Finding the missing piece

So the year has been exciting, and yet at the same time draining and frustrating!

Learning to cook milk free and pack milk free lunches has been completely worthwhile and rewarding, but at the same time, my son had fairly regular relapses all year which caused us to think there is something else we needed to find, and there was.

His anxiety was solved, but his tendancy to pace and "space out" was still popping up regularly. His willingness to play was the most noticable indicator of his mental health. When he was feeling well, he would play and have fun for hours and when he was "off", he would want to sit and play computer games all day, and become very irritated with efforts to divert him.

We had some independent "consumer" lab testing done, and found out his prealbumin levels were very low, which indicates poor protein absorption (or malnutrition, which we knew was not the case!). My son is quite underweight although he eats very well, and we have always just chalked it up to genetics. We weren't really sure what to make of the test until last week, the missing piece just fell into place in a conversation with an aquaintance about these test results. This person is also underweight, and when I told him that my son's protein absorption was poor, his response was, "That's interesting, same here. If I don't have just a little protein every few hours I feel 'squirrly'!". That word, "squirrly". It just clicked in my brain. My son needs more protein, more regularly!

In the past week I have begun making sure my son has protein every few hours starting first thing... a little piece of cold meat with a little salt on it, a slice of bacon, an egg, something. He has a couple of domino sized pieces of meat at recess time, and protein at lunch in his sandwich. When he gets home from school, I have some other little protein snack ready along with his smoothie.

You may find it hard to believe... because I do too... he hasn't had a single lapse since. He is PLAYING! He goes outside to work on the snow fort, he plays games, he colours, he doesn't even seem that interested in the computer! We are having FUN together! And the pacing has finally stopped. I am cautious to say it, but hopefully, this time forever.