A different kid

I'd been getting discouraged about Alex's sugar free diet, thinking it wasn't really helping his hyperactivity at all, then, we let our diet rules slide for the weekend and Alex went ape shit crazy!  He ran around the house like Speedy Gonzales, he talked nonstop in a fast high pitched squeal.  He basically turned back into Wild Alex.  I hadn't realized how calm he had become recently.  He still had the "four o'clock freak out" where at 4PM every evening, he goes a little bit nuts, and I guess I just forgot how easy he was to deal with the rest of the day.

Two days in a row we've taken him out to eat with us and he just sat there, you know, like a regular human being.  He'd play with his food a little, colored, but mostly just stayed put in his seat without any kind of restraining devices or straight jacket required.  This morning I took him to my monthly mom's club breakfast and he just played nicely with his friends and ate his chips.  When my friend came in, she said to me "Hey! you've only got one kid today!" and I told her that no, Alex was here. And she looked at me in shock.  "WHERE IS HE?!"  He's right here! And I pointed right next to me at the child playing quietly with a toy.  "Is he Ok?" She asked me.  She thought he must be sick.  Alex is usually zooming around the bakery tearing down displays of freshly baked breads. 

I think it's prettyyyy, prettyyyy, prettyyyyy (watching too much Curb Your Enthusiasm. Sorry) clear that sugar was the problem.  We haven't done anything different, other than cut out as much sugar as we could, and he's a whole new child.  Part of me wants to do a happy end zone dance because YAY! We've figured out the problem!  And the other part of me wants to cry, because it wasn't Alex's fault.  It was MY fault.  I suppose I can be glad that we figured it out when he was three, not thirteen and having trouble in school or something.  He's still an excitable child, but no longer unmanageable. 

It's such a dramatic change, and all it took was taking a little closer look at what he was eating.  Alex likes candy, but never really ate a lot of it. He'd have a couple of gummies or a twizzler a couple of times a week.  He'd be allowed more on special occasions and even chocolate donuts or cake and ice cream at a party, but no more than once a week would he really over do it.  What I've cut out are the things he ate every day or several times a week; chewy fruit snacks, pancake syrup, white bread, enriched pasta, jelly with his PB, I've REALLY limited his juice consumption and have been replacing it with flavored water (he won't drink milk).  These were things I didn't think twice about.  I had even started giving him whole grain Poptarts thinking they were really a healthier breakfast option, not even thinking of the sugar laden innards of the whole grain crust. 

There are still things I'm letting him keep because I think he benefits from them more than it hurts.  His Nutripals granola bars are high in protein and fiber and he loves them.  I still let him eat Gogurt because he won't drink milk and won't eat yogurt that doesn't come in a tube.  His Spider man vitamins are the sugar coated gummy kind, but he won't take regular chewables.  And juice.  Oh the juice.  Kid was a miniature Jay "The Juiceman" Kordich.  I let him have diluted apple juice a couple of times a day and he is allowed to have one glass of VFusion with dinner, the rest of the day he's allowed to have flavored water or crystal light (he's also offered plain water and milk, which he always declines, and I think it's important that he stay hydrated).  Of course, all of these things are foods I'm working to find healthier, lower sugar alternatives for, and with Alex, you really have to let him ease into things on his own terms.  He's just like his daddy (and Grandma Babs!), the harder you push something, the harder he resists.  Kid wouldn't think anything of going Gandhi on me.  He may be able to stand being hungry, but his not eating DRIVES ME CRAY!

I think Alex must be more sensitive to sugar than other kids. When compared to what his buddies eat, he had a very similar diet, yet he was so much more out of control than they were.  I have to be honest and say that since Alex is so skinny, I never really watched what I gave him all that closely, I just wanted him to eat SOMETHING.  Strangely, now that he's on a lower sugar diet, he's actually eating MORE.  Go figure.