GAPS Diet: Day 3 Stage 1

We had a great day today!  We ended up not adding egg yolk at all today because it just didn't happen somehow and before dinner I decided we would just wait to add them tomorrow.  This way we will all add the yolk in at the same time.  I continue to pray that Genevieve will have little to no reaction.  Watching her face swell before was not fun.  I plan to give her about a dropper full only in her soup.  The energy level was great in the house today and we are ready to continue on this journey.  Colin had a little cheat today with an organic hot dog but I'm gonna let it slide because this is not easy!

Geneveive had a few minor flares with her face but overall it reacted pretty well to the foods she had today.  I think it acts up when I put coconut oil on a veggie.  Coconut oil is not high in histamine so I do not know what is causing it. (And technically you aren't even supposed to add in coconut oil to stage 1 but I am not looking for perfection here. I have to fill my kids up somehow!) One more tidbit about Genevieve today, she easily ate a gallon of soup by herself (absolutely no exaggeration) along with all her veggies and meats.  She eats more than Tim and I on a daily basis and it has been no different the past few days.  I just love her ferocious appetite but I'm also curious if she's possibly not assimilating the nutrients as well as she could (she always has tons of undigested foods in her bowels) and wondering if her appetite may possibly decrease a little once we are done with all of this.

Unfortunately, Colin's face began acting up more than ever today.  It was actually his red cheeks that got me to look into food intolerances a year ago.  We took Colin to several pediatricians about his cheeks and each said it was "just some eczema and to put some cream on it."  Knowing me, you know that is not a solution I would accept!  It's just in my nature my whole life to ask, "Why?" I ending up reading a lot about milk causing eczema on the cheeks and thus took Colin's beloved milk out of his diet.  It did seem to decrease his rosy (sometimes rough) cheeks quite significantly and so I have not added milk back in his diet since. Unfortunately, it didn't do anything in the bowel department.  (BTW: I hope we will be a full dairy family once we are done with this!! I love me some cheese and yogurt and so do my kiddos! No vegan here!!).  A lot of  practitioners and families who deal with eczema discuss it getting worse before it gets better when completing GAPS Intro.  I hope this is what is going on and that it is all just part of it getting out of his system.  We have been eating these types of foods for a while now but not so many healing foods at once without any "cheats."(well, ok there was that hot dog today...).  I'm curious to see how Colin's face looks in the morning and wondering what the introduction of the egg yolk will do.

I just love my little babies and I have been so encouraged over the past week. Looking forward to another great day tomorrow.  My sweet Colin asked for gummies and meatballs for his snack at school.

GAPS Diet: Day 2 Stage 1

We made it through our second full day on the introduction phase of the diet!  The kids did great although there was a little more whining for snacks then yesterday.  Tomorrow we add in egg yolk to mine and Colin's soups! I'm really tired so that's it for tonight. :)

GAPS Diet: Day 1 Stage 1

We had our first official day on Stage 1 of the GAPS diet today.  It went great!  Our kids have become really use to eating lots of veggies and soups over the past year that they didn't know the difference between today and just any other day.  Genevieve stood by the pantry a few times saying "nack!nack!" but she quickly got over it and enjoyed any other allowed foods I gave her.  The kids blissfully ate broccoli and chicken for snack...I hope they cooperate just as well tomorrow!

Colin enjoying his homemade turkey sausage for breakfast.

Gummies helped to make the day go by a little easier.  Here is a shot of our big bowl of treats along with a close up of our Spiderman gummies.  I tried to make some for Colin's party and it was a total fail but the ones I have tried since have been awesome!  The key is lots of gelatin!

Speaking of gelatin...it contains histamine...not a whole lot but some and so I have been hesitant about how many gummies I want to allow Genevieve to eat.  I wanted to share something else about the histamine link and when I finally realized it had to be the problem.  Last week I made a soup which the kids enjoyed at breakfast.  Colin fussed because he likes "green soup."  Well in order to make my green soup I have to add spinach or kale.  Flat leaf fresh kale is usually my go to as it seems to bother both of the kids the least but all I had was a frozen power greens bag from costco which included spinach, kale, and chard.  So between breakfast and lunch I added a bunch of this mix to the soup.  I blended it up and the kids loved it.  Genevieve ate a few bowls but after just a few bites the entire bottom part of her face became red and somewhat swollen.  I knew it had to be something from the mix as I had just fed her the soup that morning with no ill effect.  I realized how it had spinach and remembered about spinach being very high in histamine (and just now I realized that chard was in the mix which is also very high in histamine).  Lots of things started to click and it just made sense.  The only food she has eaten that has caused an issue that does not contain histamine are apples.  I am still unsure about this.  Although thinking about it, it may have only been the times she had jarred applesauce which is "old" food and hence would have had time to build up histamines.  When it comes time to add apples I will have to see if there is a difference between the two.  The doctor who developed GAPS claims that the diet will heal histamine intolerance over time.  I hope she is right!

I'm a little nervous for snack time at playgroup tomorrow but I plan to have several gummies and a few other cookie cutter foods to help the kids not mind what the others are eating.  On to Day 2!

UPDATE: Disney World Favorites 2015

More on our Disney World trip to come but for now here's a list of our favorites for this trip. (Updated to include Miss Genevieve!):

GAPS Diet Intro Day

Today was our first day testing out the GAPS Diet Introduction Phase.  We officially start Stage 1 tomorrow!  Today was filled with making both chicken and beef broth and tons of butternut squash.

 I also made about 50 lemon/honey gummies for snacking over the next few weeks. For dinner, I spiced things up by using cookie cutters on the butternut squash to make snowmen and then dinosaurs for the kids.

So why Stage 1 now?  We are tired of trying to figure out what foods Genevieve can eat and what she can't eat.  It's time for an elimination type diet and GAPS helps you do this in a systematic way.  For a while now I have wondered if Genevieve may be suffering from Histamine Intolerance.  She can't even look at a pickle without her face turning red and swelling.  She also seems to react to foods that aren't even terribly high in histamine but still contain it like green peas.  I had no idea green peas were even a histamine food since I hadn't seen it on the few lists I've looked at.  After eating peas as a snack with nothing else today her face became red and itchy.  I investigated histamine foods some more and found the following very detailed list which includes a histamine number for all major foods.  Peas are only a 1 on a scale of 0-3 however they were enough to cause a reaction. So at this point we have to eliminate all high histamine foods as we go through the GAPS introduction.  One thing that makes things difficult is that fact that leftovers are high in histamine.  With little ones its nearly impossible make all foods fresh.  I am hoping by eliminating all of the trigger foods this won't matter as much.

In addition to helping Genevieve, we know that both Colin and I can use more healing. We have improved a lot over the past year with all of our diet changes but I would really like to be able to eat whatever we want with little side effects.  I am hopeful after all this we can eat rice and bread with no ill effects and maybe even have dessert after dinner and still fall asleep at a decent time.

I'm hoping our first official day goes well tomorrow!