GAPS Diet Support Thread

[IndigoBell]

Anybody doing, or trying to do, or thinking about doing the GAPS diet is welcome to post here.......

Argh. Sounds grim.

I've been thinking about all this a lot. It's def helping DS and he thinks so two.

But I keep thinking about what the book says about how many more kids have these SN than used to. And dietary change over the years makes so much sense.

What is one thing that people don't eat very much any more? Fatty meat!

And it would also explain diff rates of SN in different cultures.

Hello all.

So, got the book (as my guru indigo advised!) and I am vey confused.

Admittedly, I was reading it before bed and I was very tired BUT we will have several issues with this diet.....

1. Cant give up potatoes, ds1 would starve
2. Is GF pasta ok to eat?
3. Is GF bread ok to eat?
4. Which probiotic to use? She doesnt recommend a particular one and there are LOADS
5. Milk...I am sure I read that you can have lactose free milk...is that right??? I know soya milk is a no-no and thats ok because he wouldnt drink it anyway.
6. Can he still take his omega 3 oils?

Reding the book made me so sad...I couldnt bf as I had retained placental tissue and my milk didnt come in He had his first ABs at 6 weeks old (strep infection) so its basically all my fault.

Sigh.

Any tips/advice welcome

(I am doing it too btw)

Hi Becarooo :)

I'm not doing the full diet yet, no way. It's far to hard. I can't cook well enough, and my kids can't eat well enough. They'd starve and I'd get stressed. :)

So my answer to your questions are to work towards the diet rather than trying to do all of it at once and getting stressed.

So don't cut out potatoes until DS eats enough other food that he won't starve by not having them.

I've started serving the meat first while the potatoes cook. Then when the potatoes are cooked offering them. And my kids are now having a lot less potatoes because they're filling up on meat first :)

I don't think GF pasta or GF bread are ok - but I'm using them. Again as an intermediate step. So we've cut out all gluten so far. And that's helping. Later I'll try and cut back on the rice, potatoes, GF pasta and GF bread. Later. When DS is eating more meat and veggies.

Just cutting out milk and gluten has really helped.

I don't know what probiotic to use. On her site she sells one, so I presume that's the recommended one. Because I didn't want to try and get DS to swallow one I've again cheated and used this one. It's a really nice tasting sweetie one. It's not a good one - but I'm sure it's better than taking none.

Maybe later I'll switch to a better one. Maybe not.

Def keep up the Omega 3 oil. She recommends Cod Liver Oil I think, which is very similar. If you've found a brand he'll eat - stick with it.

I think it is the lactose you're not allowed rather than the milk. So you are allowed most cheese and very well fermented yoghurt.

I think the thing is to just do what you can do. Just start with a few changes, and then do a few more. Because it really, really is a hard diet. Trying to do all of it at once will set yourself up to fail. :)

Good luck, and tell us how you and DS get on.....

PS I'm having no success at all with switching DD over. Even though DS has told her how much it helps, and she admits to having a sore tummy. DS was really sweet and told her that now he no longer has a sore tummy he's no longer grouchy at school. But she's having none of it. So I'm not sure how I'll switch her over. Or if I'll have to wait and try again next year......

Indigo, I welled up when you said your ds says he feels better :) That's great, my ds also noticed v quickly himself, how cool is that!

I agree on working towards, we even tried gf bread briefly but didn't like it at all, so gave that up quite soon, we still have/had potatoes but as a small helping rather than main ingredient. We used biokult, but we also used some others as well.

Becaroo, not sure what milk is OK, as we were dairy lite by then but we used goats milk (occasional chocolate drink) and some goats cheese.

We now have gf pasta maybe once a week, I use rice pasta.

mad, I think your ds is quite stressed over the whole enema thing, have you tried epsom salts in the bath for relaxation? It could help to relax enough maybe to ease off the constipation?

thanks nightcat - might have some in the cupboard - i did buy some a while ago to try... tonight is the last night of enema anyway

glad u all enjoyed the show, mad, I also have a 2nd interview 2moro and feel apprehensive

good luck for tomorrow!

i think i'm going to can mine. i've done a bit of soul searching and looked at the company. it's very static and a bit 'dead man's shoes' for moving up - and i would definitely be going in at a much lower position than i should be (in fact this is what was focused on at the first interview - how i would deal with that etc.) i don't have any doubt that i could deal with it, tbh. but having mulled it over, suspect they were trying to tell me that there really isn't any prospect of advancement in the next 5/ 10 years or so, and they/ i need to be sure that i'll be happy with that.

well, ds1 has gone off to school reasonably happy. he's been loaded up with lansoyl though, so i'm crossing my fingers that he manages to use the toilets at school.

my current dilemma is packed lunches - anyone got any GAPS-friendly ideas? i'm thinking cold chicken salad etc is fine, but interested to know what you guys are doing? trying to keep away from sandwiches!

Packed lunches are the hardest aren't they.

I think salad, cold meat, cheese and fruit are all fine?

But how you get your child to eat that I don't know :)

he doesn't eat his sandwiches anyway, so there'd be no change there... he does eat his fruit. how this child is ever constipated i can't work out!

I'd have the most chance with cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, babybel cheese and grapes.

I think all of those things would look like 'normal' packed lunch food.

he eats all of those (although sometimes is fussy about the babybel - i think you can get different colours here and he went off the bog standard red ones...). i think it's educating myself that he's got 'enough' in his lunch as well. i'm used to jamming it full of stuff in the hope that he'll eat something... and of course i fuss about variety, whereas for him variety is the very devil...

add olives (in brine) to the mix maybe
chunks of roast (anything) or some decent sliced ham etc (dry italian is nice)
goats babybels

I always prepared one tub savoury/salad then one desert/fruit plus a drink

About the 'eating enough' thing - I think now that our kids are actually absorbing what they eat rather than it passing straight through them, they need to eat less.

Another weird thing - DSs finger nails have always, his whole life, been really soft. Totally bendy. Well - they're now hard! Whether it's the multivitamins or the diet I don't know - but they've improved virtually overnight.

Indigo - can I ask you what made you decide to start this with your DCS? (apologies if you've already said and I missed it). DS2 is gf/cf and also soya free. He takes fish oils, magnesium, Vit C, bifido BacT and saccaromyces as well as Behaviour Balance Oil. But he eats HUGE amounts of potato (probably the largest part of his diet with gf bread), some rice and quinoa. His bowels are fine (before going gf/cf they were rancid) and his asthma/eczema have all but disappeared. However he often has dark circles under his eyes and a bloated stomach. Recetly he has been much grumpier than usual (have started a separate thread) and one of my considerations is, as always, his diet.

(I must admit, the deterioration in mood started a few weeks after we started the Behaviour Balance, so am wondering whether to remove it to see if it makes a difference. DS1 calls it Behaviour Unbalance )

bookmarking my place, just waiting for all dc's to go back/start school and I'm planning to read this book and understand GAPS a bit more. DS1 has asperger's and I'm fairly sure ds2 may be ASD.

I'm off to bed now but will read through the thread properly tomorrow

nightcat - the 'two tubs' thing sounds sensible, and an easy way for me to rationalise the 'enough' argument!

wow to the fingernails, indigo. weird that it's such a contrast so quickly. ds1 doesn't have any fingernails to speak off as he chews or bites them all off but interesting to see something tangible like that instead of trying to judge behaviours etc!

Indigo, my ds nails have also improved on the diet (so did mine - mine were peeling in layers for years), also hair changed texture - his became progressively less coarse and shinier and mine has now more body and shine and even a gentle wave (which it hadn't had in many years!)

Sphil, no idea on Behaviour Balance as never tried, but I get bloated on gf bread (genius) so stopped buying that even for my ds, we only have occasional ricecake in place of bread. Recently we are testing waters with gf oats and it seems OK with us both.

Afaik, the theory goes that carbs if not digested properly, will feed not-so-beneficial bacteria/yeast in the gut and it takes a while for the bacteria to be starved of carbs, that's why GAPS says to avoid most carbs initially. My ds was always OK with potatoes, so we only reduced portions and increased veg & proteins,

Sphil - I decided to try the diet after reading the book (which SilverFrog convinced me to read)

And it just makes so much sense that I had to try it. (But keep remembering, we're not doing it all yet. We're really just GF/CF - but we're 'working towards' it)

The book claims:

1. All children with ASD/ADHD/Dyspraxia/Dyslexia have stomach problems. - Well my 2 do and it certainly seems like everyone on this board's DC also does.

1. It claims the stomach problems are caused by a ruined digestive system, caused initially by bad bacteria in their stomach (which they got from me :( ). - Makes sense. If they didn't have a ruined digestive system why would they have stomach problems?

1. Because the digestive system is ruined food is leaking from the gut, into the blood stream, and causing the ASD etc symptoms. - Well, you get drunk from drinking alcohol - so what you eat and drink can effect your behaviour.

1. The leaky gut thing is why ASD kids appear to need to go GF/CF. But it is more than just cassein and gluten that are damaging their gut.

1. Dietary changes is a reasonable explanation why there is such an explosion of the number of ASD kids. There really are loads more kids with these SN then there were a generation ago. It's not just better diagnosing. Plus, in different cultures (diets) there are different rates of ASD.

So it claims you need to heal your gut by having probioitcs, fermented stuff, garlic, cod liver oil and lots and lots of meat stock. - Again, sounds reasonable. The one thing my kids never have is meat stock. Chicken soup has always been a traditional cure for many things.

And you need to cut out the things which are hurting your gut. All grains (potatoes, rice, bread, pasta) and lactose.

But then what has really made me passionate about it is DSs responses to cutting out first dairy, and then gluten. Because DS is so articulate it's very easy to tell if it's helping or not. And it is.

He no longer feels sick all the time and no longer has a sore tummy. This has made him brighter, happier, more motivated and engaged.

So even if it didn't help his ASD at all - I would still do it because it's stopped him being miserable with a sore tummy.

The thing that's surprised me is how quickly we've noticed a difference. I thought it would take months and the differences would be much more subtle.

sooo...ds1 wont drink the lacto-free milk (which I think is rather nice) and he wont eat the gf bread.

So. No milk for him. Cant get rid of bread or potatoes for him (he would starve) Must try and get him to have chicken soup. Can anyone recommend a probiotic - really needs to be a syrup or drink form for ds1.

I am thinking at least no milk and a probiotic should help????

becaroo, my ds didnt like gf bread either so we did & still do cooked breakfast

You can open probiotic capsules and stir them into any liquid/food, I even used mine to rinse my throat to help to clear blocked eustachian tube.

nightcat He doesnt eat eggs or bacon either, sadly

He also only drinks water and (warm) milk so wouldnt be able to add the capsules to water either. Could you put them in fruit puree?? (the only way I can get him to eat fruit!)

I think we will try the small steps route too. Cut down the potatoes and gf bread (which I was intending to do anyway as he is putting on quite a bit of weight) and introduce soups and stews. This will be the difficult one - atm he only eats hot food which is brown and crispy: shepherds pie, fish cakes, chicken and rice or quinoa cakes, fish fingers, sausages, homemade chicken goujons. But he has got better recently at trying things and we eat soup often, so its a possibility. The other advantage is that he would have to eat it with a spoon - using cutlery is something we are struggling with (can do it but wont - brown crispy food easier to eat with fingers...)

our latest small victory is mushroom soup! Ok I strained all actual bits out of it but it was still good home made mushroom soup.

i'm really into the stocks. We are having stocks in risotto, rice and cous cous. yes I know they are all grains and not allowed, but small steps is the way to go I think.

not sure if i've noticed any difference. mother of all meltdowns this morning but new pre-school is going amazingly well. we feared selective mutism but to our surprise he is actually the life and soul and talking to everyone

Becaroo, am sure probiotics in fruit puree will be fine, sachets probiotics have been mentioned on another thread and they apparently don't taste of anything. You have your work cut out on foods (variety wise), my ds doesn't eat bacon, but we have omelettes with onios/mushrooms, etc etc. WOuld you be abl eto hide egg in an omelette/"pancake" or is he allergic?

I also think that it's best to try and have grains-free (or even carbs free) meals from time to time rather than keep small portions at every meal. Caseroles are great for that at as you can add loads of veg and meat and have no grains at all.