A Little Background

I found the GAPS diet through the books, "Healing our Children" by Ramiel Nagel and "The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care" by Sally Fallon Morell and Thomas S. Cowan, MD. I have not even finished them yet  - working my way through very slowly.

Yesterday I realized this was the answer I had been praying for and made the decision I must move forward. It's SO OVERWHELMING! I wanted to keep a blog for any parents who will have to take the path I'm on.

This is to log my journey, ups, downs, what I'm learning, the process I'm taking, regrets and what I'd tell someone like me as they are beginning...

I'm a 28 year old mother of one. He's beautiful, born 8 lbs, 12 oz. Healthy. Red headed. A super happy kiddo.

He was born naturally, except for the (MANDATORY) antibiotic I was forced to have at the hospital because I was group B strep positive or whatever that's called. That is a big contributor to my child's current gut problems, I think.

I exclusively breastfed until 4 months when my milk started drying up.  I was able to keep limping along with supplemented formula until 6 months when my supply completely and utterly dried up despite my trying every known remedy to man to keep it going/bring it back.

We tried an organic baby formula that he had an instant face rash reaction to. We ended up using Gerber Good Start Gentle Formula - it was the only thing he could tolerate. I strongly believe if he were breastfed he wouldn't have all the same problems or severities that he has now. That formula is absolute poison.

He had a little colic here or there but wasn't a SUPER colicky baby. Usually quite smiley but did have a bit of an issue with wind - had to burp A LOT! He kinda lived on Dr. CHristopher's kid-e-col tinctures because they worked so well. I wonder if I gave him too much and that contributed to his current conditions...

He was never good at eliminating. Very few poopie diapers. Always. With every great now and again diarrhea episodes.

At 4 months, he showed every single sign on the list that he was more than ready for solid foods. Per my pediatrician's green light, I started feeding solids. I skipped grains entirely (no rice cereal!) and opted for fresh, homemade baby food. It was very simple: steamed, pureed sweet potatoes, peas, carrots, etc. We did that til a year introducing more fruits and veggies. No dairy, no grains.

I look back and wonder if his diet was too simple for that period of time and perhaps that also is to blame for his condition.

At 11.5 months, I started introducing raw milk to replace formula. Couldn't wait to get him off the stuff. 1.5 weeks in, he got a horrible acid-diarrhea yeast diaper rash situation. It was one of the worst experiences of our lives. Took me about a week to get rid of it by realizing he couldn't tolerate the milk, going back to formula and using baking soda baths and aztec bentonite clay powder in every diaper change.

Turns out the clay saved our lives repeatedly and I am never without some in my pantry. I use it like baby powder in every diaper change.

We tried goats milk. We tried almond milk. We tried rice milk. Nothing worked. They all gave him the horrible acid diarhea yeast diaper situation. Back the formula each time.

At 12 months I gave him his first taste of eggs. He loved them. Scarfed them down. A few minutes after he finished, his face got red, blotchy, puffy and his eyes and ears were itching like crazy!! We rushed to the ER. Thus the beginning of the path we are on with terrible allergies.

I sought out a nutritionist based on the allergy test she could provide. A blood test supposedly 94% accurate. It's called MRT (Mediator Release Test) - only done in Texas. We had his blood drawn and shipped to the Texas lab. It came back with results on 180 different foods and chemicals and his reactions to them. Long story short, he was extremely reactive to a lot of things.

Thus began our journey on the LEAP nutrition program. Very simple. Cut out his reactive foods. Slowly reintroduce over time. We've been on it for 3 months. Needless to say it hasn't done the trick all by itself and while there were things I needed and overall it was worth it ($400), it was only 1/3 the battle if that.

The results I saw with just the LEAP program/nutritionist: we were getting less frequent diarrhea episodes, I learned to cater his taste buds to bland/bitter by cutting out yeast and sugar and fruit. 

I kept getting a prompting that I needed to do more. Just working on the food with this program wasn't enough. I kept searching. One tear-filled night I reached out to a support group of mothers and someone recommended I contact Jonell Francis at Feel Good Foods online. I did the next day.

We scheduled a consultation and I bought her cookbook and supplements. I was so hopeful and excited. I knew it was the answer to my prayer and what I was prompted to find. She had an herbal tincture to help my son with his horrible yeast imbalance as well as L-glutamine to help heal the gut. She explained the nature of his current leaky gut condition and it was eye opening and overall helpful and worth it .... but... not enough on its own either.

The results I saw with Jonell: we were able to find a different rice milk he could tolerate after being on her yeast beaters cleanse for a couple weeks!! (NO MORE FORMULA!) Basically no diarrhea yeast acid situations except every now and again when I'd try to reintroduce stuff. Just getting off the formula was astronomical, though. And the yeast beaters cleanse was exactly what he needed to get us to where we are now. He has regular bowel movements - 2-3 times per day, great consistency!!!!!! Great appetite!

While he has improved in many ways, he was regressing as far as he has gotten eczema much worse which pushed me to finally find GAPS.

More reading. More searching. More praying.

My brother bought me the nourishing traditions book of baby and child care and Healing Our Children. Healing Our Children was mind blowing. It was so intense, I had to set it down and take a break for days at a time. I would hold my breath as I was reading because it was so intense. It is truth, though. Powerful and overwhelming in every sense. So there's my story. That's who I am, where I'm coming from, the path that led me here and the motivation behind my crazy decision to move forward with GAPS.