Here's a couple hightlights:
1. Hot Dogs
Before this diet, Cade only ate meat if it came inside of a piece of ravioli. Once of the first transition foods we used were hot dogs. Hot dogs are more uniform in texture and he was able to eat them better than regular meat like roast beef, chicken, and sasquatch.
However, I had first assumed that, since hot dogs were made of meat, they were okay and didn't contain anything objectionable. Now, of course, we read labels like legal contracts. We found out last week that not all hot dogs are created equal.
Every normal brand of hot dog we could find contained corn syrup. A couple of them had the tagline "Contains: soy" at the bottom of the ingredients list. I've been told corn syrup doesn't contain gluten or any of the gut irritants this diet is supposed to avoid, but we'd rather be safe than sorry. Plus, added sugar is added sugar, whether it comes from sugar cane or chemically treated corn.
I did find a brand of organic hot dogs, which I imagine sounds like an oxymoron. However, these puppies seem full of the good stuff. They are from Applegate Farms, and are made from "Made from 100% organic grass-fed and finished beef." The taste is a little bit different from a normal franken-dog, but Cade eats them fine.
Though I (Andy) am doing the diet with Cade, I haven't tried one because they cost more. About $5 for a pack of ten as opposed to the normal $1-2 for normal ones. I'll brave the corn syrup since I'm not the one with Autism.
2. Ketchup
Cade has come to LOVE ketchup. He likes it with his eggs, his hamburgers, his ham, and his roast beef. He's asked for it with his chicken. This comes with some positives and negatives.
Ketchup helps Cade eat real meat, which he didn't do at all before. He might see meat as a ketchup-delivery-device, but we see ketchup as a meat-delivery-device. I guess we're both getting what we want in this scenario.
The rub comes from the fact that most ketchup is made with added sugar. Most is made with corn syrup, although major brands are now releasing ketchup made with cane sugar. Either way, all the sugar can add up. There are sugar-free versions, but we're also trying to avoid artificial sweeteners.
I think the danger of sugar at this point is more in the hyperactivity sense as opposed to gut irritation. We'll just have to keep an eye on his intake of the condiment and see how he's doing. He only eats it with real food, so that's a plus.
3. Eggs
Cade hadn't eaten an egg in his life before this diet (except for maybe those baked in a cake). We started with eggs for breakfast maybe a month ago, and he's taken to them like he used to take to peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.
Every morning, he eats three scrambled eggs. I've read that eggs could potentially become a gut irritant, but this was lessened by cooking them thoroughly (scrambled as opposed to fried-with-runny-yolks). I'm not worried about it now, but it's something to think about.
Because he's eating up to 21 eggs a week, and I'm on the same diet, we are buying lots and lots of eggs. I'm wondering if they will be a point where buying laying-hens will actually be something we talk about. I don't plan on it, but IT'S A LOT OF EGGS.
4. Cade's Mom's Husband
Not sure if this bit of clarity can be atrritubed to Cade's diet yet, but I thought I'd mention it. My mom pulled out a picture of me at roughly Cade's age. I was relatively thin back then and had the same thin blond-almost-white hair that Cade has. We showed it to him because, if Cade had longer hair, we'd look like twins.
Earlier, we'd showed the picture to Cade and asked him who it was. He didn't have a guess, so we told him it was his dad when he was a kid. This Saturday, someone showed him the picture again, and he told them this:
"That's my dad when he was a kid. He's my mom's husband."
I was unaware that Cade even knew the word "husband," let alone could figure out who was who's husband. Although, calling me his "mom's husband" makes it sound like I'm not his real father. Becky, do you have anything to tell me?
I think that's it. We're on to week three, which is another day camp week. Becky will explain to them about giving Cade
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