Where it gets interesting

When we have minor set-backs, it's hard to know, if we should be seeking the cause or, if we should just ride through the rough patch keeping things as they are. 

Triggers and Tantrums
Last night we decided to make a stir fry for the boys using Trader Joe's brown rice and lots of veggies.  They gobbled it up, loving every bite.  Then this morning, I gave them muffins that were made with small amounts of white rice.  They were perfectly behaved last night and again this morning, but not long after eating their muffins this morning, both boys began showing strong symptoms of regression.  Grayson's eyes grew pinker by the minute, he lost his never-fading smile and replaced it with a seriousness that only comes with regression and/or illness, he was spacey, and became highly intolerant of Gavin's existence, his belly bulged, and the oh so lovely defiance immediately reared it's ugly head, literally coming out of nowhere.  Gavin became highly defiant as well, which always results in screaming over everything, he also likes to purposely irk Grayson when he is like this, he experienced multiple fears in our attempt to take them to story time at Barnes and Noble and more belly bulges.  Both become insatiable, like they are bottomless pits and they react severely to being told no, tantrums, tears and more tears. 

Who, what, where and when
There are a few things that cause regressions such as this: yeast overgrowth, which could be related to them addition of rice in their diet the past few days, oxalate dumps cause the same sort of regression and with the oatmeal, brown rice and banana this morning, we have certainly increased their oxalates more than we should have.  In fact, we may even need to cut oatmeal out completely and I dread the idea of having to find another breakfast option for them, since we are already so limited with breakfast foods.  Food sensitivities are always in the back of my mind so the possibility of cross contamination with the Trader Joe's rice that we tried last night is something to consider.  And lastly, illness, and I PRAY we are not heading down that road again.  We've spent the past month and a half fighting illness after illness.  I have to admit, this morning I woke up with that strange tickle in my nose, that usually means a cold is brewing, boy do I hope I am wrong. 

What to do, what to do
So here we are yet again, the familiar air of regression.  Do we increase antimicrobials, do we give L-arginine to address the pains of oxalate dumping, do we increase anti-virals to attack a possible virus?  Unfortunately, there is no true way to know, so we are forced to pretty much ride it out at least until we see additional signs of what it could have been, in hindsight.  For instance, if they get sick, we know what it was.  We did increase their grapefruit seed extract and oil of oregano slightly by adding a mini dose in between their usual doses.  If they are having a pathogenic flare (rice feeds yeast) this increase will cause a temporary worsening of symptoms (from die off) and then they will come out of it suddenly.

This is the story of our lives, two steps forward, one back.