In addition my friend Shaz suggested we look at his diet. Something I have been meaning to do, but honestly I am a bit lazy. She suggested we just try to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrup. Willing to try anything I decided to try it out. The biggest change for Justin means the elimination of Fluff from his diet. Some of the other items, maple syrup, ketchup, and jelly all of other alternatives. I have to say I noticed a change in his behavior. Suddenly he wasn't spending most of his day screaming at me- that is a nice change.
But yet, he still was having some issues so I have gone back to my old standby. I put him to bed earlier. We found he was falling asleep in the car in the afternoon- a sign a that he was overtired. So we began to put him in bed by 7pm and suddenly my little 6:50am alarm clock was sleeping past 7:30. And go figure with one extra hour of sleep every day he has become much more pleasant and rallies quicker from issues. He has been fairly willing to go to bed early and doesn't even leave his light on. Things were pretty unpleasant there for awhile but I think we are on an upswing.
On a positive note Justin is all about writing and drawing right now. He is asking how to spell things, he is talking about going to Kindergarten, and he is really enjoying his various preschool workbooks. He loves counting and singing. Here he is with a picture he drew of Daddy picking a flower- the flower is saying "oh no".
He has recently started playing a game with Jessica in the car called "Would you rather...". It goes like this: "Jessica, would you rather fly or be the Flash?" or "Jessica, would you rather have no hands or no feet?" or "Jessica would you rather be really strong or really fast?". Sometimes she answers sometimes she doesn't but it amuses me what he comes up with.Here are some pictures of Justin. He seemed to be willing so I grabbed my camera and ran outside to take his picture- forgot to check the settings on my camera but not too bad.
One more story. As I was pulling out of the driveway to bring him to school last week we had this conversation:Justin: Mommy you have to die.
Me: sorry?
Justin: you know, like Aunt Marcia, you have to die.
Me: (understanding now) Oh yes, we all die sometime.
Justin: your Daddy died of a heart attack.
Me: yes that's right.
Justin: Aunt Marcia had a sickness the doctors couldn't clear.
Me: yes that's right.
Justin: yeah, it checkmate her.
It took me a minute to understand what he said, but I think it is so facinating to watch him take his understanding of one thing and apply it to another. In essence yes Aunt Marcia was checkmated.
6 comments:
Gee sounds like a young man that lives in my house...who could that be? I've become a believer in the sugar issue too as I'm sure we've discussed, but another friend of mine told me about food dyes often being a cause too. Her son goes crazy if he eats Skittles b/c of the food dye. Something to ponder. It lessens every year as they learn the coping skills to deal with it all. Justin's a sweet kid with great parents. He'll be just fine!
Missed ya.
what's dad saying in that picture?
what? you can't read that? he is saying "flower".
Ditto what Kel said. As you know, one in my house too. Coping skills growing by leaps and bounds.
And hurray for the new love of drawing and writing! He's going to do great next year.
Yeah...I firmly believe that High Fructose Corn Syrup is a big evil. Don't like to throw that word around, but with two kids who are allergic to corn, I obviously read lots and lots of food labels. When I noticed that almost everything has high fructose corn syrup in it, I started to do a little research on it. The stuff is just gross. Fringe benefit of my kids' food allergies: we all eat healthier because we buy almost nothing that has that stuff in it.
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