No gluten please....

So last week, Carmela was acting up and going through a difficult phase. I was starting to think the diet was doing nothing, and Chris all along said he didn't feel the gluten was doing anything. So we decided rather abruptly to start giving her wheat again.

Carmela was in heaven, and I was in hell. First of all,she was obsessed with eating anything with wheat that she can get her hands on. It was definitely like a drug addiction. That was all she thought of, all she wanted, and all she could eat. "Carm what do you want for breakfast?" "wheat, Mommy". What kid asks for wheat? One that is addicted to it. Seriously, think of an alcoholic where they get to the point that they don't care what their liquor of choice is, they will drink anything, that was Carmela with wheat, she didn't care what it was just that it had the wheat in there. Last Saturday we went to the mall where KB toy stores was going out of business. Everything was 80% off so I told my kids to pick out one toy each and I'd buy it for them. Joey was excited and looked through everything. Carmela sat there just chanting in a possessed tone that she wants "wheat". She could care less about the toys, care less about the puppies in the store, care less about the books in the bookstore, she just needed her drug.

If that wasn't enough, Carmela became nasty. The temper tantrums were out of control. Poor Joey got the blunt of it. Granted Joey is two and he can get annoying to his big sister,but Carmela would turn around and just beat him. It was awful. I'd put her in time out but she was so far out there, that I couldn't reach her to explain that she needed to calm herself. One Sunday, while Carmela was eating wheat again, we had some family come over for dinner. My sister with her kids, my Mom and my aunt and uncle. The next day I asked my sister if her kids made any comments about Carmela and how she was acting the day before. My sister said that Gianna said that Carmela was being really mean and Carmela even hit her! You have to understand that Carmela adores her cousins, and Gianna was really hurt by Carmela's actions. I had to explain that it was the wheat but that i would talk to Carmela about it. I did so, and Carmela was just so "out there" that I couldn't get it through to her.

Monday morning I had invited a friend over to come exercise, but I didn't want to subject her 5 year old little girl to Carmela's nasty ways, so I thought it best that we exercise at the community center where the kids could go in the kid's club and play. I thought maybe being in a neutral place would help. Nope. They had put in a Barney dvd and when I walked in Carmela was sitting in a chair rocking and rubbing her hands real fast, just staring at the television. I was there 5 minutes just watching her before she finally noticed i was even there. i was talking loudly to try to get her attention, but that was not working. I saw a little boy, probably 1 years old, go up to Carmela RIGHT in her face and Carmela looked right past him, like he wasn't even there.

We wanted to try to keep her on the wheat until school started so we can see what her teachers had to say. It was the weekend of Martin Luther king birthday, so school was out, but she did have dance. So i took her to dance, and when she was done, I walked up to Miss Addie and asked her how Carmela was. She looked at me and her face lit up, like she was happy I asked, and she said she was "in her own little world" and Miss Addie had to ask her to pay attention several times. This from a teacher that told me she never had to call out Carmela's name in class. She was an "angel" and so well behaved.

That was it. I came home from dance that night and talked to Chris. I couldn't take it any longer. I had all the proof I needed, and the next day I talked to Carmela about taking the wheat away. That was last Tuesday morning, and she's been wheat free ever since. It was almost immediately that most things got better. She is back to being my sweet girl for the most part. She's still having difficulty sleeping (not sure if its the fact that Joey has been up every single day this week crying, waking her up, or her new bedroom or the wheat) so her behavior is a bit 'off' but nothing like it was.

I tell you if you have an ADHD child or that of autism, please please try this diet. I was not a believer. Trust me. But I saw my low functioning child go to very high functioning. All I've heard is how lucky we are that Carmela is so high functioning, and now i truly believe it is the diet that is making her so high functioning! Because last week, she was NOT high functioning at all. Give it six months, then if you don't think its working, give your child 4 days on wheat and see what differences you can observe. It is eye opening. I swear! Is it a pain? Yes, of course, but worth every single extra dollar we spend and every single extra meal I have to make for her. I am a believer now.