Pulling the Trigger on Watermelon

Sigh.

Well, I figured I'd give watermelon one more chance. It wasn't a positive experience.

Since there are so many fruits eliminated for the first six weeks of the Feingold Program, I've really been struggling with finding enough fruit for Max to eat without getting bored or unwilling to eat it. Bananas have lost their luster. Pears were never a favorite. Mangos are a no go. Even the canned pineapple sits lonely on the shelf. But melon has always been one of Max's preferred fruits. And since his go-to berries and raisins are banned for the moment, melon has been a good alternative.

Now, of course, it's March - early March - so there are no local melons agrowin' round these here parts. So, like any good capitalistic consumer, I've taken to buying chunks in plastic containers at the grocery store. I've cringed every time I see that the melon is all the way from Mexico, but what can you do? I buy everything local that I can this time of year -- but sometimes, you just need to get stuff from Mexico.

Anyway, the cantaloupe and honeydew haven't been a problem. But the watermelon. Oh, the watermelon. I've yet to see such a sure-fire trigger for Max. He eats it and, like clockwork, three hours go by and he has a melt down. This happened a few weeks ago -- the day we really decided to go hardcore with FG. Watermelon contributed to a little boy pretending to shoot guns and scream and kick -- and just as soon as it came, it went. Max became contrite, apologetic, even regretful.

So, because watermelon is one of the FG Stage One fruits, I decided to try one more time. It was a big mistake. He had a similar instance in school as a few weeks ag0 - this time he was told to sit down and he yelled, screamed, tossed aside a chair, and tried to hit a teacher.

The experiment was both a blessing and a curse. It was a blessing because it was a lesson - I've learned that Watermelon is a trigger and needs to be avoided. It was a curse because every behavioral set back makes me feel like a failure.

So, right now, Max is taking a nice long bath in a tub full of warm water and two cups of Epson Salt, which is said to help detoxify the body after an exposure to a trigger. To be fair, Max managed to stay "pulled together" after his incident at school. I could tell by his mood that the effects from the melon were still with him, but he had a pretty good handle on his behavior. I really think that he's learning how to control his impulses. While I truly believe much of his behavior is food-driven, I think there's something to be said for learning good habits.