Thursday, April 14, 2011

Week 7

I realized this morning that we've been on GAPS for 7 weeks! That sounds a lot longer than it feels. I miss sweet potatoes and my GF sourdough waffles, oh and chocolate, when I think about them. But other than that, I find the diet to be very satisfying.

Nick has maintained his new weight, and has been exercising most mornings for the first time in his life. He has yet to have a negative reaction to adding foods, unless he really overdoes it at first.

I am still dealing with die off reaction from the yeast cleanse supplements. I added another dose this morning since I was mostly symptom free yesterday, and feel a little dizzy and out of it this morning. Dr P says most people have 14 days of die off. One week down, one to go!

Hannah is still complaining of a stomach ache regularly. She had some chamomile tea a couple of nights ago and said she thought it bothered her. I have a hard time believing it was that - seems more likely to be the yogurt. But we're going with her assessment for now, in part because I want her to feel empowered to make observations about how her own body is working with the diet. She continues to fight me about taking her broth or eating soup. I have been filling her plate with food, and requiring her to drink her broth before she can have seconds of food, which she almost always wants. She continually "checks" to make sure the rule is still in effect. I hope she will reach a point of accepting it sometime soon.

Audrey has been scratching a bit the past couple of days, I think because of the salicylates in almond butter. She's been refusing the baking soda water that makes it stop, but I have been giving her the choice of either drinking it or simply not scratching. For the most part she's been leaving her skin alone, by choice.

Tess woke up with a fever this morning. She hasn't been drinking well again, and I hope that we're not dealing with a UTI. I nursed her an extra time this morning, and have been regularly handing her a sippy cup. She will sometimes take one sip and that's all. I also wondered if it could be die off and/or teething, since she's getting the anti-fungal supplements in my milk and I can see her eyeteeth just below the surface, about to pop through. Who knows?

I roasted chicken last night, for the first time. I didn't expect to notice much of a difference between that and boiling but, um, wow. I have never had chicken taste so good! I kept eating bites of it as I deboned it.

The next few steps in intro feel vague to me. I suppose the transition from boiled to roasted meat might be tough for some people. Or adding in olive oil. Or fresh juices. But these seem like simple changes for us and it's difficult for me to to want to add in one thing at a time here. We may attempt to move quickly through stage four and see how it goes. One or two days on each new thing seems like it may be enough for these things. We were so familiar with which things we were sensitive to prior to starting GAPS, that I can pretty much predict what our responses will be. Though I must say I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly Audrey was able to start egg, and that Hannah's symptoms did not change when we added ghee! GAPS bread will have to wait (at least for Hannah and me) until we successfully intro egg, but I will probably attempt it for Nick and Audrey's sakes.

The best advice I've received about GAPS? Don't think about it too much. It's just food. Read what you need to read, learn what you need to learn, then think about something else. Throw yourself into other things as much as you can. The more I obsess about the diet, the worse I feel and the more restricted I feel. But in the long term, I really believe this is worth doing. It will make a huge long-term impact on our family's health, which will better enable us to carry out the work God has for us to do!

4 comments:

  1. Baking soda water makes her itching stop? Tell me more!

    I just found your blog through Baden's intro blog page. I'm a homeschool mom, worship leader, and I, too, have kept a blog of our GAPS journey at www.gapsfamily.blogspot.com as a record for myself and to give others a chance to see what GAPS looks like for one family. I just started intro again last week. We have been on GAPS for 19 months.

    I have only read a few posts, since I only just found this site, but I look forward to reading more and finding out what God is doing in your life.

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  2. Hi! Nice to "meet" you. :) We do seem to have lots in common!

    I envy you a bit, getting to do intro again by yourself. I may do that myself in the future. It is a bit tough to keep track of everybody while doing it yourself.

    The baking soda thing is a tip from our amazing N.D. He says to use it to stop allergic reactions, and since it is also recommended for die-off, I found that very fascinating. If she starts scratching at her eczema (it sounds like she reacts to similar things as your kiddos), a teaspoon of baking soda in a cup of water will make the itching stop, usually within just a few sips. She doesn't like the taste of it and she says it burns her tongue a bit. I try to do it away from meals so it doesn't interfere with her digestion, but I'd have her digestion upset a couple times a week than have to wait for her skin to heal again.

    Another thing that has really helped her and Hannah (who was having problems with incontinence) is No-Fenol, an enzyme supplement that aids in digestion of Phenols/Salicylates.

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  3. It is nice to be doing intro by myself. I can really take it easy and go at my own pace. You aren't kidding about it being hard to keep up with everyone while going through it yourself. We had charts everywhere! Still do!

    Thanks for the info about the baking soda. I'm glad to know it. Also, thanks for mentioning the No Fenol. We tried that years ago and couldn't tolerate it, but it might be worth another go. We have four bedwetters and I am at a loss as to what to do. Everyone tells me oxalates, but I do not want to remove even more foods if not necessary so I am very interested to hear that it helped your daughter with incontinence.

    Bless you on this journey. God is good and He is good all the time. It is all for our good and His glory!

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  4. He is most definitely good! I have been praying for answers for a long time, and I'm sure He is leading our every step!

    I know what you mean about not wanting to remove more foods. We have been on a limited diet for so long that I think we all got pretty nutrient deficient. We still have to go easy on the salicylates, but I am able to add cumin and red bell pepper to soups now without major problems, as long as the girls take their No Fenol.

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