Francesca is still on it. I am not.
She is still doing wonderfully. Along with a total of 32 oz of broth throughout the day, she had meatballs, ghee, fermented juice, tea, lemon and honey, snowballs and a glass of vegetable juice. She then asked if she could go on to Stage 3 tomorrow. I know she’s moving fast (only 2 days on each stage so far) but I saw no reason for her not to. And other than still missing fruit, she is as healthy and active as she has always been.
The reason I mention this is because I’ve read a handful of testimonials about children really struggling with this diet at first. Parents have written about episodes of lethargy, vomiting, fevers, refusing to eat, etc. I knew if that started, I wouldn’t be able to allow her to continue. No judgement from me for those parents who do, because their children were also suffering from other ailments and why they started the GAPS protocol to begin with. And these are common withdrawal symptoms of children that regularly eat processed foods, grain and sugar. I commend these parents for taking this brave step in trying to help heal their children’s digestive systems. 💕
As for me … 😔 … I woke up still not sure what to do. My chest was still in pain and now I had pain alternating between my stomach and gallbladder. The same thing happened last year. 😭 I started again with lemon water. No change. I then decided to have 3 eggs cooked in ghee. (This is allowed in Full GAPS but not Intro GAPS.) It helped. Afterwards I had ginger tea but didn’t know where to go from there. Thought about it, prayed about it and then by mid afternoon decided to have some yogurt with banana. This is my homemade yogurt I make from raw milk and I blended it with a spotty ripe banana, also both allowed on Full GAPS. Later on I had another cup of tea and more coconut oil.
And that’s it. That’s all I ate the whole day. The pain started to calm down but this isn’t ordinary pain. It’s the type that comes and goes in waves and when it goes, it’s never completely gone. So Intro GAPS and I have sadly parted. How I feel now and with all the research I’ve done, which I will write about in my next post, I’ve decided not to continue. And as much as this gut healing protocol has worked for many other people, if you find yourself in a similar situation as me, I suggest you don’t push through it as you can cause some serious damage to your digestive system. Rare, but possible.
Dr. Campbell-McBride even says similar words quite frequently in her book. She also writes that some of us thrive on carbs, some of us thrive on proteins and some of us thrive on a mix of both.
“We are all different; every one of us is a unique individual. Not only do we look different on the outside, but just as equally we have different metabolisms, biochemistry and even some anatomy on the inside. So, ‘one size fits all’ never works!”
Dr. Campbell-McBride
To better understand our nutritional needs, we need to look at a handful of things that are unique to ourselves because each of us is like no other person. This includes our heritage (people we descend from), our blood type, our metabolic type, our past surgeries and illnesses, our gene markers and the obvious one, our taste in foods! 😄 All of which I will write about in my next post. I’m going to share my own personal history to hopefully help others on a similar journey to heal their digestive system.
Today would have been Day 5 as I type this and just wanted to reassure everyone that I am doing MUCH better. So thankful!
P.S. This will be my last post on the GAPS diet unless anyone would like an update on Francesca, my 11yo, who is currently in Stage 3 Day 5 today and still going strong. 💪 🥰
Such a common sense approach. Although I don’t know anything about this diet, your approach is very sensible deciding to stop. We have to listen to our body. Thanks for writing.
Susan
Hello Mrs. David!! So wonderful to see you here. 😍
I’m sorry it didn’t work out for you. Did you hear about Ayurvedic body types? It says exactly what Dr. Campbell-McBride says. Everyone is different and have nutritional needs.
Also, do you take binders like activated charcoal? It will help with the detox symptoms. Epsom salt bath helps with detox symptoms as well.
Did you look into parasites? That was my first thought when I read about your pains.
I like Dr. Jess MD on instagram; Stephen Cabral podcast and books and David Perlmutter books.
Have you ever been on elimination diet?
I haven’t heard about Ayurvedic body types but yes to charcoal and epsom salt baths. I’ve also tried a couple of different anti-parasite supplements. And yes, to elimination. It was one of the first things I tried many moons ago.
I’m so glad you are feeling better! One of the biggest benefits of the intro is the ability to determine what your body specifically can handle, and you are already so in tune with your body!
A few thoughts about the meat stock. Are you cooking it only a couple hours? Are you using high quality stainless steel? Also, are you making it in a pressure cooker?
My fourth child has had major digestive issues, and since my first born healed so well with GAPS I started adding more broth to his diet. His skin issues flared up severely, and after research I found it is higher in histamines when cooked under the pressure.
I asked about the metal in your pots because I was more sensitive to metals before my heavy metal detox. I also saw the video where you and Joe tried the spoons and they were definitely magnetized!
Francesca is so impressive! I have a soon to be 11 year old daughter as well, and I suspect they would get along well! I’ll be praying for clarity and healing for you!
Yes, only simmered it a short while. Yes, quality stainless steel. No, not using a pressure cooker. I don’t believe it had to do with the way I made it or what I used and instead had to do with my individual genetic makeup. I go into much further detail in my follow-up post you can read here: Finding Your Healing Foods.
GAPS never worked for me because all of the foods were so high in histamine. I have struggled with horrible gallbladder and central stomach pain for years, and doctors cannot find the cause.
I do know that high histamine foods cause pain. The worst offenders for me are eggs, beef (it’s aged), raw milk, almonds, yogurt, and certain probiotics. Bone broth is also very high in histamines, and I react poorly to it.
I’ve found that if I avoid high-histamine foods, the pain is almost non-existent.
Also, high oxalate foods cause me pain.
I do hope you find some relief. One thing that has consistently helped is red raspberry leaf. It makes my gallbladder pain go away almost immediately (it makes me wonder if it’s not hormone related).