Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) Support thread

[Erin M]

Go Jenn!
(I'll be your cheering section!)

[bjutka1]

Julia is getting from bad to worse. I just don't undestand what's going on. She was doing SO much better before we intoduced the probiotics, but she is worse than ever now, even though I stopped giving it to her on Monday.

She has terrible tummy pains,wind and diarrhoea that soaks into the nappy with undigested food bits through it.

Megan, you were saying that Milo couldn't handle probiotics? Is this how he reacted? How long after you stopped the probiotics that he was better again.

We are going to see a regular doc this afternoon. I think they will suggest taking her back to just elemental formula. They were going to do this but I wanted to try GAPS first.

[tigerlilly905]

((hugs)) Jutka.  I wish I knew what else to say ...

What would a regular doc suggest to do about the parasites, fungus, bad bacteria she seems to be presenting with in the stool test I wonder?

GO JENN!!! So exciting! Sound like you're uber prepared! I'm cheering you on too!!  Oh, and I was thinking... once you get to the point where you can give Emily FCLO you probably won't have to supplement her with the Ddrops since the FCLO is extremely high in Vit D & Vit A.  That could help cut down on the supplements cost a wee bit.

Thanks for the support RE bone broth! I have to admit, these small accomplishments really are motivating. I was starting to feel a bit discourage - as if Arthur would have to be EBF'ed until he was like 5!! LOL! Even just a wee bit of progress is amazing!! Going to try for even more bone broth today. I'm hoping his poops are still pretty cosistent even with the extra broth. We shall see...

[tigerlilly905]

How did things go at the Drs, Jutka? Is Julia feeling any better?

How's your first couple of days going full gaps Jenn?

Arthur seems to be doing quite well with the soup stock now!! YEA!! He managed about 1/2 cup total yesterday drank throughout the day. Today was a bit less, but that's still progress I'm offering the broth from "breakfast", "lunch", and "dinner". I think if we get a good week+ of just the broth in him I may try with some livers again or maybe some juiced carrots, not sure

I gave him 1/2 a capsule of the vital immune klaire labs probiotic yesterday to add to our supplement regime. He had no problems with it so today I gave him the full capsule. Probably too early to tell if it's doing anything, but it's getting in his system.

This might sound like a funny question, but what's the deal with burps? Good or bad in terms of digestion? Arthur hasn't burped in ages... then yesterday and today he's burped a bit. Not a lot and it's not painful or anything, just a couple burps. I'm wondering if his stomach acid might be revving up? I don't think I read anything about burps in the gaps books.

[tigerlilly905]

Found some great info on FCLO from the WAPF website. If you scroll down, it lists different locations/websites around the world that sell the best types of FCLO http://www.westonaprice.org/cod-liver-oil/cod-liver-oil-basics#brands

[kim&savannah]

Rebecca--from what I understand, probiotics can increase the gas in our systems, so I'd imagine its normal for more burps and passing gas from them.  But I could be totally wrong.

[tigerlilly905]

That makes sense Kim Especially considering he's been burping the past 2 days I've been giving him the extra probiotics.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Thanks for the link about the FCLO! We can actually get Blue Ice FCLO here in our town but I really wanted capsules so I went ahead and ordered the capsules online.

Things are going alright so far. Not my favorite thing in the world, that's for sure, but managing none the less. Ethan was sick yesterday but seems fine today and he is t eating much.

[Erin M]

I wonder who came up with making fermented cod liver oil?  Seems a very unlikely thing to produce for consumption.  Have to assume it was some very healthy indigenous people somewhere who were big on "use every part of the animal".  Sorry for the randomness LOL. 

[tigerlilly905]

I wonder who came up with making fermented cod liver oil?  Seems a very unlikely thing to produce for consumption.  Have to assume it was some very healthy indigenous people somewhere who were big on "use every part of the animal".  Sorry for the randomness LOL. 

LOL! Not even random!! So true!! Learning about all of these traditional healing foods makes me wonder the same too!! It's a shame we've gotten so far away from this form of medicine, especially if it's effective. I mean, it's just so simple sometimes! (but Big Pharma can't make a huge profit on all of these natural remedies of course ) According to NCM, FCLO has been around for centuries - and starting in the 18th century EU doctors started using it as medicine.  Even the Roman Empire used to ferment fish livers for food/medicine.

I've read that the fermentation process itself was discovered by earlier civilizations for food preservation - since there obviously wasn't any refridgerators back then!  Many EU and Russian cultures always used fermented foods to accompany meals for digestive purposes. Unfortunately now, due to the fast pace processed food boom, almost all of these slow fermenting processes get skipped. Also, another reason it gets skipped is uniformity. The traditional fermenting process is somewhat unpredictable, so to make a product the same each time is virtually impossible.  Each batch of sauerkraut I make always comes out a bit different.  I guess from an industry perspective that's not so great, b/c the consumer may not continue to buy your product over and over again if it doesn't taste the same each time, kwim?

Such interesting stuff! 

[bug_blues70]

Jutka - I gave Milo probiotics 1x and he seemed ok that day but his night was absolutely horrible - he was up about every 45 min to an hour and I'm pretty sure it was tummy pain and gas. I didn't give him the probiotics the next day b/c I can't handle nights like that - he's up every 2 hrs on an average night and that's FAR too much. So I ordered the infant probiotics from Klaire Labs and he seems to tolerate those a bit better though he might have gotten a little bit of eczema from them for a day or two (or it could have been b/c of something else)

How is Julia doing now?

[tigerlilly905]

Just got a reply back on the gaps FB thread about Fenugreek:

"fenugreek can cause a big blood sugar drop- so you'd want to be really careful since you'll be dropping carbs on the diet."

Maybe that's why some of you ladies are feeling really hungry after making the dietary changes ... if Fenugreek drops blood sugars and you're already dropping a lot of sugars it could definitely trigger hunger I would think. Hummm...

[tigerlilly905]

So I ordered the infant probiotics from Klaire Labs and he seems to tolerate those a bit better though he might have gotten a little bit of eczema from them for a day or two (or it could have been b/c of something else)

I think the eczema is a normal reaction when first starting probiotics since the gut is still healing.  I'm glad he seems to be tolerating the infant probiotics a bit better  

[bug_blues70]

Maybe that's why some of you ladies are feeling really hungry after making the dietary changes

I'm not taking Fenugreek as it wasn't strong enough for me... I'm taking domperidone. There is also a product called Goat's Rue, which is supposedly stronger than Fenugreek, but the capsules have (non GMO) soy lecithin in them, so if your bub is sensitive to soy, you could check to see if the liquid form has soy in it.

[Jenn+Ethan+Emily]

Thanks for the info Rebecca and Megan!

Love the new avatar Rebecca. I have a VERY similar photo of the four of us except we had been doing photos down by the river beforehand and the photographer never mentioned that our feet were dirty