Getting Ready for GAPS

We are getting ready to implement the GAPS diet all the way once school's out (see my previous post about the GAPS book) in hopes that this will help our family with the food sensitivites we've been experiencing as well as the subsequent symptoms as a result. I'm going to do a little symptom tracking here to see where it's bringing about improvements. (Caution: some of these might be TMI for some...but I want to post them anyway in case others are having the same troubles and might not realize that it can be helped...)

My husband may or may not participate in this fully so he may only see slight changes, so I won't be tracking his symptoms much here.

My symptoms in the past have been chronic fatigue, frequent migranes, menstural irregularity, occasional swollen & painful joints, hip pain and stiffness, PMS, adrenal exhaustion, depression, anxiety, mood swings, weight gain, digestive upset (constipation), easy bruising that takes a long time to heal, dark eye circles, very low blood pressure, blacking out and fainting spells, cravings for breads and sweets, constant hunger, allergic reactions to skin irritants (rashes, blisters, etc), nutrient deficiences (specifically B vitamins), anemia, sensitivites to eggs, gluten, sugar, dairy & peanuts. The joint pain, digestive upset, adrenal exhaustion, anxiety, migranes, and fatigue have improved (but not completely gone away) with removal of eggs, peanuts, gluten, and most sugar and dairy from diet.

Lane's symptoms in the past have been that he was a very colicky baby for 3 months or so and since has had chronic swollen lymph nodes, chronic fatigue, dark eye circles, eczema, temper tantrums, night terrors, mood swings, easily frustrated, occasional hyperactivity, anxiety, frequent illness, digestive upset (constant stomach aches, alternating constipation and diarrhea, flatulence), cravings for sweets, constant hunger, chronic cough, sensitivity to skin irritants (rashes, blisters), sensitivities to dairy, gluten, eggs & peanuts. Eczema mostly cleared up on it's own after two years and that's when the chronic cough and swollen lymph nodes showed up. The fatigue and cough have improved greatly with the removal of dairy, eggs, peanuts and most gluten from the diet.

Heidi's symptoms in the past were that she was a very colicky and hyper-sensitive baby and had prolonged baby acne. Since, she was extremely shy and attached, sensitive to over-stimulation, developed geographic tongue, occasional digestive upset (constipation & flatulence), extremely low weight gain, picky eater from the day that solids were introduced, cravings for milk, bread & sweets, nutrient deficiencies (specifically B vitamins), sensitivities to eggs, gluten, soy, dairy, peanuts, almonds, and various others. Weight gain has improved with removal of eggs, gluten, peanuts, almonds, and most dairy and soy from diet.

Right now we are slowly implementing the GAPS intro diet (basically just eating homemade broth, soups with only meat and veggies and taking probiotics) to ease us into it and when school is out we'll go 100% to the intro diet. For myself, as of today I am pretty much off of everything but the soup at this point and have a bit of a headache, which is to be expected for a couple days. The kids are on the soup 2-3 meals a day so far and I'm introducing probiotics quite slowly for them so hopefully they won't experience much for negative symptoms. As we get further into it, I'll keep you posted on how it's going!