Isaac Update

I haven't updated on Isaac in a couple of weeks because things have been really busy here. But I'm supposed to be cleaning the bathroom right now and my hips hurt, so here I am! 

The seizures are about the same overall. We've been on Feingold for 6 weeks now. We saw very few seizures while Isaac was sick, which was interesting. Larry has a theory and I think he may be right. Isaac is a mover and always has been. He's very smart and very active. His theory is that his brain just moves too fast and it creates the seizures. When he's sick, he's very slow moving and just wants to lay around and stare at the wall. As a result, his brain is far less active. Let me be clear though- when I say he's active I do not mean that he's ADHD. I've had a lot of experience with children who are thought to be ADHD versus children who actually are. Isaac is not ADHD or ADD. Now, the good thing about Larry's theory if he's right is that it means Isaac will grow out of the seizures (and most children with Absence Seizures do naturally grow out of them by the time they are 17), but it also means that medication may be his only option. Our next step, since this diet did not help the seizures, is to see a homeopathic doctor. They test for deficiencies in vitamins and minerals that your body needs, as well as specific food allergies that the allergist does not test for. These things can cause seizures. 

As for the Feingold diet, we will, without a doubt, keep him on it. It's been an incredible asset to our daily lives. Two weeks ago Isaac ate 2 Oreos that were by my bed (not that I had been eating Oreos in bed...) and the next day he threw a tantrum and hit me with his shoes. He hadn't had a tantrum like that since the diet started and it threw me for a loop. I had forgotten how bad the tantrums could be. A couple days later he was back to his new normal self. Last Friday we let him have pizza to try it out. The next two days were hell. He would throw himself on the ground, scream, kick, hit, throw things... all of it. He knows that acting that way is not acceptable, but his body cannot handle the toxins that are in certain foods. He has again gone back to his new normal self. He gets sad and mad, which we assure him is ok, but he can walk it off. He may grunt once and he can say to us, "That makes me so mad!" and we tell him that we understand, that it would make us mad, too. Then we offer something else to do  and he moves on. 

So the Feingold will be sticking around in our house. It will be hard when we travel and at birthday parties, but the bottom line is, we have a well-behaved young boy who can verbalize his feelings without losing his grip on reality. I don't have to worry about getting hurt or my other kids mimicking behaviors that are not acceptable. And it's so nice to see a happy, smiling boy pretty much all of the time. The boy whose name means "he who laughs" and who makes us laugh on a daily basis :)