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Dear Listmates -

A few months ago - May, perhaps? - I wrote in about
two children I was caring for as a paid caregiver. Not
my kids; I was the RN in the house full of adopted
kids. Note that "was" there. 
I got loads of wonderful emails, which I forwarded to
the father. Also gave him Mrs Paley's  phone number.
The family mentioned the GF diet to the MD. The
autistic boy was tested for CD, came up negative, and
the family was told to start him on the GF diet if
they chose. I took that call, properly charted it, and
told the Dad. 

The Home Health Aides assigned to the case do all the
cooking. They were eating the food too, so cooked what
they wanted. Consequently the food was LOADED with
ethnic spices, many of them pure MSG. There was also,
oddly, nothing but red "juice" (Country Time,
Kool-Aid, etc) to drink with meals, and two of the
children are allergic to the dye.  Please don't ask me
 why the 'parents' insisted on buying red dye #40;
reading ingredients is part of my life, so this was
something I never could understand.
The parents resisted the GF diet. Said the aides would
never go for it;
like, who's in charge here?  I pushed very hard on the
red dye and MSG issues, with dramatic improvement in
behaviors in the kids and generally happier kids. You
have to pick your battles, and several of the other
nurses told me to back off on the GF issue.

Unfortunately the aides were *outraged* that I was
looking out for the kids, though they simply couldn't
see that; all they saw was that I was trying to change
something. They agitated, hard, for my ouster and the
"parents" caved in. With long, grovelling apologies
they canned me. I hear from my ex-coworkers that the
MSG and red dye are back, the kids are vomitting and
acting up again, and the autistic boy, who had made
monstrous strides just by eliminating MSG and red dye,
is sliding back to his old self.

Just wanted to update you all. You were all very
helpful and caring, and the important thing is that
I/we tried my/our best. 
With the recent diet discussion this tale is fitting
to tell now (this happened on August 30). We don't
understand why people refuse such an easy "fix". The
reading of ingredient lists and purchase of the right
foods, whatever they may be, is an effort. We as a
society have become sloppy and lazy in our habits,
soft in the body, and sometimes soft in integrity. Our
membership in this listserv means we are NOT the
softies, so..... we can't understand these folks. 
It's like the old Feingold diet for ADD/ ADHD (which I
still follow rather than use a pill); it works, but
it's astounding to me how many people, including
doctors, look at me and ask "why go through the effort
if you can use a pill?"  Well, maybe because it's
healthier and mentally better to control the problem
in the first place??

On a happier note, I have just gotten an offer for a
full-time job for the state Department of Mental
Health. It doesn't offset my agony at the suffering of
that boy and the lost promiseof his recovery, but at
least  getting canned didn't hurt my financial future.

Again, Thanks for all your help, everyone!

Kathy 

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