The latest on Lil J's fungal issues

So Lil J is a very picky eater, as I'm sure I've mentioned a time or two before.  And so last February when I put him on an anti-fungal diet it was tough.  His already limited list of foods that he's willing to eat got limited much further.  He then had only a small handful of items he was willing to eat.

Thank God we now are seeing good progress.  He's been on that diet for 5 months now.  And the probiotics were really the big helper most recently as I shared recently in a blog post.

I must say that I have probably done more research on this particular topic than any other topic ever.  I have lived with this issue myself.  So I have learned much first hand.  This fact has been very helpful in helping Lil J.  I often think of how daunting this journey would be if I hadn't lived it myself.  Although it's doubtful we'd be in this position had it not been for me & my issues due to excessive antibiotic use.

When I put myself on an anti-fungal diet I stayed on it about 6 months & then started reintroducing some of the restricted foods & monitored to see what I could & couldn't eat at that point. 

At this point Lil J is now totally sick of the foods he's been living on for the past 5 months.  What's been hardest is finding food that he can eat on the go.  He normally snacks on either almonds or cashews on the go, but he's really sick of both of them at this point.  Hubby decided it's probably time to branch out & see what else he can & can't tolerate.  So we went shopping last weekend.  We agreed on no peanuts, pistachios, & corn for sure (we always try to avoid these, but I can't say that we NEVER eat them). 

So on Monday morning he ate granola bars for breakfast.  He was totally out of control on Monday.  Totally misbehaving, not listening, & being willfully disobedient.  It was a nightmare of a day.  I was starting to think that we'd need to stop introducing new foods & go back to the way it's been the past 5 months.  I have to admit I was a little upset with hubby for suggesting such a thing by the end of that day.

On Tuesday morning he had pita chips for breakfast.  They are made out of wheat.  We had a good day I have to say.  I had my son back to normal it seemed.

On Wednesday morning he had Joe's Os (it's Trader Joe's healthier version of Cheerios).  Within a couple of hours of him eating breakfast the wild child of Monday had returned.  It was shocking to me how drastically different he is when he eats oats.  I did my best to just get through the day & I told hubby we absolutely positively cannot feed him oats. 

When I try to look into behavioral issues related to oats all I come up with is gluten issues.  But since he's totally fine with wheat it's certainly not a gluten issue.  It's a very strange issue.  But I doubt that he is the only kid that has a reaction like that. 

It makes me question the kids that are diagnosed as hyperactive.  I mean, when J eats oats he's totally spastic & has zero attention span.  He cannot listen, he's practically bouncing off the walls.  It's absolute insanity.  Now I'm not saying that all kids diagnosed as hyperactive should be taken off of oats.  But what I am wondering is if they have some sort of issue with a particular food or ingredient.  And if that possibility was investigated further could the problem be solved without medications? 

I am still curious as to what it is exactly about oats that causes this behavior in him.  And I am wondering if it will be for the rest of his life or if it will change at some point.  I guess only time will tell.  Cereals are a good choice for snacks on the go.  But it's challenging to find oat & corn free varieties.  But there are some, we have a few now to choose from, made from both wheat & rice. 

And so we will move forward & monitor how he does.  Most importantly how his visible fungal areas do, but also how his behavior does.  Yes he's three & he throws tantrums & doesn't always understand appropriate behavior, I'm still working on teaching him that.  BUT I know my son well & there is an obvious difference with oats & I am keeping a close eye on his toes & groin areas that previously showed fungal issues visibly.