Avoiding GAPS Intro Pitfalls

So I admit my introduction to the GAPS diet didn't go as smoothly as I would like.  Rather than wallow in self pity, I thought I would pick up the pieces and try to figure out where I failed and maybe by sharing a few tid-bits with you, I could save you from the same demise.

The GAPS introduction involves six stages and ends with the person being on full GAPS for at least one to two years.  Myself and my family have been doing the FULL GAPS program for about ten months.  I wrongly assumed that the introduction diet would be no big deal since I've been eating so healthy all these months.  My youngest son went through the introduction back in November and has had amazing improvement in his GI symptoms as well as improvement in his growth and weight.  I was wanting to start the intro because in spite of eating FULL GAPS for the past few months, I have developed a new stomach pain and GI upset and reflux and I'm not sure if the cause is dairy related or from years of chronically abusing myself with coffee and Ibuprofen.  Probably both.

With no further adieu, here's what you can do to succeed on the intro:

1.  Plan ahead. 
       - Make your bone broths ahead of time and plenty of it, have the next batch going in the crock pot each day.  Here's a link on making broth
       - Have plenty of fresh veggies on hand that are intro worthy, that you can boil into your broth or soup.  The first few days, you might not have a lot of energy to go shopping or cook so make it easy on yourself

2.  DON'T GO TO ANY SOCIAL FUNCTIONS.  Okay, so I am sort of joking, but if you do go to a Birthday party, again plan ahead and bring your broth and more broth and more meat and veggies.  You will be smelling all those processed foods and getting hungry, you need to have your broth to sip on.  This is where I failed, I decided I would just "FAST" during the event, a cousins birthday, which went all day and then into the evening.  I started feeling really sick so I had some salad and meat, but on the intro you aren't supposed to eat RAW veggie yet.  Oops.  Not the worst of sins but just wasn't what I had planned to do.

4.   Eat and drink broth often.   This is also were I messed up.  I think that some people really do require more veggies/carbs to feel okay.  I could only stand feeling horrible for so long while trying to take care of and feed five other people in my family as well as work in the evenings.  Eating more frequently keeps your blood sugar from crashing.  Also, adding in the allowed veggies will also help prevent this, along with sipping on plenty of broth.  Obviously if you have persistent diarrhea then you need to back off on vegetables as Dr. Natasha suggests in her book.
5.  You are going to experience some die off.   Yep, even if you think you are a supper start healthy eater,  be prepared to feel more tired, sleepy, achey than normal.   I'm sure the more sugar and processed foods in your diet prior to the intro the worse you will feel.   If you are able,  I would suggest prior to the intro, that you limit your intake of even GAPS treats, honey and fruit so your body has time to get used to the lower sugar levels.  The biggest issue that I struggled with was headaches, I think that eating frequently helps this as well as drinking plenty of liquids.  If you normally drink coffee, cut it out several weeks before starting the intro or you will suffer.
6.  Your fluid needs will go up.  This is some what related to eating more protein, but you really need to drink plenty of water, as much as your body is telling you that you need.
7.  Make your family do the intro with you.   At first I thought it would be more difficult to have the entire family doing the intro but here is my new take on this.  If you are only eating broth and soups, and are feeling tired and want to rest while your body detox's, do you REALLY want to be cooking all day for everyone else?  Keep it simple, if you can't put everyone on the full intro diet, then just tell them you are making mostly soups for the next few days, it will be so much easier then having to stand up all day and cook for everyone when you feel like sleeping.
8.  Start on a weekend   So you have someone at home to help you, I guess if all your kids are in school maybe during the week would be better for you so you can nap while they are gone!
9.  Get a massage or take a bath with epsome salts.  I did a foot soak which really helped my headaches.  I think you really need to pamper yourself if you can, take naps and go to bed early if you are able.
10.  Join a support group or enlist your friends or extended family to do this with you, the more the merrier!
11.  If you make a mistake, as I did, just try it again and this time be prepared!   If your life is hectic with work and family, then just try a slower approach.  Start by eliminating the processed foods in your home.  Vow to not eat anything out of a box or package.  Give up coffee, give up sugar.  Then start making and drinking broth and probiotics (see my post on the four things to try now).  I think even though I messed up on the intro it helped me to  realized the things that have benefited me and that help my digestion.  If you can add any one thing to your diet now, start with a good probiotic.

Are you doing the intro?  Let me know your thoughts on what worked for you and helped you to succeed. 

Fish heads, bone broth and chicken feet. Oh my!

About 4 weeks ago I looked at my son after his bath, his ribs prominent, his skin pale again, his throat sounding congested and full of mucous, much like it had in the days when he was aspirating.  I have to admit that since Henry's diagnosis of FPIES, I have navigated the murky waters of this diagnosis with little guidance from anyone.  The doctors wanted to try Henry out on what is known as an elemental formula NEOCATE, as the start of an elimination diet, to basically take everything out of his system that might be damaging his gut and sort of give him a break.  The plan was, to be on the formula for a  few weeks and then introduce one food at a time.  This was the "idea" however, after just three days on the NEOCATE formula, Henry's stomach blew up like a big balloon, he looked like he was nine months pregnant and he was crying and burping all night and refluxing.  Then he had horrible blow out diarrhea.  Supposedly the formula was hypoallergenic, however, he was more ill appearing on it than ever.  I stopped it immediately and put him back on my homemade formula with a hemp milk base.  Apparently NEOCATE has corn it it, the doctors said it is so broken down that no one could react to it, but Henry did.   I have talked with mom's of other, not so typical FPIES kid,s who have reacted to it as well.  

Months prior to our diagnosis of FPIES an ENT surgeon had given me, what I felt was a devastating evaluation of my son.  After attempting to scope his airway and failing to do so, she told me bluntly.  "I don't know what your son has, he reacted to my instruments in his throat like nothing I've ever seen before.  His throat instantly swelled and closed and he stopped breathing.  It is not safe for us to attempt a surgical repair of his laryngeal cleft at this time, and I don't know if it will ever be able to be repaired."  She told me, in all her years she had never seen a kid swell that quickly and aggressively just by having her instruments in his throat.  She told me "He has some inflammatory disorder that has probably not been discovered yet, I'm an ENT so I don't know what he has, but I bet we are about ten to fifteen years out from understanding it."     Thankfully, Henry did not actually have a true laryngeal cleft.  However, his severe reflux, caused by FPIES, along with his strange anatomical laryngeal notch, mostly likely contributed to his aspiration and difficulty swallowing. 

Looking back on what she said, I think she was the only person who was forthright with me, by saying, he has something that we don't understand.   And it's true, FPIES is not well understood and that may be what has brought you here to this place of your own research and struggle to try to help your own child.   I agree with her perception that he has an inflammatory disease, because I see how after the wrong food is given he has sounds in his throat and then later diarrhea.   It is as if the entire GI tract is inflamed.

My son started out in the 30% for his height and weight and after adding solids he fell to just below the 3rd percentile, never to improve.  A few months ago he was starting to fall below that curve, not even on the growth chart.  He has NEVER been able to put on weight, even when I was controlling his calories with the G-tube.   No one has ever explained why this is.  However a few weeks ago the nutritionist we saw told me that children like Henry, have so much inflammation that they mal-absorb nutrition, they can't utilize the calories they take in. 

With him growing thinner, I felt sense of urgency to find a way to increase his weight and improve his nutrition, but how?   That desperation is what brought me to the book by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride "Gut and Psychology Syndrome."  The book makes mention that all diseases begin in the gut.   I have posted a link to the GAPS website, which gives some of the information about the diet.  I have to let you know that I myself took a year to research before I was ready to take the leap into starting my son on this diet.  The first phase involves making bone broths from chicken, lamb, beef, and yes even fish heads.  When I read that other mom's were doing this, my first inclination was horror.  I really didn't understand how this could work, I hate to admit it, but I wrote this off as some extreme experiment that I would never subject my child to.  I was worried that it was unsafe, as it seems the diet is mostly based on eating proteins and fat.  It just sounded like another version of the Atkins diet.  I worried it was some weird concoction of empty promises that was most likely deceiving these desperate mom's who were looking to fix their children.  I had tried the Atkins diet myself in college and I knew that it caused weight loss, and that was the opposite of what I wanted for my son.

I admit that I judged the program without fully understanding it.   Now that I have actually read the book, I understand the science and rational behind it.  It makes sense, and in fact, makes more sense than some of the things that doctors have suggested, which we tried, but which in the end did not work for Henry.  I am in no way telling you to abandon your doctors advise and jump in blindly.  However, wish it would be that Doctors would come along side mothers and would look at the entire body as a whole, that they would use nutrition to help heal the body.  Obviously we know that a person who eats vegetables daily is most likely more healthy than the person who eats donuts and cakes?  We see that one person feels tired and bogged down, while the other has energy to live life and thrive.  It makes sense, but why don't we think about these basic principles when treating patients with chronic illness?  FPIES certainly feels like a chronic illness at this point.

 Henry was refusing to eat anyway, so what better time to start him on broths.  The broths are intended, like the elemental formula to give the gut a rest.   I see now, how soothing a broth could be.  Think of how you want to drink them when you feel ill.   A warm chicken broth when you have a cold, or after the stomach flu when you are not yet ready to eat.  I went to Whole Foods and purchased an entire red snapper fish; head, bones and all.  I went home and threw it in a pot.  I cooked it for 20 hours until it fell apart, I freaked out my other kids by showing them the left over head in the pot.  When they asked what it was, I told them "dinner."  Man, I wish you could have seen the look on their faces!   Then I told them it was Henry's dinner!   The next day my friend called me and said she had some chicken feet I could use to make broth, wow who knew!

Basically, Henry has been taking several broths along with the meat that falls off the bones, I have also added several types of  winter squashes and non-fibrous vegetables.  He also seems to tolerate eggs, which I am extremely thankful for.   Do I know for sure that GAPS is going to fix Henry?   Well, that IS a question.  If by fix, we mean that Henry will be able to eat ANYTHING he wants, that he will have no restrictions on his diet?    Well, I don't know about that part.  Right now, I am not looking for him to be able to eat MORE foods, that is not my goal right now.  My goal is for him to be able to actually USE the nutrition from the foods he eats.  To actually be able to absorb the nutrition, to have energy and to gain weight and grow.  He may be eating broth and squash for a while, and right now, I am okay with that.  I see a difference in him already in just three  weeks.  He isn't feeling sick right now, he isn't having reflux, and he has a lot more energy.   He has actually gained back the weight he lost and would now be back to his third percentile.   I think we'll stay here awhile and let his gut just rest and heal.  We don't need to trial any new foods, we just need to enjoy this break he has from pain and discomfort.   I'll admit that this GAPS diet isn't for the faint of heart, but then again was FPIES?   So go ahead, give your local butcher a call and ask if he has any left over fish heads, or chicken feet, and save a few for me, I'm clean out!