GAPS Intro Day 1

We did it! We took the plunge! I've been thinking about and analyzing the pros and the cons of GAPS since November. But every time I seriously thought about such a significant alteration in the lives of each and every one of our family members I had this internal dialogue: But it seems so hard! What do you mean I can only eat soup and sauerkraut juice! I can barely get my kids to eat vegetables let alone sour vegetables. And what will we do for snacks? Or at parties? Or while traveling? Where will we go out to eat?

And after coming up with all of these reasons why it was a bad idea (notice none of the reasons have anything to do with health!), I would talk myself out of it and we would choose to make a less extreme dietary change. The first change was that we went from being gluten, casein, soy-free vegetarians to eating meat. We were feeling better, but we're still having many of the same health problems we suffered from before. Next, we went paleo using the thought process that if gluten was problematic then maybe all grains were (they all have similar proteins), and the same for soy and legumes. And boy, did we feel great! Many of our health problems disappeared...for a while. But paleo was just a band aid. It wasn't going to fix the problem. And then, a few weeks ago, I got fed up with all of the health problems, and impulsively, in the course of one morning, put us on the full GAPS diet. And it really helped, so much! But even with that, Grendel's GI symptoms were still making her miserable. So on Wednesday I took away fruit in preparation for today when we started the GAPS Intro diet (which is stricter than full GAPS but only lasts 4-6 weeks, providing gut rest and healing). 

How's it going? It, of course, is too early to see any improvements. The kids both seem to be miserable wrecks as their pathogenic bacteria are dying off and releasing toxins into their bodies (die off started when I took fruit out of their diets, but seems to have hit a new level today). In die off, whatever your specific symptoms are, they tend to get worse before they get better. The kids are irritable, Grendel has been hand flapping and randomly having complete meltdowns, and the Hobbit is having a lot of trouble, as her therapists call it, self regulating (which is just a fancy way to say that she is not adaptable and needs my help almost constantly to calm down about one thing or another). I've been holding her screaming for the past 30 minutes because she is tired and can't figure out how to fall asleep. Grendel is playing quietly in her room for quiet time, but is extremely anxious. And this will probably last for a few days to a few weeks. But ultimately, it's for the greater good. Going gluten free was followed by 5 weeks of gluten withdrawal in Grendel, which was miserable and made her act more Grendel-like, but so beneficial in the end. 

The moral of this story is that I'm glad I started this on a day when Dr. Dad is at home so we can divide and conquer. Or at least split up the kids and survive.