first day of summer camp!

We dropped Dominic off to the YMCA daycamp with the below note this morning:



Things that The Y Camp counselors need to know about Dominic.
-  Dominic has an Autism diagnosis, but his primary area of trouble is speech. He’s leaps and bounds from where he was when he came to camp last summer, but is still mostly non-conversational.  He CAN give you 3-4 word sentences, and if it doesn’t impact your other kids, we’d encourage you to make him do all requests in at least 3 word sentences.  (even if you have to prompt a couple of the words)
~ While he does not have a lot of the behavior issues associated with Autism you may see some self stimulatory behaviors (growling and happy squeals are the current ones) and some self injurious behaviors (these are almost gone, but you might see him hit his own hand or bite his arm).  Unless another child is actually being impacted, the absolute best way to handle any Stim’s or SIB’s is to give them zero attention. You can redirect him, or you can simply ignore it.  He’s doing it in a large part to get attention.  If another child is being impacted, you need to redirect Dominic by giving him another activity (“Hey Dominic come here” or “Hey Dominic go climb that slide”)
~ Dominic is allergic to Gluten, Dairy, Soy, Peanuts and a variety of legumes.  You are NOT to allow him to eat anything that we did not send from home. In his lunch box, you’ll find snacks (2) in the front zipper pouch, and a large lunch in the main pouch. It is iced and will be fine without refrigeration, and does not need to be heated up.   Please let us know when we pick him up if Dominic gets ahold of food he cannot have, so we can give him something to counteract the allergic reaction (its not anaphylactic, but he will have major hyperactivity and stimming)
~ Dominic has not had elopement (running off) issues at all this school year so we do not anticipate a problem this summer, but should he elope, please note that officially chasing him will make it a game, and try instead to get his attention by calling his name.  In a field trip setting, have an adult fairly nearby (eg close enough to grab rather quickly) when you are not in an easily contained area.
~ Regarding Swimming:   Dominic loves the water and will probably BEG to go swimming as soon as he realizes it’s a regular part of the program.   We’ve paid for the 2 aquatics weeks, so any chance you have to throw him in (and work on his swimming, which is rudimentary) would be great.    
~ Fine Motor – he can write his name somewhat, and we appreciate any opportunity you give him to practice that skill over the summer.  We’re also practicing staying within the lines while coloring (which he’s having a very hard time) and he LOVES to paint.

~  Dominic will need some support from counselors for the following:

- If questions are being asked (eg, in a group introduction time) – he’ll need some

prompting to say things.  He should be able to answer his name, and age (he’s 8)

but could need some prompting

- For gross motor stuff (structured outside play), he’ll catch on quick, but will need some patience.

He’s really excited about camp this year.  He spent 1 week here last summer to test the waters before we put him in for an entire summer, and when we came back to register for this year he got very happy and ran for the playground right away.   We expect that he’ll have a fantastic summer.  Please do not hesitate to contact us with any issues and/or if you need some coping tips for any behaviors he might exhibit.

(for reference, and to see how far we've come since last July - here's the similar instruction i sent in last July)

~~~~~~

When I picked him up tonight, they told me he had a fantastic day, made a couple of friends, swam a ton. I even had a little back and forth conversation with him that went like this:

Hi Dominic

Mommy

Did you have fun today?

Yes

What did you do today?

Go swimming

Then we were paying for the next camp at the cashier and the director of the Y stopped to tell me a funny story.  Apparently they were playing Tag, and Dominic would go hang out at the top of the hill, wait til no one was watching him, then run down and tag everyone really fast.  And all the other kids were like "um, we thought he wasn't playing".  That to me is just hysterical. 

Got him home, he's clearly exhausted. He was not happy that i made him do a worksheet for homework (as per our SPED's request) We made the decision that on weeknights, after camp, we would not be turning the TV on and he was SO mad at me.  He cried. he pleaded, he brought me the remote and said "push the button".  And i didn't. and now he's happily playing in the bathtub.  Am guessing we'll get a few days where he's really tired and then, like last year, he'll get used to the day of massive physical activity and won't be tired anymore.

A1 Picture Post!!!

Since the hotel connection was weird and I couldn't upload photos while I was gone... here are a few of the pictures I took this weekend:

The first book out of the box, the moment they arrived.  We were all eating in the hotel restaurant and Kerri's husband brought this case over.  Such a cool moment to be a part of. 

Fuzzy picture of the ladies all having lunch when said book arrived.

Thinking Mom's Revolution Booth with Other CD Moms

With Kerri. :)

A1, Day 2

At 7am I got a knock on my door and it was Kerri Rivera.  Cue the squeals and hugs.  I am so amazingly happy to finally meet and hug her in person. Its rare for someone to have a drive and purpose in life that is so unselfish.  She gives so much of herself, its amazing. 

We hit breakfast, met up with a handful of other folks, including Andreas Kalker (of the Parasite protocol), and the rest of the Moderators from facebook arrived fresh in from New York.   Food was meh, but company was fantastic.  The silverware is bizarre here.

I slipped off with my new friend from Slovenia, Sasha, to hear the congressional panel 

 

Rep's Issa, Posey, Burton, and Weldon were in attendance.  It was almost comical the number of standing ovations that the audience gave. Seriously, we must've stood up and clapped at least 20 times.  Biggest applause was split between retired Rep Burton who has been our champion for over a decade and who as a grandson with Autism, and Rep Issa, who is really high ranking and surprised many with his attendance.  These were the biggest points: (1) Meet your congressperson, ideally in person, in their home office, with the request for them to sign onto the vaccinated/unvaccinated study (HR- 1757). (2) Ask for a case file to be opened by your congressional rep's office (but I didn't catch exactly what for). (3) Ask your rep to ask particular questions, say, of CDC (give them a specific example or two) (4) Express to your rep your unhappiness with the federal response to autism, which no one can argue with.

Then I met back up with Kerri, Andreas, the mods for lunch.  And big news!!! Kerri's book has arrived.  HOT off the presses!  And I had her sign the very first one out of the box to me.   This book is going to change everything.   It'll be available to download at CDAutism.org  within the week.

We went into an intense CD think tank this afternoon as a group (Kerri, Andreas, and the Mods), with one of the head MAPS (medical academy of pediatric special needs) doctors, Dr Anju Usman for the afternoon.  We covered a ton of ground and i promise the notes will be forthcoming after we get home.   If we were even within a days drive of Chicago, we would see Dr Usman in a heartbeat.  Not only is she incredibly sharp, compassionate, and driven, she LISTENED to the moms there.  REally honestly looked at us as equals in treating our kids.  So amazing.   It is our great hope that she will take this protocol and spread it to other doctors.

After the think tank, a handful of us wandered the vendors, had RevitaPop (mB12 lollie's), saw MamaMAC from TMR's presentation, and then went out to mexican food for dinner (which involved a table of 13 and a sing along with a crazy mariachi singer).  I rushed back to catch my salon night appointment, got my hair flat ironed out (it took 2 people to do it) and a chair massage.  I did go downstairs to Karaoke night but took one look at the pulsing lights and loud music and decided bed sounded better..

I have pictures of the day, but my connection is being cranky, so those'll need to wait until I'm home for adding into the blog post. 

Remember that interview we did a few weeks ago????

Here is the final project of the students who interviewed us.   They did a good job.  We sort of managed to forget to tell them that Rod and I have different last names... but thats okay.

the part with us starts around 3 minutes in.   And yes, you'll see some of Dominic's fingers in front of the camera as it goes on.

A1, Day 1

I think the majority of you know I moderate a couple of facebook groups for moms doing similar protocols to Dominic, and I had no idea how many people that meant I actually know.  The number of times i've heard *squeal* JOY!  is astonishing. 

Rod and Dominic dropped me at the airport this morning around 9.  Dominic did good saying goodbye to me, but got really sad after he actually realized they left me at the airport.  Rod sent me a picture of a crying boy.  But - he has perked up and had a better afternoon.  Other than my hospital stay in 2011, which doesnt' count cuz he visited a lot, this is the longest i've been away from him in 5 years.

My flight was delayed an hour, so I didn't get to Chicago and the hotel until a little after 4pm Chicago time.   There is SO much  to see at this conference and its crazy overwhelming.    I wandered through the various vendor booths, Hugged the Thinking Moms, laid down on energy mats at the relaxation station.  I met up with Andreas Kalker, the man behind the parasite protocol we're doing and visited for a bit, went to the parent mixer and mixed, and then got my Thinking Moms Revolution book signed and came back to the room to collapse into a small heap.

Tomorrow I'll hit some of the presentations - including the congressional panel - hopefully my question gets asked (its a moderated panel, and of course i submitted the question about when will there be a federal autism insurance discrimination law), spend some time with Kerri, hear RFK speak, get a hair do and massage at salon night, and go to the karaoke party.

The hotel is gorgeous. :)

Catching up!

And... its been a week since I posted.  Sorry about the lack of posts, guys, but not only did I catch a spring cold and spend the weekend trying to get well fast, but there's been a lot going on.  So I figured I'd do a quick bullet point update blog post, because  tomorrow I'm getting on a plane and going to Chicago for AutismOne, so  if I don't get you updated now, I probably won't for another week.

- School is out!  Dominic had a good last week of school, and we got a really nice note from the outgoing SPED teacher about how she'll miss him next year.  I rather expect we'll be keeping in touch with her.   Dominic's all sorted out for the YMCA day camp, which starts Tuesday morning.

-  Remember years ago, I told you about being on a waitlist for the CES medicaid waiver, which would pay for therapy for Dominic (the ABA that we cannot afford anymore, plus speech, OT, PT as needed, plus the stuff health insurance doesn't cover like the sedation for dental work)?  Remember the wild goosechase trying to find a psychologist willing to do an IQ test on him when he turned 5 to keep him on the list?   I got a call last week that its his turn to come off the waitlist.  Its been at least 4 years since he went on, and i'd honestly basically given up.   At any rate, I've had to hustle to get all the paperwork in order, get a medical form signed by a doctor, get progress reports on his IEP, etc.   Coming off the waitlist only means that they will evaluate his eligibility again.  It doesn't mean he's guaranteed of anything;.   So I've sent all the pertinent paperwork in, gotten him denied for social security (a required step), and will be setting up the evaluation appointment after Memorial Day weekend.    Not getting to excited, but this could be a Very Interesting Twist for us.

- While we were at the Doctor getting the CES paperwork signed, we went ahead and had her do the physical for Dominic to participate in team sports with the special olympics.  We've talked about it off and on for ages just never managed to get ourselves together enough to get the forms in.  Being able to do team sports would be really good for him, I think.  Plus, the activity is a good thing.  So hopefully next week we'll see what summer stuff is going on that would be appropriate (and fit our schedule).  His favorite, tho, will probably end up being the spring track and field and aquatics. 


I'm taking a laptop to A1, and hoping to spend a few minutes at the end of each evening blogging about what I did that day.  It may or may not actually happen that way, but hopefully so!!

Aromatherapy

And now for a brief change in subject..

 Years ago when I went to the T-Tapp retreat in Florida, I came home with a sample of Muscle Mist, by www.aromasensations.com

 

I was shocked that not only did it loosen up my back enough for me to put it back into alignment myself, it also got rid of my tension headaches when I sprayed it on my neck.   It got rid of my pain enough for me to get to sleep.

They have a bunch of other cool stuff too, most of which I have not tried.  But if its anything like the muscle mist, it would be very effective.   They do offer guarantees on their aromatherapy oils for snoring & migraines.

I have been a faithful customer of theirs for years, so I was excited when I went to order recently and discovered I could host an eparty and get my friends free muscle mist.

So, here’s now it works.

My eparty is for Monday and Tuesday, May 13^th and 14^th.

On those two days only, if you put an order in and put my name in remarks and eparty code in the comments you get a free Muscle mist (2oz) if you spend $29.  You get free shipping as well if you spend $50.

If you call in and leave a message on those days, give them the same informaiton and you'll get the same goodies.

 

Name: Joy Whitcomb
eParty Code: 1367334524

 

History

Probably not very many of you know that I like history and was actually in fact a history major in college.  So I was completely over the moon to read these two articles about finding one of the original “first” children ever to have autism.

here

and

Here

Kanner had originally theorized that it was refrigerator parents who caused Autism but this research shows that (at least this original first child with autism) had 3 possible exposures to mercury:  “the first use of mercury-preserved vaccines in Baltimore -- a drive to vaccinate every infant with those shots began the month she was born;  her parents' avocation of orchid growing and breeding, which required intensive application of chemicals including mercury;  and her father’s psychiatric career, which brought him – and probably his family through second-hand exposure – in contact with mercury treatments for a common form of insanity.”


Read the whole articles. Its both very cool to see the history, and very horrifying to get this additional validation that  Autism is a man made epidemic.    We have done it to ourselves as a society and as a society it is our job to stop doing it.

oh yes I did.

While we have come a long way from actual willpower fights over Dominic eating non preferred food, there are definately things we ask him to eat that he really doesn't want to. 

This past weekend, I roasted off beets.  They're nowhere near his list of preferred foods, but I told him he had to eat all of them before he could have seconds on rice.  And then I left the room briefly.  I came back and his plate was clean.

Too clean.

I checked the trash, and there they were sitting RIGHT on top of a clean styrofoam to go box. (germaphobes, don't freak out, this is one of those willpower things. If I hadn't proceeded as per below he'd think he could just throw away what he didn't like.  we don't want to start that precedent)

I looked at him and in my best stern voice said "WHAT did you do??".  He ran over to the trash can and started scooping them out and into his mouth with a really guilty look on his face.  He KNEW he wasn't supposed to do it, but tried to slide one by me.  And he knew he was Busted.


Its kind of fun to watch a mischievous little boy start to emerge.

So we got interviewed...

My friend who is a PhD NeuroScientist teaching at  Colorado College contacted me last week and asked if I'd be willing to speak to a group of college students taking a family psychology class about what its like to be a family dealing with autism.

I only had to think about it for half a second. It really is time for me to do more advocacy work, and talking to the young adults who will eventually be in positions of making policy around DSM6 is kind of important.

So they came over Monday night.  We purposefully scheduled it so Dominic would be in the thick of things and boy was he ever.  He was super silly, flirty with the female student, and very interested in the camera that the male student was using to video us (their project is a video project).  He spent a lot of time crawling under the tripod, sticking his tongue out at the camera and taking pictures of his fingers.  Their video is going to be interesting.   He has developed a new stim that we hate.  He runs around saying "spank you spank you" and slapping his butt.  This is courtesy of my mother in law who teases him by saying she's going to "spank you" and then laughing and tickling him.  Its proving to be difficult to break.  and of course, he did it constantly last night

They asked good questions.   We talked about the financial and emotional tolls on our family.  We talked about how isolating the diagnosis had been, that our social life is almost non existent and the reasons why.  They wanted to know where we'd found resources.  I said The Internet.   They were a little taken aback.   I also said that Alpine Autism Center locally had been very helpful, and that led to a discussion about how we stayed until we ran out of money. Then we talked about how I'd learned to stretch a dollar until it begged for mercy and how we'd had to let things in the house slide and were just trying to dig ourselves out.  We talked about how hard it had been for (local) family to adapt their thinking so that Dominic (and therefore us) could be included in family meals.  The example of my motherinlaw making him chicken, but stuffing it with bread, and then being offended when in wouldn't let him eat any.

They asked how it had changed us.  We told them that it made our marriage much stronger - that the little crap that bugs people just doesn't matter anymore because we have much larger things to worry about.   We told them about how it completely changed our parenting styles... how we went from the traditional "NO" to redirection actions, and showed them how much better it worked.  (and it did, Dominic redirected beautifully to a "hey come sit down" where ignored my "leave the camera alone" statement).  We told them about how we had patience now we never had any idea we could manage to have, especiallly with little stuff.

We talked a lot about how Autism is Medical, pathogenic really, and that when we started treating those underlying pathogens, we started making good progress and that we're so much further along now than we were even a year ago.

They asked what we hoped for Dominic long term.  And we told him that we just want a functional, independent human being.  We don't really care about a college degree, we want him to be able to have a job, and take care of himself as an adult.  I told them about the parents in the community who were starting to have to have their adult children legally declared children... stripping them of the rights of adulthood because of their disability.   We talked about the flood thats coming of autistic adults who age out of the school system and how our communities simply aren't ready.  1 in 50.   So in a small town, with a population of 20000, for example, that means in 2 decades, if we don't heal these kids, there would be 400 completely disabled adults who will have to be taken care of.  Thats probably  50 group homes.  I can tell you that kind of infrastructure just isn't there.

When they left, Dominic gave the guy a hug.  After all, he shared his camera.

And yes, I wore my Thinking Moms Revolution shirt.  They said they'd send me a copy of the interview video (which will just be for their class), so I may post it.

I didn't spend any time on the specific things that have worked for Dominic, but I did allude to our expensive years of DAN and that we are working now with our familly prac and doing things that are completely NOT FDA approved.  But I didn't give details. Wasn't appropriate for the setting.

There's a horse in his bed

We had our semi-annual pipes back up and flood the basement drama yesterday - worse than usual because neither of us was around to hear the flooding, so it was a pretty bad flood.  Fortunately we now have friends with a drain snake who will come over and snake our drains for us without us needing to call a plumber - we are very blessed.

Anyway, as result, Dominic's closet floor needs to dry out so everything that was stored in there is now out in his room. One of those things is the YEARS old rocking horse that he has loved and loved and loved and outgrown.  When he saw it out in his room, he got on had rode it for a while.  And I couldn't get him to get off it and get into bed without it being tucked in too.

This meant that Mr Bear had to sleep on the bookshelf last night.  Dominic gave Mr Bear a hug and kiss and then snuggled in with his horse.

Trip to the Zoo May 2013

On Saturday morning, Dominic woke up and said "Zoo???".  I told him we could go to the zoo on Sunday if we got all the housework done on Saturday and the proceeded to hustle through the housework.   So he and i went to the zoo this morning.  :)

He actually did the best at the zoo I've ever seen. he told ME what animals he wanted to see and in what order.  And he took me by the hand and led me thru.  Very cool.  Chatty throughout, but mostly single words.   We got to go in the new elephant/rhino barn and he was very excited about the rhino.

Here're some pictures

First up, the traditional feed the giraffes experience. I have learned tho, that its dumb to spend $2 on 5 pieces of lettcue when you can bring a WHOLE bag of lettuce from home for almost nothing.

Then we moved on to his new favorite area, the redone Elephant pavilion.  Where he totally hammed it up sitting on the elephants trunk:

The peacocks at the zoo wander around free... and have NEVER let Dominic get close enough to touch.  He managed today (and... left all the peacocks feathers intact)

This floored me. The shuttle driver waved at Dominic and he independently waved back, while sitting on a mountain goat sculpture.

Waving was a common theme.  Unfortunately the gorilla couldn't have cared less about being waved at or reciprocating.

Blurry picture, but... his tongue is in his mouth  AND he's grinning.

Failed to get my face in this one, but here is a hippo imitation.  Actually, a Hippo-Pie imitation. (i say hippopatamus, he says hippo pie.  go figure)

He really needs a pony.
(not)

And he managed to get off of this one all by himself.  Helpful antlers.

Seriously, its going to take an Act of Congress?

When I talk to people about vaccines, unless they’re on the front lines and deeply in the battle like we are, they are generally fairly aghast when I tell them that there has never been a study done comparing rates of autism in vaccinated vs. unvaccinated children.   For my feelings on vaccines, hop over here.

Nope, there has never been one.  The CDC says it would be unethical.  I call BS.  There’re whole enclaves of completely unvaccinated children in homeshool groups, in Amish communities, etc.  There’s no reason that the data cannot be gathered. I think the CDC and NIH are afraid of what they’ll find. We all know that correlation doesn’t equal causation. And I personally know several unvaccinated children who have autism. But they have clear, major, family autoimmune disease history.  This is another big factor.

Last week, Rep. Posey from Florida presented legislature to require the CDC to do the vaxed vs. nonvaxed autism study.   I fully intend to shake this man’s hand and thank him personally because he’s going to be attending Autism 1 in a few short weeks.


From his statement to Congress on Friday:

On December 19, 2006, the effort to address this epidemic took a major step forward as President Bush signed into law the bipartisan Combating Autism Act. I look forward to working with my colleagues and the Autism community to reauthorize this program next year. Though the Interagency Autism Coordinating Committee each year produces a strategic plan to address Autism, the billion-dollar allocation of resources to autism has not been evenly invested among genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors. I must concur with the experts who have been willing to speak out, that the epidemic increase in the rates of autism are not a 'genetic' epidemic. Indeed, you don't have genetic epidemics. While there is likely a genetic component to many who have been diagnosed with Autism, we must seriously consider that there are likely several key factors in autism.  Also, so some who have suggested that the increase in Autism is due to better diagnosis, you don't go from 1 in 1,000 to 1 in 80 in three decades due to better diagnosis alone. And, if that were the case, where are the tens of thousands of autistic adults in their 40s, 50s and 60s. While better diagnosis may be a factor, common sense says there is a real increase and something is causing it.  While some may be borne with Autism, there are many parents who testify to the fact and present cases where their children were
progressing normally but something triggered a regression where they lost speech, abilities, and regressed from developmental milestones that they had earlier met. Was that regression due to external factors sich as medical injury, exposure to environmental toxins such as lead or mercury, or was it adverse reactions to medications that lead to high fevers, brain inflammation or seizures? We must get answers to these questions.

And he talks some about the hearings last November.  He called the CDC Lady on her evasiveness too.  Good to know that at least SOME of our of lawmakers have a functional bs filter:

I was pleased to participate in a November 2012 House Oversight and Government Reform hearing on the Federal Response to Autism. That was one of the most attended hearings I have participated in since coming to Washington in 2009. Indeed at this hearing it was standing room only, and overflow rooms had to be used to accommodate the public. This was a much anticipated hearing from many parents of children suffering from Autism who want clear and unbiased answers to questions surrounding the epidemic.  I, like many in Congress, were frustrated with the lackluster response from the federal witnesses, particularly the CDC witness that was evasive and took more than five months to respond to the Committee's questions. The responses that finally arrived this month were incomplete, often evasive, and showed a complete lack of urgency on the part of the CDC. I was also disappointed that the federal government witnesses did not have the courtesy to remain at the hearing to listen to the testimony of the public panel representing non-profit organizations and academic institutions focused on Autism and Asperger's Syndrome....

Before coming to Congress in 2009, I heard from some in the autism community who have advocated for a retrospective study to examine whether there are different health outcomes when comparing vaccinated children and unvaccinated children, including autism and chronic conditions. I have continued to hear these requests over the past four years. At the hearing I asked CDC if they had conducted such a study and they said they've done dozens of studies related to autism but never have looked at a comparison of vaccinated versus unvaccinated. In fact, a recent study they published compared fully vaccinated children to those who were not fully vaccinated, but for some reason it did not include data on completely unvaccinated children. Seems like common sense to do a study comparing vaccinated children vs unvaccinated and this week I was pleased to be joined by my colleague Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) in introducing H.R. 1757, The Vaccine Safety Study Act.  This would direct the National Institutes of Health to conduct a retrospective study of health outcomes, including autism, of vaccinated versus unvaccinated children. That should bring an answer to this decades long question

.

So, please, call your lawmaker and ask them to cosponsor this bill. Its ridiculous that its going to take an act of congress, but I’ll frankly be surprised if we can get this passed given the, ahem, relationship between the pharmaceutical companies and our government.

The GFCF Kitchen, Cleaning up

I am going to admit that we don’t do the best job of being completely non toxic when it comes to household cleaners, but we do try.

Here are my favorites:
1.My Steam mop.  No chemicals AT ALL.  Its brilliant. And I mop way more often with it than I did without it. Bonus, the pads are washable not throwaway.  Its holding up really well, too. I’ve had it since November with no issue.

2. Boiling water.  Seriously. On my oventop, I will pour boiling water and let it sit to loosen crusties, and then I’ll use a lot of elbow grease and a little dishwashing detergent.   Also works on countertops, but its best if you have a lip on the edge or you’ll make a horrible mess.

3. Dr Bronners Castile Soap.   I make a spray with 2TB of it and a bottle of water and use for quick clean ups.  Unless its horribly soiled in which I have to use 409.

4. Foaming handsoap from my friend Nicole’s shop.  She’s a fellow autism mom, and somehow managed to make completely nontoxic, yummy feeling foaming handsoap.  Love the stuff.  I also use her GFCF bar for Dominic to bathe with.

GFCF Kitchen / Potlucks and dinner parties

You've been invited to someone's home for a potluck or dinner party and encouraged to bring along your dietarily restricted kiddo.  What do you take along that will be enjoyed both by your child and the other gathering attendees.

Even bigger - you host a potluck dinner party and provide the majority of the food items.  What do you make that will feed everyone including your kid??

Here're some of my go to's that Dominic loves

Finger Food:
Raw veggie tray with homemade hummus
Raw fruit tray with cinnamon/honey dip
Seed crackers (from Costco) with smoked salmon, onion and caper on top

Meats
Rolled up nitrate free Deli meat
Cocktail meatballs - make small versions of the meatballs i posted here and stick pretty toothpicks in them

BBQ Pork in the crockpot with GF bread (and regular for other people)

Sides
Pasta Salad with GF pasta (this is best fresh, it doesn't hold well in the fridge)
Potato Salad - any german potato salad with mustard/mayo/relish dressing is fine.  don't thin w/milk, thin with water if needed.

Sweets
I love this cookbook and have baked most of the recipes that have dairy free options.




Recipes:
Hummus:  Put in the running food processor in this order:
4 cloves garlic
2 cans of Chickpeas + 1 can of liquid / or 4C of cooked rehydrated chickpease plus 1c liquid you boiled them in
1 TB tahini
1 squeeze lemon
To taste: Salt, cumin, cayenne
Olive oil to  desired texture
You can get fancy and throw in avocado or roasted red bel pepper or basil leaves. Sky is the limit.

Cinnamon Honey Dip - Add 1Tsp cinnamon to 1C honey. Taste and adjust to taste.

Pasta salad - 1 box GF pasta, we like Ancient harvests.  Italian dressing, finely diced red bell pepper, capers, fine diced red onions, chopped canned artichoke hearts and minced black olives.  mix to your preferred amounts.

GFCF Kitchen / They drink what?

So you ask... Enough about food, what does your kid drink??

Water

Seriously.  That is ALL Dominic drinks, ever.

Okay, you need more info?  Lets review –

No casein - which rules out animal milks of all sorts, except Camel and lets face it, camel milk is hard to get your hands on.

No Soy – no soy milk or anything that has the additive Soy Lecithin in it

No Carrageenan – its a neurotoxic chemical, and is added to most if not all commercial seed and nut milks (and yogurts for that matter)

No Soda of any variety  – do  you really need a why here?

No juice – Juice is basically sugar.

No Koolaid or other powdered drink – I hyperventilate thinking about the artificial colors, flavors, and SUGAR in them

Dominic COULD, if he really wanted to, drink herbal tea sweetened with Stevia as long as it didn’t involve green or black tea leaves (both are too high in antioxidents to use with CD).  But he doesn’t tend to want to.

So what do you pour on Cereal.

Nothing.  On the rare occasion that we give Dominic boxed cereal (he does like rice chex, but hello GMO and Sugar), he eats it dry.

 All of that said, if you wanted to go to the effort of making your own Nut or Seed milks, by all means go for it.  

If your child won't drink water straight as is, you'll have to start them with watered down juice (apple or pear) and fade the juice out as rapidly as possible