After several e-consultations with Sue Dengate, we decided John's inability to process carbohydrates was probably a secondary response. If we uncovered his true sensitivities and removed those items from his diet, sugar would not be a problem. I decided to try the Failsafe diet again, this time keeping a lid on carbohydrates. Last time (as you recall) I started serving sugar and wheat on Failsafe day one, as though the diet would somehow perform a miracle over night. By analogy, we might put Mary on a new diet and take her through the perfume aisle the next day, assuming the artificial fragrances would no longer trigger her asthma. This is irrational in the extreme; yet that's what we did with John in late April. This time we would be more careful. This meant he was in for a difficult initiation period, because we could not serve the confectioneries that compensate (in the mind of a 7 year old) for the foods that have been taken away. Perhaps, after a month on Failsafe, John could eat sugar with abandon, but not at the start.
The Failsafe diet completely eliminated his adrenaline reactions. (Or was it the reduction in carbohydrates? Hard to tell.) John use to experience a racing heart with frightening behaviors three times a day, yet these "attacks" disappeared under Failsafe, and have not returned. He still suffers from ADHD, but at least the physical symptoms are gone.
In fact the first few days went so well, I let down my guard and gave him a boatload of carbs. (Apparently unbridled optimism induces irrational behavior in all of us - myself included.) Mary's birthday, with ice cream all around, induced a violent reaction, so I decided dairy was a problem. I eliminated this, and John improved, until several servings of wheat, whence I concluded gluten was also a problem. many Failsafe participants are either gluten free or dairy free or both, so I hadn't really jumped the tracks yet. But then he had several more bad days, filled with lots of potatoes, so I thought potatoes were a problem. I removed these from his diet, and he was excellent, until he ate a heaping bowl of rice. Does he react to rice too? No - it must be the carbs.
I put him on 120 carbs per day, including rice and wheat and potatoes in moderation and in rotation, and he improved steadily over the next couple weeks. Before Failsafe, even 60 carbs per day was enough to induce antisocial behavior; now he could tolerate at least twice that level.
NFF: We were slowly beating back his microbial colony, while keeping him on a clean diet.