Hi Allison! Glad you checked in.

Did you know that 'growing pains' are often the result of a dairy sensitivity (both my Mom and my daughter were cured of their leg pain by deleting all dairy). Obviously in my mother they were not 'growing pains' but the same leg pain that my daughter would get... and she sufferred all her life. It took a year of my dd being cured of her 'growing pains' for my Mom to try it... et voila! no leg pain at almost 70 years old. (Unfortunately she cheats a lot and has decided she can tolerate 'some' leg pain. She doesn't dare complain to me about it anymore though. )

I'm just checking in. It is so nice to hear from everyone. Val - Sorry about your loss. I know how you feel as I have had 2 of them myself. Give your kids some extra hugs and you will get through it soon.

Michael is doing extremely well (finally!). His OT and PT have dropped to once every 3 months and he will be getting his wheelchair soon. Hopefully this month. It is only to use for long distances, but it will be nice to have on hand. He is also growing like a weed. He turned 7 on Sunday and is almost up to my shoulders and he no longer requires slim pants!! I am so excited about that. I used to have to find him slims that also had the adjustable waist. Ugghh! It is so nice to see him gain some weight.

My girls are doing well also. Ellie, 4, is still constipated but it is starting to get better. The GF diet is helping. I think it will take her some time to heal up. Kara, 13, will not stay on the GF diet. Everytime she complains about something, I just tell her how much better it would be if she were to stay away from the gluten.

Rachel - it was nice to hear that you and your son are taking Karate. Michael is interested in that and I am currently looking for a place. I never thought about taking it with him though. I wonder if I can even do a kick.

I hope everyone has a great month!

Lisa~

I am so glad to hear Michael is doing better!! And growing!!

Cara

Its October? Eeek! Just got the rent check mailed off (oops) *sigh* Long month with trying to get our car back (we took it on vacation, and it didn't want to leave) and school and what not.

Dd is dairy free, or relatively so (every so often I slip up and find obscure whey or butter oil in something I gave her. Unfortunately, this has so far proved our point that she needs to be dairy free. Rats.) So, we're still trying to find yummy meals everyone can eat. Rice...rice...and more rice...

We're gearing up for Halloween...Looks like Tinkerbell and Mulan/Ping will be running around here come late October. Trick or treating for no dairy, nuts or dye treats will be interesting.

Crossing my fingers that this fall will go better than last fall!

In case it's useful, here's what we've been doing for Halloween:

The kids aren't allowed to eat anything until it's been brought home and checked by an adult. We look up each candy on the Internet and check to see if it's listed as free of all the various things each kid is allergic to. Then we have safe candy on hand for swapping. So, for each candy that gets taken away, there's a replacement available.

I had a really had time last year *finding* safe candy. I ended up buying a bag of EnjoyLife chocolate chips and a plastic candy mold. I melted the chocolate chips in the microwave (nuke until just barely melted, then stir like crazy), then poured the melted chocoalte into the candy mold. I wrapped each piece in aluminum foil (note: don't use scissors to cut aluminum foil; it ruins the scissors), stuck on a sticker, and voila, we had cute homemade safe candies for my kiddos.

For treats to give out to other kids, usually I order a zillion glow bracelets on eBay. That way food allergies aren't a problem, and I don't need to feel guilty about giving sugar to little kids. Usually everybody is thrilled to have a glow bracelet. Last year instead we went to the Friends of the Library booksale and got a pile of books for 25 cents each and gave those out. Kids' reactions varied from, "Ohhh... books!" to "Um, do you have any candy instead?" (we did). (When I was a kid, I'd have prefered books to candy. My partner would have prefered candy to books. So we had both available, so kids of all sorts would find something they liked.)

Anyway, I don't know if anything there is useful, but that's what worked for my family last year.

-Valerie
mom, for Halloween this year, to Mr. Superdude and a large pumpkin

I will tell Kat that it could be linked to dairy. DS and I are both dairy free, but the girls are not. She also gets the bumpy (tho not itchy) rash on her fanny that she refuses to believe is connected to dairy, even tho mine went away after going DF and comes back if I get a molecule of it. Her symptoms seem to be more physical with dairy, but ds seems totally MENTAL. He gets very aggressive, argumentative, and totally loses focus when he has dairy. A gluten reaction is the horrible stomach ache and diarrhea.

Also, thank you ever so much for your suggestion to use coconut milk in my coffee! I get the lite version (no chunks!) and can't really tell the difference.

Allison

I'm glad to hear that worked out for you. I rather enjoy it.

Lisa: Glad to see you here too!

Claire: Thanks for the thoughts.