18 months of GAPS

In November of 2009 my family began the GAPS diet. It wasn’t a good time, but little J’s health had gotten to a crisis point and we needed to do something. No more waiting and hoping she would get better soon. She was scheduled for an upper GI in 3 weeks and if she was positive for ee (it was expected that she was) the recomendation was going to be to put her on an elemental formula exclusively. We were already on a very restrictive elemination diet for her so I didn’t think doing GAPS would be that different. My hopes weren’t all that high and yet I didn’t feel like I had anywhere else to turn. I had nothing to lose and a lot to gain if it worked. Her scope showed no eosinophils so we were off the hook. We will never know if this was because of the skill of her GI (they can be difficult to find), her 3 weeks of GAPS or because she didn’t actually have EE. Once comitted however we couldn’t quit GAPS, plus we were hopeful we would find healing for the long standing issues that each of us in the family had. And we didn’t know but that she only scoped clean because of the GAPS diet so we didn’t dare change anything.

I won’t lie. It was rough, esp at first and from time to time it gets rough again. We call that “die off”. It is when the body and gut is healing and reshifting it’s percentage of good and bad “bugs”. This causes symptoms that aren’t pleasant. Also when the detox systems of the body works and the body starts to release toxins from were they were stored negative symptoms can emerge. Usually at the end of these periods of die off and detox we see greater improvement in health, cognitive process, behavior, mood, and tolerance of foods. It is good but every time in the midst of it I think “what have I done wrong! How can I fix this!” Then we come out the other side and I see so much progress it takes my breath away.

Following GAPS we have healed many food intolerances. Eggs and dairy in my children are the biggies. Being able to eat those foods again have made a huge difference for both of my girls. W has a problem with high sulfur foods and after 6 months or so on a low sulfur diet now only has to limit her intake of garlic at this point (trust me it is a long list of foods that have high sulfur content). Everything else can be enjoyed in unlimited quantities! This from not being able to have any ever just last fall without major meltdowns and painful eczema flares. Little J was getting painful reflux from eggs and dairy and can now enjoy them in unlimeted quantities as well. She has a problem with high oxalate foods (as do I) and we are still working on that one although we at least see a reduction in symptoms with the elimination of high oxalate foods. We are hopeful that in the future we will restore our gut to proper functioning in reguards to these foods so that they will no longer pose a problem for us.

As for behaviors. W has sensory issues as well as AD/HD behaviors. She has mild dyslexia that was making it difficult for her to learn how to read and write. She also has some anxiety issues and oppositional issues. Her AD/HD was making it hard for her to focus her attention on anything for very long. Her sensory issues caused her to behave inappropriately at times. She often argued with us over simple instructions or doing her daily chores. We have just come through a wave of die off an now she is reading all the time, outloud and silently to herself. She writes for pleasure and even makes fancy letters. More and more often they are all facing the right way. Yesterday I interrupted her to ask her to do a chore and she happily stopped what she was doing to run and do that for me. She is begining to organize her things and clean up after herself. She has learned to ride her bike (thanks to her grandfather) and now rides it with pleasure. It took a willingness to fall down and keeping at it to learn to ride her bike. In the past she would just give up if she couldn’t get it right on the first try. Now she keeps working at things. Her creative energy is exploding from her lately. She produces stacks of artwork daily. She has also taught herself to sew and makes pillows spending hours at a time working on it. My first clue that this was shifting was shortly before Christmas 2010 when she taught herself how to finger knit (while I was napping) and proceeded to finger knit many long chains before this phase ended. I had tried in the past and she just couldn’t keep her focus long enough to really understand it and stick with it more than a couple of rows.

Little J is very different from her sister. She doesn’t appear to have any AD/HD tendencies and her main sensory type issue is low tone. That has improved a lot on GAPS although it comes back with die off. Since we have solved her reflux she is a much happier child (although she has her moments, she is 3 after all) We can tell there is still healing to be done. Her arms and legs have filled out and are no longer super skinny like they were but her belly is still distended and she has a limited diet because of food reactions. Her chronic constipation is also resolved and that too makes her a much happier child.

One other healing aspect that we have seen is a huge reduction in the numbers of colds and other illnesses in all of us. My children used to get sick constantly. Little J had 1-2 illnessed each winter that were scary she was so ill. She did get very ill just a few months after we started GAPS. The sickest we have ever seen her. But now she rarely gets ill and when she does no longer has those super high temperatures and trouble breathing like she used to have. For all of us we notice that our immune systems are working better in general.

The rest of us are lagging behind W in the healing but I know we will get there sooner or later. She is my inspiration these days.

If you are on the fence about GAPS and wondering if it is worth it I will say that yes it is worth it. But it is not a quick fix or an overnight change. You may see worse before you see better. It might even be a lot worse. I am hopeful that we are halfway through our time of being strictly on this diet but it is hard to say. The Dr who put this program together said that the average is 2-2.5 years before begining to transition off of GAPS. Some are done sooner while others take much longer. And of course returning to the way you were eating before will simply return your gut to the dysfunction it was in before and all the old symptoms will come back. The health giving aspects of this way of eating need to be a part of your life forever but with time you can relax and not do all of them every day. Thankfully they are health giving for everyone, GAPS patients or not. The typical daily fare of most Americans isn’t health giving. It may give you the calories you need to survive but it rarely includes the nutrients needed to thrive and mainting vibrant health.

Of course I am still fighting my chronic Lyme and I can only assume the girls are also. This spring has brought a resurgence of symptoms for me that I hope are a sign that my immune system is working hard to eliminate the Lyme but I won’t know till it is over. We have added therapies, herbs, drugs etc to this diet as we have gotten test results that showed them to be necessary and they have helped us move toward healing but with the diet as the foundation healing is so much easier. Some are able to follow the GAPS diet and heal long standing infections, autism, seisures, and food allergies without adding anything to it. And for some it takes the diet + other interventions.