It is working!

I just KNOW it is working!!! I was almost moved to tears tonight when I went for a walk alone with my littlest guy. A few posts back I mentioned my internal struggle with taking him off of dairy and casein. Already we have seen an increase in his appetite and more than a two pound weight gain. Tonight he was super chatty on the walk and was thrilled to have found 3 different types of new spring flowers peeking out of the snow. We headed to the little health food store in town and there was a new woman working there. My little guy walked up, said" hey guess what?", and proceeded to show as well as tell her all about these flowers. He talked to the staff there, multiple conversations and multiple topics, for the entire time we were there.( small town so talking a lot to shop owners and staff is the most common appropriate social behavior!) He looked at them, showed them things and asked questions. This is probably not anything special for most 5 year olds.

One month ago though , this would have been an entirely different picture. Usually we would go in and he would hide in this tiny crevice crouched down the entire time. If a child came in or anyone tried to talk to him , he would leave the store and growl. If he knew you well enough to talk to you at all ( even if he knew you he wouldn't respond to greetings or questions much more than half of the time) , he wouldn't look at you and would walk in circles while he spoke. His speech wasn't clear so on the part of the circle where he wasn't facing you , you wouldn't have a clue what he was saying at all. Through this tiny bit of" conversation " he would be shrugging or making random wild arm gestures that wouldn't match what he was saying at all. People always had a puzzled look on their face when they tried to interact with him.

At the end of the conversation and as we were leaving he said goodbye and offered to take them on a flower walk if they couldn't find any... he could help them out!

This has all been pretty gradual, and when I stepped back today and realised what progress he has made in such a tiny span of time I was shocked... and so so happy! Doctors don't usually give credit to dietary changes in my experience... who knows, maybe he has had some strange coincidental incredible leap in development. Clearly though, it coincides perfectly with the dairy removal. And it is SUCH a huge leap in development... like two years of development in a month!!
Just one little added thing... a month or two ago he was very very negative all of the time. He was angry and hated everything, and most everyone. He said disturbing things a lot too. He was talking tonight about how much he loves helping people and helping the earth. He just seemed so much more positive and confident and all around in a better place. I am so happy to " see him" again. I know deep down that his is who he is, and that he isn't such an unpleasant seemingly mean little guy. I just hope that he continues to feel better through this!