This boy is SOOOOOO CUTE!!! And wanna know what's really cute about him?? When I tell him he's cute he repeats it Cuke! I can't help but think of a cucumber and laugh!! He really is as cool as a cucumber and as CUTE as a button :) And his sweet and fine hair is totally Einstein in the slide in the picture above! Don't yall just hate that dreaded SHOCK after a fun trip down the slide?
I want to blog a little more about him though because I haven't written anything on the blog about his speech issues, diet changes and the amazingly wonderful results!! At his 2 year old well check his doctor was a little concerned... I was too, being that Violet is so vocal that was all I had ever known. She was early when it came to speaking and she still talks and talks to us!! (we love that!) So with Weston's laid back personality and easy demeanor he had not come anywhere close to where Violet was at age 2. He said words, even shapes and colors, but wasn't putting them together. He just seemed to not really care about it. As a parent I really didn't want to be overly worried, but still I worried. The ped said she wanted to see him back in 6 months.
So in the meantime I had his ears checked by the ENT, who confirmed that they were just fine, and shortly after had an evaluation done by ECI, Early Childhood Intervention. ECI is a federal program that evaluates kids and then brings the therapy needed into the home. They really help instruct the parent in ways to continue the therapy even when they leave. He qualified for speech therapy so for the last 6 months we have been seen once a week by a speech therapist in our home for an hr each visit. At his 2.5 yr check his dr also recommended that we go ahead and have bloodwork done as well. Well, when the results of the Nutra Eval test came back I was surprised, shocked, overwhelmed.... and then sad. Poor Weston had been treated with antibiotics numerous times for ear infections and his poor little system had gotten all out of whack. To sum it up, he had a major yeast overgrowth in his tummy and because of it was foggy headed and it was also preventing lots of vitamins and nutrients from absorbing into his system. He wasn't able to flush the toxins so those levels were high as well.
OH MY GOODNESS......
I was so sad, bummed, and overwhelmed. I had always given my children probiotics after a round of antibiotics, so really this? I also consider my kids to be pretty healthy eaters too, so really??
Anyway, what to do? Well, on the dr's suggestion we were going to cut out all sugar (eeek!), use an antifungal for a month or so, up vitamins with a liquid vitamin, continue our Juice Plus supplement of fruits and veggies, continue fish oil, up the probiotics, and a few other nutritional items. The major item on the list.... cut out all sugar! BUT, but, but, Weston loves his bananas, he wakes up asking for it, grapes too, appleasauce, ok, but he does say the word Cake and it's so cute, cake too. Seriously once we went through all the things he loves they were all filled with sugar, and feeding the yeast problem!!! Oh my goodness was all I could think. So we began the changes and the antifungal. Let the detox begin... really, the first several days when he woke up in the morning he didn't want to get out of bed :( He was restless and winey, but that only last for 2 days. Being completely overwhelmed on what to feed him that had NO SUGAR the dr recommended I go to her nutritionist. She was a Godsend and pointed me in the right directions for lots of great snacks and ideas for us as a family because we pretty much all planned to eat the same way.
It got easier and easier and we have fallen into a pretty good routine. Weston still has very minimal sugar in his daily diet and it's been over 6 weeks now!! AND THE IMPROVEMENT IN HIS SPEECH IS UN.BE.LIEVE.ABLE yall!!!! I am a believer. First he started buckling himself in his highchair on his own! He had never done that. Then Carter and I kept noticing daily he would attempt new words on his own!! Were we just imagining this??! Before he would say "What is it" ALL the time, not really even caring what it actually was. Now he hides and says "Where did he go", he counts his numbers to 13, he works his alphabet puzzle and knows all the letters, he loves UmiZoomi and requests that show, he answers questions, and YALL he started saying "I FUF YOU" (i love you!!) which was HUGE!! And it's so sweet :) The best part is he is so proud of himself with every new accomplishment :) He finishes words in songs and loves our special songs we sing. He smiles bigger (still not really for the camera) but he's way more alert and here. The fog was lifted and it's sooooo great!! He's making tons of progress every day. I could go on and on... He's getting interested in potty training and when he sees his undies he says COOL! In fact today he went potty twice. I couldn't be happier or more thankful.
So next up is an eval with our school district because at age 3 they are switched over to the local school for speech.
And if you've read this far you might be interested in his non-sugar diet.....
Breakfast:
scrambled eggs, salt, cheese
waffles, gluten free (from whole foods) 1g of sugar
strawberries, blueberries (very low in sugar)
Ezekiel bread
Snacks/ Lunch items:
popcorn, rice chex, cheerios (these two cereals have a tad bit of sugar), veggie chips & straws, avacados, rice cakes, certain nut butters, veggies, beans, rice, salad (homemade sugar free dressing), hummus, occasionally an apple
Dinner:
meat, fish, chicken, veggies (steamed or baked), spaghetti (we have tried quinoa and rice noodles both were pretty authentic) or spaghetti squash, spaghetti sauces with low sugar, Udi's frozen pizza, potatoes, quesadillas, tacos
I am sooo much more conscious of sugar on the labels now. We also cut out all canned juice, much to Violet's sadness, but she has done surprisingly well. We have started juicing our own juice again and have a wonderful recipe we came up with and love... 1 apple, 1/2 inch of ginger root, 4 carrots, 2 handfuls of spinach and 1 grapefruit! They slurp it down. It's a real treat for the kids and us too!!
At first it was a real hurdle, but I feel like we have settled into our routine. And I know my kids will have sugar here and there later on, but for now with Weston's continued improvement it's been such a blessing! I will update again as things continue to progress...
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