There is a lot of information out there around going gluten-free. Lots of recipes, products - even people willing to share their stories. But what you don't hear is how gluten-free products can cause stomach upsets. Our wee family has had a couple of weeks worth of tummy troubles as I've experimented with a gluten-free diet.
Dinner hasn't been too much of a problem. Meat and three vege. Rice. Soup. It's not too hard to think up gluten-free options for the main meal of the day. But I remain stumped around creating gluten-free lunches. This week I've introduced gluten-free spiral pasta and corn chips. I normally add carrot sticks or pineapple pieces in her lunch-box. Yet it seems this doesn't quite fill Amy up and as she has asked for bread often when we get back from Kindy; I have let her continue to eat it.
I have been baking up a gluten-free storm in an attempt to find some substitues for bread for her lunch. But my attempts at baking with firstly gluten-free flour and then rice-flour only made our family feel a bit off. The gluten-free flour provided us with tasty enough baked goods - pancakes, muffins, chocolate chip cookies, and a yummy banana cake. But the pay-off has been stomach cramps. Not nice. Amy ironically went from constipated to the reverse on the gluten-free flour. The rice flour quite frankly tasted awful - banana chocolate chip muffins and chocolate banana loaf. Amy liked it though. And we all had adverse stomach reactions to the rice flour. It seems the gluten-free flour goes right through Amy in particular which confirms on one hand that she has an issue with too much gluten.
But I am not so sure she needs to be entirely gluten-free and to be honest; I'm not sure how I'd manage that with a very determined four year old. My husband and I agreed tonight that she could just be partially gluten-free for now. We just have to watch how much stodge goes into her diet. I won't bake for a couple of weeks and we'll see what happens.
I have noticed in the three weeks or so that I've greatly decreased lactose from Amy's diet (no cows milk) and cut down on gluten-free products (not so much bread, a gluten-free cereal, and several gluten-free dinners a night) that her mood has lifted considerably. She isn't constipated right now, although the poor thing has swung to the other extreme off and on over the last week or two. I am just going to combine my mothers intuition with common sense here and hope that I work out a good balance for her diet that encourages regular, healthy bowel movements.
Amy's week has been more active than usual. On Wednesday she had a pirate morning at Kindy and all the kids, teachers and some parents walked with the Kindy kids to the local playground and then to a cafe for "pirate food" and then back to Kindy again. The majority of the kids dressed for the part. Amy had a lot of resistance around being a pirate and wanted to be a whale so a whale she was! (A blue shawl and a bit of blue face-paint completed her outfit) It was a decent walk and it tired most of the kids out. Saturday we took Amy for a big family walk up the Centre Of New Zealand (an iconic walk here in Nelson). It's quite the climb and Amy did well - although she wanted to be piggy-backed by her Dad for some of it. Today Amy and her Dad walked to the model trains and back which is also quite a walk.
Amy's spirits seem a lot higher after a bit of extra exercise. She is very active at Kindy and we now have a mini tramp in our lounge (that we have borrowed from her teacher's aide) which Amy uses through-out the day. The point is, she needs to let off steam like any other kid. Being on the spectrum and unable to access her emotions easily means it is essential she gets regular exercise. While she has been settling into morning Kindy I have kept her afternoons pretty quiet. But I think she's pretty settled now so a a bit of exercise outside of Kindy every week will no doubt continue to benefit her.
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