Family Diet Change

In January 2011 My oldest son was almost 3 1/2 years old and still at a 2 year old speech level. We had him tested and nothing was wrong except his speech was delayed. This caused some frustration as he wanted to do more and I wanted him to say more. We did have long periods of screaming temper tantrums that were quite painful for all involved. I had been reading books, reading online, talking to other mom's and bouncing information off our family chiropractor. Between the ages of 2 to 3 we even participating in a state founded program that had a speech specialist come to our house once a week for one hour. To this point I felt that I was doing everything as a parent but still had a nagging sensation in my gut. The one thing that I hadn't done was make a change in diet. I felt we ate healthy, a lot of organic and whole foods. However I did notice a dramatic change in my son after small doses of sugar and all he ever wanted was pasta and bread. After talking with other moms I thought this was normal. Yet I still had a nagging sensation in my gut. So I started looking online and watched a few documentaries on our society with food and realized the one thing I haven't done is look at food and the effect it was having on my son as well as my family. The next day I called a dear friend who is a Nutritionist and a mom and asked her about my nagging sensation. I wasn't surprised when she said that I may see a change with a change of diet. That night I sat down with my husband and explained what I had been looking into and shared my desire for a change. I really hoped we could do it as a family as my husband and I had gained some unwanted weight in the past year and couldn't seem to shed it. We were also tired, moody and edgy a lot of the times. With all that was at stake, our son being able to possibly communicate, us feeling better and all of us having a chance at a better over all health we decided to do it. We said let's try to go gluten free, no refined sugar and no processed food for 24 hours and see what happens.

24 hours later my oldest son was talking. Talking in full sentences and answering questions. We were floored. That day opened up our eyes. We then and there made a choice to change our overall families diet. It was not a simple process. First was cleaning out our refrigerator, freezer and pantry of everything that contained any gluten, sugar, MSG and had high fructose corn syrup. I then had to go shopping and resupply us with food we could eat. The first few days were a little hairy as we transitioned. Our family chiropractor mentioned to me that it would be harder for my husband and I than for our children because we had more years of this stuff in our system and to be gentle on each other for a month while our bodies detoxed. My mother always says when children get hungry enough they'll eat. I found this to be true. When my son asked for his usual I told we don't have it any more and offered a healthy alternative. With in a day he took the alternative. We saw a dramatic decrease in temper tantrums in the first few days to where they just stopped. His speech sky rocketed and we encouraged him to start up again on potty training and he took to it. With in the first week I wanted to cry at the end of every day seeing that I had a completely different child and he was happy.

People often mention that what I'm doing most be expensive. Well it does cost a little bit more money but it's not impossible to do. We live on a budget and therefore I need to feed a family of four on what we can afford. I looked online, checked out a ton of books from our local library and made some phone calls to people I knew that could help me. I  looked into our local health food store and what I could buy to go further. My favorite has been hooking up with a local organic farmer that I get a huge bag of veggies for super cheap. Recently I found I can order bulk online and get it shipped for free to my house. I had to get creative. Costco was just not going to work for the direction our diet was taking us.
Almost 3 months later my son is teaching himself the alphabet, vowels, potty training and sharing his ideas with us. We recently had a slip up at a birthday party where he had some gluten and it was an immediate reaction of regression followed up with a dew days of chaos. We learned a big lesson: we had found something that was working and it was worth sticking to it.
My husband  lost 11pounds in the first 2 1/2 month. We also stopped arguing as the tension within our bodies was replaced with lightness. My sons are my biggest teachers to search for a solution and follow my gut. Another beautiful thing is I have healed from this too. I have struggled in my life with food. This journey has healed me in that I feel healthy and whole.