Ethan's New Diet

Today I set out to design a new gluten-free and casein-free diet for Ethan. He has autism, and one of the homeopathic treatments many doctors and experts suggest is such a diet. This means he can't have any wheat, oats, dairy, soy, or many other things all of us eat without thinking everyday. Most of the things Ethan will be eating will be rice-based. So he'll have rice cheese instead of dairy, rice pasta instead of wheat, etc. His favorite food is pizza, so I bought rice flour at The Truck Patch (our local organic and natural foods market) to make gluten-free pizza crust, and shredded rice cheese for the top. He can still have most organic meats and fruits and veggies, so the rest of the pizza will be as usual. I hope he likes the rice cheese. Since he doesn't drink milk (he's had trouble digesting milk since he was a baby, which was one of our first clues to his condition) we won't have to do much to alter his drinking habits. This new diet, though, will be a challenge for us all. It will taste different, obviously, but it will also be a lot more expensive. And since Ethan is fairly set in his ways as far as food choices, it won't be very much fun making the switch. I am interested to see how it works, if it works (I hope it works!). Since his 4th birthday is next month, I already have plans for a gluten- and casein-free cake. Yummy! I hope.