Feeding

Here's Lowell feeding me my cereal this morning. What is so remarkable about this is that he REFUSES to use a spoon himself. He *clearly* has the skills and loves to feed me, but will not allow me to feed him or will use one at all by himself. He has missed out on all spoon necessary foods for the past year a half. I'm talking applesauce, pudding, cottage cheese, soup, yogurt, you name it! Ugh...cute, but frustrating!
He's also back on a gluten free/casein free diet. The diet is so difficult to maintain, but we have really seen changes, especially with his stool. Not to go into a lot of details, but it's night and day when he is eating gluten and when he's not as far as stool consistency. I guess it's worth it to make him feel more comfortable. I'm intrigued with the research on Autism and gastrointestinal issues. Here are a bunch of web sites from neurodiversity.com about the link between the two. I would like to find out more about this. I'm also curious to actually have him tested for dairy and wheat allergies, just to see if anything shows up. I just dread having to get the blood test to do this. We would practically have to sedate him...really.