Thanks Meow - I will go and check it out. I am really worried that her allergies are escalating as she gets older :(
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Thanks Meow - I will go and check it out. I am really worried that her allergies are escalating as she gets older :(
Nai, I second what Meow said. You can also go and see a GAPS practitioner, they are listed on the GAPS Australia website.
Just felt inspired to do a little update.
So after all this time on GAPS I'm finally waking up to the health issues the rest of us have. I'm not really ill and I never get colds & flus but I'm realising that I do have gut dysbiosis and I want to fix it too. I'm amazed at how I'm fighting the candida and the sugar cravings are lessening and my control over what I want to eat is so much better. I always felt I was being run by little inner sugar demons... and I was! It's so nice to be taking my body back. But after about 6 months on GAPS I decided to have a couple of cheats. I had some raw milk and also some organic maple syrup. Both made me feel awful. I clearly can't actually tolerate disaccharides so it's time to heal my gut. Which leads to the fact that I'm finally drinking broth. Working on loving it. Eww.
My littlest guy also clearly has gut dysbiosis. I was hoping we would avoid it seeing he's never even had grains. Ever. But he was getting red spots on his face and it went crazy when I let him drink more lactose free yoghurt. So we cut out dairy 6 weeks ago (me too as I'm BFing him) and this weekend we'll try to add some ghee back in. My reality check on the gut healing thing means he's also now finally on broth. he seems to like it well enough but doesn't actually get that much in. We'll get there. Since starting broth about 3 days ago he's developed rough patches of skin on his elbows. I guess it's like mild eczema. Pretty amazing to see he's getting a detox/healing reaction already.
The big guy is doing awesome. He's started talking to other people in one word requests this week. He said "excuse me" to some children on the slide which is AMAZING for him. At preschool he also said "turn" to another child when he wanted to play with a marble run and "knife" to a teacher while pointing to the knives at snack time to cut up his fruit.
At home he's scripting lots because he's tired and watching the same Curious George episode over and over. But he's also being a little parrot and copying everything we say. He'll happily expand his sentences, so if he says "water" I can get him to say "Mummy, I want water please" and sometimes he'll say most of the whole sentence next time he asks. He is also answering questions!!!! This is massive. I'm coaching him a fair bit on it by asking the same question a few times and telling & showing him the answer but then sometimes he'll actually answer because he has noticed what I'm asking.
He is becoming much more controlled with his little brother and is trading toys, waiting for his brother to take the toy off him before taking the toy he wants and then managing to cope without too much stress if his brother wont trade.
He's tired though because I've been trying to increase his probiotics again. He actually had to have a nap yesterday afternoon. We've also put him on s.boulardii and a bioflavonoid. Taking it easy since I sent him into detox hell about 2 months ago now. I do want to get back into detoxing as he clearly has heavy metals to get out but we'll need to take it very slowly and perhaps have to wait longer as his gut still has a lot of healing to go and isn't perhaps ready.
Seeing him be able to do things and see how powerful and successful he feels is just amazing. He now cuts with scissors and glues and paints and draws... where as when we started GAPS he would have a major meltdown if you even vaguely suggested he use scissors and he had no idea about how to put glue on paper, then stick something to it. His motor planning and confidence are just rocketing. He's a little super hero :D
I've just decided that we're at least cutting out sugar and starting the broth this Friday. We're moving out of my parents and housesitting for 5 weeks, so it'll give us a chance to get used to buying for it and making it. Then when we move back in with Mum, hopefully the sugar and carb cravings will be gone, and we'll be able to stay away from the crap she buys.
I'm the one that cooks at home anyway, so everyone'll be eating GAPS - just gotta tell Mum what to buy.
Meow, that's freakin AWESOME :) My nephew is being tested for Autism at the moment, I was wondering if loading him up with broth on the days he's here - 3 days a week - would be helpful, or possibly harmful if he's not having it the other 4 days, thoughts?
Just quickly as I have my little one on my lap!
Meow that is AWESOME!!!!!!! So great to hear!
Keike I am of the opinion that any amount of cutting out crap will be better than not doing it at all.... However if you really want to see healing you do need to go all in 100 or at leat 99.9% iykwim.
AFM I'm having good and bad days with this darn eczema. I've cut out most carbs/grains and eating meat 2 times a day which is big seeing I was vego 6 months ago. I'm trying to have my probiotic every day but forget sometimes. Have to go ds is driving me insane :rolleyes:
Professor has had the worst night with his gut. Not sure what set it off, coz we've both eaten the same stuff. But he's been about an 8 on the pain scale, and was vomiting late last night. He's still in a fair amount of pain, but he says the pain is moving lower so he's just gotta wait for it to 'come out' IYKWIM. He can barely move, poor guy.
I spoke to the dietician I'm seeing about GAPS, and she had some concerns, so I put it off until I could read the book - my girlfriend's bought one for me coz she's awesome, I just need to pick it up. We're gonna hafta do the broth if nothing else, try and heal his gut.
Subbing to reply later. We just started this 2 weeks ago. Same stuff. Autistic son with lots of gut issues.
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Oh your poor husband :( Is he constipated? The GAPS recommendation for that is enemas. Freaked us out at first but we've ended up doing a few enemas on our son now.
What is your dietitian's concern about GAPS? Most dietitians who aren't so sure about it seem to be concerned that it's low carb. It's not, but it is *lower* carb than the standard western diet full of processed carb foods such as bread & pasta. The other concern is just that cutting out grains is somehow a bad thing. You absolutely need to read the book though- you can't start the diet unless you've read the book.
Personally, I think you should read The Mood Cure too. I'd still do GAPS, but follow the supplement suggestions in The Mood Cure to help you get onto GAPS. Julia Ross (who wrote The Mood Cure) says that most people can't get onto a healthy mental-health healing diet without slipping back to their old foods. It's okay not to be able to do it, it's very normal! But she explains why that happens and makes you not feel bad about it and realise it's not you and your lack of will power, but your body chemistry. So she gives you the supplements to take to help correct your body chemistry in the short term while the diet takes effect. I love that approach and think it's much likely to be successful, as NCM is a bit classically Russian and just says "go on GAPS" :lol:
2 weeks!! How are you going? The early days were HARD for us. I hope all is going well. Lovely to hear from you :D:
Yeah, it was the carbs thing. She basically wanted to make sure I was still eating protein, carbs and beneficial fats. She REALLY doesn't agree with the full fat meat broth though ;) I wasn't concerned that she was concerned, more that I couldn't answer her questions, and therefore I obviously don't know enough about it.
The Mood Cure sounds fascinating, I'll hafta order it from our library!
Hi Bellany great to hear from you, how is it going?
Keike I'm not surprised at all that a 'medically' trained dietitian had concerns. They are trained with what main stream medicine want's the public to believe iykwim.
I'm doing good! Haven't really had grains for a couple of months now and my eczema is about 90% cleared up. I found that even taking the probiotic 'may' have been flaring it up. I guess that is just a sign that there is a lot of healing to do! I'm enjoying a bit of a break from the irritation of it before I try to introduce it again and see if it flares the eczema up. I'm feeling great though.
How are you doing Meow?
That is awesome Cherished! We didn't put our son on probiotics for ages and we're still trying to slowly up his dose. No point pushing too hard with the die-off. Do you eat fermented foods? E started out with just sauerkraut juice and has progressed from there.
I'm going really well. I've been trying to work through The Mood Cure as I've been feeling pretty flat. I actually think it has a bit to do with the diet as I no longer have my artificial crutch for mood boosting, aka sugar! The nasty addictive drug that it is! Better off without it but I think I'll take some supplements to make me a bit more perky for a while I think. We were off dairy but I'm now eating butter again and that is SOOO good!! Butter is good for your mood and I think that, and the pieces of raw liver I've started swallowing a couple of time a week have boosted my energy and mood in the past week. I'm feeling pretty good actually :D
Keike- I wouldn't trust the dietitian at all. How anyone could think broth is a bad idea just goes to show how little she really understands. And you need good fats! You've suffered terribly with your mood & emotions, you do NOT need to go low fat and starve your brain. But they need to be good fats and you don't need the refined carbs. You still eat plenty of carbs on GAPS- you just need to eat lots of vegetables and a couple of pieces of a fruit. And some GAPS baked yummy things with almond or coconut flour and you have all the carbs you need. Please look into the supplements though because most people feel worse before they feel better and you don't need to go there. Think of it like a heroine addict withdrawing- get your methadone program set up ;)
Oh, her being concerned doesn't bother me, it's just that I didn't know what the answer was - it showed me I needed more knowledge before throwing us headlong into GAPS. My friend dropped around yesterday and gave me the book, I guess she got sick of encouraging me to get it myself :rofl:
So now I'm getting the stuff together to do my fermenting. I'm so freaking overwhelmed it's not funny. I think I just need to focus on one bit at a time, but I want to make sure I have everything before we start, because I don't wanna fall in a pile.
Have you got the ebook what can I eat now. That has a little about fermented food in there.
We are struggling.
Its so hard. I did failsafe and dairy free for 3 years but this is way harder! !
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I haven't made any of my own ferments yet! Well, I made sauerkraut once and it was yummy but I tried to make beet kvass once and it didn't ferment. I'm lucky that our local supermarket sells organic, unpasturised sauerkraut so I just buy it.
I have that e-book too, and the Internal Bliss cookbook and I found both to be handy. But there are so many blog posts about how to do all this food that you can find it all online now too.
Try not to feel rushed if you're overwhelmed. I had to totally learn how to cook so I just tried a new thing or two every week, like making broth, lard or yoghurt. And we slowly stopped eating the old foods. So it was taking a few things slowly out and adding a few things slowly in.
Now I honestly don't find this diet hard at all. I don't find the cooking too much or too hard. And the food is SO good and healthy and yummy. Tonight for dinner we had beef mince & liver burgers fried in pork lard. Served with beetroot, butternut pumpkin & cauliflower roasted in duck fat, and salad with home made mayonnaise. It was so delicious and it amazes me how far we have come. It gets easier because you end up having all the basics on hand without any thought.
Sorry you're struggling bellany :( What are you struggling with? Can we help?
How did you make your sauerkraut? I love it, I'd be willing to give making it a try!
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The biggest things is the amount of cooking and cleaning. Doing school lunches that fit and the hhuge resistance from the kids.
The middle child with autism has no concept of feeling full and also seeks oral sensory stimulation. He has limited likes. I can't fill him up at the best of times let alone with easy to digest foods. And I can't get him interested in soup or broth. He loves meat doesn't each much veg .
Also normally they make their own breakfast toast or cereal but now they can't do that they are waking me super early to make it and I'm up all night with the baby as it is! :(
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