Gluten-free-free

Just as we had suspected, we've seen no changes in Melanie since our gluten challenge. We waited a few days, then gave her a little more, and now we're basically just done with the GF diet. She never really showed many signs of gluten intolerance to begin with, but we wanted to see if we might see improvement in mental clarity and cognition. She seems to be just as happy and forward-moving in her development, as she was during and before the diet.
It was worth the try, and I'm thinking of doing a little GF trial for myself, now that I know how to do it. I could do with less fatigue and brain fog.... Besides, somebody's got to eat all this GF pasta and such in our pantry.
What will remain from this GFCF trial is our avoidance of artificial colors, sweeteners, etc. Do you know how much of that stuff is banned in Europe? Those things are poison. Also, I believe our family's gluten intake will remain lower than it used to be. I also have a better understanding of how to watch for food sensitivities and how to feed our family healthier, more whole foods. This experience exposed me to a lot of reading, discussing and learning, for which I am grateful. Can't wait for our CSA to start!

The Gluten Challenge

Tonight was our first gluten "challenge" for Melanie. It can take about three months for gluten to leave the system and for any needed gut healing to be completed. We removed gluten in January, but about a month into it there was a woopsey which kind of hit the reset button on the whole experiment. So tonight was the night I decided to give it a try. She had about one serving of my sister's whole wheat sourdough bread. I wanted the challenge to be a quality, whole grain food. But she did also have about half of the bakery cookie that grandma bought her yesterday (sorry mom, I ate half of it-- it was for Melanie's good...).
Please pray that we see clearly in the next couple days if she has any negative reactions to the gluten. We doubt that we have seen any improvement attributable to going GF, but hopefully this challenge will make it clear to us.

James was excited about the fun plastic wine cups I just bought, so he decided it would be fun to have a "Cup Day." All of our food today was served in cups: Dinner was eggs, chicken sausage and French toast sticks. Lunch was James's sandwich cut in strips, with cups of berries and veggies. Mom and Melanie shared guacamole. I don't think this was our last Cup Day. :-)