Healing with GAPS

[meow]

Sorry, WAPF is the Weston A Price Foundation. They are into "real foods" and basically follow the diet from the book Nourishing Traditions. I would probably suggest you get that book and get onto that diet first. It's a diet everyone should be eating and will help your whole family be healthy. I hear it's not well received by vegetarians as it pretty much says you have to eat meat, but I haven't read it yet (I will because it's the diet we intend to go to after GAPS).

Dr Campbell-McBride is pretty anti-vegetarianism and I found some of her comments to be condescending and not needed. But none-the-less I believe in the science of the GAPS diet so I'll take her bad bedside manner with it

GAPS is formulated around the specific carbohydrate diet (but adds some very important healing elements such as fermented foods and broth) so you may also like the book Breaking the Vicious Cycle but again I can't say because I haven't read it. Yet.

If you have eczema and had ABs at birth then sorry, but I really think GAPS is an excellent idea even if your son seems healthy. I thought my son was healthy up until about 2, 2 & 1/2ish. He stopped BFing at 2 and I think that's when the decline and regressions really started. Please know that I'm not trying to scare you that your son will be autistic, I just want you to realise that our perception of healthy is tricky because long term health is hard to see.

My plan for you would be:
-move onto NT diet. Do it slowly, start to cook some of the new foods such as sour dough bread and practice and get used to it. Take your time.
- After some time doing that (perhaps a year or more?) then do GAPS for about 6 months (or longer if you find it's working and you want to stick with it).

GAPS helps to really heal your gut flora and break the cycle of generations of gut flora decline. I find it very empowering to be able to reclaim our health. And honestly, now we've been doing it for 3 months I'm not sure why I thought it was so hard. I still don't drink broth myself though (the kids have it in their daily soup), I buy my sauerkraut, we're not doing kefir yet... there are many ways we are not doing the diet "perfectly". But you do it as it suits you. NCM writes the book to make you beleive you have to do it ALL. 100%. But of course she would- she has this amazing knowledge and she is obviously going to share the BEST way to get your body healthy. But you can absolutely do some and not all if you want. If you read the book and JUST stopped cooking in vegetable oil for example, well that would be one great improvement for your health The yahoo group is a good way to find out how other people are doing the diet.

[Cherished]

Hey meow, thanks for all the info! I am so keen to read the book. Just read a bit about theWAPF diet, sounds easy enough. Our diet is pretty good really, I think the few changes that need to be made would not be that hard. I have always wanted to make Keifer and I used to make bread for about 12 month, spelt not sd though. I plan to make major changes in February so I may aswell include ds. Can I ask if your ds is vaccinated? In the gaps info I read it says that breastfed bub can start showing symptoms when they stop having your milk. That is another reason I'd like to make sure ds is healthy for when he stops feeding. I'd like to feed him until at least 2. Besides he s keen for new foods so it would be easier to make changes now. Sorry for weird typing, on iPad

[meow]

Yes, my son was vaccinated. We did a delayed & selective schedule. He had a course of ABs at 21 months, the MMR shot at 22 months and stopped BFing at 24 months. I think these things in quick succession sent him over the brink and his development pretty much plateaued from 2 years old. In hindsight, he showed spectrum traits from a young age even though he appeared okay. For example, he never waved goodbye as a baby but he would play peek a boo and laugh and smile. So it was easy to assume his social development was okay even though he we weren't realising at the time that he didn't generally engage in social communication. But he received my poor gut flora at birth, formula at 2.5 weeks and his first vaccination at 2.5 months old so the path to poor gut health was laid from the beginning and I'm not surprised he showed traits early on. The regressions and plateau just demonstrate the toxic load and poor nutrition that was accumulating.

[Cherished]

Looking back in any situation feels like signs were staring you in the face, you can only go with the info you Have at the time. Dh and I are always looking at ds's behavior especially socially. I honestly don't think there is anything wrong with him but both dh and I are 100% into doing anything for our health, gosh the list of things we've done is huge lol. This has come up in search of an eczema cure so I will do it for me and ds will benefit as a result along with any future bubs. Speaking of future bubs, when I was reading the guidelines for the WAFP lifestyle I saw something about spacing out children properly, do you know about that? I am assuming not getting pregnant until the feeding bub is 2?

[meow]

Someone posted this in the yahoo group from her notes of NCMs presentation at the WAPF conference. Thought it was good:

Who Should Start with Intro?
If the patient-
has diarrhea and other severe GI problems
is Autistic
has Diabetes Type 1
has severe Learning Disabilities

Who Should Start with Full GAPS?
If the patient-
Has no severe GI problems
Has chronic constipation (removes fiber and gradually works on gall stones and liver)
Is a busy adult
Is an older child with ADHD, dyslexia, etc., without severe GI problems
Is a hesitant person

Cherished- I *think* the age gap between children is advised to ensure mum can return to optimum health before the next pregnancy. I've seen a lot of bollocks about BFing on WAPF stuff as most the people are american's and influenced by the low BFing rates in their country. Often times people still quickly turn to formula, it's just raw milk, homemade formula. So I'm not sure if the recommendation is based on extended BFing. Regardless, I think if you prepare yourself with good nutrition (LOTS of cod liver oil, liver etc) then you can have healthy pregnancies and babies with shorter gaps.

[meow]

Great blog post giving a good run down on what you eat on GAPS
True Nourishment | What exactly is this GAPS healing stuff? (part 1)

[Cherished]

Thanks meow,i will check it out.

[LionsandBears]

Hey. How is GAPS going?

I've finally bought the books- the main book, the cookbook & a DVD on cooking with GAPS. I'm having an abdominal ultrasound tomorrow as we suspect gallbladder issues. My GP mentioned if it's gallstones, I'll have to have the gallbladder removed. I'm hoping GAPS will help either in prevention or healing, if that's the case. I've ordered Ox Bile while I'm at it as that's supposed to help with bile problems.

[luna moth]

Good Luck L&B!

I have some Kefir grains and kit I'm not using, if anybody wants? (we're not GAPSers, but I love following meow's journey, and I am a lover of probiotics!)

[MamaPan]

Meow - I just read this - what a great jouney you are on x

[meow]

We're going FAN-FREAKING-TASTIC!! It is just breathtaking getting to see our little boy so happy and thriving and developing. My H got all teary yesterday and said to him "It's nice to see you, E. It's nice to see you". I'm sure I cried too. E told me he loved me the night before. I outright sobbed then! We're approaching 6 months and I hope to make the time to write an update. He is exploding with language at the moment. He wants to talk about everything and he's using whatever words he has and trying to put combos together to make them work. It's just incredible. I'm so insanely proud of him.

I'm pretty settled in the diet now. The cravings for most stuff isn't hard, though I still look forward to some sour dough bread in the future! I don't miss sugar though. I made some honey sweetened chocolate chips yesterday and then made chocolate chip cookies with almond flour today and they were super good! Oh, that's another I miss is milk actually.

I hope your ultrasound goes well L&B. Will be thinking of you. How exciting you have the books! Let me know what you think If you do discover gallstones perhaps try a second opinion from some alternative medicine too as I know I've read somewhere a method that NCM recommends to pass the stones out. Otherwise, yes, I've heard taking ox-bile is good too

Thanks for reading along Audax and MamaPan! That's great you make kefir Audax. What do you make? Coconut milk?

[jackrose]

Thanks for such a great thread Meow, I am so pleased to hear you have had such excellent results and feel really thrilled for you that your DS is doing such amazing things, Woot!

i have spent much of the afternoon following your links and listening to the podcast you recommended (in between cleaning ), very interesting and inspirational. Keep up the updates, I am working towards cleaning up our diet here and this might be a good next step from what I have seen so far. I gave up sugars with the sweet poison quit plan last year (now I would say I am sugar moderate ) and gave up all foods with sulfites due to an allergy DD2 had which was affecting her through my breastmilk. Definitely good things resulted from that and I really want to make a move to healthier eating, or eating that makes more sense. Slow and steady is the plan and you have definitely given me lots to think about!

Audax, my Dh and girls love Kefir! I would certainly be interested in your grains if you no longer use them. What is in the kit?

[Cherished]

Hey everyone,

Audax lovely to see you hon, I'm also interested to know what kit you are using?

AFM I have found a biodynamic organid dairy farm to get raw milk and cream from and will start making yoghurt when I'm on my feet. I thought I could start GAPS diet in Feb but not so sure now, my healing is taking a while I'm still really excited about it all though and thanks to Meow for all of her help!

[luna moth]

Thanks for reading along Audax and MamaPan! That's great you make kefir Audax. What do you make? Coconut milk?

No, I make nothing, as I hate the kefir. Too bloody hard. Tried it with a bunch of different combos and hated them all, so I'm over it.

I have made a coconut yoghurt with probiotic capsules, and now that I have got the culture and consistency just right I am sticking with that forever. No more kefir. Kefir water is kind of nice, I just don't really need it.

cherished - it's from a place in Sippy Downs. Friend of a friend of a relative type deal

[Cherished]

hmmmm, there is a place called Herbs are Special in Nambour and she has a few great books! I know she has Keifer so I might ask her about it or just make it from scratch.... will consult my GAPS book for more details

I was also wondering about making the yoghurt and if you can get the starter kit and then add a probiotic capsule to get more good good probiotics in the yoghurt, then every time you make it if you take a scoop of the yoghurt that you are finishing off and add to the new one will those probiotics from the capsule keep growing etc. Sorry if this sounds really stupid, I'm just new to the whole thing! Would love to know what you put in your coconut yoghurt.

[meow]

So excited you're enjoying the info Jackrose! You might like to look into Nourishing Traditions and the Weston A Price Foundation. They are more "health maintenance" diets that are good if you don't have a health issue to overcome in the first place.

I have heard that kefir grains can give very mixed results Audax. But it's also supposed to be one of the best probiotics. When I'm not BFing as much I might try some kefir water- I'm intrigued (and missing cordial sometimes!).

I'm pretty sure that's how yoghurt works Cherished. Though I tried to use some old youghurt to make more and it didn't work as my yoghurt was too old. It needs to be no more than about 2 weeks old to be alive enough I think. I often just buy a small tub of organic plain yoghurt as my starter for a big batch. I'd like to try the capsules but I'm not sure how many you need. I think I'll add one or two to the next batch with my starter yoghurt just to add more strains of probiotics.

Great blog post on GAPS for growth delay... this is why I want to scream out GAPS!! in every "failure to thrive" thread!
http://www.wellfedhomestead.com/the-...o-barely-grows

[Cherished]

meow I'm the same now with any health problem I hear of especially in kids "GAPS!!! GAPS!!! GAPS is the answer!!!" lol There is one little girl I know who has always looked unwell and thought of her often while reading the book. Sure enough her mum posted on FB the other day that they are having her tested for celiac disease. Even my brother is a classic GAPS candidate!

Anyway I ducked in today to share my excitement that I've just made some banana bread I used the classic bread recipe with coconut oil as the fat, added 2 x large bananas, honey, cinnamon, nutmeg and some cut up pecans. It's turned out sooooo yummy and DS loves it too YAY. So happy that it really easy and so healthy. Part of changing our diet is to live a healthier life all round and the more yummy, healthy snack foods I can make for ds the better. Now I'll start experimenting with savory/herb ones, fruit loafs etc. Does anyone else make the bread and what is your favourite recipe?

I'm yet to start making the yoghurt but imagine over the next 2 weeks I will start to. I also bought a slow cooker so that I can make the stock in it and stews/soups. So I'm getting there.

The Nourishing Traditions book is fantastic! Loads of recipes in it, even home made baby formula! Can't wait to work my way through that book trying out the meals etc.

All in all I'm feeling pretty happy with the changes. If there are 2 things I'm passionate about for my family it's health and gentle parenting. I'm feeling very thankful that these things are really high on dh's list too.

Ahhh life is good Have a good day GAP'ers

OH... What probiotic do you all take?

[meow]

Ahhh life is good Have a good day GAP'ers

So lovely you're feeling that way!

Yummm I have to make some banana bread. I must check the book again- is it a classic bread recipe from there? I made a banana bread from a recipe in the GAPS book in the beginning and it was SO disappointing. But I've since made heaps better baked things so it could have been me, or that recipe. I want some now. I make this bread Elana's Pantry Paleo Bread and I think it's yummy. I love it toasted with butter, raw honey & cinnamon... soooo good!

I want to buy the Nourishing Traditions book. I didn't want to get it as it would tempt me off GAPS but after 6 months on GAPS I'm thinking of starting to break out a little. E still needs to be on it for a long time yet so I wont stray too far but I think I'm ready for a little more in my diet seeing I don't need to actually heal my gut, just fight the candida... which is a long term deal anyway.

We take BioKult as it's the probiotic NCM developed.