My oldest son has never had difficulty expressing himself. He has only had difficulty expressing himself verbally. Most boys I have come across that are his age are one of two things. Purposefully quiet or loud, energetic, and vocal. Mikai is neither of these things. He is a sensitive and caring boy who often tries to talk to people and no one understands what he is saying. I am not talking about a lisp or a well I get most of what he's saying dialogue. When Mikai speaks, no one knows what he says 90% of the time and my husband and I can understand him about 20% of the time.
So far what we know of his condition is that he suffers from low muscle tone that likely is localized in his mouth. This is causing him to have little to no control of his tongue which in turn causes drooling, choking, and the inability to make concise sounds.
I spoke with a friend of mine today whose son also suffers from low muscle tone, but she has had the opportunity to speak with a neurologist about him. She informed me today that her neurologist stated that low muscle tone is a result of a neurological disorder. This news doesn't come as a surprise to me but what she stated next did. She indicated that often times neurological disorders can be directly linked to some type of digestive disorder which is commonly a gluten intolerance. She strongly suggested putting Mikai on a gluten free diet for 6 weeks and just watch and track the progress he makes.
So I wanted to start this as a means of keeping track and keeping sane. Sometimes small every day gains get lost in the mundane and I don't want to miss this opportunity to share with Mikai if one day he is struggling or to provide hope and inspiration to those who may experience the same challenges.
Tonight we started the journey with gluten free pancakes. I used a cup of packaged gluten free all purpose "flour" and added a pinch of salt, a tsp of baking powder, a tsp of icing sugar (we are out of both brown and refined), an egg, a tsp of vanilla and a cup of water. The pancakes were really good. Definitely better than rice flour pancakes I have made for my other little guy.
Eventually I will share how we have gotten to this point. I also plan to post Mikai's gross and fine motor skills as a means of documenting what I know will be a positive journey.
