Oops, My Bad!: How to Prevent and Handle Setbacks
Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.
Oscar Wilde
When we were seeking help for our young sons, my husband and I went to some of the finest doctors in the country. The protocols were elaborate and usually involved up to fifteen or twenty different supplements daily. Invariably, we made mistakes. It seemed we took three steps forward and then two steps backward. The unexpected setbacks were disheartening.
You can avoid much of the distress my husband and I experienced at the beginning of our journey back to health with autism, all those years ago, by learning from my experiences and those of my patients. I want you to skip that sense of deep discouragement that makes you want to give up—or at least know how to handle it. When setbacks happen I want you to know it’s perfectly acceptable to “circle the wagons and hunker down” for a while; just keep the essentials going while you catch your breath and get back your sense of direction.
These mistakes and setbacks are anything that sabotages your child’s health plan, intentionally or accidently. Most are done without thinking, just innocent mistakes, but can have a long-lasting negative impact on your child’s progress and health. The homes with an autistic child are often chaotic, and despite parents’ best intentions, there are misunderstandings that must be tracked down and cleared up.
I’ve created some resources to help you implement my protocols with confidence and the least number of mistakes possible. On my website, www.LoveAutismHealth.com, I have a fun game called “Fact or Fart?” that helps you playfully explore FAQs and where things can go wrong. I also have an app named The Un-Prescription for Autism, which can be found on the App Store.
The following compilations are made from real discussions that I’ve had with patients’ families. I hope they will help you avoid the same mistakes. I’ve created a few humorous categories like Magical Thinking, Head Slaps, the Hall of Shame, and “Oh Nos!” in an effort to get a few laughs. I offer them humbly, as I made many of the same mistakes early on in my own son’s journey.
Enzyme Errors
• Not giving the enzymes time to work. In their eagerness to help their child, many autism parents race through various interventions, barely giving them time to work before careening off to the next new therapy or intervention. (I call this Shiny Object Syndrome.) The enzyme plan takes time to work, and if you try it for a few days or a week and then abandon it, you will probably miss one of the biggest sources of improvement for your child. Relax, take a deep breath, and give this one a good six to eight weeks before moving on.
Variation 1:“Oh, we tried it for a few days and didn’t see anything, so we stopped . . . .”
Variation 2: “We tried it for a week or two and didn’t really see much change.” If you were only giving the enzymes with a meal or two a day, for a few days, it makes sense that you didn’t see anything yet. You just didn’t do it long enough. Gluten is thought to take weeks to leave the body, so get back in there and give it a good go—100 percent—for at least eight weeks. This could be hugely beneficial for your child, so why would you give it a lukewarm effort for a few days?
Variation 3:“We tried it for a few days but it made him worse, so we stopped.” Some parents drop the enzyme method at the first hint of irritability or grouchiness in their child. Grouchiness is actually a good sign; it likely means there is an opioid withdrawal going on and the protocol is working. You should redouble your efforts, not abandon them!
• Did you do the enzymes 100 percent strictly? Answers:
Variation 1: “He gets them once a day.”
Variation 2: “Well, not really . . . but he got them most of the time.”
Variation 3:“He eats breakfast and lunch at school without enzymes, and we just give them at dinner at home, even on the weekends.”
Variation 4: The parents tell me their child is taking them with every meal and snack, expecting me not to notice that a 180-capsule bottle “lasted” three or four months. These are not magic beans; they should be taken with every meal and snack for eight to twelve weeks before you can tell yourself that you gave them a good go.
• Not using enough enzymes. The dose of the enzymes is based on the size of the meal, not your child’s age or weight. The more food that is eaten at a meal, the more enzymes are required in the dose. My favorite: Parents tell me the enzymes aren’t working for their son, who happens to be six feet tall and weighs 225 pounds. I discover he is taking only one capsule of enzymes with his large, man-size meals. That one capsule doesn’t have a chance of reaching every opioid peptide from his three plates of macaroni and cheese. Parents say, “He’s still constipated, but that’s his normal.” Snacks and smaller meals count. Proper dosage counts.
• How do you know the right dose? You will know you are at the correct dose when your child is no longer constipated and is having daily bowel movements.
• Thinking your child doesn’t have to try the enzymes because he doesn’t have constipation, diarrhea, or any other GI symptoms. (Remember, many children on the spectrum don’t make enough of their own digestive enzymes.)
• Using an enzyme formulation that does not contain DPP-IV. This may aid digestion, but it will not break down opioid neuropeptides. Papaya alone doesn’t cut it.
• Going so slowly that you don’t notice anything and quit. I have a fair number of families who started the enzyme protocol, thought they weren’t seeing any improvements, and quit, only to watch an explosive regression occur, which convinced them to start back up.
Hoopla at Home
• Your child sneaks down at night and eats food without the enzymes. You may have to lock the cabinets and fridge or make the whole house GFCF.
• You don’t give the enzymes with snacks.
• You thought a little milk or wheat without enzymes wouldn’t hurt. For some children, molecules matter.
• Oh No! You ran out of enzymes! Be sure to order online ahead of time, or brace yourself for a spike in difficult behaviors. Keep an extra bottle in the freezer as a backup.
• Head Slap! You aren’t giving the enzymes with glasses of milk.
“Oh, does that count? I thought it was just with solid food.”
Variation 1: Thinking raw or organic milk doesn’t count.
Variation 2: Thinking chocolate milk doesn’t count.
Variation 3: Thinking strawberry milk doesn’t count.
Variation 4: Thinking goat’s milk doesn’t count.
Variation 5: Thinking 2 percent milk doesn’t count.
• Your child is using gluten-based play doughs. The gluten is absorbed through the skin and the enzymes cannot help you here. Just switch to gluten-free play clays; they are available commercially and there are recipes on the Internet. (See Week 28 in the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan.)
• Your child is helping you bake, which poses the same risks. Flour can float through the air, be inhaled, or settle on kitchen surfaces and even your child’s skin.
• You are starting, stopping, or changing more than one medicine or supplement at a time.
• Your child begins bouncing off the walls after starting a new supplement. Hyperactivity is common especially with the B vitamins, methyl B12 shots, cod liver oil, or hyperbaric oxygen therapy (HBOT). Start over, use a fraction of the dose, and try gradually building back up to the target dose. For HBOT, hyperactivity may occur in about 30 percent of children and will usually resolve after ten to twelve sessions. Just hang on.
• You stopped everything when your child got sick. Of course, everything must be stopped if he’s throwing up, but for run-of-the-mill coughs and colds, try to keep the enzymes and probiotics on board. If he cannot take the enzymes, try to go GFCF until he can. It’s okay to stop antimicrobials and other supplements until he feels better.
• You’re giving activated charcoal along with your child’s other supplements. Some doctors give activated charcoal to absorb microbial die-off products. The absorption powers of charcoal are amazing; it can absorb a deadly dose of narcotics in the case of a drug overdose, and it can absorb the expensive supplements you buy for your child. Give charcoal either two hours before or two hours after other supplements and prescriptions.
• You got complacent once your child felt better and became inconsistent with the protocols. Remember the story of my son at the dude ranch in Chapter 1? Stay vigilant and consistent.
• You are using stickers and envelopes with adhesive that contains gluten. Place stickers on your child’s clothing, not her skin, and don’t let her lick envelopes.
• You are wearing perfume and using scented personal care products. I know—they smell so good, how could it bother him? (But it does.) Be sure to use only fragrance-free and toxin-free laundry and cleaning supplies.
• Oh No! Get rid of artificially scented plug-ins, “tart warmers,” candles, incense, and the like. Use real essential oils instead. Some children cannot tolerate even the natural ones. (Surprisingly, it’s usually husbands who are passionate about the room fragrances!)
• You have a severely underweight child and the doctor wants to take away gluten, casein, and twenty-three foods from the IgG test. Remember Ava from Chapter 1? A child has to eat. Unless it’s a true allergy, give these foods back and use the enzymes. Food sensitivities can be addressed at a later point in the Action Plan when your child’s health is more stable.
• You don’t have a Maintenance Plan. One pediatrician confided that some of her patients say that my methods seem to “wear off” after a year or two, and the previous gains fade away. These were patients without a Maintenance Plan. Sure, there can be regressions, but good health doesn’t just “wear off.” Don’t expect to correct and support lifelong health challenges for a few months or even a few years and have the health gains last indefinitely. Some children may keep their gains, but for the majority, a Maintenance Plan is a must.
• Your child is taking antibiotics without an Antibiotic Support Protocol. See Week 6 in the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan.
• A major life event—divorce, death, moving—sidetracks your good health plan. It’s okay to “circle your wagons,” maintain just the basics like enzymes and probiotics, and then pick up again when life settles down. Stopping everything completely is usually a disaster.
• Hall of Shame. When your spouse eats forbidden foods in front of your child and makes him cry.
Bad Math at School
• Head Slap! At the follow-up visit, I review how and when the child is receiving enzymes, how consistently he gets them, and how many enzymes are given. Parents will insist they are doing everything exactly as specified. Then I ask, “Is Johnny getting the enzymes at school?” They pause, look at each other in surprise, then turn to me and say, “Is he supposed to?” or “Do those meals count?” Every meal and snack means every meal and snack, no matter where it is being consumed.
Phrase of the Day: “Does that count?”
• Don’t ask the school to give anything other than the enzymes. It’s just too complicated, and the other supplements can be given with breakfast, dinner, or after school.
• Your school won’t give the enzymes. What then? You have a few options: Pack your child’s lunch and either make it GFCF, so no enzymes are needed, or prepare food with the enzymes mixed in. Nut butters and frozen apple sauce are ideal food choices because they don’t activate the enzymes. Or you can ask your pediatrician to order the GFCF diet at school.
• The cafeteria staff thinks Cheerios, pudding, and 2 percent milk are GFCF. One school was so kind and went to the effort of making homemade gluten- free rolls for one student. Detective work revealed they switched from “wheat flour” to “white flour,” not understanding that white flour is wheat flour. Graciously direct them to the “Directory of Website” at GFCFDiet.com for a clickable list of acceptable and unacceptable foods. It’s a great resource and teaching tool.
• Your child is trading snacks with classmates. As long as there have been schools, kids have traded lunch items and snacks. If your child is sensitive or allergic to various foods, or on the Feingold diet, you may have to ask if your child can sit with a teacher or an aide at lunch and block all trading. (Sorry, teachers and aides, it’s that important!) Otherwise, as long as enzymes are on board, occasional trading of wheat and dairy-based snacks shouldn’t hurt anything.
• Don’t make an enzyme drink and expect it to last all day. Liquids activate the enzymes. Putting ice into the drink slows down and helps preserve the enzyme activity, but it cannot last forever. Four hours is the maximum you can count on when the drink is kept icy cold.
• Don’t give the enzymes at the wrong time. Some well-meaning parents will have the child drink the enzyme drink right at the school bus stop and then eat breakfast at school an hour later. Based on the still-present constipation, fog, and behavior issues that I see in the child on the follow-up visit, I find this is not effective and can only assume the enzymes have passed through the stomach and into the intestinal tract before the child is able to get to breakfast. As for lunch, parents were just letting that meal go and then hoping that giving an enzyme as soon as he got home from school would do the job. (You can get away with it if your child is only on the bus for a very short ride, attends a half-day program, and eats lunch last thing before getting on the bus home.)
• School supplies such as paste, glue, stickers, markers, and play clays should all be gluten-free and toxin-free.
• Turnover of cafeteria staff is a problem. Revisit the cafeteria staff every year and make sure they are aware of your child’s needs.
• The school may have made changes that you are unaware of. All you know is your child is upset, and the teacher is suggesting more medication for the behaviors. Ask questions before you medicate. It could be your child is reacting to a new student, a new aide or bus driver, an air freshener, forgotten enzymes . . . get your Sherlock on!
• Schools sometimes have surprise treats that are loaded with gluten and casein. Make sure the teacher knows to give enzymes with them. If your school cannot give the enzymes, ask the cafeteria to store some frozen GFCF treats for your child for just such occasions.
Daycare Dang-Its
• Head Slap!“Oh, do meals and snacks at daycare and after-school programs count?”
Breaking Bad at Grandma’s House
Many of you tell me that your parents watch your child after school. The grandparents’ house is like the gingerbread house in Hansel and Gretel: a magical place loaded with hidden pitfalls.
• I’ve known a lot of grandparents who do not hesitate to sabotage a GFCF diet protocol. They are of a generation that is convinced a child who does not get a glass of milk will have some sort of nutritional damage and his growth will be stunted. You will have to convince them how important the enzymes are each and every time. Share this book with them.
• My favorite solution? One of my dads, a single father, could not get his parents to give his son the enzymes when they gave him forbidden foods such as milk and cookies. When he came to pick his son up one Friday evening after work, he could tell his son was wild and out of control again. He paused to take in the scene, then called out he would see them on Monday, closed the door, and drove off. The grandparents got to experience firsthand what a difference enzymes can make, and it never happened again.
• Magical Thinking:
Variation 1:“A cookie can’t hurt!”
Variation 2: Anything in a drive-through doesn’t count.
Variation 3: “Well, it was just some chicken nuggets.” For some reason this one seems to be a grandparent thing. However, using the digestive enzymes removes any argument they may have. They can stop at the drive-through window and get the chicken nuggets, with a carton of milk, and still stay on track by using the enzymes.
• Keep a second set of supplements at the grandparents’ house if you can.
• If you aren’t sure if the grandparents are giving the supplements, use weekly pill organizers or one of those obnoxiously large Overnight Boards you learned to make in Chapter 2, so you can track at a glance if today’s supplements were used.
Scary Stuff at the Ex’s House
Communication with ex-spouses can be tricky and isn’t always friendly.
• A parent will often say, “We don’t send the enzymes to my ex-spouse’s house.” (“Oh, does that count?”)
• Purchase an extra set of supplements just for the ex’s house. It’s less tricky than sending bottles back and forth between the two houses.
• Sometimes you just don’t know if the ex is really giving the supplements like he or she should. Send along a transparent weekly pill organizer or an Overnight Board, and any skipped doses will be obvious at a glance.
• Pare it down to just the basics for the other house. If you can get just the enzymes with every meal and snack, consider it a victory. It won’t kill your child to go without probiotics or essential fatty acids every other weekend.
Restaurant Follies
• Your child grabs the bread basket before you can say “Bob’s your uncle!”
• You forgot to bring enzymes. Try to order a GFCF meal in that case.
• Your server was uninformed about the ingredients and served your child a food she is sensitive to. Communicate clearly with waitstaff or ask to speak with the chef before food is prepared.
• Many restaurant staff do not understand what gluten or casein is. Except at Disney. Disney always knows. I want to marry them.
• Whatever was cooked on the grill before your food may have contained breading or cheese. As long as you didn’t forget the enzymes, no problem.
• Different line cooks do their own thing, and just because a certain restaurant dish used to be GFCF or Feingold compliant doesn’t mean it still is. Restaurants may change the ingredients. Always use the enzymes when eating out.
• Soy sauce is loaded with gluten. Bring your own GF soy sauce if your child is sensitive to gluten.
Drive-Through Dillies
• Magical Thinking: Anything gotten in a drive-through doesn’t count!
• Don’t have enzymes on you? Take a different way home and don’t drive by the fast-food place.
• Food stays in the stomach for an hour and a half or more. Get the food if you have to, drive straight home, and immediately give an enzyme drink. (That way you won’t have to wait another thirty minutes for the capsule to dissolve in the stomach.)
Party Poopers
• There is always ice cream, cake, and pizza at birthday parties, and special dinners always include dishes and desserts loaded with gluten and casein. It’s almost impossible to refuse your adorable child a piece of cake or slice of pizza, so be sure to tuck a baggie of enzymes in your pocket, or bring food that’s acceptable to your child’s special diet.
• Between a rock and a hard place: Forgot to bring enzymes or your own food? Here’s a tip to minimize the consequences of eating the party goodies: If I had to pick something for my child to eat without the enzymes, I would choose ice cream over cake, and eat only the toppings off the pizza. Why? Because the casein found in the dairy products will leave the body within forty-eight to seventy-two hours, but the effects of gluten may linger for weeks and weeks. When there’s no good choice, choose the dairy. (Unless your child is allergic, of course.)
• Always carry enzymes with you. Leave some in the car (they can actually withstand heat up to about 130° Fahrenheit), some at Grandma’s, some at the ex’s house, some at the school—you get the idea.
• Plan ahead and keep frozen treats in the freezer for impromptu gatherings.
Travel Shenanigans
• Magical Thinking: Not doing your child’s enzyme protocol while on vacation.
“Oh, does that count?”
• Keep supplements in the hotel room, not the hot car. Probiotics and herbals won’t do well in the heat.
• Disney theme parks make it very easy to eat out with a child on a special diet. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the chefs know every ingredient of every dish and they are familiar with many special diets.
• Keep supplements and prescriptions in their original containers for airline, cruise, and foreign travel.
• Triple up on taking probiotics during travel, especially foreign travel.
Tips for Anxiety-Free Sleepovers
• A first sleepover should be with family or friends who understand your child’s needs.
• Instructions should be printed out on an at-a-glance sheet.
• If your child wants to eat out with the host family, provide a list of acceptable foods to make ordering at restaurants easy for your son or daughter.
• Don’t expect the host family to prepare foods for any special diet your child is on. Send your own food over, and try to match the host’s menu if you can. Sometimes I simply provided all the food and snacks for my child for the weekend, and friends were grateful for that effort.
• Your child may want to eat what the host family is eating. Here is where enzymes make it easy!
• Send just the enzymes and any prescriptions. I really didn’t want friends to know how many different supplements Evan was on, and it wasn’t really their job to give them correctly. If your child cannot go without any of his supplements, here is where the true beauty of the Overnight Board comes in handy. Friends could easily tell at a glance when to give Evan his pills, and could also tell if they had forgotten anything.
• Agree on a quiet area where your child can go to recharge if necessary.
Spooky Stories Around the Campfire
• For some camps, you will only need to fill out a medication log and turn over your bottles to a competent camp nurse. For others, like the Boy Scouts, you will have to fill their own system of sealed daily “bubble” compartments with your child’s medications and supplements. For less organized camp situations, I like to use a Travel Board because it’s big and obnoxious and hard to forget. Make time to stop and talk with the camp director and nurse. See Week 26 in the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan for how to find a camp for your child.
• Don’t assume a camp will accommodate your child’s special diet—speak with the camp staff ahead of time. For example, my boys went to many Boy Scout camps that did not provide specialized meals for any reason. I always gave detailed written instructions for how enzymes were to be given and skipped the probiotics and antimicrobials for camps. It also took a bit of planning ahead for camp meals. I always brought a week’s worth of GFCF meals for my son at Boy Scout camps, labeled as to what the food was (spaghetti and meatballs, for example) and which meal it was for. The camp cooks were always very appreciative and gratefully slid my big cooler right into their walk-in cooler. I taped a list of what was available for each type of meal. For example: “Breakfasts can be eggs, GFCF toast, grits, oatmeal, fruit, or GFCF cereals. Almond milk is included for cereal,” or for lunch “I have included enough sandwich fixings for three days, and the other two days are chili and GFCF spaghetti. They are in labeled glass containers that can be heated in the microwave,” and so on for each meal. I always included GFCF chips and fruit for snacks. Surprisingly, the camp cooks told me that kids were dropped off every week where the parent would just announce “Billy can’t have any gluten,” and then drive off. The vast majority of camps do not accommodate special diets, and those poor Scouts ended up eating mostly lettuce and peanut butter by the spoonful all week.
• If you can’t bring meals from home, speak with the camp nurse, the counselors, and any volunteers about making sure your son or daughter has the enzymes at every single meal and snack. I know of one ASD teenager who went off to a ten-day National Boy Scout Jamboree with enzymes, but the importance of administering the enzymes wasn’t discussed with the group leaders, who didn’t really make sure he was taking them. The lad began addictively eating breaded chicken strips and nuggets several times every day without the enzymes and, by the end of the first week, was acting bizarrely and frightening the other campers. He became surly and irrational, and his family was called to take him home.
Therapy Bloopers
• Head Slap! Using gluten-laden snacks as a reward. We often forget about the rewards a therapist might use when we are doing detective work. Be sure to suggest some acceptable alternatives.
• The therapist is using a play dough made with gluten during therapy sessions. Request that gluten-free doughs be used instead.
• You neglect to use a feeding specialist. If your child doesn’t branch out and eat new foods after the opiate effect is broken, he may not be able to tolerate the smell, taste, or texture of foods due to sensory issues. This may cause gagging or food refusal. A good feeding specialist can often teach a child to tolerate and accept new foods without gagging. See Week 19 of the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan.
• You aren’t using a sensory diet. A sensory diet addresses your child’s needs with sensory activities multiple times throughout the day. Have your occupational therapist (OT) help design one for your son or daughter.
Holy Moly at the Church or Temple
• It is likely that different people are working the nursery each week who won’t always be familiar with your child and won’t know about enzymes. You may have to develop a handout that you personally distribute to the workers each week.
• You are mistaken if you think Vacation Bible School doesn’t count. Send the enzymes everywhere!
• For church outings, see the next section on class and field trips.
The Magic School Bust: Class and Field Trips
Most of Evan’s class trips occurred before we knew about the digestive enzymes. I usually had to go on the trips to look out for his dietary needs.
• All-day and overnight class trips almost always include stops at a pancake house for breakfast, fast food for lunch, and a pasta or pizza place for dinner. If your child cannot tolerate gluten even with the enzymes, you had better make special arrangements ahead of time. My school was well aware of Evan’s diet needs, yet didn’t give them a second thought on class trips. I learned that lesson the hard way: At one restaurant my son had only lettuce to eat while everyone around him gaily ate a full Italian meal. When I questioned why unbreaded chicken hadn’t been arranged for him, the principal just shrugged it off and said, “We can’t deal with special diets on a trip!”
• The trip will likely have parent chaperones who will be unfamiliar with your child’s supplements or protocols. Handouts might be helpful.
• Sometimes the class trips stretch over a long day, with the students going from activity to activity without an opportunity to go back to the bus or hotel for more enzymes. Your child will find himself at dinner without enzymes, and well-meaning chaperones will insist he eat the pizza or spaghetti without them, not realizing the dramatic change in behavior that may result. If you can’t go on the trip, make sure you give two or three of the chaperones the enzymes, and make them promise to see your child has them with every meal and snack.
Boo-Boos at the Doctor’s Office
Unfortunately, I don’t have any quick fixes for these clangers. Perhaps you can donate a copy of this book or Dr. Martha Herbert’s book Autism Revolution, but don’t hold your breath.
• The doctor is unaware of the research and science about the health challenges of the autism spectrum.
• Magical Thinking: The doctor tells you that your child isn’t autistic because:
He can look you in the eye.
She has a sense of humor.
He likes to be hugged.
He can speak.
• Hall of Shame: The doctor has a tendency to “mansplain” things to you.
• Head Slap! The doctor or staff think constipation, diarrhea, stomachaches, and waking up all night are just part of autism.
• Doctors may be oblivious to the fact that food can significantly change behavior and attention in these kids.
• Doctors neglect to recommend a probiotic during an antibiotic.
• Doctors neglect to advise the use of Saccharomyces boulardii during an antibiotic.
• They tell parents their child doesn’t have to do the GFCF diet because he’s not allergic to gluten or casein, or because gluten doesn’t cause autism.
• They tell parents their child only has to avoid gluten, but not casein (or vice versa), because of the results of his urinary peptide test.
• Your pediatrician will not cooperate. Consider switching doctors or at least adding one to the team who is willing to provide some oversight as you try the protocols in this book.
Foolery at the Pharmacy
• Check with manufacturers and your pharmacist about ingredients and dyes used in prescriptions and over-the-counter medications.
• Ask your doctor for a prescription to have your child’s medicines and supplements compounded in a GFCF, dye-free, allergen-free formula, if necessary.
• Always start with a fraction of the dose. These children often need a lower dose than their neurotypical peers.
• Watch out for paradoxical (i.e., opposite or unexpected) reactions to medications.
• Don’t pry open the bottle of Vitamin D3 and use a larger dropper. A child can end up in the ER with Vitamin D toxicity.
• Only change one thing at a time!
The Internet: Satan’s Swamp of Misinformation
• Hall of Shame: Trying something crazy off the Internet like “the saltwater flush” or “the lemonade fast”
• Detoxing without a lab test indicating it is warranted
• Detoxing before you have “gut readiness”
• Magical Thinking: Treating yeast and detoxing at the same time
• Head Slap! Thinking everything your child does is due to yeast, PANDAS, metals, or toxins
Food Flubs
• Food sensitivities are underestimated. I have seen many cases of ADHD, wild impulsivity, difficult behaviors, terrible handwriting, and learning difficulties clear up with:
The Feingold diet, which has an 80 percent success rate and is by far the number-one diet people try at my office (Week 41 in the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan)
The IgG food sensitivity four-day rotation diet (Week 39 in the Chapter 9 Online Action Plan)
No-Fenol enzymes from Houston Enzymes, which may help your child tolerate fruits and vegetables that are high in phenols
• Helpful tools here are a food journal that includes not just the foods your child eats, but symptoms such as red cheeks and ears, flushing of the neck or face, hyperactivity, difficulty paying attention or staying on task, difficulty falling asleep, or changes in bowel patterns or mood.
I wish you the best as you try the protocols and suggestions in this book. As Robert Frost said, “The best way out is always through.”