Did Anyone See...

The loonie lady running and screaming?

Or was I too fast?

Not only does Little Man NOT weigh 15 lbs. He lost an ounce!!!! He weighs 14 lbs. 13 ozs. How, pray tell, does a non-mobile 15 month old kid not at least maintain? Has Jack LaLane been coming into my house at night making my kiddo do push-ups? I feel like the day after Christmas! We have a few more foods & combos to try & we get to lay on a scale again in a month. Maybe I can get him to gain a measly 3 ounces? I guess we'll see. At least his still as cute as ever. :)

Jan. is going to a big month for us. We see both the nuerosurgeon & cranio-facial surgeon as well as starting weekly PT, in addition to our monthly weigh-ins. We also have lots of planning to do to get to Duke. I'm hoping to get there before Spring.

Weigh -In tomorrow!

I am so ready to put this kid on a scale! If he does not weigh at least 15 lbs. I am going to scream like a loonie. I have become food obsessed. I have been pouring over recipes, reading labels & shopping at some pretty crunchy stores. I hope it helps Little Man to gain some healthy weight:) I have been following  a blood type A, dairy free diet for Little Man for about 3 weeks now. I was finally able to use up the last of his multi-grain cereal a few days ago so he has only been gluten free for a few days & I can't really tell a difference with anything just yet. We still get spit-ups, but only occasionally & nothing like what he has had in the past. I have also learned to be careful with what he eats with his vitamins- (Floradix liquid children's multi-vitamins, I love them!) if he takes them in his bottle or in his food its not such a great outcome. I have been syringing them into him a few minutes before he eats & that works out great. Luckily, he can still take his DHA (Nordic Naturals children's DHA:)) in his morning bottle. I think he likes the strawberry in the morning:)

I have weighed him while I weigh myself & according to our very old, non digital scale, he's less than 15 lbs. but not by much. He looks fuller in the face & he got one dimple back but I want to see him on a scale before I do a happy dance (or scream like a loonie)

I have started the ball rolling to get his cord blood re-infused. I filled out paperwork to get a copy of his medical records to Duke. I have contacted the cord blood bank to fax our information over to Duke. They said they did, Duke said they did not. GRRR. Oh and another "great" thing about the cord blood bank? It failed FDA requirements & is being closed. We were notified that our cord blood was now going out to CA, to Family Cord Blood Bank. This had me flipping out! I really only have myself to blame. When I was still pregnant I should have just called Duke & had it stored there & saved myself the trouble. The only good thing about it is that Family Cord at least has a dedicated line for parents who have cord blood from the old bank that are eventually going to have it go to Duke. Also, it will cost less to have it shipped from LA to Duke than from MS to Duke. Not sure how that figures but I saves us a couple hundred dollars. Anyways,  I have several phone calls to make. I'm just glad that Hubby is not flipping out about this. He was so upset while I was pregnant that any talk about going to Duke ended in a screaming & crying so I let it drop. Once Little Man got the diagnosis for CP & the neurologist encouraged us to try everything we could get access to and/or afford I really pushed it with him. Thankfully, he has been on board & we have been able to really talk about it which is a nice change of pace:)

My latest pool noodle experiment- still a work in progress...

But he is a happy, clean boy!

PICTURES!!!!

We are trying to encourage Little Man to stand up for a bit. He can do it for about 2 seconds at a time, but he can do it:)

Capt. Chaos at the TX State Fair. He LOVED the tractors!

Capt. Chaos & I at the Ft. Worth Air Show:)

 

A new skill! We have been working on this for so long. He can now hold his own bottle. Granted he needs to be reclined and it can't be more than 6 ounces, but he can do it!

He is so proud of himself :) !!!!

We have been hard at work eating & gaining weight here at Chez Little Man. I hope we have found a winner diet plan for him:)

I have been researching diets, specificly diets that will help a neurologically compromised child to gain weight. I have found that I am not alone in wanting my child to gain weight. Apparently, this is a common issue in CP kids:(

I was researching a diet that is geared towards a person's blood type. Little Man as well as Hubby are type A. Type A's do best on turkey (the only meat LM will tolerate), sweet potatoes (his fave!) Friut like pineapple (recently recommended by dietician) and avocados & olive oil (added to almost everything he eats). Dairy was recomended in moderation. Breads were recomended in moderation. The really neat thing is since Hubby is also a type A, I was asking him what he liked to eat & he liked all of the type A food & the things that were not so good for type A's, gave him an upset tummy. It was neat to have an adult to test it all out on.

Next came my research on Glutin/Casien free diets. These diets are used alot in ADD/ADHD kids and autistic children. Alot of parents have had great success with this diet. The most "famous" person to have success with this diet is Jenny McCarthy's son- his autistic behavior improved (or decreased?) when she pulled gluten & casien out of his diet. I will also say that her son also got INTENSE therapy in conjuction with the diet, but she states in her books that the diet was very helpful in clearing up his physical issues. Her books are a great read, even though neither of my kids are autistic it really gives you food for thought on diet, vaccines, therapy, and how to best be an advocate for your child. I highly recomend her books to special needs parents.

So after reading about GF/CF diets, I read about the Feingold diet. This diet is used alot by ADD/ADHD kids. Its an "all natural" type of diet that utilizes as much organic, chemical & preservative free food as possible. The theory is these kids are super sensitive to the chemicals & preservatives in food, thus it makes them hyper. The only person I know who uses this diet is Dawn Meehan (her button is on my side bar) She has 6 kids and 2 are considered "hyper"; traditional drugs for ADHD gave her son dangerously high blood pressure so she switched to the diet & she says that her son is much happier now. The thing is that everything either has to made from scratch, and or be bought at Trader Joe's or Whole Foods type of stores. It can also get pretty pricey.

There is also a Ketogenic Diet for kids who have seizures. I am hopeful that Jill, Matthew's mom will post what she learned about it. I think it will help lots of kids out there.

After gathering all the info I could, I decided on a Type A dairy free diet for LM. For Capt. Chaos I am working on a GF/CF diet. (I have been told he is "hyper" so I figured I would try a diet out on him too) Gluten free will be a process though. Why? Because just about everything has gluten in it! I would have to literally throw out 90% of the food in my house & start over. I hate wasting food so we are going through what I am calling our "modified fat tues." I will use up as much of what we have & as I replace, I will buy GF/CF items. 

Fortunately, I do enjoy cooking & I love baking. Unfortunately, I will have to order some things online as the local grocery & Walmart do not carry what I need to go GF/CF. In my reading online I found 2 great websites in case anyone out there would like to read for themselves if diet may help their kiddos. 

http://www.elanaspantry.com/

http://www.5$dinners.com/

Both are great sites!