In my last post, I explained how I finally decided that I was a person who would benefit from the GAPS diet. But I'm not the only person that I realized could benefit from it. We've been noticing ADHD tendencies in Precious; she rarely stands still, and is a bit noodle-like in her movements. Frustrated, we'd say, "Can't you just stand there?", but we knew that inevitably, she'd end up falling into a wall and laughing about it.
Precious' pregnancy was my least-prepared pregnancy, when it came to traditional foods (hamburger helper used to be a weekly staple around here), and her baby food was whole-grain, low-fat porridges from The Baby Food Book (this fact and this book now make me cringe). Bubby's pregnancy wasn't too different, with only the addition of freshly-ground whole wheat bread. I bought Nourishing Traditions when he was a few months old, so he started eating traditional baby foods when he was nine months old.
We had purposely spaced Precious and Bubby twenty months apart so that they would be great buddies. The buddy-part was successful, but as he started trying foods, I noticed that homemade yogurt in large quantities gave him a rash. So we cut out dairy until he weaned onto raw cows milk at 20 months old. After weaning, he had his first seasonal allergy outbreak when he was three, and we later discovered a cat allergy. So in retrospect, I'm realizing that spacing my first two children further apart would have been a wise choice. We almost did that with Cutie, but she came a little sooner than we'd planned. But at least hers was a traditional foods pregnancy with plenty of fats, iodine, liver, fermented veggies, etc.
For these reasons, I also have Precious and Bubby on the GAPS diet with me. The first three days on the diet, my die-off symptoms included raging mood swings, like PMS on overdrive. The children were almost drunk with silliness (which didn't help my mood at all). After we all had The D and finished the die-off process, things dramatically improved. It reminded me of Kim Schuette's infant client who, a week after starting GAPS, went from a hundred seizures in a day to three per day. Four months later on the diet, this child who had been blind from the seizures regained his sight. Doctors had told the mother that her child would have to be institutionalized. When I heard this, I knew the GAPS diet would help my family.
Miracles started happening. For the first Sunday in our lives, Precious sat still during the preaching at church. I went through a monthly cycle with zero PMS. New Daddy will gladly attest to that miracle. When I went back on grains on Christmas Day, I had horrible muscle and joint pain for a few days afterwards. Within a few days of being back on the diet, these symptoms disappeared.
Verbal communication has always been an aspect of my life that wearies me. I think that's one reason I've enjoyed writing for so long. I'd be impatient with anyone who asked me a question, knowing that the effort to produce an answer or an explanation would make me need to rest later. But since starting GAPS, the mental strain has faded, and I've found that my mind works more efficiently. Brain fog is a thing of the past-- unless I get off the diet. I am much less dependent on the Omega-3 fats in my fermented skate liver oil for mental clarity. Clarity just comes with the territory, regardless of whether I've taken the oil or not.
Spring is right around the corner, so we'll have to see if Bubby has healed from his allergies. I told him that if he has two years in a row of no allergies, we'll consider him cured, and he can start the process of going off the diet. I am almost positive that he will have no allergies this Spring, because I've seen such dramatic results in my own experience.
One last note is that I can immediately tell when Precious has gone off her diet. They snuck some jellybeans (ahem- that was for Christmas), and I was staring at her wondering why she was a "noodle" again. When I later found out about the candy, it all made sense.
Thankfully, we're not the only people in the blog-iverse who have done GAPS. There are so many amazing recipes that we've discovered along the way, and we're staying quite well-fed. At some point, I may post the sites that have helped us.
back to GAPS Part I
GAPS Part III- Bubby's seasonal allergies
GAPS Part IV- Cumberland Island
GAPS Part V- Concluding thoughts
Precious' pregnancy was my least-prepared pregnancy, when it came to traditional foods (hamburger helper used to be a weekly staple around here), and her baby food was whole-grain, low-fat porridges from The Baby Food Book (this fact and this book now make me cringe). Bubby's pregnancy wasn't too different, with only the addition of freshly-ground whole wheat bread. I bought Nourishing Traditions when he was a few months old, so he started eating traditional baby foods when he was nine months old.
We had purposely spaced Precious and Bubby twenty months apart so that they would be great buddies. The buddy-part was successful, but as he started trying foods, I noticed that homemade yogurt in large quantities gave him a rash. So we cut out dairy until he weaned onto raw cows milk at 20 months old. After weaning, he had his first seasonal allergy outbreak when he was three, and we later discovered a cat allergy. So in retrospect, I'm realizing that spacing my first two children further apart would have been a wise choice. We almost did that with Cutie, but she came a little sooner than we'd planned. But at least hers was a traditional foods pregnancy with plenty of fats, iodine, liver, fermented veggies, etc.
For these reasons, I also have Precious and Bubby on the GAPS diet with me. The first three days on the diet, my die-off symptoms included raging mood swings, like PMS on overdrive. The children were almost drunk with silliness (which didn't help my mood at all). After we all had The D and finished the die-off process, things dramatically improved. It reminded me of Kim Schuette's infant client who, a week after starting GAPS, went from a hundred seizures in a day to three per day. Four months later on the diet, this child who had been blind from the seizures regained his sight. Doctors had told the mother that her child would have to be institutionalized. When I heard this, I knew the GAPS diet would help my family.
Miracles started happening. For the first Sunday in our lives, Precious sat still during the preaching at church. I went through a monthly cycle with zero PMS. New Daddy will gladly attest to that miracle. When I went back on grains on Christmas Day, I had horrible muscle and joint pain for a few days afterwards. Within a few days of being back on the diet, these symptoms disappeared.
Verbal communication has always been an aspect of my life that wearies me. I think that's one reason I've enjoyed writing for so long. I'd be impatient with anyone who asked me a question, knowing that the effort to produce an answer or an explanation would make me need to rest later. But since starting GAPS, the mental strain has faded, and I've found that my mind works more efficiently. Brain fog is a thing of the past-- unless I get off the diet. I am much less dependent on the Omega-3 fats in my fermented skate liver oil for mental clarity. Clarity just comes with the territory, regardless of whether I've taken the oil or not.
Spring is right around the corner, so we'll have to see if Bubby has healed from his allergies. I told him that if he has two years in a row of no allergies, we'll consider him cured, and he can start the process of going off the diet. I am almost positive that he will have no allergies this Spring, because I've seen such dramatic results in my own experience.
One last note is that I can immediately tell when Precious has gone off her diet. They snuck some jellybeans (ahem- that was for Christmas), and I was staring at her wondering why she was a "noodle" again. When I later found out about the candy, it all made sense.
Thankfully, we're not the only people in the blog-iverse who have done GAPS. There are so many amazing recipes that we've discovered along the way, and we're staying quite well-fed. At some point, I may post the sites that have helped us.
back to GAPS Part I
GAPS Part III- Bubby's seasonal allergies
GAPS Part IV- Cumberland Island
GAPS Part V- Concluding thoughts
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