I hope you get it figured out. I know how miserable and just plain hard it is! I can't even imagine how much harder it must be with an older child - at least dd was a toddler so it was easier to avoid other people trying to feed her, parties, etc. Genetic testing isn't usually covered under insurance, FYI. Ours was about $550 out of pocket. The insurance did cover the actual blood draw, just not the testing. I hope you can find a good ped GI. Are there any food allergy support groups in your area? Sometimes they'll have good recs for GI docs too. That's how we found ours (and if you're in the DC area I can def recommend the one we used).

Don't have much time to post but have you considered celiac? She sounds so much like my own dd. Issues since the very day she was born. We finally figured out she was intolerant to loads of things and as long as we avoided them she was mostly ok but still had some behavior issues and of course still accidently ingested some of the foods she was intolerant to because she had so many. For about 2 yrs we (she was nursing so I was on the diet too) had approx 20 foods we could safely eat. None of the top 8, no corn or it's derivatives, and she also reacted to loads of random things like olive oil and avocados. One food she could eat was gluten in spelt, rye, barley, or oat form (wheat she reacted to). Dd and I ate a lot of spelt and oats and she was fine! So when the ped GI told us to go gluten free I wanted to cry. But she'd had a negative celiac blood test, an inconclusive celiac biopsy, and genetic testing that came back very high risk. I liked the GI we were using so I decided to appease him and go ahead and go GF for 3 mos per his request. As I suspected there was not immediate improvement and we were soooo hungry! However we stuck with it. 6 weeks later we had a follow up and she had gained 5 lbs. Dd had always had major growth issues and was only weighing 15 lbs at 2 yrs old wearing 6-9 mos old clothing - gaining 5 lbs in 6 weeks was more than she had gained in the last 18 months! In fact she weighed more at 6 mos old than she did at 2 yrs old. That helped me power through with the GF diet. Low and behold, about 2.5 mos after being GF she was no longer reacting to all those other foods! We were able to eat the top 8 (except wheat of course)! It was amazing. She could take vitamins without reaction. Her behavior got LOADS better. And she turned into a "normal" kid. Now she's 5 yrs old, in the 50th percentiles for height/weight, and is totally normal & healthy. Based on her miraculous turn around, her genetic testing, and the fact that we later found out that dh has celiacs as well she was diagnosed with celiac. Strangely enough, once we were GF and the other intolerances went away she started to react to gluten. All I can think is that the reaction she had from gluten was it tearing up her intestinal tract and causing all the other intolerances. Now that she's healed she has the "normal" celiac reaction of diarrhea and behavior issues.

Yep. That's exactly what I do with my pizza dough (that's GF). Bake it 10 mins, then put on the toppings and then bake 10-20 mins until the cheese is nice and melty and awesome. Also if it really sticks for you while you're trying to press it into the pan, try wetting your finger tips instead of using rice flour. Keeps it from sticking to your hands and doesn't add any rice flour graininess.

Definitely check out the websites for the shows. I find lots of good stuff from many of them. NOVA often even has study guides. I get some sort of History Channel education magazine (they've sent it ever since they had The Story of US on DVD for free for homeschoolers/schools). The magazine has great ideas on ways to go beyond the shows and also lists upcoming shows that may be of interest.

I agree with the other posters. I think it depends on how your child learns but MUS is very strong on the concepts behind the facts which, IMO, makes learning the facts much easier for most people. My ds has a very hard time with rote memory so we moved on eventually even though he couldn't automatically answer 8 x 4 = 32. He knew how to multiply conceptually, and he could do it in his head in 20 seconds or less, so we moved on but we always do all the review pages. And of course he got even more practice when he moved on to multiple digit multiplication. Same thing when we did addition and subtraction.

Strength training. I could do cardio 24/7 and eat 0 calories and I still probably wouldn't lose weight. If I do strength training 3x a week though the pounds just melt off me. Actually I've been doing a mix of cardio and strength training for about a year now (3 days intense cardio, 3 days strength training, 1 day rest) and I've gone from a size 12 to a size 2 (I'm 5'7 btw so the size 12 actually looked pretty nice on me). And the only changes I made to my food at all was increasing it - I think before I started I was around 1700-1800 calories a day but now I have to eat at least 2200 calories to maintain my weight. I don't even lose a lot of pounds doing strength training but it slims me way down. I only dropped about 16 lbs between that size 12 and size 2.

You know I don't know the answer to this except to say that for us HSing is the reason for it happening and I haven't quite yet figured out how to stop it. Ds did great in public kindy. He had also been in preschool the year before. No issues whatsoever. The first 6 mos or so after we pulled him out of school he was good in group settings as well. Then it slowly started to crumble. The talking out of turn really got kind of out of control so just before class (or in this case story hour @ the library) I would clearly explain my expectations and the consequences if they weren't followed. For awhile I sat in the back and would go and get him and pull him out of the class if he didn't follow my directions. Kind of harsh I guess but it did make a huge difference.

I forgot to mention, one of the best books when you're first starting out is Gluten Free Living for Dummies. There are A LOT of internet myths out there regarding the GF diet and the book clears them all up. It gives you the basics on how to eat, what to eat, and how to go out to eat. Also make sure the rest of the family is tested as well if they diagnose your ds with celiac. It's hereditary. We get my ds tested yearly; at least until we can afford genetic testing in which case if it comes back that he doesn't carry the gene then we will stop testing yearly.

Yes because there's not really a "borderline" positive when it comes to celiac which is why I'm a bit flabbergasted at how your doctor handled it. It's either positive or negative. It'd kind of be like saying you were borderline pregnant. The amount of testing you have done will be totally up to you but think about it carefully. The tests will only be accurate if he's consuming gluten at the time. If he's celiac, once you go GF he'll never be able to eat gluten again. Not long enough to get testing done. We chose not to have my dh tested. He's been GF for 3 yrs now and there is no way at all he could ever eat enough gluten to be tested. MIL accidently put a regular waffle in our GF toaster. She told us but dh didn't think it would be a big deal and went ahead and toasted one of his GF bagels. He was in the bathroom allllll night long in misery and had headaches for 2 weeks. Needless to say we went out and bought a new toaster the next day. So long story short to say that dh will never have an official diagnosis. Dd is officially diagnosed. Once your ds goes GF he'll probably start to notice positive changes in the way he feels in just 2-3 days. My dh said that after 4 days his headaches were less intense and after 2 weeks they were less frequent. After about 2 months they were completely gone.

Anyone else instantly think of Doogie Howser? lol

:grouphug: I'm shocked your doc just waved it away last year. That's not very good doctoring. Celiac doesn't go away and it's actually rare for it to even show up in kids on blood work even when they do have it (there's usually not yet enough damage to their system for it to show up). IMO your family doctor screwed up. Big time. The ped GI will see what the blood work shows and then more than likely will want to do a biopsy to confirm the results. The biopsy really is not that bad. My dd was finally diagnosed with celiacs when she was 2 yrs old (had issues since birth which is why I say finally). The scariest part will be being put under anesthesia but the rest is super easy, not painful, and is over and done with in 30 mins or so. My dd had negative blood work, inconclusive biopsy, and came back as very high risk with genetic testing. She weighed only 15 lbs, wearing 6-9 mos clothing, at 2 yrs old when the ped GI told us to go GF. This was not a child who was afraid of eating. She was still nursing 10+ times a day, she would eat 2 bowl fulls of oatmeal at breakfast, more steak at dinner than dh, etc. Anyways 6 weeks after being GF she had gained 5 lbs. An entire third of her body weight! And she started to eat more normal sized portions of food for a toddler. And she started grow. After a few months she was finally on the growth chart. She outgrew all the food intolerances she had previously (all of the top 8 plus others). Her behavior changed for the better. Her severe reflux completely went away. It was like I finally got to meet and know my real child because there had been something wrong since the day she was born but we just didn't know what. Now at 5 yrs old she's in the 50th percentile for height and weight. It's amazing. Going GF is not a bad thing. It's a wondrous life saving thing for a person with celiac and the degree to which they will feel better sometimes cannot even be imagined. After dd was diagnosed we later found out dh had celiacs too. He went GF and the constant 24/7 headaches were gone, the joint pain, depression, obesity, brain fog, the constant lack of energy were all gone. He said he didn't even realize how bad he felt until he felt better. Anyways I know I've blabbered on but seriously, don't look at this as a bad thing. Finally figuring out what was wrong with my dh & dd was one of the best things to happen to our family. And to have such an easy solution. They don't have to take drugs for life. They just need to not eat certain foods.

In the future I always found that coconut yogurt was a good substitute in recipes for sour cream. And I used to make my own coconut yogurt which was much cheaper - but that was also back when you had to live in a major city to find it and even then you'd be lucky to find it in one health food store so I imagine prices have gone down considerably now that I seem to see it everywhere.

I made this cookie dough frozen yogurt recipe (no ice cream maker needed!). It's deceptive in that you think to yourself, "oh I can use my own homemade yogurt in this, it must be healthy." But then you add in a load of butter and sugar, and no, not healthy at all lol. BUT very very tasty and ridiculously rich. It's the first time I've ever seen my ds not able to finish a bowl of ice cream. I subbed in rice flour for the regular flour to make it GF. http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1EJAXJ/www.twopeasandtheirpod.com/chocolate-chip-cookie-dough-frozen-yogurt/ Btw, I know it's not dessert but seriously try the Peach, Basil, & Mozzarella Pizza that's on their website. It is sooooo good. Even my very meat loving, anti-vegetarian dh loves it.

I have my GF recipe blog listed in my siggy. FTR, the waffles in my avatar are my yeasted overnight waffles that we typically use for sandwiches. I also have a belgian waffle recipe on there for more breakfasty type waffles. I don't post anything that tastes like GF. IMO if you can tell it's GF then the recipe isn't right yet. The easiest dessert to make GF is angel food cake IMO (besides the obvious naturally GF things like ice cream, grilled peaches, and such). Things my family love the most and therefore make the most: Chocolate Chip Cookies Banana Bread (healthy version!) Cinnabon-like Cinnamon Rolls Graham Crackers (made some today in honor of S'mores Day!) Summer Berry Pie Blueberry Coffee Cake Honestly though cake of any sort is generally super easy to make GF - the fact that some GF bakeries charge soooo much for a GF cake always leaves me flabbergasted. For dd's birthday a few weeks ago I made that giant 6 layer Rainbow Cake that's on Martha Stewart's site. I don't have the recipe up right now but here's a link to the picture of mine: http://glutenfree100.blogspot.com/2012/08/so-heres-deal-beautiful-rainbow-cake.html Oh and they were a big hit with me but my dh & kids didn't like them much: Dark Chocolate Angel Food Cupcakes with Salted Caramel Glaze (157 calories each btw). I forgot to add that the brownies from Karina's Kitchen blog are to die for. They are seriously awesome.

It's been ages and ages but I used to use hairspray on my pastels. I'd do a test though first. The hairspray I used was from like 20 yrs ago in an aerosol can filled with CFCs lol.

Can you make up your own real world "word" problems as they come up? What grade level is he in now? There are loads of places that real world problems crop up (or can be created). Personally I think the critical part is knowing how to use math in the real world. Doubling a recipe. Figuring out what's the best deal at the grocery store based on price per ounce. How much paint to buy to paint a wall. How much flooring to order. Total amount of fabric needed for a project. How many hours it will take you to drive somewhere at your current speed. And so forth. FTR, I had word problems in college calculus for math majors.

Oh and I forgot to mention: dh is super sensitive, he was getting sick at work from the microwave handle. He says his first symptom when he gets glutened is not his stomach hurting but instead it's a headache. Both he and dd will typically be in the bathroom with diarrhea within about 30-45 mins though.

Dh and dd have celiacs and I'm gluten intolerant and I would never ever eat at Dominoes. Not unless they totally changed their set up. Unless you get lucky and get a Dominoes that actually knows what it's doing this is where contamination will come in: the employees won't change their gloves, they use the same toppings that are sitting out uncovered and being constantly dipped into for use on regular pizzas, they are baked in the same oven as the gluten pizzas, and last and probably one of the worst is that they might use the same pizza cutter. Oh and not to mention there is flour flying all over that place for their regular pizzas. The warning on their website says not to eat there if you medically need to be GF. It basically says the only thing it can guarantee as being GF is the actual crust. The rest ends up being coated in cross contamination. There are pizza places out there though that are good and make careful precautions to prevent cross contamination of their GF pizzas. One of my favorite websites is http://www.glutenfreeregistry.com Not only does it have a pretty good list of available places with a GF menu but people can leave reviews. Also, always always always talk to the manager before ordering. We have found it's usually the best indicator of how your experience will be. We have walked out of places after talking with the manager and/or chef (one who told us the food was so hot there's no way gluten could live in his food - that was at the House of Blues at Disney btw). The managers at the places we go to regularly know us on sight because we still talk to them every single time even though so far we've only had 1 incidence of being glutened in the 3 yrs we've been eating there.

I do what my school always did growing up (I got a stellar education from the private school my parents sent me to and I tend to model much of it in my homeschool). I have ds pick out words in his reading that he doesn't know. He tries to infer what the word means and then looks it up. I would have him write the word, the sentence it's in, and the meaning but he has dysgraphia so we keep the writing to a minimum.

I really don't think it's a good idea to skip history. It doesn't need to be every day but at least once a week I think. We use BCP (Baltimore Curriculum Project) lessons which are free and follow the Core Knowledge Sequence and I just supplement it with whatever books we can find at the library on that topic. Sometimes I can find a good documentary on the topic for my 3rd grader or even a cartoon for my kindergartner. We loooove Liberty's Kids on netflix.

I have the 6th edition and in the section where it lists the order of introduction it says to start with the letter "a." However in the section regarding kindergartners it says to start with the letter "o" whereas on the introduction list "o" is #6. Is this an error in this edition or is there a separate order of introduction for kindergartners from other grades that I've somehow missed in the book?

It would have to be A LOT cheaper for me! I actually use my kindle all the time for my own personal reading. However no matter how hard I try, I can not use a reference book of any kind in e-book format. My brain just does not absorb the information at all whereas in a "real" book not only can I usually flip right to the section I need to when looking up something but I can recite entire paragraphs word for word (which often got me into trouble for "cheating" in high school until I would sit down and re-write it again word for word in front of the teacher lol).

I am FAR from an expert on WRTR but I just looked it up, in my (6th) edition rule #9 is the one on one rule. As for the phonograms WRTR still has just the 70 so you're good there for sure. I'm combining LoE with WRTR and using the LoE phonograms of which there are 74 (mostly because I feel the LoE phonograms make more sense and also so I can use the phonogram games from LoE). I'm sure Ellie will be around and chime in with all the answers and explanations!

I'm starting WRTR with my 3rd grader this year. He's actually a really good reader and speller but I just felt like it would be the easiest spelling program for him since I'm also going to use WRTR for my kindergartner. I'm using a different handwriting curriculum since I'm starting my kindy with cursive instead of manuscript but I'm following the WRTR sequence. We're starting on Monday and what I did was I already gave him the spelling test to see where he placed (4.1, I think that was the "O" list) and then backing up two letters from "O" so we'll start with "M" on the Ayres List. First though I'll have him learn the phonograms and he'll help teach them to my kindergartner. I'm veering a bit off the WRTR (much to the chagrin of faithful WRTR followers!) and I'm combining it with parts of LoE.

Here's the link to NG: http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/mapping/?ar_a=1