I look back over the last few months and I see this incredible change that has been happening with my baby. The withdrawn stare and the lackluster appetite for everything has changed. My baby is becoming focused and determined to learn. Taking him off of cow milk was the best thing I could have done. I am working on taking gluten out of his diet and I think I have reached that goal. They say that gluten can stay in your body for three to six months, or even longer. I can’t imagine that we eat stuff that stays in our system that long. I am still learning about nutrition and how it affects us but this I know, I’m thankful for the changes I can see in my son from just removing milk from his diet. Milk may not be the answer for your child but never give up, keep asking questions to anyone that will listen till you find the answers you need.
I see the smile on his face, the curiosity in his eye but I hear no words to explain it all. The words are coming and I’m thankful for every syllable that comes out of his mouth. I see the thought process and the look of mischievousness run across his face but yet I don’t really know what he is thinking. My heart sits and waits a beat as I hear him try to say a word. Duck and now buRrd are the words for every bird he sees. I’ll take it. Yet he said newt, fish and llama without skipping a beat but hasn’t said them again. It is like he puts certain words away for a rainy day. I’ve worked on the word “yes”with him so many times. I say “yes,” he says “no.” I often wonder what it is about certain words that he can’t process.
I look back over the last few months and I see this incredible change that has been happening with my baby. The withdrawn stare and the lackluster appetite for everything has changed. My baby is becoming focused and determined to learn. Taking him off of cow milk was the best thing I could have done. I am working on taking gluten out of his diet and I think I have reached that goal. They say that gluten can stay in your body for three to six months, or even longer. I can’t imagine that we eat stuff that stays in our system that long. I am still learning about nutrition and how it affects us but this I know, I’m thankful for the changes I can see in my son from just removing milk from his diet. Milk may not be the answer for your child but never give up, keep asking questions to anyone that will listen till you find the answers you need.
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My sweet little man has been sick for the last week. He had a sinus infection and hasn’t felt like doing much of anything. He had been making such incredible progress I was afraid that him being sick would slow him down. Tonight, now that he is finally feeling better, he is doing so many things. He has said his numbers and letters. He has been making the sounds of the different animals and acting some of them out. His favorite is the frog. He puts his hand on his face and he moves his whole body up and down. He makes kind of a ribbit sound. I love his excitement and enthusiasm about learning. It feels so good to see this big change in my baby. I’m so thankful every day for these changes.
Earlier he was taking and filling his dump truck with toys. He tends to do as lot of container play, where he takes things in and out, but this time he filled the dump truck up and then actually unloaded it by lifting the back and spoiling our the contents. This makes for one happy momma! Knowing how far he has come already I’m so excited to see the new changes every day. I’m thankful that him being sick did not slow his progress down at all. I’m sitting here holding my sleepy little guy. He hasn’t felt good the last couple days. He has a little head cold but yet he has accomplished so much today. So proud of him. After I changed his diaper earlier he actually stepped back into his pants. He held on to me and stepped in. I often wonder what triggers his mind to finally get something. Every day I notice more changes since taking him off milk. I know that some of it is his age but I know a huge portion is his diet. It saddens me to think there are more parents struggling with trying to help their children and just don’t know where to turn. Each child is so different and what has helped Owen may not help another child the same way. I still encourage you to never give up, never give up on your dreams or the thoughts of helping your child. Today Owen said FISH just as clear as day. The word fish is such a little thing but just like the river it runs deep in my heart. To hear your baby just say a word, one simple word is such a blessing. I’m thankful for all the amazing things he is doing!
I’ve yet to figure out how a 3 foot toddler can take over a 7 foot bed and leave me with a postage stamp size corner of my pillow and shoulder blade’s worth of mattress. For the last few months Owen hasn’t been sleeping as well. He starts off in his bed but at some point during the night I hear the patter of feet and up he comes into my bed. I often wonder what makes it so he can’t sleep now. That is one of the hardest parts of him not talking. I can’t ask him what’s wrong so I can’t comfort his particular need. It is always a guessing game. I can hug him and hold him, give milk and wipe his tears but still will never know what woke him. I have tried melatonin and eating later to see if that helps. Neither really has made a difference. I’m thankful for those nights that he actually sleeps all the way through. I can tell on those mornings he is so much more refreshed. Hopefully as he gets a little older I will at least be able to figure out what is concerning my little man.
Owen and I were watching shapes on YouTube earlier and he would get so excited when he knew what the shape was. He would watch the shape pop up, then he would turn around and look at me. He tries so hard to say the words. He love when the oval pops up and he puckers his lip just like an O. He starts jumping up and down because he knows he got one. With his sensory issues he jumps a lot and he will also do an excited shake.
As we are watching the shape song I realized just how out of the loop I am with these shapes. The acute triangle and hexagonal prism marched their way onto the screen and Owen is just as happy with these shapes as he was with the rest. I, however know I learned these shapes at some point but I’m not sure that I ever saw then again. I don’t think I’ve ever carried on a conversation about shapes with anyone. I will make sure that Owen and I have at least one conversation about weird shapes at some point. Tonight my baby boy did something extraordinary! He sang “now I know my aa bay cea”. And he said purple and orange. It seems like when he says more than a couple words together he actually sings them. Maybe it is just his love for music coming out. I gave him a guitar when he was about nine months old and he loves it. I have so many little videos of him playing. We listen to music all the time. When he would play his guitar I have always seen this little sparkle. Now that he is awake from getting the milk out of his system I can only imagine what he will do.
When he says certain words he always over exaggerates letters. Like Orange he puckers up his lips in a tight o shape. When he was just a tiny baby I would take one of his hands and hold it to my heart and I would take his other hand and put it on my lips and make all the alphabet sounds. We have been working on a lot of sounds and noises lately. It is so great to hear these things coming from my baby! Love to hear his tiny little voice becoming so strong. Tomorrow the nutritionist comes to talk about Owen’s diet. I am really excited to talk to her about the changes in Owen since I took him off milk and working on taking the gluten out of his diet too. I was a always taught the food pyramid is the way to go. I remember doing a project in second grade on the food pyramid. When Owen was born I knew that I wasn’t going to give him a lot of things like cookies, sweets and sugary drinks. I was going to give him healthy foods like milk, cheese and breads. Little did I know for Owen the food pyramid is all wrong. Taking him off milk was the best thing I could have done for him. The light in his eyes now is amazing. He is so much more focused. He has grown almost an inch and gained two pounds just in the last month I believe. I always joke that my baby had a six pack from all the exercise he does. Now I believe his belly leads him wherever he wants to go. That boy is hungry from morning to night now. This is a huge difference. So no longer am I a fan of the pyramid, well maybe the $25,000 pyramid but certainly not the food pyramid. I encourage you to look into diet for your kids. Milk may not be the answer for your child but changing foods my help. Never give up hope.
Early on I started noticing Owen would like certain textures and sounds better than others. One of the first times I really figured it out was when we were walking by a building and he stuck his hand out to feel the rough texture. Then he didn’t want to leave it. He could stand there for a half hour and be content. I would often walk Owen by the building to see what he would do, it was always the same reaction, he wanted to touch the building. It was like a calming effect for him. As time has gone on I’ve learned more and more textures that sooth him and some that stay away from because they just seem to stress him out. My friend helped put together a texture book for Owen and I take it places with me when I think he might be stressed.
I haven’t learned why some stores seem to stress Owen out and others he can handle for a longer period of time. It is always a learning experience for me. I wonder sometimes if it is the lighting or even the way the shelves are designed. The hardest part sometimes is when he is just truly upset and I have to finish what I’m doing. I just want to comfort him but it is so hard to explain that we need groceries or that I have to go to the drug store. Thankful I have learned how to tell more of his triggers and I try to give him comfort early on. This journey is forever changing and I’m thankful for the people that understand Owen and help me do things for him. Acceptance is a beautiful thing and I’m thankful for the people that love and support us both! It is amazing how the littlest of things can be the biggest things. I even hate writing it that way… in fact that one sentence I rewrote three times. I hate thinking of them as little but I think it expresses it the best. Every day you wait for those moments when your baby accomplishes their next milestone. When I look back on Owen’s first year it was pretty typical. He crawled, he laughed, he loved food, he even whistled. He walked when he was about 15 months, which seemed a little delayed to me but he was progressing. He was saying things like duck, dog but very few other thing. Sometimes he would say words so clearly and then never say them again. I waited for that sound of momma. I heard it because I knew that is what he was saying but when I actually heard mommy I wept. So the little things are truly what’s important to me because they are what fills the biggest spaces in my heart. Tonight, he has put my slippers on my feet several times. This makes me so happy because he hasn’t learned to put his own shoes on yet. I’m so thankful for him trying. Owen is trying to say more and more words every day. He will hold up different items for me to say their name and then he tries to repeat them. The other day he brought a block to me and it is one of the words he is pretty good with. Well he shows it to me and said “egg”. I said “block”. He said “egg”. I said “block”. He handed it to me and there was a picture of an egg. I got so excited. I was like score one for Owen. The block, the slippers, the random hugs, the smiles, the belly gut laughs, the wide happy eyes are all things I have been waiting for. The little things that will always be the big things. Thankful every day to see these changes in him. Thankful that my friend suggested to take him off milk. Thankful! With a lump in my throat and a tear on my cheek I look into my baby’s eyes and I’m thankful for all the joy he brings me. I finally think I have a two year old. I have been using the timeout method for awhile now with Owen but I think it is just now sinking in. I don’t think he really understood why he was sitting in a chair for the two seconds that he was. Well after the last two days I think we, he has perfected it. Yesterday after putting him in timeout for knocking my glasses off I told him he could get up but he had to give me a hug and say he was sorry. I showed him all the steps. So I picked him, gave him a hug and said tell mommy you are sorry. Later on after the second time knocking off my glasses he got up from timeout gave me a hug and made sounds for me. I’ll take it. Anything close works for me. Then later on in the day he actually walked up to me knocked my glasses off, sat in the timeout chair for about two seconds and then got up, hugged me and said “sorry”. This got a secret laugh from me since he was punishing himself just to see all the reactions. I think I have to rethink my strategy for this whole timeout thing.
Today for timeout he was learning how far he could push it. He would sit in the chair and then roll with it to get a toy. It is a beanbag chair so it moves easily. I think he has learned the system. I feel like this is something he never would have done a month ago when he was on milk. I see all these big changes in him and a wonderful sparkle in his eyes… even if it is mischievous. Every day I’m thankful for the changes in my son. The littlest steps are the biggest leaps. |
AuthorI'm Lynn Browder. Owen's Mommy. The best moments in time are when I get to see the smile on his face and that giggle come from his heart. Archives
May 2024
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