As a SAHM with a child who sometimes has behavioral challenges, it’s easy to get into a rut, especially after a bad day. Yesterday was one of those days. It started off positively and I felt good that I was able to coerce a friend—another SAHM who needed to get some work done on her home business—to let me watch her little boy, who is about a year younger than my younger daughter. He was the perfect gentleman guest; it was my daughter who had issues with sharing that later (mostly after he left) turned into an hour-long scream fest. If you have kids on the SCD who experience behavioral challenges you know how anxiety provoking the flip from Dr. Jekyl, to Ms. Hyde can be. This tantrum, which included aggression and belligerence, did not last nearly as long as they used to before the implementation of the SCD. And I do think that my daughter’s behavior has regressed since she had the stomach flu last week. However, my inability to successfully navigate the tantrum, and my exceptionally slow recovery from it, has led me to make some changes in our schedule today.
First, I should say that my girls are home for Spring Break, and that it has gotten unseasonably cold and rainy, so going outside is not really an option. I should also say that we homeschooled a few years ago and will be coming back to that next year, so I often approach our days in an educational way—even during Spring Break :).
The first challenge we’ve had in the last few days is that my younger daughter is eating about eight or nine times a day, including three breakfasts. Of course, kids with malabsorption disorders often eat more frequently, and larger amounts than their peers. However, I think that she’s making up for all of the weight she lost last week during the stomach flu. Keeping up with her non-stop demands for food, and her pickiness about what I offer, has been a little stressful.
So, this morning I made her a much larger breakfast than usual, all protein, which isn’t unusual for her on this diet. Regardless of what I offer her, she most often chooses the protein and ignores the carbs, no matter how hard we try to get her to eat.
Then, at breakfast, the girls and I discussed today’s schedule and activities. We decided that after breakfast and morning chores, first I would do some activities with my younger daughter, while my older daughter had some time to herself. Then, we would switch. This is a real blessing for me, because I’ve been trying—quite unsuccessfully—to find time to work on this blog for weeks.
The key for my younger daughter to stay engaged is that all attention be on her. No criticism please. I know what works for her; and I know what doesn’t. I know what works for her at school; and I know what works for her at home. And if I want to have any hope of spending time on a house project, blog writing, paying the bills, cleaning, etc., she needs to have a significant amount of one-on-one time first. And sometimes in the middle of whatever it is I’m doing :).
So, we decided that we would do flower related activities. Based on the fact that she loves to pick flowers from our garden and take them apart, this is what we did: We assembled flowers by using straws for the stems, colored tissue paper for the leaves and petals, and yarn for the roots. Since she has some minor issues with fine motor skills, tearing and rolling the tissue paper was good for her. I put two-sided tape on the straws, she stuck on the leaves and petals, and we tied the yarn onto the bottom for the roots. Beautiful? No. But she had a great time and was excited to give the flower to her sister after we finished all of our activities.
After making the “flower,” I let her cut pictures of flowers and vegetables/fruits out of gardening catalogs to paste into a small book that I put together out of white construction paper and brass clips. Again, using the scissors was great for her fine motor control. Then I wrote the names of each item under its picture. Now she and her sister are upstairs using that book and paper dolls that they made to play school.
Granted, it’s early in the day, and life changes from one minute to the next. But in this moment, I am thankful for a successful morning, especially when as a SAHM, it’s hard to feel a sense of accomplishment. Thanks for letting me share this with you. And I hope you’ll share how your intentional changes create success for you and your family.
Intentional Change
SCD Freezer Cooking
(For specific recipes, please click the Recipe label.)
Every year for Christmas since my mother-in-law died, my husband and I have been preparing meals for my father-in-law to put in his freezer. He doesn’t need “things,” but he loves having the food for days when he isn’t interested in cooking for himself.
This past fall, when my husband’s grandmother died, I wanted to do the same thing for his grandfather, who lives four hours away. So, I ordered aluminum containers from a restaurant supply store. In the catalog, these are listed as Meals on Wheels containers. They have three divided sections and a cardboard lid. They are perfect for our needs. Not only did we use them to make meals for my father-in-law and grandfather-in-law, we also used them to have ready-made meals available for my youngest daughter. I can’t tell you what a blessing this has been.
When it gets too complicated to make so many different kinds of foods, or when we’re having company, or going to someone’s house, I can just pop one of these in the oven for about 20 minutes, and have a complete, SCD meal ready for her. This is incredibly economical, even once I add in the cost of the containers. Plus, I really like that I’m not storing, or cooking, her food in plastic. We don’t even own a microwave anymore.
Here are some examples of SCD meals I’ve frozen:
All ingredients are homemade—except the hotdogs—and SCD compliant.
1. Turkey lasagna, green peas, bread
2. Pureed black bean soup, bread, ice cream (frozen in cupcake papers and removed before heating)
3. Pureed black bean soup, bread, peas
4. Turkey or beef hotdogs, butternut squash fries, cake
5. Beef hotdog, french-cut green beans, apple sauce
6. Fish, broccoli, applesauce
7. Veggie meatballs, mashed cauliflower, pureed chicken stew
8. Salmon muffins, mashed cauliflower, peas
9. Scrambled eggs, turkey sausage, toast
10. Pureed split pea soup with parmesan, bread, applesauce
11. Pureed split pea soup, bread, grapes (frozen in cupcake papers and removed before heating)
12. Pureed lentil soup, bread, cooked pears
13. Carrot pancakes, cooked pears, turkey sausage
14. Individual pizzas with cheese and olives, carrots, ice cream (frozen in cup cake papers and removed before heating)
15. Individual pizzas with cheese and olives, broccoli, veggie meatballs
16. Spaghetti squash with sauce, bread, veggie or soup
17. Burger-crusted pizza with bread, veggie or soup
I’m sure you noticed that all of the soups are pureed. That’s because many kids with these types of malabsorption disorders don’t tolerate chunky foods, often because of sensory processing disorder. My Vita-Mix has been the best investment I’ve made in implementing the Specific Carbohydrate Diet for my daughter. Please click on the SCD label for more SCD recipes.
I’ll post a picture as soon as I get an opportunity to restock the freezer due to the power outage.
Power Outage: SCD Food Dilemmas
My youngest daughter has a carbohydrate malabsorption disorder and requires a specialized diet, called the Specific Carbohydrate Diet. She’s been on this diet for almost a year, so thankfully, I’ve figured out the sometimes complicated challenge of what she can eat. And so, I felt proud that we had been able to stock the freezer with appropriate foods for her. Because the foods can be time consuming and expensive to prepare, I was pleased with the system I had set up to do an SCD version of freezer cooking.
Obviously, as I’m learning from Eckhart Tolle, my pride was misplaced:)During the five days without power, most of her specialized food in the upstairs freezer thawed, but did not spoil. Even though it was too much for her to eat, the four of us transitioned to her food during and after the storm so that it wouldn’t all go to waste. All of her individual meals were perfectly suited to cook directly on the open propane flame.
I gave the packages of organic, free-range turkey to two of my neighbors, while we ate the homemade SCD turkey sausages and meatballs that were stored in the freezer. Much to the dismay of some of my vegetarian friends, yes, after 23 years of being vegetarian, even I ate the turkey. Given my commitment to our Dave Ramsey plan, I was not about to let that food go to waste.
In all honesty, even the “loss” of the food turned out great. The most perishable items in the upstairs freezer, aside from the turkey, which I mentioned we ate or gave away, and the fish, which we’ve been eating since the power came back on, were tv-dinner type meals; the old fashioned kind. Well, not exactly old fashioned since they contained only homemade, SCD ingredients.
