The Search for Turtle Mountain

So...last night during one of my marathon research sessions, I learned of a dairy free yogurt called So Delicious" by Turtle Mountain. They have one made from coconut milk and another made from soymilk. Sean went to Whole Foods at Quarry Lake but they don't carry it. Hoepfully one of the other Whole Foods or Trader Joe's will.

Our quest to start the gluten free casein free diet begins today - just my luck Sean leaves tonight. I am praying that Sarah will not tantrum when I introduce the new milk (Sean picked up rice and soy milk today along with some soy yogurt). We decided we will phase the diet in over 2 to 3 weeks. Evidently, some kids go through a withdrawal which is similar to a drug addict's withdrawal - some of us have witnessed this and it isn't pretty. We are praying and believing that as we slowly phase the diet in, Sarah will not experience any of those distressing symptoms. Our first phase is removing dairy products. Easy right? Not really. Even Flinstones vitamins have milk! We have to READ everything and learn all the key words to look for. I don't think we will be eating out any time soon (at least not with Sarah). We are really hopeful about this diet. I have read a lot of success stories. If you want to read some, go here... http://www.gfcfdiet.com/Successstories.htm

Sarah had an occupational therapy visit at Kennedy Krieger on Tuesday. Just in case you don't know, occupational therapy deals with helping people perform everyday life skills and activities- things you use your arms and hands to do (this is a very basic definition). Basically, the OT said she has problems with fine motor skills (grasp, etc.) and muscle tone which we basically already knew. One thing she pointed out is that Sarah always keeps her body straight. For example, when climbing up onto the sliding board, she will put one leg up and then the other will be hanging down the side. She will try to move forward to the point where she is basically doing a split at the top of the slide. Usually in order to reach or see something behind or beside her, she will turn her whole body as opposed to twisting or turning her neck or her head. Even with her head, she doesn't do a lot of moving it up or down. She keeps it straight. Her school noticed this and had to develop a board that stands up so Sarah's work would be right at eye level as opposed to down on the desk. They OT (just like the speech therapist and developmental pediatrician) says that Sarah needs to be in a full day program. TELL THAT TO BALTIMORE COUNTY PUBLIC SCHOOLS! We agree wholeheartedly, so now we wait for the official report so we can go back to the IEP team and fight for MORE MORE MORE. More services, more school time, more everything.