Gaps diet and packed lunches?

[bochead]

OK so DS can't have dairy but I've worked out how to work with that (almond nut flours - he adores my baking ) Gotta be a bit crafty as schools round here are bit intrusive due to the healthy eating initiative and I don't want them to start demanding a standard packed lunch or that he has school dinners (tried them and he was left sobbing with hunger in the pm's).

He's 7 but needs adult size portions and like me burns it off, trouble is I have to make it items he can eat in a hurry for school due to them only getting 15-20 mins to eat lunch. At home he can take an hour for his meal so his co-ordiantion issues aren't a problem.

I'd like to try this properly for 12 months after Xmas, starting with the intro diet but am totally stumped for school lunches in the introductory phase. No way would a nice broth pass muster in his eyes - he's a kid that like's his "stodge" to fill him up. Also he just hasn't got the co-ordination skills to open a flask and eat a soup at lunch without my having to buy a new uniform at the end of the first week.

If I give him "solid food" in the form of meat and veggies does this destroy the Intro diet goals totally? Or would it be better to start in the school summer holidays when broth for lunch won't be such a big deal. How important is the Intro phase - the whole thing seems such a faff that if I'm gonna do it, I'd like to try and do it properly iykwim.

[PoopyFingers]

Am watching with interest - considering GAPS diet at the moment, but am daunted by it (as I am with everything at the mo!)

[blueShark]

Most foods on the gaps diet have to be cooked from scratch at least at the very beginning. The intro phase heals the gut and it's the most important stage and you shouldn't rush through it. I suggest you start during the summer holidays as then you have 6 weeks to do the soups/brooths and start healing the gut.

Salads with piece of meat or fish/ Tuna are best for packed lunches or risottos are moray stodgy or if you are really creative and patient a home made pasta, meatballs, stuffed peppers with meat or vegetables, aubergine and courgette bake and lots lots more.

I was mainly brought up on gaps, more culture dictated rather than a diary requirements so most of the foods I cook are gaps approved apart from the odd dish when I add a potato or. 2 or Sunday roast with potatoes, yummy :)

Then for desert you can send a home made yogurt with honey or baked apple etc.

[blueShark]

Sorry typed that in rush will think of more ideas.
We have just started futon free, then planning to do casein free as well from feb/march and than gaps from July.

[IndigoBell]

I think the full GAPS diet is very, very daunting.

So I'm just doing some of it. Mostly GF/Lactose Free and probiotics tbh. But even just that amount has helped a massive amount.

So I would suggest to start today with what you can, and work towards it.

DS has ham and cheese and cucumbers and tomatoes and fruit for lunch.

[blueShark]

Futon free?... Meant gluten

[nightcat]

blue shark, the origin of your childhood diet, was it somewhere in the Med?

[blueShark]

Yes night cat :)

[nightcat]

oh you lucky thing, shark :D

[bochead]

The scratch cooking part doesn't bother me - I retreat to the kitchen when stressed in the same way some reach for a glass of wine. It's the stress of the "system" that keeps me a size 10. DS is turning into a decent cook too (ye 'ol asd obsession means he should be able to me a decent full roast dinner in a couple of years if I play my cards right ; ) ).

DS has been dairy-free since pre-weaning days and I can't be arsed reading labels in a supermarket, it's less stress to buy the raw ingredients and cook it myself iykwim.

Think we are gonna have to go with "solid" lunches for the Intro section and hope it doesn't bugger it up too much.

Will have to dig out my saukraut & fermented veg recipes as DS can't have any fermented dairy in any form (not got the enzyme in his gut to digest any animal milk proteins) so we'll have to deviate from the "standard gaps" there too.

We currently consume a lot of beans and pulses so that'll have to change. He'll miss his sprouted beans and pulses. Does Quinoa contain gluten - it's a good calcium source.

You are right Indigo - it is daunting.

[blueShark]

Bochead - if you do the proper diet his gut should be able to start digesting the milk protein if done correctly. Few years after I came to uk I developed yeast intolerance and had to exclude all breads, wine, beer etc (lucky for me I only drank champagne on the work functions ;)) for a year of which 6 months lived on cabbage soups, stews, sauerkraut vegetables and this was on recommendation of my late grandma and not nutritionist now I can eat anything and I have no food intolerance to yeast or anything else that I'm aware of apart from the chocolate that adds the extra cushions around my hips but I just had a baby recently so who cares :)

You can have beans on the diet but you have to prepare them right. But solid lunches are a no in the intro phase, you mostly eat vegetables home made soups with meat or bone stock, home made probiotics and the juices from sauerkraut.

[nightcat]

well, try this as a salad:

500 g sauerkraut - well about a jar (u can get this traditionally made w/o wine or vinegar) in the ethnic section of bigger supermarkets in jars) - chop up into smaller pieces
2 carrots - shredded
1 onion - cut up small
1 spoon of oil
pinch of sugar
salt & pepper to taste

can also add a shredded apple instead or as well as sugar

mix it all together and use liquid from the sauerkraut too and let it sit overnight in the sauerkraut juices

surprisingly tasty & refreshing - and no mayo either :)

u can add herbs etc and include egg or cooked meat on the side