Follow Up: To Meat or Not to Meat

We went ahead with our trial of adding "animal proteins" to Ryan's diet. As we sat down for dinner, moments before he tasted his first bite of chicken, I thought to myself, "Is this the right thing?". As he took his first taste, a wave of emotion ran through Matt and I. Just over 4 years ago, we were struggling with the reality our child could be on a restricted, calculated and closely monitored low protein diet. If this diet wasn't followed, it could lead to cognitive deficits and more. To Ryan, this dinner was something new to eat. His response: "It tastes like a veggie nugget." Now, as we sit down for meals, we were encouraging him, "Eat your chicken." I never imagined we would be speaking those words to Ryan. As the week went on, Ryan experienced eating a hot dog, grilled chicken, lemon chicken and meatsauce.

The good news is, Ryan's phenylalinine levels came back within normal range. We were given the green light to continue an unrestricted diet. At the end of this month, we go back for another round of blood work.