Now that you've read what he can have and what he can't let me finish the story. Most people see that list and say, "What can he have?" We decided to explore the alternative grains. I bought a new cookbook - great one for people new to food intolerance's, Coping with Food Intolerances by Dick Thom. DDS, ND. Funny that he's a DDS (doctor of dental surgery) but now that I search around more I keep seeing his name on lots of naturopathic or food intolerance websites.-- forgive any typos, I was up late last night with my darling child itching and scratching so much I decided drinking was the best way to cope tonight - don't hate me for taking the easy way out.

My other new cookbook was The Gluten-free Gourmet Bakes Bread by Bette Hagman (who BTW is recently deceased). It offered a whole lot of information about the alternative flours. I decide to buy it too otherwise I would have spent the rest of my afternoon in Whole Foods cafe reading it. I thought it best to buy it since Whole Foods is not exactly the library. I did that a lot, just spent hours walking through Wild Oats (Nature's here) and New Season's Market (another locale organic grocer) and Whole Foods. Just wander the isles. I'd be gone for like 2-3 hours just looking at all this new stuff that I didn't know about. Trader Joe's is great too but all these are new brands I've never heard of before. You gotta take time to just read labels.So, we'd been seeing the ND for about 6 months before I think I finally had a handle on all that he couldn't have and got it out of the system. Thankfully I had a daycare provider very willing to offer only food he could eat. She was and is great, as a daycare professional and friend.

Then ND told me to that for every year the body has had a problem, it takes it a month to heal itself. Well at the time we started he was 8 yrs old. 8 yrs = 8 months minimum. 6 months to get all the toxins out, I realize I'm in this for a lot of money. Not including I can't get through Wild Oats or Whole Foods without the bill starting at $40. That's $40 but usually about $60. Depending on your location within the country that may or may not seem like a lot. But to us, our monthly food bill is in the neighborhood of $600-800. Typically I was spending that in 2 visits not almost daily. PB&J's were a thing of the past. So was ketchup, two things that are a staple of most kids' diets. So, now that we are are about 8 months into this and Christmas happens. Lots of eczema that we'd had cleared up. Or as close to normal than we've seen since he was a baby. His skin looked like that of a normal child until Christmas with its sugar, red & green dyes and wheat based cookies. Lots of foods that he's not supposed to have. How can you tell him no? He's just so darn cute?

Now the other turn of events, we'd had to look at ADHA meds. He was having lots of trouble with reading. Reading at kindergarten level or lower at 3rd grade and none of the school's interventions were working - don't even get me started on the interventions he'd been through. And this was all new stuff since our oldest read at 3rd grade level in kindergarten. All the testing showed our youngest the anomaly. No reason why he should be having trouble except that he would fidget and not pay attention. Ah, ADHD on our horizon. We started meds. But looking back, the flare up seems to coincide with the addition of meds or change in meds.I had him tested again with all the foods I was giving him to see if anything I was doing was causing the problem. We found out he also can't have rice or spelt either, two grains I was relying on heavily. Now what?? But those meds still were not thought about.It’s now been 13 months like I said. The ND thinks the ADHD meds are causing a problem. I find plenty of data on the web but of course the regular MD doesn't discredit me but can't confirm even though I bring in some documentation that says reactions include rash, eczema, cracks in the skin and extreme itching. We take him off the ADHD med, put him on Prednisone and alas his skin is clear. Great for steroids.See my son also had this great breakout on Memorial Day weekend where he itched so badly he scratched to bleeding. The doctor at urgent care was worried about secondary infection he prescribed antibiotics, but since I believe it could have started this process why would I go there. I mean hey! Why rob the body of all the good bacteria then take what we and the ND have worked so hard to get back. We have a great length of things we do each morning, acidophilus, cod liver oil, L-glutamine, drops for this or that. Anything to help his body feel better so it can heal.Healing, what a concept.