Gaps diet? How was your experience?

[sapo2000]

Hi everyone! Has anyone tried the GAPS diet recommended by Natasha Campbell-McBride in her book Gut and Psychology Syndrome? If so, what was your experience like? Has it helped your child?

It’s not something I’ve heard about. I know there is quite a bit of money going onto research in the US on the link between your gut biome and ND, but o wasn’t aware that any papers had been published yet?

Why are you asking about whether an intervention has helped our children in the forum for neurodivergent adults?

As for this "GAPS diet" proposal, I am skeptical of anything that is not supported by peer-reviewed research papers, and doubly-skeptical of anything that is a paywalled secret. I am triply-skeptical of anything that mentions the non-existent "leaky gut syndrome". I managed to find a brief overview of a GAPS meal plan that describes an incredibly restrictive diet that will, of necessity, be very low-calorie (bone broth, carrot soup) and is to be followed for up to two years. This diet will not adequately support a growing child's nutritional needs.

You should not remove food groups from a child's diet unless a dietician directly involved with your child's care recommends it, because of the risk of malnutrition. This is especially important for children, and in particular neurodivergent children, who will not recognise malnutrition symptoms and will lack the insight and vocabulary to communicate their need for protein / essential fatty acids / vitamin C / etc to their parents.

Gluten-free casein-free diets have been researched for nearly two decades by teams in multiple universities and the data remains stubbornly inconclusive. The current data does not support removing gluten-containing or dairy foods from a child's diet unless the child has food-induced gastrointestinal symptoms or an allergy. Again, "Excluding specific foods from your child's diet should be done under dietetic supervision", not by yourself.

Excellent post. I’ve got CMPA and reputable charities like Allergy UK will all tell you to speak to your Doctor before cutting out dairy.

I mean, if you give a child a peanut and they puff up like a hamster, probably best not to give any more peanuts pending that doctor visit. But you still book that doctor visit to get the proper testing done.

Managing diagnosed IBS as an adult can involve a lot of self-directed experimentation, both with individual food items and entire groups. But the key difference here is "adult". If I start feeling ill or my skin turns flaky or my hair sheds more, I can look at what I ate in the last month and consider whether a recent change might be causing malnutrition. A child has no control over what they eat, might not recognise the link between recent dietary change and new symptoms, and might not even be able to describe a symptom change in terms that the parent understands.