Month: July 2017

A ‘sugar-free’ six weeks holiday?

So, its Sunday evening here in rainy Somerset and we have survived week one of the six weeks holidays.  I’m not going to lie… I’m wondering how I’m going to keep my head for the next five weeks!   I don’t want to be a ‘Negative Nelly’ but I think this has been the hardest start to the holidays so far.

We’ve had multiple meltdowns from Ellie – sometimes not even knowing why which usually ends in her screaming and crying, saying we don’t love her, she is ugly and stupid …. you get the idea.  These have occurred more regularly lately and are more extreme than ever! There have even been points in the week where we have wondered if she needs some kind of help – whether that be some form of counselling, or medication to help her with her anxiety.  I truly can’t believe we are thinking this way but we have a few more weeks before I have a GP appointment booked (which was actually to discuss the RSI in my hand!). Continue reading “A ‘sugar-free’ six weeks holiday?”

Research on Yeast Intolerance… OMG!!

As you may have seen, on Friday we had our YorkTest results back for Ellie which indicated she had a Yeast intolerance.

First of all, how naive was I to flippantly say “I can do Yeast”, thinking it would be a case of withdrawing bread and a few other things! I mean, she’s already Wheat, Gluten, Dairy and Soya free… surely this can’t be too bad! Wrong! It’s found in vinegar which is in bloody everything! Well, anything you might want to put on top of your dinner… and Ellie loves ketchup and salad cream! There are also a whole host of foods that aggravate the Yeast production in the gut! Continue reading “Research on Yeast Intolerance… OMG!!”

Here’s to Gin & Friendships and Psyching myself up for the holidays!

It’s midday on a Sunday and I’m still sat on the sofa in my summer PJs. After having a very much needed day out drinking Gin and eating platters of meats and cheeses with my two oldest school friends, I’m now sat thinking about the stretch of the six weeks holidays in front of me!

Arrrrrrggggghhhh!!!!!!

I’m buggered whatever I do here. If I have a plan all written down, Ellie will go on and on about it, decide it will be rubbish and drive me crazy and if I don’t tell her she will go on and on about and decide we’re not doing anything and it’s going to be the worst holiday ever…driving me crazy 😜!! Continue reading “Here’s to Gin & Friendships and Psyching myself up for the holidays!”

Digesting the YorkTest!

flat lay photography of vegetable salad on plate
Photo by Ella Olsson on Pexels.com

So yesterday, we got the results back of the YorkTest (re-test) we did for Ellie last week.   We first did this for Ellie some 9-10 years ago when she was two years old and was seriously regressing and we had major concerns about Autism.

Back then the test confirmed what we thought – wheat and dairy were having a huge effect on her brain function and her ability to communicate and understand (see first few blogs for more). Continue reading “Digesting the YorkTest!”

Rice, Rice Baby! What happened when another food becomes a bad guy!

So, lets get back to the story.  If I’m honest, most of the summer of 2008 was a bit of a blur.  We had returned from Florida, which went ok considering how poorly Ellie had been in the previous months.

There’d been doctors appointments (but that’s for another blog). We’d also decided that we wanted to try for another baby.  I remember this news shocking my mum as she felt that now wasn’t the best time to be thinking about trying for another child with everything that was going on with Ellie.   Why would we want to risk having another autistic child? What if Ellie didn’t get better?  I knew that’s what she was thinking. Continue reading “Rice, Rice Baby! What happened when another food becomes a bad guy!”

Mixed Emotions for Little Mix! How we nearly didn’t go to the concert!

Back in May, we surprised the kids with tickets to Little Mix as part of their birthday present (they’re both May babies!).  They were both very excited and for the last few months I’ve heard nothing but how excited they (Ellie) was for the concert.

Fast forward to the night before (Thursday). Ellie had a huge meltdown about how she was going to look rubbish, how she would “look like the donkey” (what!??), how she was going to have her hair – up/down/curly – and which ever way I suggested, it was still going to look rubbish! Continue reading “Mixed Emotions for Little Mix! How we nearly didn’t go to the concert!”

Sports days, exam results and being proud of the progress

So, the end of the school year is nearly here!  To be honest, I don’t know how I feel about the holidays.  I love the fact that there’s no routine, no lunches to prepare, no uniforms to get ready and no PE kits to hunt down!  On the other hand, there is the anxiety of what we are doing for the six week stretch (and that’s just me!).  If I give out a programme of activities to Ellie, I won’t hear the end of it as each situation is super analysed and questions (the same ones) asked over and over again. If I keep information under wraps, there are meltdowns that we aren’t doing anything this summer and its going to be rubbish! We actually had one of these on Sunday with two whole weeks to go! Joy! Continue reading “Sports days, exam results and being proud of the progress”

Fun Finding ‘Free From’ Food In Florida!

So, back to the story and it’s April 2008 and we have a trip to Orlando to go on. Obviously, when we booked it some 11 months earlier, we didn’t envisage that we would have to navigate a restrictive diet along with the regressive behaviour of our two year old daughter. It was a real worry thinking how Ellie was going to manage.

I remember doing a lot of planning!  Literally, organising food for every eventuality.   Hand luggage was full of treats, special sandwiches, plain crisps etc to keep Ellie busy on the flight.  We’d gone up to the airport the same day so didn’t have to worry about overnight food before the flight. Continue reading “Fun Finding ‘Free From’ Food In Florida!”

We need more tests… The York Test!

So, after our first experience with Kinesiology and being told that Ellie was having issues with her gut and that she was intolerant to wheat, dairy, cows milk, oats and potato we went hell for leather and took all of those things out of her diet.

We’d already asked at the doctor’s whether intollerance testing was available on the NHS – but it was restricted to allergies.  The difference between them is; an allergy will show up almost immediately (such as a rash or vomitting) but an intolerance can happen several days later, which makes it doubly hard to work out what nasty food caused it. Continue reading “We need more tests… The York Test!”