ReactJS, I want to retrigger an ajax call in ComponentDidMount - reactjs

Question

-I have a Component (let's call it StorageComponent) that get a data(JSON) from a restful api (the request is made in componentDidMount)
-StorageComponent then passes the data to a child component and it will do stuff with other components to display the data and interact with user.
-Now there is another hierarchy of components independent of the above.
-This handle some form inputs by users, there is one component for each form input (radio button, checkbox, text, etc). And because every re-render will get rid of any state of the child, I had to use an object literal (call it ModelObject) to store each form input. So whenever a user enter something in a form it will make a call to Modelobject and store it there, the component will also ask for data from ModelObject.
-After The user entered all input he will eventually hit a submit button component in this hierarchy, where it will make a call to ModelObject to do ajax POST to the RestAPI. My problem is here, I would like for ModelComponent to get the data from the RestAPI again, so user will see the updated data. I thought forceUpdate() would work, I thought it would re-trigger rendering and thus componentDidMount in StorageComponent.
So what is the best way to do this. Moreover is there any bad practice mentioned above? Is this enough information?
edit:
the storageComponent hierarchy
var StorageComponent= React.createClass({
getInitialState: function(){
return {
data: []
};
},
componentDidMount: function(){
this.serverRequest = $.get(this.props.source, function(result){
result = JSON.parse(result);
this.setState({
data: result
});
}.bind(this));
},
render: function() {
return (
<div>
<Nav dataList={this.state.data} /> //whole bunch of other child component below this one
</div>
);
}
});
app.storageComponent= React.render(
<HabitModel source = "/api/listing/user"/>,
document.getElementById('myDiv')
);
the ModelObject that I've mentioned:
var formModel = {
newInfo: {
inputBox: "",
frequency: "",
date: "",
days: []
},
addDescription: function(description){
this.newHabitInfo.description = description;
},
addFrequency: function(selection){
this.newHabitInfo.frequency = selection;
},
addDay: function(startDay){
this.newHabitInfo.startDay = startDay;
},
getFrequency: function(){
return this.newHabitInfo.frequency;
},
//this is the function I want the second hierarchy of components to
//use to force the storageComponent to do the re-trigger the ajax
updateHabitListing: function(){
if(this.validate()){
app.habitListing.forceUpdate();
}else{
console.log("form not finish");
}
}