It’s been a couple months since I shared our diet and progress here. People often ask, “What do you eat?” “How long will you stay on this diet?” “How is James doing now?” I’ve updated ‘Our Diet’ page with details about what is going on – now that our family has been completely grain-free for 6 months. I also listed lots of links of other bloggers posting stellar grain-free recipes. I could not have survived this year without their help!

Here are some of our highlights:

**My allergies to egg, avocado and almond are completely gone (I suspect my reactions to black bean, and milk powder are as well, but I haven’t yet challenged them.), and I can eat them everyday without any reaction at all. My occasional insomnia and heartburn are also completely gone. I’m able to take fewer antihistamines for airborne allergies.

**Our family has only had one cold in 6 mos and none of us needed antibiotics.

**James continues to feel more and more tactile sensation each week. He has regained the ability to hop on one foot easily, and the coordination to run faster than his brother again! He got a trampoline for Christmas and spends time on it everyday.

**His eczema is 95% gone. He has grown 3 inches, lost 12 lbs. and has much more energy.

**He is also much less ‘stuck’ in routine. If we change the schedule for our school day, he doesn’t mind – just goes with the flow (which hasn’t happened for about 6 years!).

**The days of emotional meltdowns are not our ‘normal’ anymore.

There are no words to thank God enough for James’ progress this year! Last night I held him wrapped tightly in a blanket (still loves deep pressure!) next to the Christmas lights.

He began to tear up.

Such a sweet spirit.

He said he was just so happy.

And so sad at the same time.

I asked what the sad part was.

He said, “I’m sad that I didn’t feel this or like [being held] for so many years.”

I think he can see now that he was missing out on the emotional connection that goes with cuddling for most kids. He stopped cuddling around age 3 – he didn’t like to be touched. He grieves that now 6 yrs later, which is a healthy thing to process.

Looks like we have a few years of cuddling to catch up on!

Progress by Kimberly is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International