I have been able to add a few new things to Gabriel’s food repertoire now that he is officially staying on the 4:1 ratio.  We have had Hits, Misses and Epic Fails along the way. I am still learning that he is not emotionally invested in my cooking experiments, nor is it his job to respond to the food I am presenting in a way to make me happy.

HIT:DONUTS!

We have added donuts. Right now he only likes then fresh. So he doesn’t get them a lot because when he is ready to eat, he wants to eat NOW! I like them because they look like real food, I can put flavor in them (chocolate, cherry, vanilla) and it looks like a lot of food.  Most of his meals barely fill a saucer.

MISS: Full cream “Ice cream”

We tried another full cream “ice cream” with splenda and vanilla. He took about 3 bites to make Papa happy but that was it. I am going to try another version with whole milk and cream. It will have to be a snack, instead a meal addition that allows him more “normal” food.  I have recipes for things like “grilled cheese” and “chicken nuggets” that I really want to try but I have to get him to eat the cream to make that possible. I keep reminding myself that I am the only one obsessed with getting him to eat cream and try to let it go.

EPIC FAIL: Cheese crackers (Try #1)

Doesn’t that look appetizing? These black blobs where butter, cheddar cheese, coconut flour and oil.  I found a 3.5:1 cheese cracker recipe on a blog and tried to tweak it to 4:1.  The worst part was that these 7 quarter sized blobs took almost 45 to create. SIGH!

COOKING SUCCESS:  Cheese crackers (Try #2)

Woo! Hoo! They are not burned blobs! They may not be totally beautiful. But in the land of Keto Cooking anything that stays together with 800 pounds of oil is a success.  After a little research I substituted 1/2 of the butter for mayo, removed the oil and cut the cooking time in 1/2. The recipe still needs some tweaking but they looked and smelled good. I took a bite of one crumb and they were good too..kind of buttery, sweet with a cheesy flavor! I could not wait for Gabriel to try them!

FAIL:Eating of cheese cracker

Not sure if you can tell from the picture but he has a  “what on earth are you trying to get me to eat” look on his face.   Hindsight is telling me I made several mistakes in presenting this new food.

  1. I gave it to him first thing this morning. (He likes routine..breakfast is either eggs, waffle, or peanut butter and fruit)
  2. I told him it was cheese crackers. I am pretty sure he thought I was going to give him his old favorite Cheez-its.
  3. I tried to feed it to him instead of letting him hold it himself. They are very crumbly and I knew he would not like that.

Once I had tried to feed him it was all over. He started crying and flinging his arms. We ended up with lots of cracker pieces.  This caused him to cry harder and demand “Fix it! Fix it!” Sigh! The cracker pieces ended up on the kitchen table, we are going to try them again later.

SEIZURE UPDATE:

We continue to make progress on the seizure front. He is down to 1-3 grand mal seizures every 5 or 6 days. We are also getting a little heads up that they are coming. At least earlier this week, he had a really sleepy, out of it day before the seizure late that night.  The “big” goal in my mind right now in 0 seizures in 10 days. However, as I read back over my blog posts from the last months I am amazed at how far we have come on the new 4:1 ratio.

We haven’t seen the drop seizures, where he bobs his head or he just falls down in several weeks 🙂  Yippee! Chuck and I hate all of his seizures but the drop seizures are so unnerving because they are so quick, and he falls hard and fast with them. I don’t think we have had to wear his helmet in several weeks! We have been hitting the pool A LOT lately and I know that would not have been the case a month ago!

The bible verse speaking to me lately is from Zephaniah

“The Lord your God with you, He is mighty to save. He take great delight in you. He will rejoice over you with singing”