I am a Slacker, Vivi is a scholar

Well I am a slacker. It has been the most amazing thing to watch Vivian transform. I almost completely forget the endless nights, and desperate days we were having day after day for 3 years.

We have been Gluten Free for 8 months now. There have only been a handful of days that Vivian gets gluten in her system and those days we remember why we chose this lifestyle. It is heart breaking to watch her struggle with her coping, speech and cognitive abilities. Things she was able to do yesterday with a clean diet, seem to disintegrate after wheat enters her body.

I have said I would post progress months ago, and I have now taken a few separate videos at different times to show a progress over time.

Her speech and cognitive thought process are increasing and the place she is, at almost 4yrs old, is amazing when you realize just 8 months ago she was waking up 2-3 times EVERY single night, was at a 0% in speech and had no obvious coping skills or cognitive understanding.

Here is a video from Jan 2014, 3 months after going gluten free.  She is trying to communicate more than she ever had but still having a hard time making some simple connections. This is more eye contact than we ever received since birth. We have been using her sisters to help teach her behavior and speech for years, and it only started working after we changed her diet.

Here is a video from April 2014. This video shows how far she has come! Her understanding of who, what, where and when, even sometimes without very specific wording is unbelievable! Her teachers at school are absolutely amazed at her progress. Identifying nouns has been a HUGE success for her in the last couple months. Shapes, colors etc are a recent success as well. Now she is displaying seeking behavior to acquire knowledge too. She is finally starting to ask us questions! This video was interrupted by a phone call so it cuts off abruptly.

We love our ginger girl.