi. practitioners aren't catching this sooner. It would save a lot of parents and thier children days of wondering why their children won't eat, or act the way they do. I guess we can't write it all off as toddler behavior. Goes to show that today, as parents, we need to be more proactive in our children's health.

-michelle