Jeff has come sooooo far... Part 2

OK... so I told you about the struggles we've had with Jeff over the years.  It's hard to believe it's been over 10 years since he first stepped into kindergarten.

Now as a second semester sophomore in high school.  I would have never guessed he could have come this far.  The second time I pulled him out of public school to home school him was early on in the 6th grade.  After researching and trying many alternative treatments we found NAET (www.naet.com) to work for Jeffrey.  Through a consistent and long-term procedure his body became more tolerant of foods but during this process we found out he had issues with gluten, casein, and eggs in his foods.  Basically everything he was eating contained one or more of these items and his body couldn't process them and use them.

Throw in the low quality of most foods that we (as a society) eat these days with preservatives, artificial colors and whatever else they put in them and these intolerances were giving Jeff an allergic reaction that manifested itself in the inability to concentrate, follow authority, control his temper among other things.

It took two years but by the time he went back into public school because I was unable to continue homeschooling him due to my own health reasons he was a different kid.  The teachers who knew him before couldn't believe it was the same kid.  You see our focus was more about the source of Jeff's problems rather than the symptoms.  Seems like this would work in a lot of situations but that's another story or two or three.

By getting to the source of Jeff's problems he was now able to control his temper - he used to be a terrible loser at anything - and follow authority at school.  When he was younger he didn't have many friends at school or in the neighborhood and he couldn't even tell you the name of many kids in his classes.  Now he talks about friends all the time and seems to be making more all the time.  He'll never be a social butterfly and that's OK but his social skills have improved tremendously.  He prefers to call himself a nerd.

As far as social skills there is room for improvement.  As far as following authority at home there is room for improvement.  As far as treating his little brother better there is room for improvement.  But from where he was to where he is now is a tremendous improvement for which I am very thankful.  As far as grades they are good but he is still underachieving. We're working on that with organization and study skills.

He hasn't had any issues with teachers or other students since he went back into school and that's been over two years ago.  I can comfortably answer my phone now if it is the high school.