Community Supported Agriculture

Each week, for more than half the year, we get fruit and vegetables from our Community Supported Agriculture ("CSA") group, the Carnegie Hill/Yorkville CSA. There are CSAs or similar organizations in many areas. You can learn more about CSAs in New York City here and around the country here. CSAs are a win-win for everyone. You help to support area farmers and, in turn, you get amazing local products. Through our CSA, we also are able to order (year-round!) meat, poultry, eggs, cheese, goat milk, breads, jams, honey, granola, and a whole variety of other products from local farms. The products are raised and/or produced to the highest standards -- this is good, clean, organic food (for example, the meat is grass-fed/grass-finished, the eggs come from pastured chickens). The food tastes amazing, the prices are fair, and we are helping the local farm community and our own health. Here's a picture of just some of the wonderful produce we got today -- isn't it just beautiful? The lettuce, some carrots, the cucumber, some onion and one of the peppers made a great salad tonight. We also got lovely beets, edamame, and more fruit too!

Henry's Lego Creation

Henry asked me to post this picture. He spent about an hour tonight in his room creating this fabulous ship and asked me to "send the picture so everyone can see it." He was so proud -- as I am sure you can tell.

The Last Day of Camp

I posted a month ago about Henry starting camp and now . . . (POOF) . . . camp is over. I cannot believe four weeks flew by so quickly. I guess the reason I did not blog more about camp was that it was remarkably uneventful. I don't mean boring, I mean without incident! Henry had a great time. I know that he participated as well as he could in all the events and activities (the stuff that was entirely verbally based was challenging) and he made friends (one of his new friends even made him a really sweet card about how much he likes Henry!) Other kids were happy to see him at drop off (and Henry was happy to see the other kids too).

This camp is University-themed so every two weeks is a "semester" (you can sign up to attend in two-week chunks). Each "semester" the campers choose a major and two electives for their small group activities and then the rest of the day is spent with the whole camp group. On the last day of each semester, the kids perform for all the parents, demonstrating what they learned in their various electives and majors. We missed the show after Henry's first semester because he overheated in the park that morning and got sick, so we were looking forward (with a little nervousness though) to this one. First up for Henry was his digital recording group -- Henry and a whole bunch of girls!!! The group wrote a song and learned about recording (he came home with a CD that he made). Henry hid behind his lyrics sheet for much of this (singing though) but at the end began to warm up, sing in a louder voice and dance a bit! Next was his chess group. The instructor chose Henry to go first and asked a whole series of questions -- all of which Henry capably answered!!! His Story Pirates "major" talked about the solar systems they created as part of their story writing/acting exercises (Henry was a bit shy and quiet explaining his -- which was based on a Jimmy Neutron episode -- but when the instructor said something incorrect about it, Henry was quick to correct her!). He also got a beautiful copy of the illustrations all the kids made -- he is a terrific artist. Finally the whole camp group sang "We are the World" (the head of his camp proudly told me that Henry learned the entire song and that he had a great time in camp!) All of the campers were terrific and demonstrated lots of different electives. Everyone did a great job. Here is video of Henry answering his chess questions (sorry the audio is not better).

Victorian (Victory!) Gardens

They say a picture is worth a thousand words . . . this one speaks for itself (that's Henry in the yellow Crocs). . .

Yesterday afternoon, Cliff and Henry headed to Victorian Gardens in Central Park. Until recently such a trip was not possible because of Henry's motion sickness problems. He still gets arbitrarily carsick (that's the "fun" of it -- you never know when it will happen (e.g., straight road, constant speed -- not necessarily safe)!). However, his vestibular system obviously is making gains - he spun around on this thing just fine (I think that vestibular issues are one component of motion sickness though not the entire story). They had a great afternoon.

Non-Toxic Paints

Non-toxic paint ("low-VOC" or "no-VOC") is now an easy choice almost anyone can make in an effort to be more "green." VOCs are "volatile organic compounds" and, suffice it to say, they are not good for us. It is important to make a low- or no-VOC choice because "regular" paints off-gas for years after painting, continuing to release toxins into your family's living space. Yuck! I found this terrific link that provides information and additional links on all kinds of low- and no-VOC paints -- from the mainstream retailers (Sherwin Williams, Benjamin Moore) to the more esoteric (milk paint).

We are about (hopefully) to begin a major apartment renovation -- walls coming down and other exciting events and we are trying to make green choices as we renovate. One of the final steps of the project will, of course, be painting. I am leaning toward Mythic Paints. I love that they are very safe from both a human toxins standpoint and from an environmental perspective (read their FAQs page for more details). Plus they come in loads of absolutely gorgeous colors -- just look at the photo of my Mythic fan deck. I am having so much fun trying to choose colors. I have heard great things about Mythic from a health perspective as well as from a performance perspective. After all, we do want the paint to be healthy and apply easily and last for years.

Oh (gluten-free) Crepes!

Today, mid-afternoon, I decided that crepes were just the thing my family needed for a snack. A sane person might not have. Plus, I had Henry saying, as I whipped up the crepes, that what he really wanted was popcorn (so that became Snack, Part Deux). But I was determined that crepes were required. As I said, sanity would not have necessarily dictated crepes on a July Sunday afternoon. But we are not here to debate my sanity (and that goes for you too Cliff!).

Yesterday I mentioned my friend's blog, www.whattofeedyourkids.com. Well, there is a great crepes recipe there and I made it for the first time today, after eyeing it for awhile. I used tapioca flour and, since we generally don't give Henry sugar (the recipe calls for a tiny amount -- fine for most kids), I substituted a bit of agave and reduced slightly the water recommended. They worked perfectly! I was tempted to flip them a la Julia Child (having just finished reading "Julie and Julia" by Julie Powell on my Kindle, I am in a Julia Child mode, and even made baked cucumbers from Mastering the Art of French Cooking for dinner tonight) but will save the flipping for another day. I encourage anyone who wants a spectacular gluten-free dessert to whip up a batch -- the recipe is quick and easy and the results are lovely and delish. We each had a wonderful crepe (smeared with a berry puree from berries we got from our CSA this week), and then I turned to making popcorn.

We recently have begun allowing a bit of corn back into Henry's diet and Arrowhead Mills has organic kernels -- with just a bit of oil they pop nicely in a big le Creuset covered pot on the stove! As a person whose formative years were spent in the Midwest suburbs in the 70s and 80s, I grew up with one of those plasticy air poppers that now give me the willies (heating up all that plastic -- Yikes). I actually had to turn the The Joy of Cooking for old-fashioned popcorn popping. I have found that, no matter how inane (or how odd or obtuse) a question you might have, the JOC is a great resource (along with The New Basics Cookbook) for basics like how long to cook something (or how the heck to make popcorn that is not encased in aluminum foil or a microwave bag). I love cookbooks, I can just sit and read them (and thus totally appreciate how Julie Powell ended up doing her project) and I love to try and adapt new recipes (esp. trying to make flavorful recipes that fit Henry's dietary needs and that the whole family can enjoy), but sometimes you just need to remember how long per pound a roast needs to be in the oven -- or how to make popcorn the old-fashioned way!

And our dinner of perfectly done (thanks Cliff!) rib eye and baked cucumbers was terrific too (Henry opted for plain baked cauliflower but next time I will substitute ghee for the butter in Julia's recipe and serve the cukes to him too).

I LOVE My Friends and Food (and this post is about both)

I Love, Love, Love my friends (OK, I watch too much RHONJ, I admit it)... But seriously, I do love my friends for many reasons -- mostly because they are a bunch of amazingly smart, fun and supportive women who are there for me when I need them. But I also love that we are always sharing ideas and resources. Many of my friends are also parents of special needs children and we are an inquisitive bunch, always looking for new biomedical, alternative, medical, educational and therapeutic treatments to help our kids. So many things that we have done with Henry, we have done because I learned about it from friends' successes -- seeing my friends' children blossom not only makes my heart sing but it also is a great advertisement for an intervention, of whatever sort. As with all things, not everything works for everyone, but if I have seen a friend have success with something I am much more inclined to try it. Of course, we also consult with our doctors, other specialists, and therapists about new interventions for Henry and it is always important to do your own homework on any treatment.

A big part of what we do with Henry is dietary intervention. This has been a critical part of his healing. Henry's GI system was in such bad shape a few years ago that he literally stopped eating because all food made him feel sick. I cannot even put into words how heartbreaking it is to have a 4 year old who absolutely refuses to eat for weeks. I heard from people, "oh, he will eat when he is hungry" and I knew, because I was living it, that this simply was not true. One night he sat for 4 hours at the table with my husband refusing to take a single bite of his favorite food (lamb chops). It stopped after 4 hours, not because Henry gave in, but because my husband could not take it any longer. We were close to hospitalizing him more than once through this process. Through work with a great nutritionist, Kelly Dorfman, an amazing feeding therapist, Tina Tan at NYU Rusk Pediatric Feeding and Swallowing Disorders Center, and a pediatric gastroenterologist, Arthur Krigsman, who is one of the few gastroenterologists in the world who really "gets" that many spectrum kids have very serious GI disease, we saved Henry (I know that sounds dramatic but he was such a sick little boy he needed to be saved). It was not easy, and it was not fun, but it was necessary.

We have done several of the "autism diets" (such as GFCF and SCD), or combinations thereof, and they have been critical to Henry's improved health. As a result, while his diet is restricted, and may always be, within those restrictions, Henry actually eats a huge variety of really healthy foods -- included many, many forms of protein and tons of vegetables (he is not a fan of sweets so he prefers veg. to fruit and has no interest in candy and cake).

Henry's diet is always in flux so we are trying new foods -- some work and some don't for him -- as we try to find the right combination for him. Sometimes things work for awhile, and then stop, which is frustrating for everyone, including Henry when we have to take away a food that previously did not cause GI problems. Lucky for us, he is a pretty flexible kid.

If you are interested in exploring dietary changes for your special needs child, there are many great diet and recipe books for parents of ASD kids but my favorite resource that brings a lot of it together is Nourishing Hope for Autism by Julie Matthews. Julie brings together critical information about all the top special needs diets. Nourishing Hope for Autism is an amazingly comprehensive book that provides an in-depth introduction to and overview of the latest information out there and helps parents understand why special diets can help children and helps parents to determine which diet/diets might work for their child.

Now we are back to where I started -- about loving my friends. Recently, I have gotten some great special-diets-friendly food sources from friends (thanks Melissa and Dara!). Henry absolutely loves the Italian dinner rolls from French Meadow Bakery (photo on the right, on a regular-sized dinner plate) and the bagels (dairy-free variety) from Joan's GF Great Bakes (photo on the left, also on a regular-sized dinner plate and that is Henry at the top, goofing off with a Joan's bagel!). I also have been making breakfast quesadillas (filling: eggs, veg, and some prosciutto (check ingredients carefully -- you need high quality prosciutto)) using French Meadow tortillas and these have been a hit. We have Joan's English muffins and pumpernickel raisin rolls in the freezer just waiting to be tried. The Joan's bagels have to be thawed either in the microwave (which I try to avoid) or on the counter and then baked and cooled, but they are worth the effort. They have a nice crisp and golden bagel exterior and a squishy interior - YUM. They even LOOK like bagels. As a real test, my husband tried one and really liked it.

One of my all-time favorite bread products is from Chebe. The Chebe products are made from manioc (a.k.a. cassava or tapioca flour/starch), which is a wonderful wheat substitute. We use the all-purpose mix, as well as the focaccia and pizza mixes. You can do a lot with these mixes -- rolls, flatbreads, pizza crusts, bread sticks, pocket sandwiches with hot fillings. The mixes are super easy to make, you add oil, eggs, and water (or a milk substitute) -- literally 2 or 3 minutes to mix and 20 minutes or so to bake. Even very young kids can help make this -- the social and educational aspects are an added bonus. Henry can pretty much make this himself now, which means I have at times come into the kitchen finding him having opened the packages and already mixing everything! This summer, because Henry cannot take his usual almond bread to his nut-free camp, I have been rolling out the all-purpose dough in a thin layer and cutting 3" diameter rounds with a big cookie cutter to make round sandwich breads. Henry takes pumpkin butter, apple butter and raw honey sandwiches to camp.

We also discovered, through the Body Ecology Diet website, some new products, including a snack that is a lot like potato chips but healthier. Arico Foods Sea Salt Mist Cassava Chips are awesome and they are available in health food stores and online (there is soy in here in the Vitamin E, Henry tolerates a small amount of soy in things like vitamin E so these are OK, in moderation, for him; the other flavors have ingredients we cannot use, but for those with less restrictive diets, they sound terrific). I also learned about Grindstone Bakery breads. My friend Dara and I ordered some together, to save on shipping. I ordered the quinoa and millet loaf with sprouted seeds. It is a heavy bread and I loved it but I think the seeds were off-putting to Henry. I am going to reorder the plain quinoa and millet loaf, since Henry was trying to pick out the seeds and eat the bread, suggesting to me the plain loaf might be fine for him. The Body Ecology Diet ("BED") is something I am learning about and incorporating some principles of into our diet, including fermented foods and beverages. I think that this way of eating could be very helpful to the whole family.

A note on all the sites discussed above, not everything is GFCFSF (gluten-free, casein-free, soy-free) so look carefully at ingredients before you order to make sure the products you choose meet your or your child's particular dietary restrictions and needs.

Another of my wonderful friends blogs at www.whattofeedyourkids.com about food issues, new products, and her own amazing recipes (and other wonderful and important things!). This site is always a "go-to" resource for me. I highly recommend that anyone facing food challenges check our her blog -- you will not be disappointed by the comprehensive, fun, and thoughtfully presented ideas and information.