So interesting to me

As you know, my daughter and I are both gluten free. Besides feeling so much better the biggest change we saw in our daughter after going gluten free was her behavior. She used to throw crazy out of this world tantrums that lasted up to an hour. We're talking, hitting, screaming, banging on walls, etc. We couldn't talk her down, we couldn't comfort her, nothing helped, we had to let her ride them out. It took over 2 hours to get her to bed most nights and we dreaded it. We started questioning our parenting and also started thinking she might have a real disorder and maybe we needed to see a psychologist. Then we went gluten free and the most amazing thing happened, all her major fits went away! She is now a "normal" kid that throws "normal" fits and goes to bed easily. It's been 1 year and 2 months and we are still in awe of the change. 

Over the year we've had a handful of people not really buy into it and kind of doubt that the gluten free thing was the reason for the change. I even wondered myself at times because it seemed so crazy. Of course I researched it and started finding more and more articles about how gluten does in fact effect behavior. I even talked to Dr. Stephen Wangen about it at seminar (Author of "Healthier Without Wheat") and he said he sees this all the time in his practice. The doctor we saw at Children's also concurred. 

Anyway, in the past 2 weeks I've had two random conversations with strangers that have had this same experience. I struck up a conversation with a mom at Fred Meyer last week who was asking me for some help in the gluten free section (boy did she pick the right person to ask!) and we talked for 20 minutes. She has a 3 year old who also threw violent tantrums and as soon as she went gluten free they stopped.  Last night I met a woman at a crafting party who had the same story about a little boy she knows. I am continually amazed at these stories, even though I shouldn't be anymore. It really makes me wonder how many kids (and adults) that have behavior and mood disorders might just have a food intolerance. I'm not taking away from mental disorders because I 100% believe they exist and I completely think meds are important for some people (I'm not going all Tom Cruise, don't worry). I just wonder if we really looked more at our diets what changes we'd see. 

Just some thoughts I felt like sharing tonight. I promise I'll get back to posting recipes asap!