The H Diaries: Wheat VS Carrot

You know, when we first started on this wheat free journey I thought Damn, this is going to be hard work!  But H is such an intelligent and resilient little bugger that it's been quite easy. Fun, even. Having said that, I think the poor boy is having wheat withdrawals... when I asked him what he wanted for lunch the other day he yelled,

"A donut! A hot dog! A cheese and bacon roll! A cheeseburger! Chicken nuggets!"

Clearly, he'd been thinking about it for a while. I cooked him some grilled fish and oven roasted chips, and although it wasn't what he had in mind, he did tell me

"This is a nice lunch mum. I like it." *Nnnaaaawwwww*

See what I mean? He's a champion. Not long ago I wouldn't have said that about H. He has always been our devil child. And although he did recently follow M around yelling "Yeah! Get him! Smack him! Yeah!" with fierce excitement when J was getting into trouble, he has been the sweetest thing...

Carrot is the DEVIL!

Anyway, we're coming up to one month of his wheat free diet, and the behavioural changes are definitely noticeable. But then you wouldn't believe what happened! Ok, well, you probably will, it's not THAT far-fetched. We've also been avoiding carrot because it showed up on his intolerance list. On Christmas Eve, we gave him some carrot for the first time in weeks. The following day, he had an inflamed rash on his hips. We didn't associate the rash with the carrot, we just changed his shorts. We're smart like that. A couple of days later he had carrot again and he didn't sleep through that night. It was then that I started to wonder if perhaps carrot is his nemesis, more so than wheat?





So he's off the carrot again, and I've tried giving him a wheat-reduced bread rather than a wheat free bread (only because the wheat free bread was more like cake). After having this bread for a few days, he turned into an intolerant little shit. Honestly, we had regular encounters like this,

H: "I want a yoghurt."
Me: "You just had one, and we're getting in the car now, so just grab some crackers."
H: *screams* "But I want a yoghuuuurrrttt wwaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!"

But it's been a big couple of weeks for a little boy, and he is only 2 3/4 years old, so I don't think we should be so quick to assume that it's the re-introduction of a tiny bit of wheat that has turned him back into a devil child, he might just be tired! Or am I cruising down an Egyptian river?

I can only see one solution. Go back to 100% wheat AND carrot free. Give it a couple of weeks for the dust to settle, and then we might try a wee bit of wheat again and see what happens. I feel like we're yoyo-ing the poor boy, but I'd hate to think that we jumped straight on the 'he has a food intolerance' band wagon if it is only a matter of environmental changes (me returning to work, Christmas, J starting pre-school) stressing him more so than the food he's eating.

The funny thing is - sometimes I wonder if this is just another one of my 'projects'. I always need to be doing something, maybe H's diet is just an experiment to keep me occupied!