Stage three

It has taken us a while to get here but Beth is now on Stage three of the Gaps diet Intro.  As well as broth and soup and casseroles (aren’t they really the same thing with extra ingredients and different levels of liquidity), yoghurt and honey she can have avocado, pancakes and eggs scrambled in Ghee.

Her appetite has really picked up and this is barely enough for her to eat so we will hopefully whizz through this onto stage four.  

Stage four adds roasted and grilled meat but for some reason not fried or barbecued, cold pressed olive oil and pressed juices which I am really looking forward to.  I could have them any time but fitting them in when I don’t have to doesn’t happen at the moment.   Also almond bread starting with a tiny bit.  That sounds a lot more substantial but a even more hard work but the diet is working beautifully, the hollow eyes and pale complexion and lack of energy have been transformed to pink cheeks and bounciness.

So tired

It is remorseless and never ending, cooking and washing and heating and more shopping, it has got to get easier.  I am abandoning the pots in a a sink of soapy water and will deal with them when I get back from a gym group Beth is trying out tomorrow afternoon.  I should have prepared for that down to the tiniest detail so my ADHD can't catch me out but I am just too tired, I have the address, have looked at the route and know I need 45 minutes to get there, that will have to do.  Fingers crossed my disability with time doesn't trip me up tomorrow.

Anyway some of the veg I am chopping is fascinating, this is Romanesque Cauliflower.

I have made Kefir cream cheese and whey.

And avoiding plastic is forcing me to use some of my lovely glass.

And Beth has moved on to intro stage 3 and can have pancakes, these are made with raw squash, two eggs and almond butter whizzed in the food processer till smooth.  I don't really enjoy pancakes but these were at least as nice as traditional ones and didn't sit heavily on the stomach as they do, eaten with home made yoghurt and honey.  Beth has another food item which she loves.

So much chopping

And cooking and straining and shopping!

Frosty walk along the canal

It was funny at first

About six months ago Beth made profiteroles; they were delicious and we both over indulged a little.  I got away with it but Beth started the loudest burping I have ever heard, and this went on for the rest of the day and the bulk of the next.  I am afraid I laughed, it was startling and dramatic.

From then on whenever she ate something with even the tiniest bit sugar in the same thing happened and it was accompanied by stomach pain.   Reluctantly, as you can imagine with a 13 year old girl, she gave up sugar.  It is very surprising what has sugar in it and there were very few things we could buy, including most sliced meats.
So all was fine for a few months then she started reacting to all food, we found that two of three quality probiotics after the meal calmed things down and we continued like this for a month or two.  Then that stopped working so we gave her Andrews (totally the wrong thing as we were to learn).  She was able to eat without pain or burping as long as we always had this with us and then that stopped working. 

We were all very concerned by this time and dh suggested going to the GP, after I laughed I said he could take her if he liked and they came back with a bottle of gaviscon.  Who doesn’t hate that if they have ever been pregnant!  Surprise surprise that didn’t work.
I have been interested in diet and food for a very long time and had done the Candida diet at the beginning of 2011 to help with my hypothyroid so a bit of research suggested low stomach acid, hence the inappropriateness of the Andrews. 

Soooo Betaine HCL was bought and enzymes.   This helped.  But again only for a short time.  Hot baths were added for relaxation plus chewing gum.  If she chewed this all the time then the stomach was calmed and the burping controlled.  This swapped stomach pain for aching jaws though so not a permanent solution.

Then, of course, this stopped working and I was forced into more research.  I had heard of the Gaps diet on many of the special needs and neurodiversity forums I have been on for years.  It had piqued my interest and also my fears.  Fears of not being able to understand a word, medicine and nutrition have their own language which is often confusing.  Human beings are complicated and the explanations of conditions and solutions are often so complex as to be overwhelming.

But there seemed to be no other reasonable solution, going the NHS route would probably take years and involve unpleasant and counter productive medication and tests so I took the plunge and bought the book.

To my delight and relief it was simple to read and explained an awful lot about what Beth was going through and why the diet my son was on for food intolerances many years ago had been so difficult for him to comply with.  I had spent years feeling guilty that he reacted to all the “healthy” foods I had insisted he ate as a young child.  How can anyone react to lentils and coriander!

to be continued ............