Introduction....Kinda long

[Guest guest]

Hello! My name is Christy. I have 3 children ages 4 1/2, 1 1/2, and

6 months. I heard about this group on the DiscussingNT board (thanks

AnnMarie!) I would love any insight or advice for my situation. I

just ordered GAPS and Body Ecology.

My main concern in my family is my 4 year old son. He was on

commercial formula from 3 weeks until 1 and then drank pasteurized

milk and had a very SAD diet from then until he was around 3 (when I

discovered WAP). Since then his diet has been better, but certainly

not where it should be due to lack of finances. He is vaccinated up

to the 18 month shots. I just had him tested at enterolab for

gluten intolerance and he scored a 9. So he falls within the normal

range, but I still think he may be sensitive to it. He will get colds

or illnesses as regularly as any other child but he has a difficult

time with them. They tend to knock him down for a while. My other

two children fight illnesses with considerable ease (they were both

much more wapish from birth and not vaxed). We were just in the er on

Tuesday ruling out pneumonia and appendicitis. They diagnosed him

with a viral upper resperitory infection. He is still feeling lousy

after having been sick for a week! (any ideas on how to get him to

feel better would be much appreciated as well!)

So anyway, I'd like to start the gaps diet with him. He is extremely

picky. He doesn't care for meat, veggies, soups, casseroles. He

likes bread, waffles, mac n cheese and fruit. Has anyone had success

doing this diet with a picky eater? Do they really get hungry enough

to eat anything? I don't know how many times he's chosen to go to bed

hungry because he didn't want to eat what was served. If we get him

to taste something he will often gag on it. He hates casseroles or

anything that has food mixed together. So when I'm making the

casserole I will take out each of the ingredients before I put them

all together and serve it that way. He still doesn't eat much of it,

but at least he doesn't gag on it!

My next concern is my husband. He has a terrible diet. He eats

processed food all day long. Frozen waffles for breakfast,

microwavable sausage, micro dinners for lunch at work. Pop tarts and

commercial granola bars for snacks. He will then eat whatever I make

for dinner. He hates drinking water and either has pasteurized milk

or tea with his meals. He has always struggled with stuttering. I

think he would almost do anything to cure his stutter including change

his diet. Has anyone noticed a difference in speech problems after

gut healing?

Sorry so long, but any insight or wisdom on these matter would be

gratefully received! Thanks!

Christy

[Guest guest]

Hi, Christy!Tuesday ruling out pneumonia and appendicitis. They diagnosed him

with a viral upper resperitory infection. He is still feeling lousy

after having been sick for a week! (any ideas on how to get him to

feel better would be much appreciated as well!)What probiotics/fermented foods is he taking? That's the first thing I would add to his diet. He has a shortage of good bacteria which is what is causing the infection -- there are not enough good guys to fight it off.

So anyway, I'd like to start the gaps diet with him. He is extremely

picky. He doesn't care for meat, veggies, soups, casseroles. He

likes bread, waffles, mac n cheese and fruit. Has anyone had success

doing this diet with a picky eater? Do they really get hungry enoughClassic, classic sign of gut dybiosis/candida! The overgrowth of yeast is what causes cravings for starches and sweets.Dr. C-M talks about how to deal w/ picky eaters in her book. It is VERY common among GAPS kids. You always hear about the autistic/ADD kids who will only eat milk and bread. This is due to the yeast.

I will try to find the email I sent on this topic to NN and resend to this group.If you get him off sweets and starches and start him on probiotics/fermented foods (GAPS in other words), he will most likely go through a " die-off " period. Google Crook or yeast connection or read " The Yeast Connection " to learn more about this. McCarthy said her autistic son had what she called " satanic " behavior (like the Exorcist) during his die-off phase. Lots of bad yeasty diapers and horrible behavior.

When I went through my die-off phase when I was overcoming candida in my 20s, I thought I was going to die. It was like the flu meets a hangover that won't go away combined with major depression. UGH! But once I got through it (took 2-3 wks) I felt SO MUCH better. Like really happy and healthy for the first time in years.

So batten down the hatches and prepare for a bumpy ride. It won't last long -- and it will be worth it. Thank god you are not going through this when he is 25 and totally unwilling to change. At least now you control the food. :-) Plus he will be SO MUCH heathier for it.

Dr. C-McB also says you can go more slowly with the probiotics if it gets bad. And just try to remember that your toddler is going to feel CRAPPY so be easy with him and let him rest a lot if he needs to. Also give him other kinds of treats (GAPS legal treats).

My next concern is my husband. He has a terrible diet. He eats

processed food all day long. Frozen waffles for breakfast,

microwavable sausage, micro dinners for lunch at work. Pop tarts and

commercial granola bars for snacks. He will then eat whatever I make

for dinner. He hates drinking water and either has pasteurized milk

or tea with his meals. He has always struggled with stuttering. I

think he would almost do anything to cure his stutter including change

his diet. Has anyone noticed a difference in speech problems after

gut healing?So many autistic children have regained their language after gut healing so I am sure there is a connection.Does your husband have any symptoms of ill health/candida? Perhaps you can focus on helping him reverse those. But if he doesn't want to do it, you can't make him -- he has to be ready. I've been trying to get my husband to do the GAPS diet for weeks now. He doesn't understand it, doesn't want to do it. We are on biokult and he is eating a LOT better but will not fully commit yet.

He's on a ton of anti-depressants that I want to work to wean him off of. He also has gastro-intestinal pain and digestive issues (surprise, surprise ;-) ). However his gut doesn't hurt anymore since we've majorly reduced grains and he is drinking tons of kombucha and has his kefir every night.

Of course he doesn't make the connection so I keep pointing it out to him, " How does your stomach feel? " I ask. " It doesn't hurt! " he says. It used to hurt him all the time. Yet he still won't do GAPS -- haha!

I finally told him that he can meet with Dr. Cowan when we go up to San Francisco next month -- I'm going to try to get an appt. I know he will do what the doctor tells him to do. He won't listen to me but he will listen to a doctor. That's fine -- whatever works!

Ann Marie

[Guest guest]

One more thing about husbands --In my experience most men like things to be " easy " . Christy, I'm guessing that your husband does the microwave food, etc. because it is convenient. My sister's husband is like that. He makes crap food (chicken nuggets, Mac/cheese) for their kids because it is easy/convenient.

My husband only recently learned how to cook eggs and bacon (I had to teach him). :-)I remember when we were dating, we went grocery shopping so I could cook more meals at his house. I kept putting things in the cart, and he started getting panicky. Why are you putting so much food in there? Why do we need all this food???

I said, " You know that big square thing in your kitchen? That's called a REFRIGERATOR. You put food in there. " I just bought a dehydrator so I can learn to make beef jerky. I am going to freeze it and then keep it in the fridge so he can snack on it at any time. I also spent $600 recently at the grocery store, practically buying them out of bacon, canned sardines, tuna, herring, packages of smoked salmon, etc. (it was at Whole Foods -- you should have seen the faces on some of the customers -- probably vegetarians -- my whole cart was FULL OF MEAT!!! LOL!) He really likes seafood and will eat it if it's around. So I stocked the cupboards. I also buy him luncheon meat -- roast beef and turkey -- so he always has something to eat.

I've also been bulk buying from US Wellness Meats. I bought a half-ham that we eat last night -- it was fabulous. We just had it with salad. And now the leftovers are in the fridge for snacking.Does your husband like fermented foods? Will he eat/drink them?

Ann Marie

[Guest guest]

Thanks for replying!

> What probiotics/fermented foods is he taking?

I'm ashamed to say, he doesn't take probiotics regularly. I buy

Solaray Bifidobacterium for the baby's formula and I have given him

that, otherwise we don't have anything else. He sometimes will drink

smoothies and I can hide yogurt in there, but that's about it. I

bought him some stoneyfield yobaby yogurts but he has since decided he

doesn't like them that much. Uhg. Can you recommend a good probiotic

for him?

> Does your husband have any symptoms of ill health/candida?

My husband is seemingly healthy. He doesn't get sick very often, no

stomach troubles. He does have terrible looking teeth and lots of

cavities. He has also been hospitalized once with atrial fibrillation

at age 24. I'm just waiting for his diet to catch up to him one of

these days. So other than the speech difficulty, there's nothing

bothering him enough to try anything different. I'm really anxious to

get the book and try to convince him to give it a go. I'm a little

worried about all of us doing it at the same time. All the die off

symptoms at once, we might kill each other!

Thanks again for replying!

Christy

[Guest guest]

Hi Christy,

First, you should be commended for your desire to do something differently, with three children under 5, that is saying something! It is very difficult to swim against the mainstream, I sometimes wish I didn't know all that I know!

I mostly wanted to respond on the topic of picky eaters, because I have one too. Fortunately, I had already discovered WAPF by the time he came along, so he never was exposed to things like waffles and mac n' cheese... I think you have a wonderful opportunity, with children so young, to reshape their taste buds before their habits get too entrenched. The most important step, for me, is simply not to have those things in the house. At all. You can give your son choices, but make sure they are all within the range of the acceptable. I don't know of any picky eaters who have ever actually starved, sooner or later they are going to get hungry! My picky eater will skip dinner sometimes when it's not to his liking, and then just eats extra eggs or whatever the next day, and seems to be none the worse for it. He is not fond of veggies either (he's also 4), there are only about 3 that he will eat!

Regarding meats and soups, I don't know if this would work for your son, but both my boys absolutely love anything that is stewed slowly either in a crockpot or in the oven. Pot roasts, short ribs, beef shanks, etc., cooked with beef broth, are always huge hits, I think because the meat gets so tender that there are no chewiness issues. My older son also loves any kind of soup with butternut squash, if you puree it, it's hard to go wrong with that. (Although my picky eater will only grudgingly eat it!) Just try to make it as tasty as you can - eventually, I think delicious food speaks for itself, especially after kids have been weaned off of all the addictive foods like pasta and waffles.

Best of luck to you.

[ ] Introduction....Kinda long

..

[Guest guest]

doesn't like them that much. Uhg. Can you recommend a good probiotic

for him?The only ones I recommend are Biokult (first) then Threelac or Fivelac. I personally think Biokult is best (it has 10x more organisms).Some people take Garden of Life Primal Defense -- I don't know about them. We are taking Biokult. Many of the HFS brands are completely ineffective. I have taken some HFS brands with NO reduction in symptoms -- then switched to Threelac and my symptoms cleared up in 3 days.

I've written extensively on this topic before on DNT and Native Nutrition -- you can search Onibasu. I'll try to dig up that email I sent as well.

[Guest guest]

My next concern is my husband. He has a terrible diet. He eats processed food all day long.

Frozen waffles for breakfast, microwavable

sausage, micro dinners for lunch at work. Pop tarts and commercial granola bars for snacks. He will

then eat whatever I make for

dinner. He hates drinking water and either has pasteurized milk or tea with his meals. He

has always struggled with stuttering. I think he would almost do anything to cure his stutter

including change his

diet. Has anyone noticed a difference in speech problems after gut healing?

I don’t have much advice for a 4 yo as mine are all teens,

but I do have some suggestions for the husband aspect. A little history of

mine: He grew up with 2 brothers and a single father. They would go grocery

shopping every week and spend about $600-700 on each trip, getting the types of

food that would last about 4 days! Well, as you can imagine, he was a very

malnourished little guy growing up. As a result he wants that type of food in

the house. He is also a computer guy so he eats out at restaurants during

the day. I am learning that if I can’t change his eating habits (at least

not all at once), I substitute as best I can. For example; organic white rice

instead of the instant or other rice as he won’t eat brown, crispy nuts

instead of the canned nuts (I have stored them in the cans though!), grass fed

meats instead of the meats at the store, raw milk instead of grocery store milk

(skimmed yourself if he doesn’t do whole), better granola bars (have made

my own!), well, you get the idea.

I get up with him for breakfast and so

while he is in the shower, I cook up something for him – usually eggs

(pastured, of course) with a meat such as preservative-free bacon, steak from a

grass fed cow or something like that. He doesn’t like grains for

breakfast so oatmeal and toast are out of the question. Coffee is an absolute;

I don’t have a choice on that one. So I use organic coffee and organic, pasteurized

– not ultra – half-n-half for his coffee. I also purchase organic

cane sugar from our local Costco and use that.

Well, you get the basic idea. Most of

the foods out there can be subbed with an organic version or a much healthier

version. It may be worth a try.

Chrissie