| This is an open letter to all of you who have recently started the program for your dear children. I invite you all to come here and ask a ton of questions and we will do our best to offer you advice, support and encouragement. We have all been new at some point, so we understand how hard it is to get through that learning curve.
I offer you some advice: 1) Give this program your best effort. That means doing it in the way it was intended. Begin at stage 1 and not stage 2. We know how hard it is to give up those wonderful fruits and vegetables, but this is a temporary time of 6 weeks....that's it. After 6 weeks of good results, you can start testing them back in. But if you don't pull them out, you will never know your child's potential behaviour. It is ok to mourn at not having things like tomatoes, apples, grapes. We've all been there. Just don't do it in front of your kids. 2) If you are starting this program for your child, stock up on as much acceptable junk food as you can. You can always scale back later. The point is to get your child's cooperation without making them feel different and deprived. In fact when we started I stocked my cupboards full of junk food and told my ds how wonderful this program was since we never ate junk like this before FG. And every time I would find something new, I would tell him how we now get to eat a variety of things we never did before. But try to balance protein into this. There are wonderful "junky" protein items, such as turkey jerky, nuts etc. Junk doesn't have to be only refined sugars and carbohydrates. 3) Your attitude towards the program can make or break how your children will receive this program. If you tell them that they can have the red lollipop "just this once as a treat" you are telling them that this is red lollipop is something special that you are normally depriving them of, but this time it is ok for them to eat. What kind of mixed message does this send to them? So watch your wording of things to them. 4) If you hesitate in getting rid of all the "bad" food and replacing it with "good" food because because you paid "good money" for it, you will be dealing with one heck of a reaction and not see much positive result for a while. Chew on this: If you spend good money on bad food, would you still eat it? There is no difference here between "bad food" and "spoiled food". Either way they are bad for your family and is making them behaviourally/physically sick. 5) Put the WHOLE family on the program, not just your "target" child. I say this for a reason. If you single out one child, and make them the "different" one, again you are sending mixed messages. After all the persimmon doesn't fall far from the tree (apples are stage 2 you, know). Those genes came from somewhere. You can't tell your "target" child how awful artificials are, while you're feeding the other kids the same stuff. Again, you will never know the other children's potential if you don't put them all on the program. 6) Make your home the "FG Safe Zone". There shouldn't be food there that is a temptation to your kids. All foods that are in the house should be safe for all to eat. There may be a few exceptions to this rule, if you can't get the adults to participate in the program. But make sure these few exceptions are hard to prepare items for a child. For example my DH can't live without his Totino's pizza rolls. I have bought every subsitution out there, but he refuses to give them up. We all refer to them as "Daddy's bad food". I never make them sound appetizing. It is bad food. 7) If you have several family members on the program and each has a different allegy or sensitivity, keep the home on the most tailored diet necessary. If you have one kid allergic to dairy or peanuts you would never take the chance on having it in the house in case of cross-contamination. Why would this program be any different? It seems to me that either you would go nuts trying to remember who can eat what or someone in the family would always be in reaction. Either way, what kind of life is that?...remember KISS? (Keep It Simple Silly, not the rock group). 8) Follow the program yourself. When we started this program I told my DS, if he couldn't eat it, I wouldn't either. I never eat in front of my kids what they can't eat. If I vear off the program, it is NOT in front of them. Remember practice what you preach. Now that we've been a salicylate free household for 3 years, I realize that I can't tolerate them well either. Apples make one of my knees feel like it has arthritis, tomatoes does it to the other knee, organic peaches make my face break out...enough already. My mother had arthritis in her knees by the time she was 45. I saw that in my future, so I now that I know the source of the problem for me, I don't eat much in the way of salicylates. 9) I leave you with this: You don't get 100% results with 80% effort. Give it your best effort and come to us with whatever questions you have. Remember, REAL food tastes REAL good. ;)) Esther Roberts |
| ESTHER'S NEWBIE LETTER |