Wordless Wednesday: UnBelievable GF/CF Bread That Doesn't Have the Density of a Brick That Our Neighbor Brought from England

Hopefully coming to a Starbucks near us . . .

Wordless Wednesday: Pamela Hits the Jackpot at Walmart

Who Moved My Cheese?

Last Saturday, we drove our periodic, 2.5-hour round-trip pilgrimage to Earth Fare for Pamela's specialty gluten-free, casein-free foods. We breezed through the produce and wine section, hitting the gf/cf soy and rice cheese. Disaster happened--somebody moved her cheese, but Pamela did not panic. Since I happened to have my camera (what I really need is a headcam or TIVO in my eyeballs), I filmed how we both handled anxiety. You see, in public settings, I often experience anxiety trying to scaffold Pamela enough to prevent her from melting down. I end up overcompensating by doing a tad too much thinking for her in fear of inadvertently pushing her over her frustration threshold. On top of that, I was manning the camera, trying to focus it on Pamela, while guiding her and hopefully avoiding bumping into a stranger.

Pamela felt worried about the cheese but managed to stay calm and neutral while she picked out soy yogurt and pudding. I asked Pamela if she wanted to try the coconut yogurt (a new product) but she dismissed it for being different. I picked up two for Steve and I (vanilla and mango)--WOW, they tasted fabulously awesome! Pamela grabbed a can of whipped soy cream before looking on the other side of the cheese section. I knew she was starting to fluster mildly because she had difficulty spotting the buttery sticks and said, "I'm a detective!" I suggested she could keep looking or ask for help. She chose the former, and we breezed our way through the meat and refrigerated stuff. Pamela exclaimed loudly, "Looked everywhere." That is when I suggested we ask a storeworker, and, having exhausted all other options, she agreed.


Because Pamela stayed cool under pressure, I thought this moment perfect to spotlight for our work on connecting feelings and meaning to episodic memory. While Pamela had no problems with figuring out feelings, she needed major guiding to derive meaning. When asked for meaning, she talks about emotions. She did think of "searching everywhere" as one strategy when you cannot find something but had a hard time thinking of borrowing the perspective of a person she does not know. Even though she remembered the storeworker when she retold the story, Pamela could not remember the woman's role when thinking about meaning. My strategies were:

• Give an example of learning from a situation (touching a hot stove).
• Bring to mind people in the story, so she might learn to think about referencing workers at a store.
• Focused on what people knew when Pamela suggested anyone other than the storeworker: I did not know where the cheese was. David did not know. Grandpa did not know.
• Help her think of the situation as a story with main characters who all had roles.
• Stop the action when she was feeling overwhelmed.
• Generalize from the woman to a storeworker.

I remembered a book Steve bought called Who Moved My Cheese? by Dr. Spencer Johnson and read it for a lark. The story includes two simplistic mice and two complex little people in a maze who face unexpected change when their cheese disappears. This very short allegory reveals how to handle change successfully. After I finished reading it in about an hour, I thought, "Where's the beef?" While I will jot down all of the insights on handling change before I post it at Paperbackswap, I had deeper questions like "Who is the cheesemaker?" "Did the cheesemaker post wall notes on finding cheese that never runs out?" "Is there more to life than cheese?" "Is there a true cheese that will provide joy in even cheeseless circumstances?" "Can the cheesemaker guide them to the true cheese?" "Is there life after the maze?"

Maybe the Chesterton book is working overtime in my brain!

Loa, the GF/CF Dog

Today, a gorgeous sunny day with a bit of a breeze going, Pamela, David, and I met up with the entire Jamberry and Habeeb crew (Sly, Jman, SB3). The only one missing in action was Steve, who was helping out Tammy's brother with a favor. The next time, Jamberry and her boys--all four--will stay with us so that we can talk without Pamela and Jman looking for an escape hatch from the chatty mommas (actually, they were both VERY patient). I loved holding SB3 and got to see the gamut of his emotions: placid, sleepy, hungry, poopy, and giggly. Yep, I saw him laugh, and he was sooooo cute.

I enjoyed talking to Jamberry and Habeeb, fellow boat schoolers. How often can you talk about the Dark Ages, going over the wall, getting fried, Storm Brother's ice cream, Annapolis' version of the Ho Chi Minh trail, women's glee club, itchy wool uniforms, peacoats, overcoats, and reefers? See what I mean! You don't have a clue what any of that means. Not even Steve, the 16-week wonder, knows what some of it means.



Before moving onto my dog, I wanted to address Penny's comment from Monday's post, asking if Bob's Red Mill withdrew their oats a few months back because of gluten contamination. I was not too worried because Pamela showed no signs of a reaction to the cookies or eating an entire bowl of oatmeal for breakfast. I emailed the company and, within 24 hours, they replied,

Our Gluten Free Oat products were withdrawn from the market for a few months because of a bad flavor and odor profile caused by the way they were processed. Our supplier has since updated their processing procedures and we now have a limited supply of Gluten-Free Steel Cut Oats.

Now, onto Loa, the GF/CF dog (the fawn colored one on the right) . . . ever since we moved to Carolina, we have struggled off and on with major skin problems. The first thing we treated was fleas, something unknown to her when we lived in Colorado, Alaska, and Minnesota. We got the fleas under control, but she continued to have unpredictable breakouts, which we thought might have been fleas. We got very aggressive with weekly flea shampoos and bimonthly treatments, but no change. The only thing that ever cleared her up were antibiotics and steroid shots, unhealthy for her in the long run. We even did the protocol recommended by the vet: Omega 3 oil, Benadryl, weekly baths with a special creme rinse, hot spray for new open sores, and dog food for sensitive skin. Even our most dedicated efforts failed. He finally told u$ Loa may re$pond to low-allergenic pre$cription diet.

Fortunately, what I learned with Pamela helped. At first, we tried Hills Prescription Diet canned z/d dog food. The vet prescribed antibiotics, but no steroids, so we could see the effect of the food sooner. She did very well for a week, so we bought more of the same plus Royal Canin's Potato and Duck dry dogfood. For two days, I caught Loa gnawing on rawhide and she had another breakout. Rawhide may cause allergic reactions, so we only let the healthy-as-a-horse dog chew them.

We started alternating between the two foods as a hedge against further food allergies. She got better and finished off the antibiotics. Last weekend, we ran out of Benadryl, and she had another breakout. I began to suspect the canned stuff, mainly because it had corn starch. I bought more Benadryl, so now we are doing the med and the corn-free potato and duck dogfood. If she stays clear for a week, then I test her with the canned dogfood with the corn starch for a test. I could go on and on with the variations I will have to do to isolate the culprit. Most of you know the process because you have done it with your autistic children. Happy, happy, joy, joy!

Extra! Extra! Oatmeal: Back on the Menu!

Good news!

A long-time, veteran listmate at Aut-2B-Home has family members with celiac disease so she has to be vigilant about staying gluten-free. She reported today that Bob's Red Mill is offering two kinds of GLUTEN-FREE oatmeal: gluten-free rolled oats and gluten-free steel cut oats! (Thank you, Sherri!!!)

Imagine

. . . blueberry cobbler for breakfast

. . . meatballs for lunch

. . . granola for a snack

. . . meatloaf for dinner

. . . oatmeal cookies for dessert!

I quote:

Gluten-sensitive consumers have avoided commercially grown oats because they can be subject to cross-contact with gluten-containing grains during planting, harvest, transport, milling and packaging.

To solve this dilemma and provide a beloved food (used for breads, cookies, cakes, breakfasts and more) to the 3 million Americans diagnosed with Celiac Disease, Bob's Red Mill has sourced oats from more than 200 pedigree-seed oat farmers dedicated to growing pure oats.

Once harvested, the oats undergo testing to meet the R5 ELISA standards, a rigorous test for the presence of gluten. Only oats that pass this test are shipped to Bob's Red Mill. They are again tested before they are packaged in the company's dedicated gluten free facility. Batch testing is performed once more after packaging.

Snoopy dancing in South Carolina!

"New Way of Approaching Autism"--DUH!

I just read an article called Scientists Make Gut-Brain Connection to Autism. In a nutshell, scientists at the University of Western Ontario have found that some bacteria produce propionic acid in the gut, a compound which just happens to be found in bread and dairy products. Rats begin to exhibit autistic-like behavior when given doses of propionic acid and develop inflammation of the brain. They go on to say that addressing health ought to be the first step in addressing autism and that behavior therapy alone is insufficient.

WELL, IT'S ABOUT TIME!!!!!

I really have to giggle at reading the subtitle "New Way of Approaching Autism" . . .

NEW??????

Let me think. I started tinkering with Pamela's diet in April 1994--well over thirteen years ago when I uncovered a connection between apples and insomnia. The reason why I became interested in diet was because of the Autism Research Institute. Dear old Dr. Bernard Rimland, may he rest in peace, had been beating that drum from the very beginning of his newsletter, Autism Research Review International. His editorial on autism and food allergies written in 1989 is what got me started on Pamela's first elimination diet in 1994. His cutting-edge recommendations for a gluten-free casein-free diet began as early as 1992. His informative newsletter was what jump-started parents like me in the days before the Internet. Dr. William Shaw begin reporting on a variety of compounds produced by bacteria and yeast in the gut as early as the 1994 ASA Conference in Las Vegas (I was there!), and you can read his thoughts on propionic acid presented at the 1996 conference.

AGAIN, I SAY NEW??????

I just hope this validates Dr. Andrew Wakefield who has been persecuted by the medical junta in England because he dared to go beyond the gut-brain connection to vaccinations. All I can say is Britain's loss is our gain!

P. S. I have spent the month updating my web pages. I just finished updating my autism-homeschooling page and added a section with inspirational books both about autism and off the beaten path. Pamela's page and my Charlotte Mason page are current, too!