Diary of putting my family on the RAPH diet

[kim&savannah]

I think my kids would REALLY struggle with the grain free part.  I guess because they are older, it would also make it that much harder.  They wouldn't stop asking after 2 days.

Speaking of weird foods toddlers will eat, until Savannah was 18 months old, her breakfast was usually a mixed grain hot cereal with spinach and prunes mixed in. Then she noticed that Daddy put brown sugar on his oatmeal and it was all over from there.  Good run while we had it.

So, over the last week or so, Henry has gotten increasingly hard to put down for bed, and today he fought naps as well!  I'm thinking its probably a coincidence and not something to do with the diet.  I know the 4 month mark can be rough, but this is really getting so discouraging.  We had more mucous later today.  Oh, and I am stopping his probiotic because there is FOS and GOS in it (maybe that has something to do with him crying for almost 2 hours last night at bedtime--I read that it can cause gas).  I'm really bugged that I didn't notice that on the label when I was looking at them, but it wasn't with the other ingredients and I didn't even look at the list of probiotics in it because I assumed they were all okay, just checked the "other" part of the label.  the ones I got for me are okay, I think, so I'll still keep taking those--will he get any through bfing?

This feels so hard.  I find myself second guessing everything I do.  Tonight, he had a little diaper rash on his lower belly and I went to put something on it, and realized that I had no idea what was okay to use, so in desperation, I just rubbed some safflower oil on it--no idea if it will help the rash at all, but I figure if we can eat it, then it shouldn't have anything in it to make his gut sick.

And I keep going back and forth on making the other 2 kids try this as well.  I'll start to chicken out, and then one of them will throw a tantrum about something ridiculous and I'll think that it will all be worth it if any of their irrational emotional issues would actually be helped by this.  Although I do feel that the RPAH diet is not really healthy, so I would hope that it wouldn't take long to know, one way or the other, because I hate to cut out all their favorite fruits and veggies for very long.

I'm curious--I know a lot of you have your whole families eating this way.  Is there anyone else who is doing this on their own and still having to cook "normal" foods for your family?  Does it ever get easier?  I think if I just didn't have to deal with any other foods than what I'm allowed to eat, it wouldn't be quite so tempting to cheat.  I haven't yet, but the pizza at dinner tonight was really tough to handle.  Luckily I KNOW that dairy bothers Henry, so I couldn't have had it anyway, so I was able to resist.  And I had to make a cake for a baby shower I'm co-hosting tomorrow (which will be at a restaurant where I can only eat the plain rice--no fun.)  Smelling that chocolate is making me feel very weak.  I don't remember the last time I've been 2 weeks without chocolate.  

My hats off to all you ladies who have stuck with this for long enough to see something happen.  I'm ready to throw the towel in on a regular basis.  But then I think of the wasted 2 weeks and I make it through one more meal.

[kim&savannah]

Rebecca, you got me all excited when I saw the recipe, and then I realized that I still can't have egg.  Bummer.  I'll have to remember that though when I start testing things and hopefully can add egg back in.

[tigerlilly905]

Awww, sweets, sorry! It's sooo hard when eggs are out! Egg was one of the first things I added back actually. Thank goodness!! I was 3 weeks egg free and loosing my mind

On the probiotic, I think I might have PM'd you these, but I 'can't remember totally: http://www.amazon.com/BioGaia-liquid-L-Reuteri-probiotic-cultured/dp/B001TLPJPU/ref=pd_sbs_hpc_3 These could work for Henry.  We're using them now for Arthur. The probiotic strain is highly compatible with infants.  As for probiotics through bm, whatever you are taking, I don't think it can travel through into your milk. BM however does have naturally occuring probiotics, from my understanding. It's just that these little ones need the extra to help heal their gut, kwim?  If you are ordering online, I would suggest you contact whoever is shipping to be sure they are shipped fairly quickly w/ freezer packs to keep the cultures at optimum level.

I wish I could help you with getting your family on board. It must be sooo hard. Like I said, I guess I'm lucky my toddler is just too young to put up much of a fuss. If it's not in the house, he won't eat it, kwim? Hopefully these ladies will have some words of wisdom for you. I can just offer more ((hugs)) You're doing an amazing thing for Henry's health!!

[EloysH]

Rebecca, that low chemical grain free breakfast looks awesome  

Kai would eat it for sure.

I think you ladies would really be interested in this organisation "MINDD" - nit is Australian based, but the information on this website and treatment of conditions is cutting edge.  Sheery,l I think you woudl be especially be interested.

We have booked in with a MINDD endorsed BIOMED Dr, he will evaluate Kais stool sample analysis  - for his gut health (good bad bacteria balance) and make recommendations.


Keep up the good work KIM!  Just try and get through one day at a time, one day soon you will reach 4 weeks.     The poos will go good and bad... it's more important as to what they are like when you get to the 4 week mark.   If there is some leaky gut going on however, you my need to take some supplements to help heal bubs gut... a naturopath would be a great support for you in that respect.

I ended up making the same dinners for everyone in the family most of the time. So yes, they ate failsafe to a degree. I didn't push the envoleop by serving them things that I loved like pizza.  I would ask my DH to eat take-away out of the house if he had to and take DS with him to go eat that sort of food as I felt it wasn't fair on me.  And he was happy to do that.     I would let my DS eat his normal breakfast and lunch as I found 2-3 different meals at those timesof the day easy to handle.  However when it came to dinners, I found it extremely hard to make more than one meal. So I would make a roast dinner in the way that suited my diet and with veges that I was allowed to eat for instance.  So when we came off the diet when DS2 was 123 months, my poor DH was pretty excited and my DS1 eating range was narrowed somewhat.  So it did have some long term impacts, but nothing that can't be fixed with time  

[tigerlilly905]

Hey ladies, I know you are all as passionate about real food as I am, maybe you can chime in?  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=217108.0   I'm so busy with the kids, but I'm feeling the urge to do something more. Genetically Modified foods are getting bigger and bigger.. and I can't just sit back and let it happen. I'm only one person. I just wish there were more things I could to...but I think together we can make a difference

[sherry lynn]

Kim - you might be able to use egg replacer for that crepes recipe?

Elo - I'll have to have a look at that link. Remind me if I forget   Let us know how the appointment goes.

[kim&savannah]

Eloys--hope to hear good news from your appt! 

Well, I think we're geared up to start this as a family.  I'm not removing gluten or dairy from the kids (or eggs) for now, although Abe would probably benefit from that, but I just feel like it would be too extreme and they are already not too happy with me doing this.  So I'm still going to have to cook foods that I can't have, but at least it should be a little better, and hopefully in the next week or two, I'll be able to add grains back in, although our poops have been pretty bad the last 2 days, so I'm not feeling like we're any closer to baseline.

Can you ladies help me out--I started a thread on probiotics here  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=217281.0

I'm hoping to find one I can get locally so I don't have to chance the shipping and it coming not cold.

Thanks!

~Kim

[tigerlilly905]

Glad to hear your whole family will be on board Kim. I put my 2 cents on your thread.. xox

[huntersmummyinoz]

hi ladies

sherry, how r things going? any more successful challenges?

little K is travelling along ok. was going to do proprionates and annatto challenges this week but he has broken out in a rash on his face for the last week. think i'm going to have to cut the carrot and bok choy out for a couple of weeks and see if that is the culprit, sigh, just when i thought he was on unlimited moderate sals. tho i think his 2yo molars could be on the move too.

kim, i didnt put my whole family on the diet although i do plan at least 50% of our meals to be failsafe tho. and the ones that arent usually involve making a variation of the same meal for ds2 so that it at least looks like our food anyway. i have found our eating range has changed quite a bit so have to take care not to get bored with the same old foods all the time. i was on the diet for 5mths and it was very challenging making diff meals for everyone, lots and lots of roasts as elo said! you can do a lot of things like using gluten free grains for yourself and others for the rest of the family, also i would often start a meal with the same base and then remove my portion (these days remove ds2s portion) and add failsafe stock or sauce and my allowed veggies to mine and then the high sal stuff to everyone elses. to help ds1 not miss out so much, DH would have a 'special dinner' with him once a week that might be take away or tacos or something that ds1 chose and they sat at the kiddy table to eat that in a diff part of the house while ds2 and i had our dinner. we still do this now but i get to join in too and i make sure to make ds2's favourite foods that night too. i found the first month the hardest, then it really didnt bother me so much as i'd found good substitutes (except for cheese, that was hard as there's no good sub for that!) and treats that i could have when others were eating something i couldnt. tho i didnt have to go as strict whilst bfing as some and got baseline pretty quickly, ds2 is still on much of the diet tho so i'm always conscious of him feeling like he is missing out. oh, and for pizza, potato and leek pizza on gf base tastes amazing when u havent had pizza in ages!! good luck hun, hang in there and hope u get baseline soon.

[kim&savannah]

We saw the ped. today--I updated here:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=217177.0 

And as far as my family going on this diet--not going so well   We've had so many things come up this week that I haven't even been able to implement it fully (snacks offered at school, playdates afterschool at other peoples houses when I'm not there, dinner out this weekend).  So I decided we'd ease in--no packaged, premade foods, but I wouldn't worry about the natural chemicals.  So I made homemade bread, and muffins and things to have on hand, and I thought I explained it to DH,  but I come down this a.m. and he's made the kids french toast (great!), and is serving it up with a can of whipping cream and artificial syrup with HFCS in it, and he'd made OJ, which I was trying to avoid as well, even though its just 100% juice, but I was cutting back on the fruits and veggies that won't be allowed and had told the kids no more juice for a few weeks.  Guess that's why you are supposed to throw all that stuff out, but DH loves it and while he said he would go along with family meals, he's not going to stop eating this stuff, even during the short trial i want to do with the kids, so the stuff will be around.  Obviously I need to explain it a little better to him so he'll know what is off limits.

[sherry lynn]

Kirry - we are doing the Amines challenge right now. I think we might do the annato at some point. I'm not sure about proprionates because I'm pretty sure they are a problem.

Hugs Kim. I'll try to look at your post the next day or so. Work is crazy busy right now.

[deb]

Oh, ugh at the school snacks! One of my pet peeves. Do get them on board ASAP, have a doctor's note if you can get one to back you up. My younger DD is in a class with a severely nut-allergic child and each child washes hands before even entering the classroom from anywhere else, and the teacher has decided NO snacks AT ALL this year to avoid any issues, not even for Halloween or Valentine's Day. I was ECSTATIC because it meant a load of my mind for one of my kids at least - someone else had done the work for me in that regard.

[EloysH]

Best of luck with the Amine challenge Sherry.   I hope they pass. 

I thought you would be interested to see the test we are getting done for Kai.  I can imagine it might be helpful for Lyle of you have access to this type of testing.  This is the stool sample analysis for good/bad gut bacteria, and the link explains briefly how this can contribute to a wide range of dieases including food intolerance and also autism, sensory dissues and ADHD.  It is all very new research, but studies are continuing along with Melbourne University and this laboratory.   My Dr says he has improved may of his patients food intolerance and autsim by putting the gut bacteria back into balance.
 
more explanation here:
http://www.bioscreen.com.au/About-bioscreen.htm

[hrk]

Thanks for the idea for the rice noodles.  I will give that a try.  :-)

Sher, I have been able to whittle down H's milk a bit more by using cups that nicely fits only 4-5 ozs.  Then we are able to keep our 4 "servings" of milk per day.  I am still doing yogurt either in his smoothie or as a side dish with other food.  He also has cheeses.  That is our update there. 

Is gaps a pretty meaty way of eating?  By looking at the breakfasts on that previous link, I wouldn't think so.  But by reading the general info, it seems pretty meaty.  Not that I wouldn't cook that way for the others here (we are all about "customization" here, lol), but it may take a bit of tweaking for all of us to be happy.  ;-)

[kim&savannah]

we had our GI appt today.  Not the most positive experience.  I posted over here:  http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=217737.0;topicseen

I may be looking for another dr. soon, but we'll wait to see what the results are from the bloodwork and stool sample.  I was really hopeful when they brought in a nutritionist--figured someone on my side to talk about my diet and what else I could try, but the big push was for formula. 

So its been 4 weeks, still tons of mucous--I'm switching to the GAPS type diet and we'll see if that helps at all. 

Jean, it does look pretty meaty.  My mom eats a similar type diet and that has always bothered me about meals with her.  But you can have some beans, nuts and if you don't have dairy issues, then dairy.  That opens up a lot of non-meat meals.  I'm going to have a little more limited diet since I can't have dairy or soy, but I think with adding eggs and fish back in, I'll be okay.  I had eggs with guacamole for lunch and am having salmon for dinner--figure I need to get all those healthy fats back in my diet to see if my milk might get fattier and help out poor Henry.