Kudos for Vacation Bible School

We went out on a limb this week and registered 7 year old autistic Taz in Vacation Bible School at a new church, because he will be in Charleston during our regular church's VBS.

So far, I am totally impressed with First United Methodist and their VBS staff.

The church staff called me Saturday to confirm Taz's registration and make sure that they were clear on his allergies and medical issues. This morning, when I dropped Taz off, his group leader immediately asked if we had his snacks, since he is on the GFCF diet due to milk and wheat allergies. And, when I picked Taz up at lunch time, the group leader told me he did great.

Taz had a little trouble understanding that he had to wait until Friday to make his Turtle, but his group leader said he agreed to wait. Then she apologized that they did not have the materials for making the turtle yet. As a special needs mother, I'm usually the one apologizing or explaining Taz's sensory issues.

OMG what a change that is from the Sunday School teacher last year, who told Taz he couldn't bring his castle to class with him, because it was too disruptive.

I always hold my breath when picking Taz up from afterschool care, tutoring, Sunday School or day camp, because I never know what I'll hear about how he behaved while there. And, just yesterday, Taz had a major melt-down in Cracker Barrel over a decorated egg. You never know what will set him off.

What a difference a day makes, especially when we are blessed with teachers/group leaders, who take the time to listen and explain to Taz that it's okay to wait a day or two for that special craft.

And thanks for letting Taz take his workbook home. He specifically let me know that he had to promise to bring it back every day.

Let's hope mommy remembers it tomorrow morning.

Nianya

P.S. Forgot to say thank you for the Crocodile Dock CD. Taz was absolutely trilled to hear the music again on the way home today. That means so much to me as the mom of a child with sensory issues. Music definitely soothes the savage beast a/k/a the Tazmanian Devil.

P.P.S. The entire week was phenomenal. The group leaders were great and Taz was great. He learned all about the Bible and Jesus and most importantly, he proudly showed off his special turtle when I picked him up on the last day. He hasn't let it out of his sight since.

How I became a Special Needs Mother - Chapter Two

By the time Jesse was 3 we knew she had a speech problem, she communicated mostly by pointing and screaming, if we did not immediately understand what she wanted.

I looked into the possibility of speech therapy, but she was too old for our state's Early Intervention program (Birth - 3) and she was not yet in school. And, everyone kept telling us that she would talk when she was ready.

Speech of course was not her only issue, she was also very clumsy, not just the toddler/twaddler issues, but a total lack of balance and awareness of her surroundings. At age 2 we found a wonderful gymnastics program to enroll her in.

We had no idea at the time that gymnastics served as an alternative to autism intervention. Over the course of 6 years from age 2 to age 8, Jesse's gymnastics program helped her develop her fine and gross motor skills. It also gave her a sense of accomplishment. The beautiful smile on her little face when she raised her trophy each year with her classmates at their spring show was priceless.

Jesse had all the classic signs of autism and still we thought she was just a difficult toddler/pre-schooler, who needed a strict routine.

Part of that routine was Jesse's new Montessori school, which she started attending when she was 3.5 years old. We had interviewed that particular school before placing her in her first school at age 2. At the time, the new school was still housed in one building and the toddler room was very small.

When we went back to the new school for primary Montessori (age 3-6), we were amazed at the changes they had made, including expanding into another building. Jesse's new teacher was absolutely wonderful with her and the Montessori method was perfect for her then.

For the next two years, we settled into a predictable routine with Jesse. She screamed every morning when we dropped her off from school, she continued to have pottying accidents, even though we forced the issue of potty training during the summer of her third year, and her speech improved only marginally.

However, by that time, we had learned how to communicate with her. We had a good idea of what situations would set her off and we avoided the inevitable screaming fits from changes in routine, as often as possible. In other words, we stayed home, joined a church where she could quietly color at our feet during the service and did not take her out of town, except for visits to close relatives.

Baby sitters were not a word in our vocabulary. If we did have to go out at night, dh and I arranged for a relative to come and stay with us. One night, we literally had dh's aunt distract Jesse by the kitchen door, while we snuck down the stairs and out the front door to attend a black tie affair.

When Jesse was 4.5 years, her school conducted routine speech and hearing testing. They recommended that we have the county formally test Jesse to see if she qualified for speech therapy.

So we did.

And the county turned us down for services. They told us that all of her issues were developmental. She would improve her speech with age.

There were right on only one point, her issues were definitely developmental, just not the type they wanted us to believe.

By that time, we were already trying rather avidly to have another child. This time we only waited six months before seeking fertility treatments. After some initial tests, and before going back to Clomid, I found myself unexpectedly pregnant.

My fertility doctor made me come in every other day from week 4 through week 7 for blood tests to make sure my hormone levels were increasing regularly and put me on some medication to help me along.

Everything looked great, until the day I went in for my 7-week ultra sound.

I will never forget the look on the nurse's face when she refused to tell me anything and would not let me look. I knew exactly what my doctor was going to say. No Heartbeat.

They gave me a choice of scheduling an immediate D&C or waiting one more week for another ultra-sound just for peace of mind. We opted to wait and I found myself in the OR having a D&C two days before Christmas.

It was a very bad time for us. That was Jesse's first Christmas where she really looked forward to Santa Clause and I spent it on the couch on pain medication.

Blessedly, the New Year and Jesse's 4th birthday breathed new life into our family.

When Jesse continued to potty accidents in the fall of her 3rd year, we bribed her by booking a cruise on the Disney Boat for her next birthday. We showed her the video of the cruise ship and told her she could not go unless she was fully potty trained.

For the next several weeks, Jesse went around saying, "I stink in the potty, I go on the big boat by my birthday." In retrospect, that was probably her first complete sentence. And, sure enough, by Christmas that year she did just that.

The cruise itself was wonderful and a trial in patience. Jesse freaked every time she saw the Disney characters running around the ship and she lasted less than 15 minutes in the Kid's Club before they paged us.

In Jesse's defense, she was still fighting a 6-week ear infection; the result of losing her second set of tubes a couple of months before.

Needless to say, we ended up seeing the ship's doctor, going on stronger antibiotics and apologizing for several episodes of losing her lunch/dinner.

By the end of the cruise, we managed to convince Jesse to pose with a few of the characters when no other kids were around. Most of the time, as you probably know, everyone lined up for hours for the scheduled character photo-ops.

Not my Jesse.

Among her other issues, she was still rightfully sulking about her new, extremely short page-boy haircut; the result of a very bad hair stylist at our local mall. I had to take Jesse to another town with a special kids salon to get them to fix the damage and remove the rat-tail.

When we returned from Jesse's birthday cruise, we made a decision, which ultimately changed our life.

We decided to adopt.

Nianya

Shedding Layers . . .

A comment this evening made me realize that I have been doing this for some time now. Metaphorically and physically shedding layers to simplify my life.

In one way or another, we are all being forced to shed our excess layers and return to a time when keeping up with the Joneses meant white washing our picket fences and tending our lawns, rather than driving the biggest SUV, owning the newest HD TV and getting the hottest toy for Christmas.

Honestly, I gave those excesses up years ago. We stop buying new cars, taking expensive vacations and wearing designer clothes to keep our kids in private school. We stopped shopping at the malls, boutiques and even the local grocery stores in favor of wholesale clubs and deep discount retailers. We stopped using credit cards and started using cash or direct debit and we still can't survive in the current economy.

So now we're facing the stress and pain of shedding the tougher, deeper layers. Giving up our dream of finishing our basement in the next couple of years didn't really hurt as much as I thought, but coming to the conclusion that our special needs son will have to leave his private school and start attending the local public school really bites.

We want the best for both of our special needs children and we love the school he attends, but we simply cannot afford his private school and necessary supplemental tutoring. It's really simple. That money can help pay bills, until the economy turns around and we can start to rebuild our savings.

I know I have no right to complain, because we are far better off than most, but it's always a struggle to make the right decisions in the face of our children's special needs. We nearly choked when we had to put our daughter's social skills class tuition on a credit card and now we're having to pay for our son's tutoring, our medical co-pays and our prescriptions the same way.

We've been fighting for our autistic daughter's rights in the public school system for three years now and she is making slow, but steady progress. We kept our son in private school, because we did not have the energy to fight for two children at the same time. Now we're going to have to find the strength to do so.

I'm praying that, in the long run, we're making the right decision, because we have no choice.I'm also praying that the economy turns around soon, because this is the last big layer that we have to lose.

Nianya

One picture is worth a 1,000 words. . .

Over the past three years, since our daughter (left) was diagnosed with high-functioning autism, we have struggled to come to terms with the lifelong limitations that she will face growing up and living in a society, that, until recently, thought autistic children merely sat in corners and banged their heads on the wall.

In truth, I'm usually the one banging my head on the wall out of frustration with teachers, other parents, coaches and peers, who lack even a basic understanding of what my child goes through on a day-to-day basis.

When our daughter was only two years old, we enrolled her in gymnastics to help with her coordination and when she was five she started playing soccer. I have to admit that we knew very little about autism back then and we had no idea that our child was on the spectrum. We only knew, from experience, that she had serious speech problems, poor coordination and thrived on routines.

Gymnastics and later soccer became part of her weekly routine. Three years later, one of the local coaches called and asked us to bring her to tryouts for the Academy team. At only eight years old, we thought she was a little young to be involved in a team that traveled around the metro area and played in tournaments, but we gave it a try.

Over the past four years, our daughter has stayed on the Academy team through a succession of coaches and changing teammates, which caused a great deal of confusion and a definite lack of stability.

The result, our daughter's performance in any given practice or game depended entirely on her mood that day. If she had a good day, she had a good game. She was ON. If she had a bad day, she could barely focus.

And the worst thing for us was her lack of camaraderie with her teammates. I have lots of team pictures where the entire team was gathered around one side of the bench and our daughter was sitting alone on the other end.

We used to think that our daughter was painfully shy. Now we know that she lacks the ability to socialize on her own and we try very hard to help her ease into social situations.

Our daughter's close friends know that they have to drag her into the group, but getting her to actually participate in their conversations can be tough. That's why we have invested big bucks and time in therapy and social skills training to help her recognize facial expressions, understand when someone is joking with her and learn to joke back.

This weekend it all payed off in spades. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words and seeing our daughter joking, laughing and horsing around with her teammates between games at our weekend tournament was priceless.

Over the past few weeks, our daughter and her team have banded together during some really tough games and we have seen a marked improvement in her performance. She's been giving 100 percent lately, due to encouragement from her teammates and many of their parents.

They been asking what we feed her and we reply that she has jalapenos for breakfast and hot sauce for lunch and she just grins from ear-to-ear. That's really something for a child, who rarely smiled, even before she got her braces.

Still, all of this doesn't explain the jump she made to light speed this weekend and I can only chalk it up to one difference: our "new" coach.

One of our parents graciously volunteered to coach our girls during practice for the past two weeks after our regular season ended and this weekend during a holiday tournament that was not originally on our team plan.

With his encouragement and inspiration, the whole team gave 150 percent and our daughter gave her all. They lost their final game, but they never gave up, and they kept fighting to the very end. It was an absolute privilege to see the girls in such fine spirits and know in my heart that they are truly a great team.

Thanks so much Coach "Mike" for putting a smile on my daughter's face that is still there hours after her last game.

Of course she is now happily ensconced in the Wii room playing My new Wii Fit, but she's still wearing her uniform.

Nianya

Mother's Day for the Special Needs Mom. . .

Wikipedia defines mother's day as a "day honoring mothers, celebrated on various days in many places around the world" and today was supposedly the 100 Anniversary of the Mother's Day Celebration.

I wonder how many decades it will take for the world to start celebrating a Special Needs Mother's Day. I could certainly use one and I'll bet that, if your day was anything like mine, you agree.

Yesterday, I spent the day chasing back and forth between my kids' soccer games, Michaels (to bribe my special needs son for behaving during his sister's games) and Sam's club to pick up pizza dinner and pictures for my son's soccer team. Okay, that sounds pretty normal for a soccer mom, but our family is anything but normal and taking the kids anywhere is a trial.

I spent the night hopping in and out of bed due to multiple tornado warnings, got maybe 3 hours of sleep and got dragged out of bed just in time to take my overstimulated/unmedicated Autistic daughter and severely ADHD son to the late church service.

No one brought me breakfast in bed, no one said Happy Mother's Day and my husband had the nerve to tell me off for trying to get my son to swallow one of his quick acting ADHD meds. to calm him down enough to get through Sunday School.

After getting stared at by the traditional Mother's day church crowd for not dressing up enough, we stupidly got in the car and headed for Cracker Barrel. We usually go there on Sundays after early church. We got there at 12:30 pm (bad idea on any Sunday) and I conceded very quickly that waiting over an hour for a table with our over-stimulated children was not a good idea, especially since my son, who is allergic to milk and wheat, can't eat there.

We tried Folks next and I walked right back out the door, when I saw that the waiting crowd was packed in tighter than a sardine can. So we went across the street to the Atlanta Bread Company, because it was amazingly sunny today, given last night's storms, and I wanted to sit outside on the patio. Naturally, my SID son refused to sit outside, because it was too windy. So I stayed outside with my daughter, while my husband and son ate inside. So much for mother's day brunch.

Next we went to Lowes, because we traditionally plant flowers in the yard on mother's day. My husband was annoyed, because he wanted to get back to the house and take a nap before he had to clean up the yard from last night's storms.

So I pick out some lovely budding lilies and hydrangeas and we head home. My husband leaves the plants in the back of the car and heads straight up to bed. Three hours later he gets up and starts the clean-up process.

And, to make a long story short, here I am writing my blog at 10:15 pm and half of my new flowering plants are still sitting in the garage in pots. My husband is enjoying the jacuzzi bath that I poured for myself after vacumming the house, doing the dishes, cooking supper and cleaning up the mess the kids made between 7 and 9:30 am (they slept through the storms). My husband's only comment when he saw me in the bath, was "Are you done yet, I need the hot water."

ARGHHHHH!!!!

Honestly, I can't blame him. We can barely handle our kids' issues and, when you factor in a storm and an otherwise too busy weekend, we we're sunk, no matter what we tried. I'm not really mad at him or the kids, I've just got the WHY ME syndrome.

It didn't help that my own mother called last night to ask, if I was going to pack my car with all of our special needs gear and medications and drive all the way to Timbuktu for my aunt's Memorial Day Race party. Let's just say it's a 10-hour drive, we would have to pay for a hotel, my husband can't afford to take time off from work and gas is almost $4 per gallon.

I can't afford to drive around town, much less all the way to Timbuktu.

Of course she didn't care about any of that or the fact that our daughter is in a soccer tournament that weekend and we couldn't go, even if we wanted to and could afford it.

And to top it all off, no one called or e-mailed to say Happy Mother's Day or to check to see if we were still alive from the tornadoes. To be fair, I must admit that my SIL sent me a text message, but I would have appreciated a quick hullo.

I did get a call this afternoon from a special needs parenting friend. She was concerned about how we fared last night and she keeps in touch with me about the kids. THANKS SO MUCH, YOU MADE MY DAY!

As I always say, "It takes one to know one."

So, back to today's theme. I have no intention of waiting for the rest of the world to realize that special needs parents need a break. I'm taking a day for myself.

This Thursday, I'm playing hookie (personal day), spending the day at the spa and making myself feel great so that I'll be totally relaxed when my husband takes me to dinner at my favorite restaurant. Okay, so it's my 15th anniversary or I wouldn't have a sitter, but as far as I'm concerned it's Special Needs Mother's Day and here's my wish list.

Nianya

Too Blessed to be Stressed

Last Thanksgiving, I bought a coffee mug at a Christian Book Store that says "Too Blessed to be Stressed." I joked to my husband that they had it backwards. We're too stressed to be blessed. We never get a break and it seems like we always take two baby steps forward and three bigfoot steps back.

If you're a special needs parent I'm betting you know just what I mean. I call it Nianya's Law. My own personal version of Murphy's Law:

Everything that can possibly go wrong, will go wrong, at the worst possible time.

For instance, I started reaching out to other special needs parents after what I call my rock bottom week. My then 18-month-old son was hospitalized with croup/asthma less than two days after I had oral surgery, the hospital had no idea how to deal with our son's GFCF diet and we felt like we we're alone with no one to turn to for help.

Since that time, more than four years ago, I have hit rock bottom several times. Nianya's Law never fails me. It's the one thing I can count on.

Just this past Sunday, I mentioned the hospital croup story to the Elders at our new church.

JINX.

I should know better.

Sure enough, less than 12 hours later we were headed back to the ER with another round of croup, the spare tire that my husband put on the car the night before went flat as we drove out of our driveway at 3:30 AM, the only hospital open was packed with flu victims, the hospital told us our insurance was expired, we barely got out of there four hours later in time to get our older daughter to school and, to top it all off, the whole time we were there, I kept thinking. . .

NOT NOW PLEASE. . . we've been invited to the Today Show taping at the Georgia Aquarium tomorrow morning.

I should also know better than to put my pride above my child's health, but we we're all so excited about the today show. We had special signs and T-shirts made up for the kids and it was such a great opportunity for our autistic 12-year-old.

So I prayed.

• I was afraid my son would end up in the hospital again. He didn't!


• My daughter and I made it to the Today Show taping, despite a broken-down tractor-trailer on the Interstate and everyone knows that, if there's a tractor-trailer incident on an Atlanta freeway, you might as well give it up. Not this time!


• My husband and I succumbed to the flu this week, but Not at the same time!


• My daughter did not get sick. KNOCK ON WOOD!

Things could have been worse. We have two cars, so we made it to the hospital, despite two flat tires. We were able to take turns playing Dr. Mom to our son and each other. We have wonderful friends, who helped us out, when we needed rides to and from school. We have really good insurance. I guess it was a computer glich. And most important, we have our faith.

This week was truly an example of the power of prayer at work and we are truly:

TOO BLESSED TO BE STRESSED

Nianya

A Mother's Guide to Survival in a SID World . . .

Say what?

Sensory integration disorder (SID), also called sensory processing disorder or sensory integration dysfunction. In our case a dysfunctional family.

I prefer to dress in grey, black or tan cotton clothing, since I can buy 3 of each favorite clothing item at Sam's Club for the price of one item at the mall and I always have one on, one off and one in the wash. I know that the black shirt, which I have on today is clean, even if it looks just like the one I wore yesterday, and, I know who my true friends are. My friends are the ones, who think I'm eclectic, while everyone else thinks I'm nuts.

If you are a parent of a SID child, you probably aren't laughing about my attempted humor.

Try explaining eclectic to a 12-year-old child, who dresses in the same clothing every day, because it's the only way she can function. Ask me how many times I have spent $$$ for pants for my autistic daughter, because they were on sale and she swore those were the exact pants she wanted for school next fall. Fast forward and ask how many times my daughter went ballistic when I informed her that it's now time to wear those pants. It's not her fault, she wants to fit in, but she can't function when her clothes don't fit or feel exactly right.

A couple of years ago, my daughter wore the same hooded sweatshirt to school every day, because it was plain gray with SOCCER on the front and soccer was her thing back then. This year it's an old army jacket from the surplus store. Yup, you guessed it, now she's into Army stuff.

Ironically, both mother and daughter are in fashion this year. Eclectic is back in style and lots of pre-teens are into the grunge look.

If you are not the parent of a SID child you probably stopped reading this blog when I mentioned a 12-year-old that refuses to wear what's in her closet. If you're still reading, let me ask you this? Have you ever seen a 12-year-old freak out (i.e. have a complete panic attack) before getting out of the car at school, because you told her to wear her jacket and half the other kids at school don't have one on?

Again you probably think this is normal pre-teen behavior. To a point it is, but, with a SID child, the inevitable panic attack can affect her entire day. She may stop communicating, cry for hours or shut down completely so that she spends the entire school day in her own world.

What's a parent to do when it's cold and rainy and your child refuses to wear a coat?

• Do you let them learn their lesson and freeze in the rain?
• Do you force the issue and make them wear the coat, which inevitably ruins their day and makes you the bad parent? or
• Do you sit in the car and try to reason with them while the other parents in cars behind you honk and yell for you to get out of their way?

The answer: All or None of the above.

The truth is, there is no good answer. Each SID child is unique in his or her own way and each SID episode plays out differently. As the parent of a SID child, you can stick to a rigid routine and live your life quite comfortably (in a plastic bubble), but you can't control the weather and sooner or later, no matter how hard you try, the bubble will burst. Here's what I do when that happens:

• Give your child a choice, whenever possible, but limit the options. Preferably no more than 2. Tell her she has to wear a coat, but let her choose which one and, if the one she wants is in the laundry, pull it back out and wash it later.
• Give your child a reason, if you can't give him a choice. Tell your son he can wear his crocks to the playground, but he has to wear his tennis shoes to school.
• When you find a clothing favorite, buy in multiples while you still can. This may mean paying full price, rather than waiting until the right pants go on sale. It's still cheaper than a closet full of clothes your daughter never wears. It also helps to leave the tags on all clothing and keep your receipts. Most stores will take clothes back and give you a refund or store credit.
• When all else fails and you're pulling your hair out, give yourself a time-out. Lock yourself in your room with your favorite beverage, food and book/TV show (or in my case all of the above, plus my Blackberry and laptop). If you can't get away in your own house, then go out for awhile. Go for a walk, go for a drive, visit a friend or go hang out at Starbucks. And, finally, if you take your cell phone with you, make sure you have caller ID. If your husband calls, don't answer the phone. Let him pull his hair out for an hour or two.

Stay tuned for more survival tips and remember this: If you leave Dad in charge you will most likely return to a dysfunctional house (chances are he didn't pick up the mess, feed the kids or put them to bed). If he did, he's a keeper.

Nianya

We've come a long way . . .

Several weeks ago, I was browsing the new improved health food section of our local Kroger's store, which now includes many of our favorite GFCF (gluten-free/casein-free) dry and frozen foods. Another mother overheard my comments to my husband about the relevant merits of Ian's Gluten Free French Toast sticks vs. Ian's Gluten Free Waffles and asked if we had a celiac child. No I said, just a 5-year-old picky eater with food allergies, asthma and SID (Sensory Integration Disorder) issues.

I suddenly found myself telling this women all about our favorite GFCF foods, because she mentioned that she was having trouble finding gluten-free foods for her 9-year-old, who was recently diagnosed with celiac disease.

When we started our GFCF journey more than five years ago, the new federal labeling standards were non-existant, you couldn't tell if a product contained milk, casein or whey and I constantly had to tell my husband not to buy anything for our son, unless I gave him a specific product name.

Of course that meant not grocery shopping for the GFCF kid, unless you were lucky enough to live near a health food store and even then, you couldn't always trust the store's supposedly Gluten Free products. A sales person once tried to convince me that spelt was wheat-free. When I took exception to her comment, she informed me that most wheat-allergic people are not allergic to spelt. I think I'll stick with Wikipedia's definition .

Back then, I felt like a freak in a milk & wheat world and, when I told people that my son was allergic to milk and wheat, they looked at me in horror and asked "What does he eat?"

Well, until age 16 months, he ate no solid food.

Then we discovered Kinnikinnick breads, Gluten Free Pantry mixes and Roberts Tings. A couple of years later, after bi-monthly trips to the only really good health food store within 30 miles, I discovered that we could purchase many of our favorite GFCF foods cheaper on the internet.

• Amazon sells a wide variety of GFCF and Gluten Free foods and, if you sign up for Amazon Prime, you get free 2-day shipping on eligible products. Amazon also tracks your favorites and notifies you when they are on sale or subject to a special offer.
  
• Kinnikinnick allows you to order up to $200 in foods and pay only $10 in shipping, plus they give you GFCF points toward future orders. (Kinnikinnick is now available in select grocery and health food stores. The prices are considerably higher than buying directly from the company; however, I recommend trying their products locally before you buy in bulk.)
  
• Ener-G and other GFCF sites offer sales and promotions on various GFCF products.

Buying in bulk doesn't have to be difficult. If you don't have a pantry (or your pantry is already overflowing like mine), store the non-perishible items in your garage, get an extra freezer, if needed (our's cost < $150), and invest in a food saver vacuum sealer, which keeps breads and other foods fresh in your fridge or freezer for months. This may seem overwhelming, but, if you're like me, you probably don't have the time (or in my case the talent) to cook GFCF foods from scratch. (Case in point, it took me 3 years to create an edible birthday cake.) And, many of our favorite foods come pre-packaged in small sizes for car trips, school lunches, eating out etc. . .

Word to the wise, let your child choose his/her favorites. Not everything will be a hit. I once got a great deal on gluten free apple and blueberry fruit bars from Amazon. My son (the world's pickiest eater) hated them and they stayed in the pantry for months, until my athletic tween, who will and does eat everything when she's hungry, discovered them. They are long since gone.

1. Check with your local store about return guarantees, many stores will take an opened item back if you or your child aren't satisfied.
2. Don't invest in a bread machine, mini-fryer or other small appliance for GFCF cooking, unless you will use them frequently. If you want to try a new recipe, such as a GFCF coating mix, borrow a fryer from a friend or follow the pan fried instructions. (Our deep fryer has been on the pantry shelf, since we discovered after only one week that it was more trouble than it was worth and the GFCF bread mixes we tried in our bread machine weren't as good as the store bought breads.)
3. Be on the look out for sales and manager's specials. You will save money in the long run.
4. Sign up for e-mail alerts and coupons on your favorite GFCF food sites. Many of them track your purchases and highlight your favorites when they are on sale.
5. And, last, but not least, create a GFCF safe kitchen. Set aside a counter area, cabinet or pantry shelf, use matching or easily identifiable containers for loose foods, such as chips and snacks, and label all of your child's GFCF foods. (My son has a GFCF corner and pantry shelf dedicated to his foods, all of which are labled with his name and our personal logo. That way relatives, visitors and sitters know what they can and cannot feed him.)

As I said, we've come a long way. The GFCF diet has finally come out of the dark ages and is fast becoming a main stream topic. New Federal labeling rules require foods to state in plain terms whether they contain certain allergens, such as wheat, milk, soy or peanuts, many manufacturers now state that their products are produced in plants where items containing such allergens are prepared and restaurants/fast food chains are now listing food allergen information on their website.

Stay tuned for my next post on the GFCF diet in a fast food world.

Nianya