Winning a battle, but there is still a war going on

Every day we have a new experience, new problems, new joys, new accomplishments. Our son has come a good ways since beginning this new diet. We've seen him improve in ways we never would have imagined, like he is better able to follow directions and mind and also his stomach problems are seemingly gone. We used to have a lot of incidents of him throwing up in his bed in the middle of the night with no warning and no apparent reason. He wasn't ill, he just would throw up. I have always believed his stomach problems were related to dairy, but have always met with resistance when I've tried to talk to others about it. Now that we have completely eliminated casein/dairy/milk, his stomach pain and throwing up have completely stopped and he's better able to go potty as well. See, sometimes mother DOES know best what is wrong with her child.. lol.

Our son has been showing a declining short term memory and today I became more concerned than I had been before. Within a 10 minute car ride to YMCA camp this morning, he completely forgot an entire conversation that we had just had not seconds before he re-asked me a question. This of course concerns me as it would any mother. I started researching and found that a common reason for this could be low self-esteem or also poor vision or hearing. Either of the first two could be part of it with him. Could also be some of his medications, I'm not sure... but he does have low self esteem and it's something we've been trying to work at. We found that his Love Language is Words of Affirmation, so the more you tell him he is a good boy, that he did something right, or that you love him, the more loved he feels. I think the biggest problem with his self esteem is his social skills. He struggles so much with making friends and finds it all but impossible to make friends with boys his own age. He has 2 children that he can really claim as friends, and they are both girls.. which is fine, but it makes it harder to get the kids together since the parents may be hesitent to send their daughter to play with a boy. He is also below his age in emotional maturity and verbal ability, so that complicates things and the boys his age don't understand him at this point. Every day is a challenge, but we'll get through it. It's hard as his mom to sit and watch him struggle and to know how cruel kids can be to him and how much he has been hurt, but unfortunately he does have to learn some of it himself and I can't be with him 24 hours a day so he'll have to learn to do it without mommy :-(

Regardless, though, he's so bright and a good boy. He tries so hard to please. I can see him being one of those boys in high school that is very good in class and then goes on to be a wealthy business owner, computer whatever, doctor, or scientist. He will be the one taking care of me and his daddy when we get old.. lol.