Good Things

Some really good things have been happening this week with some of our ongoing concerns.

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Baby E really does seem to be growing out of (or being healed from) her food allergies. It's so nice to be able to give her more of the same things the big kids are eating, like the sunflower butter we had tonight (which contained small amounts of a soy derivative).

The really amazing thing is that for the past week we've been feeding Baby E things with tiny amounts of highly-refined corn derivatives in them. Nothing with actual corn protein in it yet, but things like yeast and vitamins grown on corn, or "natural flavors" extracted in corn-derived distilled alcohol. Several of the foods she's been eating are things we've tried previously (some several different times) and she was not able to tolerate them. But so far she's been eating them for a week and seems to be doing fine.

She's had a few things like a little blister on her lip and what looked like it might have been the beginnings of excema on her cheeks, but they seem to have been just random and incidental. We've been keeping a close eye on her, but nothing has worsened or developed into anything significant so far.

Her stools have been perfectly solid for the past week and a half, with the exception of one moderately soft BM after eating apples one day. The diarrhea and mucous are gone.

So far it seems that if we keep the levels of various sugars relatively low, she does fine with things like bananas and even tiny amounts of other sugars. I'm wondering more and more if the sugar issue may actually be secondary to something else, and may be a significant problem only when something else damages her digestive system. We haven't tried anything high in sulfites again yet.

It's very exciting to be adding corn derivatives and not seeing reactions. Wow. We'll give it another few weeks before we really call it a success, but we're really excited about the possibility of being able to stop worrying about non-protein-containing corn derivatives. That would open up a huge world of food options for Baby E even if she never gets to the point where she can actually have corn protein.

But, really, the best news is that AJ has been a lot better the last few days. Monday and Tuesday she had tons of meltdowns and was acting extremely grumpy and depressed, as she has most of the time lately. Tuesday morning through early afternoon was particularly awful--she must have averaged a meltdown per hour, sometimes moving straight from one into the next without even a break between them, just a change of themes. I thought I was going to go crazy right along with her. She did cheer up quite a bit when we went to play with a friend that afternoon, though.

Wednesday was the morning we saw the doctor and he told us to take the kids off milk. (I don't think she'd had any dairy products since Monday, but she'd had a lot the few days before.)

That afternoon everyone except AJ fell asleep at nap/quiet time and slept for a long time. AJ ended up spending 3 hours playing by herself in her room. I would have thought she might have woken me up or been frustrated at having such an unusually long quiet time, but not AJ. She was thrilled. She came out of her room so relaxed, happy and affectionate that it made me realize that frequently letting the kids skip quiet time over the last several weeks has probably not been good for her. She really needs that alone time to calm herself and recharge.

Thursday AJ was still quite mopey and grumpy (she didn't even want to help bake an apple pie when Morning came over), but she didn't have any major meltdowns. She even managed to swing on the swingset with M&M without getting upset for the first time in many weeks. She actually had fun swinging and came in happy!

Friday was interesting . . . she was whiny and grumpy in the morning, and still complained a lot, but it was less intense and shorter-lived. At that point I was just waiting for the other shoe to drop, sure she would dissolve into meltdowns and full depression mode again any moment. But by late Friday afternoon (after quiet time) she was much more sunny and cheerful.

One particularly surprising thing was that there was a dramatic improvement in her handwriting, literally overnight. Writing is frustrating and difficult for her--easily the task she hates the most in any given day.

With math she usually has problems writing particular numbers--they take effort and thought, and she usually writes them backwards or in large, jerky, uncertain movements (lately, often complaining all the time). She knows the math and can do it, but really hates the writing part. I've been letting her do a lot of her work orally or skip many of the questions just to cut down on the frustration for her.

But Friday early evening she (voluntarily!) sat down and cheerfully, quickly and easily finished a page of math she had been whining and complaining about and struggling over just the day before. To my amazement she easily, precisely and beautifully made small, controlled numbers--the very numbers that had been large, jerky and difficult for her earlier in the week. I was so flabbergasted that I had to call and tell my mom.

It was such an odd, random thing. Is This Your Child? by Doris Rapp talks about food allergies/intolerances affecting handwriting, and it reminded me a lot of the before and after pictures in that book. Of course, I'm sure that an improvement in mood alone could have the same effect. I hadn't expected to see anything like that, though, and it will be interesting to see if she continues to show such significant improvement this week. I know it sounds crazy, but I showed the page to DH and he could see the difference too.

There were a number of instances over the next few days which definitely would have triggered a meltdown a few days earlier (sometimes even the exact same issues she'd been having regular meltdowns about), but which she was able to take in stride or even laugh about. Her mood gradually continued to improve. She had only one or two episodes of crying loudly about something, which resolved themselves within 5 minutes and didn't come anywhere close to the level of the meltdowns she'd been having over the last few months.

She has continued improving since Friday. She's been so much happier, more interactive, more expressive, and generally more enjoyable to be around. She's taking things in stride or getting over them so much more quickly rather than having huge meltdowns or obsessing over them. It hasn't been a complete change, but she's improved so much.

Tonight the five of us played Apples to Apples Junior and it was a huge giggle-fest. The girls were rolling on the floor laughing hysteically at the cards they and everyone else picked. Even Baby E got in on the action, picking random cards to throw into the mix and giggling along with everyone else.

M&M has been a bit more whiny and grumpy than normal since getting her shots on Wednesday, but that's to be expected as sore as her arms have been. Her arms are finally getting over being sore now, so that should help. I hope to go shopping tomorrow to find her some shoes with better arch support after we meet with the therapist.

She's still generally cheery. Every night as I kiss them goodnight I've been asking the kids what the worst and best thing about their day was. Almost every night M&M's immediate response is, "Everything was best about today, and nothing was worst. I loved today." Then she'll start listing the things she liked best.

Baby E has been mostly sunshiny and healthy this week, but I do think she's cutting some teeth. All of a sudden the last few days everything is going in her mouth. She hasn't put random things in her mouth for ages, so I'm expecting to see some new teeth coming through soon.

I wonder if AJ may be a lot like me. When I don't feel well I really struggle not to "shut down". When I feel really bad I hurt all over and have trouble functioning. Even someone touching or talking to me can be painful or irritating--a shout or an unexpected touch can feel almost like an ambush. My preference during those times would be to avoid nearly all interaction and go into zombie mode or just sleep. I have to work very hard to make myself function, make eye contact with people, interact, smile, and not act too grumpy or weepy. It feels like my brain fogs over. Everything seems overwhelming and I have to work extremely hard to keep from reacting to my emotions going haywire.

I know that for me various things can affect my level of fuctioning--allergies, stress, getting adequate water and good nutrition, the amount of sleep I'm getting, my chronic health issues flaring up--all sorts of things. Even as an adult it's hard enough to control myself and act relatively normal when I feel that way. If she's experiencing anything close to that, it must be even harder for her as a 6-year-old.

Friday at lunch AJ told me that she thought bread was hurting her tummy and she didn't want to eat it any more. I was a bit suprised, but said that was fine if she wanted to try it. I've been making a point to provide gluten-free options for her since then. I neglected to tell DH, though, so he did feed the kids wheat a couple of times this weekend.

The older girls have had quite a few stomachaches and diarrhea this week even since we took them off dairy products, so it will be interesting to see if the GI issues resolve or not with a little more time off dairy and gluten. Since I'll be cooking gluten-free meals for AJ, I'll encourage M&M to try going gluten-free to see if it helps her tummyaches too.

AJ also said that apples made her tummy hurt, so I'm not sure if both bother her or if she's just guessing. It's quite possible that the sugars in the apples may bother her, either on their own or as a secondary issue if something else is upsetting her digestion.

Of course, food is only one of many factors that have changed recently. It may not even be a cause of AJ's improvement.

Here are a few other things that may be helping:


• We've asked a lot of people to pray for our family, and they have. We've been praying a lot ourselves, too. I firmly believe that makes a big difference.



• Over the last few weeks we've gotten the kids into a number of structured, scheduled, predictable social activities, including weekly home group meetings, AWANA, Sunday School (which we were already doing), and the homeschool co-op. We're also going to try to schedule playdates with various friends on a particular afternoon each week (midway between the other activities) to make it more predictable for the kids whenever possible.



• We're being more consistent about quiet time. It had gotten sporadic. I think that was bad--both because of the unpredictability, and just that the kids were often missing the rest and recharging time they needed (it's usually much shorter than 3 hours though!).



• We've moved the kids around so that AJ has a room to herself at night. Everyone seems to be happier and getting better sleep that way. Baby E and M&M are enjoying sharing a room most nights. I'm not sure whether we'll end up having the two younger girls share indefinitely, or switching things around so they each have their own room, which would mean losing a room dedicated to just being a playroom or an office. (Yes, we live in a wonderful big house that my dad built for us.)



• We're making a point to put the kids to bed earlier and start the bedtime routine earlier so we can take longer with it.



• We've revamped bedtime to make the routine more relaxing and predictable for the kids. DH and I have agreed on a routine and a specific set of nurturing/winding down activities that we do the same way every night, and that he and I both do the same way when we switch off so that it's predictable for the kids. That seems to be really helpful for them.



• We usually read part of a chapter book and/or Bible story at bedtime (right now we're reading Little House on Rocky Ridge) and pray with the kids. I was reading to and praying with them in the rocking chair most of the time. DH would often read and pray while they laid in their beds. Sometimes part or all of it would get skipped. Putting all the variables together it was all a bit sporadic.
  
  But recently DH decided to start sitting in the rocking chair with the kids to read the Bible and pray with them every night as part of their bedtime routine. They really enjoy snuggling up together in the rocking chair and having devotional time together, and Baby E and I often join them. If DH isn't home for bedtime, I do it the same way. (I also read a Bible story to the kids in the mornings while they color a related picture as part of school). The chapter book will sometimes get skipped if it's late, but we've agreed not to skip the cuddling up in the chair for Bible reading and prayer even if it's late. Being more consistent with that has been great for all of us.



• I think we've found the right balance between relaxed flexibility and structure with homeschooling. The kids and I are enjoying the program we've picked, and the fact that it includes lots of library books and hands-on activities and very little textbook time.



• We're also giving the kids extra warning and transition time between activities and when changing from one place or activity to another.



• We're continuing to make more progress, as well, with getting the house organized and keeping things consistent and predictable in other areas.



• As always, of course, we're loading the kids up with as much love and attention as we can. We've tried to be especially intentional about this lately.



• We've always made a point to have special times alone with each of the kids, but we've recently increased the frequency and will try to increase the predictability of our "dates" with the girls.



• In the last few weeks we've had an unusually high number of significant conversations with the kids, that have seemed to really mean a lot to them.

The conversations we've been having lately have been especially good.

For example, one day AJ asked me who I loved the most in our family. I said that I didn't love anyone more or less than anyone else, but I loved each person in a unique way because they were all special in different ways. Then we spent a long time talking about a number of things that were special about each person. DH and I both told the kids several things that we thought were special about each of them, and then we encouraged them to share what they thought was special about each other. The kids, of course, totally soaked that up. That conversation has continued off and on in different ways over the last week or two.

The kids never get tired of hearing us tell them things that we think are special about them, and it seems that every few months they go through periods of needing to hear it an extra lot.

Another day I was telling the kids that they shouldn't sit at or take things off each others' desks without asking.

AJ said, "I shouldn't have taken Baby E's crayons and used them without asking. That was a bad thing I did. Does that mean God is mad at me and won't love me any more or let me into Heaven, and I'll have to go to Hell?"

"No! Even when you do things you shouldn't, God will never ever stop loving you, just like Mommy and Daddy never stop loving you no matter what you do. We all sin, and we don't deserve to go to Heaven, because of course nothing bad can be in Heaven. Hell is being separated from God, you know, because our sin separates us from God. We don't want to be separated from God forever, do we? No.

But that's why God sent Jesus--to pay for our sins and take the punishment for us. That way our sin doesn't have to separate us from God.

Remember the verse we learned from John 3:16, 'For God so loved the world that He gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life'? Yeah, that was your AWANA verse too. Romans 10:9 also says, 'If you will confess with your mouth that Jesus Christ is Lord, and if you will believe in your heart God raised Him from the dead, than you shall be saved.'

Remember when you told God that you believed in Jesus and wanted him to take charge of your life and forgive your sins? He did!

That means that Jesus has already paid the price for everything bad you've ever done or will do. He already took care of it! So the best part is that when God looks at you, he doesn't even see your sin--He only sees that Jesus's blood has washed you clean and taken your sins away. He doesn't look at you and see the bad things you do--He only sees good, because Jesus has taken care of it. He sees Jesus's goodness and sinlessness when He looks at you. Isn't that great?

We choose to obey God and do the right things because we love Him and we want to please Him, but once we believe in Him and accept His payment for our sin then we don't ever have to worry about being separated from God in Hell. He's already forgiven our sins."

She was very interested in that, and asked a lot of questions. The conversation really seemed to ease her mind and encourage her.

M&M got really excited, too, and said that she wanted to talk to God and tell Him that she believed God and wanted Jesus to take away her sins and be Lord of her life, too, like AJ did a year or two ago.

That is exciting for us. I know not all of my readers share our faith (and you may not have even gotten this far in this post :)), but for us this is a huge deal, and we believe it's the foundation for deep peace and joy throughout life. So we're thrilled that our kids are embracing the Lord. It's the very best thing we could ever wish for them.

Home Group

This week we had our second week of AWANA, first week of the homeschool Co-op, and second week of the new format with our home group.

We've changed our home group to a time and place that allows everyone to bring their kids along instead of having to either get a babysitter or keep the kids up way past their bedtimes. Instead of having to pay sitters, the parents are taking turns watching the kids.

This week we tried having all the kids in with the adults for the worship time, then having an adult (me this week) take the kids up to the playroom and play with them/supervise their play during the Bible Study, and then the babies and adults join together for prayer time while the older kids watch a video and/or continue playing by themselves.

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The kids LOVE having social time with each other and getting to come to home group instead of being left home with a babysitter. They all play very well together and enjoy spending time with each other.

The changes in schedule and format have made the meeting much more convenient for everyone, which has resulted in the group's size doubling almost all at once. Two families who had been in the group but had to drop out because of scheduling/childcare issues are going to be coming back, and another new family is joining.

Tonight we had 8 adults and 8 kids; with the extra folks joining in the next couple of weeks we'll have 12 adults and 13 kids. When all the kids are here we'll have two adults in charge of child-wrangling each week, rotating it so we all take turns.

We started meeting at our house again this week, just because it's the most conducive setup for a group this size.

The meeting went very well. I had activities and a story planned for the kids, but they were all having so much fun just playing together that I didn't even end up using them. I did feed the kids "ants on a log"--celery sticks with sunflower butter spread in the hollow and raisins sprinkled on top. Some of the kids declined to try them, but the rest--including all three of my kids--loved them and kept asking for more.

We all came to the end of the group meeting excited that we get to do this every week. We prayed tonight that God would use the group meetings to grow both our knowledge of and relationship with God, and our relationships with each other. I think He is already answering that prayer.

Doctor Appointment, Concerns

We saw the pediatrician yesterday. In summary:


• M&M has flat feet. We're going to get her some shoes with better arch support, and hopefully that will help her leg pain.



• She got 3 shots and didn't even cry--what a brave girl!



• The doctor looked at the girls' "spots" and diagnosed them as probable flea bites. He said that, especially in households that don't have pets, it's easy to pick one up outside and then it will gravitate to the "sweetest" body in the house and go to town biting it up. The bites didn't cause the kids much discomfort and are rapidly healing.



• Dr. B also recommended that we give the girls a calcium supplement and take them off dairy products for a while to see if that helps with the stomach pain and soft stools. We have tried this in the past and weren't sure how much (or if) it helped, but Dr. B said we probably didn't try it long enough. He said that with dairy we really need to have them completely off it for at least 6 weeks to be able to tell whether there's a real difference or not. So we're going to try that.



• Dr. B did feel that the level of AJs meltdowns and other behavior was something that requires some kind of professional help/evaluation/intervention/whatever. We've found a lovely Christian psychologist/counselor who does play therapy and teaches the parents how to do it with the kids. Hopefully that will help.

What's been going on with AJ is something I haven't really blogged. I've tried many times, but I always end up writing and rewriting the post and then just deleting it or leaving it in draft form, unposted. I finally spent several days on this version and then had DH check it before posting. It's sometimes hard to figure out exactly how (or whether) to post about things like this.

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Some of it is behavior we've seen at varying levels since AJ was very small, and some of it is either new or a significant escalation from before. Her meltdowns are rather extreme, frequent and long-lasting for her age. The triggers are almost always seemingly minor, often the same issue repeated for weeks or months at a time.

In the past it's been things like extreme anxiety over using the bathroom--being afraid of the toilet flushing, worry about feeling the need to go, anxiety about having an accident (even though we've always been very low-key and reassuring about such things) to the point that she was awake crying about it until as late as 1 or 2 a.m. every night for weeks.

Sometimes it's something like our making a transition from one place or activity to another too quickly, or AJ getting upset at the way M&M colors. (AJ is extremely disturbed, for example, that M&M doesn't put feet on her people and often colors things a different color than they are in real life--to the point that she has had extended periods of lying awake at night worrying about it or even hiding under the furniture crying about it.)

She'll cry and scream inconsolably for 30 minutes at a time day after day because she thinks M&M is swinging higher than her on the swingset, but she can bump her head hard enough to raise an immediate lump and hardly blink. (I used to call her my "rubber baby" because she'd just bounce off the furniture unfazed, or even laugh when she got hurt.)

Sometimes she has 5 or 10 meltdowns a day, and other times she can go several days with only a few minor kerfuffles. When she was a toddler her episodes were so intense that she would literally pass out cold, or look like she was having a seizure (the EEG was normal and the doctor said they were just "fits").

We're still at this time trying to figure out what's normal and what's not, and what to just take in stride vs. what to actually be concerned about. We've gone back and forth on this, wondering where exactly the line should be drawn. We don't want to overreact or to brush off something significant, but it's just fuzzy enough that we're never sure.

There have always been things about her that have made us go, "Hmmm, that's odd . . . I wonder . . . ?" Some of it really seems to come and go, or will be really noticeable for a while and then will seem to get better.

There are things like the meltdowns, and then the other things like the extreme anxiety/worry, the constant interest in lining up and sorting things, the insistence on things being just-so, the slight deficiency in social skills, the slower development of skills like smiling and interacting as an infant, the somewhat unusual pattern of learning to talk and then the regression in speech and other skills around a year old, etc.

But she is so good with language and so many other things that we always end up shrugging our shoulders and saying, "No . . . there couldn't be anything wrong. Of course not. How silly to worry."

Her doctors, when we've asked about various concerns through the years, have always said things like, "But look how well she's interacting with me right now . . . it's nothing to worry about/she'll grow out of it/she'll catch up."

Often she interacts quite normally, but other times (especially in certain situations) she'll struggle quite a bit in social interactions, or exhibit a lack of eye contact, facial expression and responsiveness startling and persistent enough that family, friends, acquaintances and a Sunday School teacher have mentioned it. We even had her hearing checked 6 months or a year ago because she so frequently seems lost in her own world and doesn't seem to hear when we try to get her attention.

She is talented in so many areas--reading, math, music, logic (although sarcasm is completely lost on her :) ), general intelligence. She's an extremely bright child. She reads ravenously and talks like a book. She ruminates deeply and talks about things that many kids her age wouldn't even think to be interested in. She cares deeply about other people and loves to help. Even when she seems to not care about interacting, she may be very upset for days after a gathering because the other kids didn't play with her (even if she didn't ask them to play or try to join in their play).

An escalation of her behavior and some new things she started saying a few weeks ago finally bumped us into "This is not normal . . . something is wrong here" mode. The pediatricians and counselors we've talked to are saying that her meltdowns and the things she's doing and saying are not typical 6-year-old behavior and should be looked at further, so that's what we're doing right now.

We are seeing a possible link between her worst periods and her consumption of dairy products and/or artificial colors and flavors, so the 6 weeks off dairy should be helpful in discovering whether that's a factor or not. It also seems to be worse when her blood sugar gets low.

We know that Baby E's interactions, behavior and sensory processing abilities are hugely impacted by what she eats. Since AJ's worst periods seem to happen after social gatherings and when she is eating more dairy and junk food, we're hoping that the no-milk trial will help. We tried taking her off dairy a couple of years ago when she was having horrible anxiety and anger issues right after Baby E was born. It did seem to help when we tried it briefly, but we weren't sure and didn't see a clear difference with minimal exposures, so we gradually added moderate amounts back in (although we still didn't use it nearly as much as we used to).

It's rather difficult to know what to say about it at this point, at least until we get a better idea of what's going on. We don't know whether it's primarily an organic/neurological issue; her response (as Dr. B thinks likely) to the stress and unpredictability of the last couple of years with health issues, etc. disrupting our family life; just something that goes along with being an extremely bright child with a perfectionist/anxiety-prone/analytical personality; or what. We're certainly trying lots of different things and praying about it a lot.

Suffice it to say that if we can get some help figuring out how to get a handle on this and some good tools for helping her cope better, things will be a lot less stressful and more enjoyable for everyone in the house.

Uh-Oh

Baby E just learned how to operate round door handles. She's quite proficient at it. We purposely put in round doorknobs instead of the lever kind when we built this house, figuring that would keep our toddlers from opening doors so early.

It didn't work for long with this one.

What happened to my baby?

She's barely two and she took herself potty all day today without help (although I did check up after her when I realized she'd gone). She can count to the mid-teens. She knows some of her alphabet and desperately wants to read. She wants to find places on the globe. She asks, "What's dat?" constantly--and usually repeats and remembers the answer.

E knows all her colors. Her favorite color is yellow and she thinks everything yellow belongs to her, which results in some interesting demands. For instance, the other day we drove past a yellow beetle and she was insistent that it must be hers: "I mahnt my lellow cawr! Dook; my lellow cawr, wight thewe! My lellow cawr! See? It's my lellow cawr. Div me my lellow cawr! I mahnt my lellow cawr."

She can not only turn on the water in the sink, but she can also access the ice and water in the refrigerator door. She pours her own juice, rice milk and cereal--usually all over the table and floor as well as in the target receptacle. She regularly opens the silverware drawer and the dishes cupboard to get herself a plate, bowl, cup, spoon and fork. She doesn't have to drag a chair or stool to do this, though she certainly can and does do it to reach other things.

She can operate locks. She knows how to unscrew lids and operate pump dispensers. And, now, she can open doors.

Watch out, world!

How am I going to keep up with this one?

Learning by Osmosis

Today after math, I let each of the big girls pick two insects to read about in a book of their choice.

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AJ chose to learn about butterflies, cuckoo bees and cuckoo wasps. I didn't even know there was such a thing as cuckoo bees/wasps.

We learned that they lay their eggs in the nests of other bees and wasps, and then the larvae eat the larvae of the host insect. AJ was both fascinated and disturbed by this, and kept asking why they would do such a thing as eat the other wasps' babies.

She drew a picture of a cuckoo wasp and larva for her notebook, and wrote a sentence about the wasps' habits to go with it. I was amazed at how accurate she made the detail and coloring on the adult wasp.

M&M has been wanting to read about potato bugs to find out whether they eat potatoes or not. (She's worried about our potatoes after seeing a potato bug near the patch.)

We've had a hard time finding information about them, because apparently they're not actually called potato bugs. The correct term for them is woodlice. Somehow I have a feeling that all the kids in our area might not have viewed them as quite such pettable, friendly creatures if we'd known them by their proper name. I had no idea they were actually crustaceans, either.

M&M also read about ladybugs. Did you know that the stinky yellow juice they squirt to protect themselves is actually extruded from between the joints of their legs? I didn't. M&M was also fascinated by the story of a few hundred ladybugs saving the orange orchards in California from being destroyed by cottony scale insects. She enjoyed coloring a picture of a ladybug and labeling the various body parts.

Meanwhile, Baby E happily entertained herself coloring at her new desk, observing what the other kids were doing, and puttering around saying things like, "I need juice," and "Mommy, duh pwintew's not pwinting. It's not pwinting!"

At one point I was listening to M&M read about ladybugs while I cut out and glued pieces for a math game. AJ was quietly reading to herself on the family room couch, and Baby E was sitting at her feet spinning the globe and chattering to herself.

Then I realized Baby E was calling my name repeatedly in louder and increasingly demanding tones. She was turning the globe and saying, "Mommy, where's 'Merica? Mommy, where's 'Merica? Mommy? Mommy! Where's 'Merica? MOMM-EE! Where's 'MERICA!?!?"

I think Baby E and I are learning as much as the two who are officially "doing school."

Polka-Dotted Kids

Last night DH was giving the kids a bath when he called to me: "You're going to want to see this. Now AJ has spots just like M&M's."

Sure enough, she does. The spots look just the same, except that there are fewer of them--only about 37. And, unlike M&M, she has a constellation of them on her chest. They both share a similar pattern starting at the back of the neck and going down the back, with a few on one leg.

The spots don't seem to itch terribly, and the kids have no other symptoms. M&M has had hers for 5 days now and they haven't become open sores or crusted over or anything--they've just faded gradually. They're almost gone now, slightly scabbed where her clothes rubbed against them, but otherwise just quietly disappearing into the skin. They certainly look like tiny insect bites.

So now I'm not sure whether the kids have some strange rash-causing virus, or whether there is some odd insect (or colony of insects) lurking about the house, just waiting to crawl into bed with us.

I'm going to wash all the bedding on the kids' beds (again) today and vaccuum their room, just in case.

BTW, Baby E had no ill effects from the Perky O's cereal yesterday. She ate very little of it, though, and when offered some again later in the day she repulsed it with vigor, saying, "I don't yike dat. It's yucky! Bleah! Yuck!"

Corn-derived vitamins

Apparently we made an accidental decision about trialing corn derivatives. This morning I asked DH what he gave Baby E for breakfast and he said, "Half a banana, and some of her special bread, and that Perky's O's cereal.

I said, "You're kidding, right?"

He said, "No. Why, wasn't I supposed to give her that? I thought you bought it for her."

"Noooo . . . I bought it for the older kids, remember? We talked about that. That's why it was on the top shelf instead of down with Baby E's cereals."

"I'm sorry. I thought you said you bought it for E. Should I take it away from her?"

"She's already eaten some of it now. I guess this will be our trial of corn derivatives. At least we know that some of the vitamins are corn-derived, so it won't be just a guess."

It will be interesting to see what happens. She didn't eat much of it, but seemed to enjoy what she had.

Spelling and Learning

The other day, AJ came to me quite frustrated: "I'm trying to teach Baby E how to read, Mommy, but she's not paying attention!"

I tried to reassure her that it's great she's trying to teach E to read, but that it will probably take E a long time to learn because she's really too young to read yet.

DH just called me from his cell phone to tell me an interesting story, though.

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He said,

I just had to call and tell you . . . something really interesting just happened. Baby E was sitting behind me in the van, playing that game she plays where she pretends people have different names. She was telling me that my name was Mommy, and making up other names for me.

I zoned out for a bit and I was just driving along humming to myself, when suddenly I realized she was saying, "Daddy, you'we Don. D-O-N, Don." She said it several times. She kept pointing to me and saying, "D-O-N, Don."

I said, "Are you spelling it?" and she said, "A, B, C . . . then she got a little mixed up."

I guess I wasn't paying enough attention to her, so she figured that if I didn't understand what she was saying, maybe she needed to spell it for me.

She does hear that particular combination of letters spelled out fairly frequently, so I guess it's not too surprising that she picked it up. She's can count to fourteen or fifteen now, too . . . though she's really only solid on the concepts of sets of numbers up through two or three. Past two or three she starts counting objects more than once, but she definitely understands how many "two" is and that SHE is two.

When DH and the kids got home a few minutes after DH's phone call, E came running to me saying, "Mommy, I need miwk!" A little later: "I'd wike some miwk now, pease."

I'm so proud of my girls . . . this was only their second week at AWANA and already they're memorizing things like old pros. M&M passed her Sparks motto and the theme verse (John 3:16) and AJ passed her Sparks motto, theme verse, the Pledge of Allegiance, and the AWANA song. All AJ has left for her entry book is the AWANA pledge.

I had worked with them on the motto and verse during our Bible lessons this week, so I knew they would pass those. But I'd only read over the Pledge of Allegiance and the AWANA pledge with them a couple of times, trying to familiarize them with it in preparation for learning it next week. We hadn't worked on the song at all.

AJ's favorite activity the last few days has been finding various places on the globe. She likes to read the library books I got that have stories incorporating travel around the world. As she comes to each mention of a place, she finds it on the globe.

She loves using the concordance and the map coordinates in the back of the atlas to find a place like Tahiti in the atlas and then use that information to find it on the globe. She'll spend long hours sitting with a book, atlas and globe, exploring them to her heart's content. Whenever there's a break in the day's activities, I can be pretty sure to find her near the globe.

Today we drew a rough sketch of the continents on a toy ball. I let the kids write their names on it (E just drew lines), and then we tried to flatten it in different ways so it would look like a map. That didn't work very well, of course.

Finally we cut it up and I showed them how difficult it is to get something round, like the world, into a flat representation like a paper map. We experimented with it to see which methods worked the best, looked at pictures of various types of map representations, noticed how any type of flattening causes some distortion, and learned how much easier it is to put a very small piece of the world on a flat map than a large piece. We also learned about latitude, longtitude, the equator, weather differences in the Northern and Southern hemispheres, and time zones.

The girls are just eating this stuff up--they love it.

M&M especially enjoyed reading about beetles today. Her favorite was the male giraffe-necked weevil, which, she informed me, lives in Madagascar and is really funny and neat-looking.

After school today, the two older girls enjoyed pulling carrots for dinner and digging potatoes in the garden while Baby E napped. M&M even volunteered to help wash the vegetables.

Both girls also planted the grape seeds and plum pits from their afternoon snack in little pots of dirt. It's fun for them to eat the fruit they helped pick the other day. I hope the seeds will grow.

M&M and Baby E have been playing an ongoing game the last several days that M&M is Baby E's pet cat or dog. M&M crawls around meowing or barking while Baby E leads her different places, pets her, and pretends to feed and groom her.

Just now I was nursing Baby E when M&M came barking up the stairs. Baby E hopped down off my lap, said, "Oh, my dog mahnts me!" and ran down the hall calling, "Hewe, Doggie! Hewe I am! C'mere, dog! C'mon! Awww, tute doggie."

I'm glad Baby E is old enough to play along with M&M in such games now. They have so much fun together in their imaginary world.

M&M and Baby E both still seem to be feeling better today. M&M only complained about her legs and tummy briefly a couple of times, and AJ only had two or three major meltdowns . . . an improvement for her lately. One was the obligatory "M&M is swinging higher than me!" meltdown that's been happening almost daily (often several times a day) since we got the swingset, and another was when AJ got her feelings hurt because M&M got tired of having AJ tell her how to draw and asked her to stop looking over her shoulder while she worked. :)

Overall, it was a good day.

Itchy but good

M&M's spots have faded quite a bit, and are less itchy. It looks like it's not chicken pox or anything like that . . . just some insect that bit her. 54 times. Yes, we counted them. Fifty-four. It looks like it dropped down inside her shirt at the back of the neck and was stuck in her clothes for a while before coming out at the leg, biting all the way. Poor M&M. Just thinking about it makes me itch.

We all slept really well last night . . . something I know at least one friend was praying specifically for yesterday evening. We had to cancel going to the church because of M&M's spots, but the elders prayed for us during their meeting last night even though we weren't there. We'll plan to go in and have them pray with us soon.

Baby E is in a great mood and had a totally normal BM this morning. She and I are coming down with colds, but otherwise everyone seems to be feeling pretty good. The kids enjoyed having oatmeal and bananas for breakfast. We've done math and Bible so far this morning, and now we're taking a break.

I'm encouraged with how well school is going so far. It's shaping up to be a good year.

Seeing Spots

Well, Baby E is back on low-sucrose fruits (and fewer starches and sulfites). Ironically, she's had nearly normal BMs several times in the last day and a half since we started giving her fruit again. A barely-ripe organic banana seemed to help a lot in firming things up.

Yesterday after school we went to visit a piece of property my dad purchased to develop. We had so much fun. There were all kinds of buildings to poke around, including a big old barn and a child's playhouse. There was an orchard full of all kinds of fruit trees (apple, pear, plum, cherry, fig) and a small vineyard with blackberry and grape vines thickly covered with sweet fruit.

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I tried to limit Baby E's fruit consumption, but she did pick and eat some grapes and part of an apple. It gave her moderate diarrhea smelling of grapes, but nothing like last week--not watery or mucousy. What she had last week was a completely different level and type of diarrhea than what she gets from fruit.

The older kids ate all kinds of fruit. The kids climbed trees, explored woods and fields, played in the playhouse, and overall had a marvelous time.

The property was beautifully cared for and well-loved in the past--we could tell by all the lovely little details everywhere, even though in recent years it had become run-down. I really wish I could adopt the place, restore it, and raise our family there. It would be a marvelous place to grow up. I offered to trade our house for it, but of course it wouldn't even come close to the value. :)

It will be sad to see the pool, pond, orchards and outbuildings give place to a subdivision. At least they'll save the darling old house with all its character. It has cubbies and gable rooms, wood floors, pantries, built-in bureaus and china cabinets, and lots of spaciousness and charm.

Last night all four of us had tummyaches from a little too much fruit. :) M&M's leg pain was worse than I've ever seen it before, but some Tylenol seemed to help.

Today M&M has little red spots all from her neck down her back, around to the front (but not on her tummy) and down one leg. None of the rest of us have them. The pediatrician's nurse said it could be chickenpox or a viral rash and was probably nothing to worry about. They have seemed to fade a bit without getting worse or spreading during the day, though, and she seems fine otherwise. So now I'm wondering if she may have been just bitten repeatedly by some sort of insect.

We were supposed to go and get prayed over tonight, but we don't know yet whether we'll end up rescheduling that or not.

AJ and M&M enjoyed school today. They did math, read books about explorers (including a child's-level biography of Marco Polo) and watched a video about maps and orienteering. Now they're having a blast hiding "treasures" around the house and yard and making "treasure maps" for each other to use to find the hidden treasures.

Galloping

Today we had our first day of Galloping the Globe. We all really enjoyed it. I think it's going to be a good fit for us.

We are studying general maps and geography, explorers, and butterflies and insects this week. We're using some resources we've purchased, along with lots of library books.

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Today AJ read to us about wasps and M&M read to us about cabbage butterflies. I read the girls a cute book (Toot and Puddle, by Hollie Hobbie) about a pig who travels and sends postcards to his friend at home, and we found each place on the globe as it was mentioned in the book. We learned a few basics about maps, and the girls made maps of the toy train layout. It was fun watching their faces light up as they realized how different things look from above as opposed to looking at them from eye level. They did a great job on their maps, which will go into their notebooks.

We are still doing Singapore math. AJ is working on addition and M&M is working on measuring (today it was measuring water). I had the girls practice writing their names and addresses for handwriting, and we studied their AWANA verses for Bible.

M&M also really enjoyed helping me dig and wash potatoes from the garden, and asked to peel the cucumbers. She didn't realize that potatoes grew underground, and had been very worried when the potato plants wilted and turned yellow. She thought we wouldn't get any potatoes! She got very excited when she saw them turning up in the ground under my shovel, and had a lot of fun picking them out of the dirt.

E fussed and nursed a lot (she's still having diarrhea and not feeling well), but did entertain herself for a while coloring and playing with toys and water. She also helped herself to rice cereal and managed to dump almost the whole box into (and on and around) her bowl.

We're all looking forward to another day of Galloping the Globe tomorrow.

Next we'll be studying China and then making our way around Asia, so if you have any good resources to recommend for that area please post them!

I forgot to say last night . . .

. . . that when I talked to the GI specialist's nurse, she told me that they weren't the right people to call when a quick response was needed. She said that if I was worried about Baby E or something seemed serious, like her severe mucousy diarrhea this week, that I should call the primary care physician or take her to the emergency room. I shouldn't leave a message with the GI specialist and expect them to call me back right away.

So now I know. (They are the specialists, after all--I guess maybe they don't really deal with day-to-day issues, but more the big picture?)

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It just seemed that the gastroenterology people would be the logical doctors to call, since they are the ones dealing with Baby E's GI issues and who had given me the advice to cut out fruits, sugars and dairy. It was their advised dietary change that seemed to provoke this issue. If I went about it wrong or fed her the wrong things in attempting to follow their advice, they're the ones who would need to tell me. What is the pediatrician supposed to do--tell me how to implement the GI specialist's advice, or advise me to stop doing what the GI specialist said to do?

Of course, if it was actually a virus (which it could be) the pediatrician would be the logical person to call.

I guess I should have called the pediatrician to see what to do about the diarrhea, and then the GI specialist to give them an FYI about the results of my attempt at following their advice? But then, when I've called the pediatrician's office in the past about GI issues and asking advice about what to feed her during severe diarrhea (even from a virus), they've told me to call the GI specialist.

This would be so much easier if we just had one doctor taking care of everything. Sometimes it feels like seeing specialists mainly results in being shuffled back and forth from one doctor to another while they all say it's not their area of expertise and I should talk to someone else about it.

Baby E does have diarrhea this morning, but it is much better than it was.

Progress

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. Baby E is definitely on the mend. She seems to be feeling well, and the diarrhea appears to be gone.

Interestingly enough, after a day or two of eating mostly brown rice and meat (that seemed to be the most gentle on E's stomach, and it was what sounded good to both of us), I'm also feeling much better. Today, even though I got very little sleep last night, I was less fatigued and felt better than I have for weeks.

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I called Baby E's pediatric GI specialist again today, since I hadn't heard back from them more than 24 hours after I left the message about E's bad mucousy diarrhea. The nurse said that she was still making her way through messages from the day before. She said that "we aren't ignoring you on purpose," but that the GI specialist was trying to do some research and gather information to try to figure out where to go next with Baby E. It makes me feel a lot better to know that she is working on trying to figure something out for Baby E. It would have been great if they could have called to tell me that a little sooner. :)

I also called the pediatrician and made appointments for AJ and M&M. It's been a while since I've checked in with him about their issues, and since they are still ongoing and seem to possibly be getting worse, I want to ask him about them again.

My own doctor referred me to a GI specialist (not the same one E sees), and I have an appointment with him next month. It will be interesting to see what he thinks.

Finally, and possibly most importantly, we've made an appointment for the elders of our church to spend some time praying with/for us next week. That will be very good. I'm looking forward to it.

I'm very thankful tonight for the good improvement we're seeing, and for supportive family and friends (including bloggy friends).

Better

Baby E's diahhrea has been getting better since this morning. It was just such a very large quantity of diarrhea, and the unusually large quantity of mucous last night and this morning scared me a bit.

Mucous in her stools is not unheard of for Baby E, though, and the GI specialist and pediatrician both know that it happens sometimes and don't seem too concerned about it. It just rattles me--especially the way it was last night and this morning.

I left another message for the GI specialist this morning, telling her about this episode of severe mucousy/watery diarrhea, but didn't get a return call.

Baby E's diarrhea is improving . . . becoming less frequent and more solid as the day goes on. She is urinating normally, ate a huge quantity of hamburger and brown rice for lunch, has seemed quite energetic all day, and took a nap in her "big girl" toddler bed. I'm still not sure if has a virus, or if something she ate is causing problems. It's so hard to tell with her. Nobody here has a fever or anything.

The older girls are still a bit grumpy and are complaining of being tired (which they tend to do when they don't want to do something, which at the moment is practicing handwriting), but otherwise they seem fine. Neither of them has had diarrhea at all recently, as far as I know (and upon questioning, they say they haven't).

I did want to clarify, for those who may be wondering, that we haven't been particularly limiting the older girls' diets. Usually they pretty much eat whatever they want, except that we don't allow crumbly corn foods like corn chips in the house (they can eat them elsewhere). Of course, they are somewhat limited by what we buy and cook, but we do fix foods for them that Baby E and I don't eat, and we try to accommodate special requests.

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For Baby E, we had gotten to the point where the only thing we were really limiting was corn and corn derivatives, plus a few foods that the allergist basically recommends every young allergy-prone child avoid, like nuts/peanuts and fish/shellfish. But since something (seemingly fruits) was still causing stomachaches and diarrhea, I called both the pediatrician and the GI specialist to ask what I should do.

The pediatrician (through a nurse) told me to figure it out by trial and error and limit any food that causes problems.

The GI specialist's nurse said to try cutting out all sugars for a month and then try adding things back in one at a time. She had also told me (when she told me to avoid dairy products because of the positive reducing substances test) that "sugar is sugar" and that fruit and fruit juices count as sugar, too.

Basically the GI specialist has advised us to take Baby E off dairy (with the exception of breastmilk), fruit and "all sugars" for the time being. I really didn't want to do something that restrictive if it wasn't really necessary, so I've been trying to get an answer about exactly how restrictive she wants us to be with that. I haven't gotten an answer yet.

Avoiding dairy didn't seem to make a difference, so we had added it back into E's diet until this week. I haven't given her any for the last few days. For the last few weeks, Baby E and I have been essentially rotating fruits, trying to see if one kind or another made a difference. We don't use a whole lot of added sugar in our diet anyway, for basic health reasons, so it wasn't hard to try adding sucrose (cane sugar) to a few meals to see if it made a difference.

I called the pediatrician again this week, too. He said again that we should just remove any food that causes a problem, but added that if we end up removing all fruits we will need to supplement with Vitamin C.

I'm not ready to permanently remove any food at this point. Even corn we are hoping to trial soon, to see if she's developed a tolerance for it yet.

My hope is that we can get Baby E stabilized so she's not constantly fluctuating between constipation and diarrhea, and is feeling relatively well. We need to find a baseline. Then hopefully we can start adding things from that point.

We're also looking into the possibility of getting some enzyme supplements to help Baby E to be able to digest some of the foods her body seems to have difficulty with. I'd much rather try to improve her digestion than just remove foods. Something like that may turn out to be helpful to others in the family, too.

Until the last few days, Baby E was getting tapioca-thickened water mixed with orange juice several times a day. She was also getting several servings of fruit/and/or vegetables every day.

Since rotating fruits, keeping the amounts of fruits small, and avoiding added sugars wasn't helping, I decided that maybe we should try at least a few days of avoiding fruits altogether for E and see if it made a difference. That way I could at least leave a message for the GI specialist that I'd followed her recommendation and what the results were.

Yesterday was the first day for Baby E and I of having completely no fruit--except that's not really true, because I did use a bit of lemon juice in the tapioca bread I made. (I was trying to duplicate the Chebe bread that everyone in the family loves and E eats better than any other bread-type thing, but which is rather expensive.) Honestly, we probably wouldn't have made it the whole two days with so little fruit if we hadn't been out of Baby E's orange juice--I actually went to the refrigerator to get her some yesterday morning because she was begging for it so, but it was all gone.

It was primarily the tapioca flour and the hash-brown potatoes we ate that were probably high in sulfites. E normally has tapioca flour to thicken her beverages several times a day and eats lots of potato chips, so I really didn't expect that to be a problem. I still have no idea whether the sulfites were a problem, or if her symptoms were caused by something else.

In the last couple of days I have tried to limit the older girls on added sugars (cane sugar, maple syrup, etc.), but I haven't limited them on fruit or anything else beyond my usual attempts at offering a variety of healthy foods for them to choose from. We did have a couple of days in a row where the kids happened to not eat any wheat for breakfast or lunch, so I made rice or a starchy vegetable for the grain at dinner to make it a full day of gluten-free eating. I'm not planning to continue limiting gluten at this point.

AJ is choosing to limit herself on milk for a day or two to see if it helps her feel better (she felt bad after eating dairy products a few days in a row), and M&M is currently such a picky eater/nibbler that she doesn't eat half of what she's offered anyway (we have a one-bite rule for most things, so she does at least taste them).

AJ and M&M were given candy at an event they went to tonight, so the sugar-free trial lasted all of two days--par for the course. :)

I keep thinking about doing something like the elimination diet in Is This Your Child for the whole family, but I haven't actually tried anything like that. We've had a few two- or three-day spurts of trying to remove one food, such as sugar or wheat, but it's never lasted. I think we'd need to be more motivated and organized (and probably would need a doctor advising us to make the attempt, and helping us plan it out) in order to really make any kind of elimination diet work with the rest of the family.

Things that make me smile

AJ reading to M&M and M&M reading to Baby E.

AJ setting the table and laying out breakfast for everyone, to surprise us when we get up.

Baby E, on seeing M&M crying: "M&M dying [crying]? Awww. You okay? 'Mere, net me howd you."

AJ (after 2 weeks studying Egypt) finishing a book called "Mummies and Pyramids" and saying, "Mom and Dad, may I research Egypt, please? I want to learn more about it. So I want to do some research about Egypt."

M&M saying, "I love math!"

Three little girls humming and chatting while they paint.

Three little girls shouting "Whee!" as they swing on the playset in the backyard.

AJ's and M&M's eyes lighting up at the thought that AWANA starts this week.

M&M jubilantly helping take out the trash, so proud of herself, while AJ unloads the dishwasher (almost) all by herself.

Baby E saying, "Doh potty" and then proceeding to pull off her pants and "unnerwear", go into the bathroom, put the potty seat on the toilet, climb up on the stool, sit on the toilet, go potty, wipe herself, put the potty seat on the floor next to the toilet, close the lid, climb on it to flush the toilet, climb down, climb onto the stool in front of the sink, turn on the water, get soap, wash her hands, shut off the water, wipe her hands on the towel, climb down and say, "I did it! I did it all myfelf! I doh potty."

Water

We finally figured out a way for Baby E to drink unthickened water without choking. Apparently her swallowing abilities have improved enough that if she drinks from a sippy cup with small enough holes, she does okay with it.

It's impossible to tell for sure whether she's aspirating trace amounts or not, but she's not doing a lot of choking and coughing with this method, so that's encouraging. It's much better than last time we tried these cups with her.

So, she's off the juice. She's just had water and for the last day and a half (in addition to nursing, of course). That seems to be going well so far. That's an answer to prayer that seemed nearly impossible not long ago.

We were going to try to not give her any fruit at all today, but she did get hold of M&M's half of an organic banana this morning. Her diet today contained no grains, and was very low in fructose but a bit higher in sucrose (only what was naturally occurring in things like the banana, carrots and turnips).

She was fussy and clingy today, refused to nap, wanted to nurse constantly, complained of stomach pain, and had diarrhea twice. We'll try again tomorrow.

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I would really like to get to a base level where she's going at least a few days (preferably weeks) at a time without bouts of diarrhea and stomach pain. Then we could start trying to add things one at a time and see what happens. With no dependable baseline to start from, it's very difficult to tell which foods are affecting her in what ways, or if it's something non-food-related altogether.

I've been leaving messages for the GI specialist trying to ask about the possibility of a fructose or sucrose intolerance for almost two months now, I think. I hope we get a call from someone soon who is able to either answer some questions or just tell us we need an appointment.

It's hard not to get impatient or frustrated when it takes several weeks or more to get a return call, and then it seems they haven't looked at her chart or the information got garbled somewhere in the communication line. I know it must be difficult for the medical personnel trying to interpret questions and relay information third-and fourth-hand. But it does make things frustrating on this end to wait so long for a return call that--when it finally comes--doesn't actually answer the question asked. Meanwhile, we're going on waiting and trying to figure it out for ourselves month after month.

AJ and M&M weren't feeling well today, either. I really hope that if we can figure out what's going on with Baby E, it will help all of us.

I think soon I'll probably try putting everyone in the house (or at least myself and the kids) on a gluten-, sulfite- and dairy-free diet with no added sugars for a few days to see what happens. It would be lots of vegetables and meat, but even that (depending on the vegetables) would still contain significant amounts of fructose, sucrose and starch, which may or may not be a problem. I haven't decided yet whether I'll try to temporarily cut out fruits for everyone or just Baby E and myself.

Baby E and I have very little sugar or gluten in our diets already, but the older girls get a bit more sugar (usually small amounts in things like jam or a bit of maple syrup added to porridge or plain yogurt) and quite a bit more fruit and gluten.

I think we're probably getting quite a few sulfites in our diet because I use tapioca starch and potato starch in baking (in addition to the tapioca starch we've been using in Baby E's drinks). I've been making quite a few grain-free "breads" out of things like tapioca flour, and we eat a lot of potato chips.

I'm really not exactly sure what to do or try next.

Mainly I'm just praying a lot for patience, strength, wisdom, perspective and a good attitude. That's what I really need right now, and what I'm struggling with the most.

Too Hasty

It looks like I spoke too soon about Baby E tolerating apple juice. She's not too miserable, but she definitely has diarrhea and is complaining of pain.

Updates on school and health

• We finally picked out and purchased a curriculum for school: Galloping the Globe. It's pretty close to exactly the type of thing I was looking for. We'll be doing a basic overview of geography and reading about various countries around the world.
  
  All the other options I'd been looking at seemed to be either below the kids' academic levels, or a bit too old in the maturity of themes, etc. for them. This one should be perfect--it's geared toward K-4th grade, and we can use any books we want on the topics.
  
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  For each country we'll learn a bit about the country, culture and people, read some books set in or written by people who live there, touch on some major historical figures, learn about and pray for the needs there, and learn about the area's animals and any interesting features of the environment, geology, etc. We'll also read missionary biographies.
  
  I think GtG will be a lot of fun. It's a very flexible program and will be easy to tweak or add to as we go along.
  
  The books look like a lot of fun. Children Just Like Me, a colorful book that shows children from around the world with information about their homes, language, religion, dress, etc. is one of my favorites. There are lots of projects to choose from, from doing crafts to cooking meals or planning celebrations that relate to each country. I did purchase a few core books to use with the curriculum, but we'll be using the library a lot.
  
  The kids will also be involved in AWANA and in Friday School (a homeschool co-op where they will take classes on--you guessed it--Fridays).
  
  We'll continue doing Singapore math, and will supplement with some classic books for read-alouds. I plan to let the kids pick out books at their reading level to practice reading, and we'll do some sort of phonics practice as well. I picked up some Sonlight Teacher's manuals second-hand, and I'll be able to use those as a resource for ideas. We're using the Sonlight-recommended Egermeier Bible Story Book for some extra Bible reading.



• Right now we're still finishing up the three-week Egypt study from Tapestry of Grace. We've enjoyed that a lot. Currently, our tentative plan is to do a year or two of Galloping the Globe, then a year of something else (perhaps Cantering the Country, the US History version of GtG), and then move into curriculum desiged for a wider range of grade levels, such as WinterPromise and/or ToG.



• We saw our naturopath this week. She was fascinated with the printouts I brought in about various forms of sugar intolerance.
  
  She said, "Wow! I wonder how many people who have been diagnosed with Candida really have this instead of or along with the yeast issue? Especially the ones that never get to the point where they can tolerate fruit."
  
  She said that it seems likely that Candida overgrowth could be secondary to a difficulty digesting sugars, and thought the sugar intolerance angle was especially interesting given that she's had several patients diagnosed with Candida who didn't improve with treatment until they began taking enzymes to assist with digestion, and then improved dramatically.
  
  She's going to research the various forms of sugar intolerance and find out all she can. The best part is that she's going to try to find some enzymes that would help Baby E and the rest of us digest sugars, starches and other foods better. The next step would be to try to support the health of the pancreas and other organs that produce digestive enzymes.
  
  I did find information this week suggesting that sugar malabsorption issues can be caused by a number of other conditions besides the three forms of sugar intolerance I've been looking into. Information on them is much less readily-available, but it seems one factor can be an under-production of enzymes rather than a complete lack of them. This would seem a possibility, given the mildness of most of Baby E's symptoms and the dose-related nature of them. Also, it seems that anything that affects the health of the digestive system--allergies, illness, etc--can affect the body's ability to break down and process sugars and other elements of foods.



• To further throw a loop in things, DH decided to trial Baby E on apple juice this weekend. (I said it was fine with me as long as he was willing to deal with her if she became miserable, since I wasn't feeling up to dealing with it.) She had a very small amount ~1 oz at first and several ounces later. So far she seems fine. That certainly brings into question any possibility of fructose intolerance. Apple juice is very high in fructose, but low in sucrose. In fact, it fits the standard for a "low sucrose" food--less than 2g sucrose per 100g.
  
  Also, it's extremely crazy-making, since each time we've trialed her on applesauce she didn't do well with it. It did seem to accumulate over several doses, though. We thought she was tolerating it well at first and then she deteriorated over a day or two. So at this point I'm not sure whether to keep giving her apple juice over the next few days, or just assume she can handle small amounts occasionally but not give it to her too much or too often.
  
  Now it's got me wondering if she just has an extra-sensitive digestive tract. Maybe there's not going to be any real underlying thing we can figure out to tweak and control her symptoms. Baby E is doing so much better now than she was a year ago that it almost seems pointless to keep worrying about the much milder symptoms she has now. Her issues are certainly no worse than M&M's now.
  
  At what point do we just quit trying to figure it out and accept that we just have kids who get a lot of stomachaches and mild diarrhea? But I don't want to just watch the kids feeling unwell so much of the time and not keep trying to figure it out. I hate not knowing what's causing their discomfort and not knowing how to fix or avoid it.



• I'm still not feeling any better, myself. My energy levels are very low and I'm in a lot of discomfort. I don't seem to have any specific illness, just "the usual" flare-ups--allergy symptoms, GI symptoms, general pain, severe fatigue, weight loss, etc. It's hard not to get discouraged sometimes, but I keep reminding myself that God has always sustained me, and we've had so many answered prayers that have brought us this far.
  
  A lot of things are sliding, but we're managing. Each day, it seems, I'm given the strength to do exactly what I have to do, if no more. I'm thankful for that.

Sugar

Well, the GI specialist's nurse finally returned my call after I left several messages over the course of the last 3 weeks.

At first she thought I was asking about allergy issues, which frustrated me because I had already clarified several times that the issues E is having with fruits do NOT seem to be allergy-related and that the allergist can't help us with them. She said that if we suspected a problem with a sugar other than lactose, we should take Baby E off all sugars for a month and then gradually add them back in one at a time to see what she can tolerate. She started listing off things like corn syrup, table sugar, etc. that I needed to remove from E's diet.

I told the nurse that Baby E has been off of all that stuff (especially the corn syrup) already, and that it's pretty obvious that the amount of sugar in fruits, vegetables and probably whole wheat is enough to give her problems. This is a kid who gets sweet-smelling diarrhea from 4 blackberries, not a kid who is having problems from being fed sugar-laced drinks or sweet breakfast cereal. I really wish these people would listen and pay attention to what I've been trying to tell them all these months.

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I asked if we needed to take E completely off all sugars for a month. Fruits, vegetables and starches all contain sugars of some sort. I told the nurse that if we're really going to take her off ALL fructose, sucrose and maltose, including fruits/vegetables/grains, I need someone to give me a list of what we CAN feed E. I'm not about to try to do that with no guidance.

The nurse said she didn't know, and she'd make a note that I had more questions and would have the GI specialist call me. That was several days ago, and I haven't heard back yet.

I'd hate to just indiscrinimately remove all fruits, vegetables and starches from Baby E's diet for that long. Taking something like corn out of her diet isn't going to nutritionally compromise her, but taking out everything with any kind of sucrose or fructose in it certainly will. I think she would essentially be left with nothing but meat and dairy products to eat--not a complete diet by any means, especially considering that breastmilk, butter and yogurt are the only dairy products she really eats.

A number of people have suggested to me that we take E off refined sugars, which is rather humorous because she's really never been on refined sugars in the first place.

Baby E has had very little refined sugar in her lifetime. Mostly it's been lots of whole grains (mainly brown rice), fresh fruits and vegetables, and local additive-free meats. Because of the corn issue she can't have pretty much anything bleached, enriched or refined.

Also, she just has never really liked most sweet things. She'll eat fruit, but anything like cookies or cakes that I've made--even corn-free--she's mostly taken one nibble and refused to eat any more. For the most part she wouldn't touch anything with maple syrup, agave nectar or stevia in it. Anything sweetened (mostly baked goods for special occasions) was made with honey or brown rice syrup. I'd very occasionally make something with a little brown sugar in it, but E usually wouldn't eat it.

She greatly prefers most food unadulterated with sweeteners or other flavorings. She eats things like pancakes, waffles and muffins made with no sweetener and eaten plain with maybe a little butter.

Her "treats" were almost always plain whole fruit. That usually ended up with her being uncomfortable afterwards. So now we usually give her things like potato chips or rice crackers when we want to give her a special treat.

We used to occasionally give her a piece or two of Panda Licorice (made of whole wheat and molasses--about 1 gram of sugar per piece), but we were mostly using that as an incentive to get her to take her medicine when she was taking the Omeprazole months ago. I can't remember the last time we gave her licorice.

We have very occasionally given her one Yummy Earth lollipop (organic, made with unrefined sugar and no artificial colors or flavors--less than 6 grams of sugar) on special occasions. These are usually situations where she is watching other kids eat a lot of special treats that she can't have. I haven't given her any lollipops for a while because she complains of tummyaches after eating them.

Other than that, any sugar in her diet has been mostly in the form of organic fruits and vegetables.

I have given her small amounts of sugar 4 or 5 times in the last month or two, trying to test whether sucrose bothers her or if it's just fructose.

Cake made with whole wheat and brown sugar gave her problems, but I don't know if that was from the wheat, the sugar or both. So I've resorted to feeding her sugar cubes made of pure cane sugar in a brand I know to be corn-free. It feels so strange giving my baby sugar cubes. It's the kind of thing I wouldn't normally do. But it's the only way I know to reliably test whether she can handle sucrose or not.

Sucrose tolerance seems to be the key to differentiating between ordinary fructose malabsorption and the more serious hereditary forms of sugar intolerance. People with fructose malabsorption supposedly should be able to tolerate moderate amounts of sucrose, while people with the other conditions cannot.

I've discovered that 4 grams (1 teaspoon) of sucrose doesn't give her any noticeable symptoms but may make her a bit grumpy, 6-8 grams (1.5 to 2 teaspoons) gives her a tummy ache, and 12 grams (3 teaspoons) is enough to give her mild diarrhea.

When we are trialing sugar, E gets no fruit other than the few tablespoons of additive-free orange juice we use to flavor her thickened water and the teaspoon of black cherry juice she gets with her medicine. We haven't yet figured out how to get her to drink those things without adding juice. This week she's not getting the medicine because we're getting ready to do the corn challenge with the allergist, so it's just the tiny amount of orange juice. I've been trying to get her to drink just plain thickened water, but so far that isn't working very well. Maybe I should try pumping some milk to mix with it instead of the juice.

We also have her off wheat and any vegetables that are high in fructans or other sugars. At the moment she gets no fruit except the juice flavoring her thickened water, and whatever we're trialing that day.

That means that Baby E is basically eating meat, eggs, plain yogurt, rice (cereal/crackers/cooked rice), seaweed (I even found seaweed nodles that don't taste like seaweed), 100% rye sourdough bread (though she doesn't eat much of that), tapioca (as bread and to thicken her beverages), small amounts of rice or soy milk (in cooking or on her rice cereal), potatoes and low-sugar vegetables (no tomatoes, onions, etc). She's still nursing a lot, too.

If she's not already having GI symptoms that day and has fully recovered from the last trial, she also gets a small amount of whatever we're trialing--which might be a carefully measured amount of a particular fruit, or something like that.

Her symptoms usually begin within a few minutes or an hour of consuming the food, so I don't think we're looking at delayed allergies. She doesn't seem to have other symptoms or a clinical picture pointing to candida either (although she certainly could end up with a Candida overgrowth as a secondary issue, I'm guessing, since she doesn't seem to digest sugars).

We have to remember that she has had stool tests positive for reducing substances. I'm no expert, but my understanding is that the positive reducing substances test means that she is not digesting a sugar. I don't think that test result could be caused by allergies or candida--I think it has to be a sugar malabsorption issue.

Some type of sugar malabsorption certainly seems to be the best fit for the data so far.

Trialing Soy

Since Baby E tested negative to everything on the last couple of rounds of allergy testing, we've been gradually trialing all the foods she had tested allergic to. So far any adverse effects have seemed related to her sugar/fructose malabsorption issue rather than to an actual allergy, and have been limited to mild GI symptoms.

We tried a tiny amount of Soy Dream soy milk last night.

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That was a bit nerve-racking since soy was the first food we knew she had problems with. Next to corn, soy had given her the most severe symptoms in the past. We discovered the soy issue when Baby E was only a few weeks old. Thankfully, I didn't eat it very often and it was pretty obvious that her most extreme screaming spells were linked to my consumption of soy while breastfeeding.

I still remember clearly the time I made soy ice cream and ate it several times a day for a couple of days. Baby E screamed and screamed and flailed and was absolutely miserable and inconsolable for hours on end. She had diarrhea, too. Then she was abruptly fine when we switched to giving her milk I'd previously pumped and frozen.

The few times she's been directly exposed to soy, she got a rash and severe immediate diarrhea, but in all those cases there was also corn in the item she got crumbs of, so we never knew whether soy caused a rash, etc. or not.

Because soy is one of the Top 8 allergens and is usually clearly labeled (with the exception of things like Vitamin E, mixed tocopherols, and lecithin which we know to avoid), it's been pretty easy to completely avoid it.

Last night I rubbed a bit of soy milk on the inside of her elbow and waited about 15-20 minutes. She had no observable reaction, so I put one drop of it in her mouth. She smiled, smacked her lips, and said "Milk!" She liked it.

By 30 minutes or an hour later, she was still showing no sign of symptoms. So I offered her a spoonful of soy milk. This time she strongly repulsed it. Even though it hadn't touched her tongue yet, she made motions of raking at her tongue and facial expressions of extreme disgust. I asked what was wrong and if her tongue felt funny or her tummy hurt, and she said her tummy hurt. I didn't make her eat the soy. A while later she told me her tummy hurt without prompting.

Now, she says her tummy hurts fairly frequently, so that's not particularly all that unusual. It was hard to tell whether the soy was actually bothering her in some way or if she just didn't like the taste. So I mixed a small amount into her thickened orange juice. She didn't seem to notice, and drank it just fine.

She didn't have any obvious symptoms. There were no rashes, no itching, no more complaints of tummy ache. She woke up around 6am thirsty. She nursed a bit and then asked for juice instead, so DH gave her more of the soy-spiked juice. She went right back to sleep after that and seemed to sleep well.

This morning she's in a great mood and seems well-rested. No sign of diarrhea so far.

We're going to continue giving her soy over the next few days, watching for signs of eczema or other delayed reactions. It's remotely possible that, after avoiding soy for 2 years, it might take a few exposures to "prime" her immune system before she reacts. But it's more likely that she has grown out of the soy issue, just like M&M did around this age.

Now all we really have left to test (allergy-wise, anyway) is corn.

Very exciting developments around here.