Using Natural Beef & Organic Meats: The GAPS Diet

The weeks have been flying by and the blog posts have been definitely lacking! I have so many things I'd like to blog about. I've gotta get back into the routine of scheduling blog posts, so we'll see :).

Some of my family is on what is called the GAPS diet, or the Gut & Psychology Syndrome Diet. This diet was developed by Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride. My 19 year old brother has a lot of food allergies and he seemed to just keep getting more. He would cut out one thing, then be good for awhile, then something else would bother him. We've known about the GAPS diet for a few years now, because a lot of people who have kids with DS and/or Autism use it.

The whole focus of the GAPS diet is to heal the gut and restore good gut flora & functioning. We've tossed around the idea of doing it with O for a few years because of his reflux problems. But, each time we think about doing it, we end up finding out what is causing his reflux problems. As of right now that's just gluten & cow dairy, so he has not gone on it yet. At some point, he may, but we don't feel it's absolutely necessary right now.

But, it is for my 19 year old brother, Norayah. He finally said, "Put me on the GAPS diet." It's been almost 2 months now since we started the diet. The diet starts out slow and goes through a series of introductory stages before going onto the full diet. It is recommended to stay on the whole diet for at least 2 years.

A LOT of the diet is meat and it should, ideally be organic meat. For us, this has been pretty easy, as we raise and butcher our own animals for meat.

We had already started doing this, because so much meat has been washed or "contaminated" somehow with corn and Norayah has an intolerance to corn. So, that left us with raising our own sheep, goats, pigs, rabbits & natural beef from cows my cousin raised.

You can buy organic beef online or find other organic meats at local farmer's markets or sometimes a grocery store, but we prefer to just raise our own.

And it has proven very beneficial and helpful in this diet. Another large part of the diet is vegetables and it all has to be cooked. The first stage is just meat broth (soup) with a few select veggies on it. As you change through the 6 stages of the introduction diet, you slowly add in more vegetables, eventually fruits, casserole dishes, etc.

The diet is pretty strict, but it works to heal the gut. Anyone with a family member or kid who has food allergies, candida gut issues, or pretty much any other major health problem or gut issue, should try the GAPS diet. It's helped a lot of people! We've seen some changes from it and the "die-off" effects of the diet thus far.

One good thing out of it so far: Norayah used to get heartburn from lemon juice. Well, we introduced it in the diet last week and he has not had any heartburn yet! That is very promising.

A few good helpful links for the diet:
gapsdiet.com
gaps.me
GAPS Guide
GAPS help Yahoo! Group

I will share more information as time goes on, Lord willing, with recipes and more information.

Disclaimer: This post is compensated by a blogger campaign from Bucks2Blog. This has no affiliation or compensation from those who developed the GAPS diet, it is strictly compensated by those who want to encourage using natural beef.  All the views & opinions are my own.

A new Gluten-free book

There's a new book recently published by Woodbine House. It's called Gluten-Free Kids by Danna Korn.

I've only skim-read it so far, but it looks like a very helpful and informative book. Concise, easy to understand and well written.

It's $21.95 through Woodbine House. You can view it here.

31 for 21: What Celiac Can Do Untreated

While this isn't necessarily directly tied to DS, because Celiac Disease & Gluten sensitivities are very common in the DS world, I thought this was a very interesting post. We have had our fair share of researching Celiac Disease & Gluten issues because of Osiyyah's allergies/sensitivities to it. It can definitely cause a lot of problems and this is one example.

The Rieben family adopted a couple girls from Bulgaria a few months ago. One of the girls had what the orphanage doctors called “malabsorption syndrome.” Well, after coming home, running tests & seeing doctors, they found out that their daughter had Celiac Disease (which they suspected) and several nutrient deficiencies, which is all caused by a gut that doesn’t absorb nutrients well, which Celiac Disease causes when it's left untreated. And as this mom writes below, her daughter is so small and has these nutrient deficiencies because of 7 1/2 years of eating gluten.

This is a quote from their blog (linked above) about what they've found with their daughter's "malabsorption syndrome."

Lily was born with cleft lip/palate. Although both had been repaired, we discovered that she still has a hole towards the front of her palate caused by what our pediatrician believes was incomplete/improper healing. She had also been diagnosed with "Malabsorption Syndrome," (at 7.5 years old she came home weighing 28 lbs. and wearing a size 3T), though the orphanage doctors assured us that she had "grown out of it" (don't worry, we didn't believe them!)……….

Highest on our priority list was getting to the bottom of Lily's "malabsorption syndrome," which she had, quite obviously, not "outgrown." In addition to the height and weight discrepancies, Lily had constant loose stool/diarrhea, her abdomen was severely distended and she ate dirt like it was a dessert (this is a condition known as Pica and it is usually a sign of anemia which the orphanage doctors had told us she had struggled with in the past). I requested a referral to a Gastroenterologist (suspecting that she might be suffering from Celiac Disease) and, while we waited for the appointment we ran blood work to test for anemia…………..

Not surprisingly, the labs came back positive. A few days later Lily had her first appointment with the GI who confirmed her diagnosis of severe iron-deficiency anemia and immediately started her on an iron supplement (to give you an idea of how severe her anemia had become, normal hemoglobin levels in children are between 11.5 and 16. Lily's hemoglobin was at 7.4 and steadily falling. Cardiac arrest generally occurs when hemoglobin levels reach 5 or below. Scary, no?). The GI (who also suspected Celiac or Inflammatory Bowel Disease) then ordered the intial tests to check for Celiac or IBD (this included more blood work and a barium swallow with small bowel follow through). Both tests came back elevated and the GI suspected that Lily might have a dual diagnosis of Celiac and Crohn's disease. The only way to know for sure was to perform a colonoscopy and endoscopy (which we now affectionately refer to as the "dual"oscopy) and biopsy both the small and large intestines. We quickly scheduled the procedures knowing that if she was suffering from Celiac disease, it was likely that her hemoglobin levels would continue to fall despite the iron supplements (since her body would be unable to absorb the iron). Again, not surprisingly, but much to our relief, the "dual"oscopies revealed that she did, in fact, have Celiac but, thankfully, not Crohns Disease (or any other IBD).

We immediately started her on a gluten-free diet. We also scheduled an appointment with the hematologist (to monitor and treat her iron-deficiency anemia) and ran more tests to pinpoint any other deficiencies that may have been caused by 7.5 years of gluten consumption. The tests for vitamin deficiencies came back showing a severe vitamin D deficiency (which confirmed our suspicions of early osteoporosis, though we are still waiting for several more tests to determine bone density and how advanced the osteoporosis is). Now, in addition to the iron supplements and gluten-free diet, she is also taking a heavy duty vitamin D supplement.

I am VERY happy to report that, after just a few weeks of following a strict gluten-free diet, my sweet little Lily has finally emerged! At a follow-up with the hematologist last week we learned that Lily's hemoglobin levels are finally at the low end of normal (11) and rising! She is no longer eating dirt. Her belly is no longer distended. She has gained 8 lbs.!! And my tired, withdrawn, sad little girl has transformed into an energetic, giggly, happy and finally healthy little girl! Her transformation is truly, truly AMAZING!!

Unsure

We got the copy of the lab results yesterday afternoon. I've got a few people to talk to and some questions to go over before I'm totally sure where his labs are at.

The food allergy panel came back showing NO allergies at all. Nothing to wheat, gluten, barley or even cow milk. Which is really odd, because we know he has a reaction to any kind of cow dairy he has. And he seems to have a reaction to any wheat/gluten, since he's been reflux free for a couple weeks now.

The celiac panel looks alright too, but there are a couple antibody tests that are elevated, but not out of range. I'm going to do some research and see if those elevated levels (IGA & IGG) have anything to do with celiac.

So, Osiyyah has us puzzled at the moment ;). Does anybody have any experience with actually having celiac, but not all the test coming back elevated or positive? Any thoughts on an elevated IGA or IGG?

Qadoshyah

Waiting . . .

Still waiting on the results of Osiyyah's celiac screening & food allergy testing. The Dr's office has been a bit slow since the lab gal was out sick for a couple days I guess. (Yes, I've been calling every day to find out what's up with them ;)!)

But, since the labs were in, my dad is picking up a copy of the results today. So, at least we'll get to see what the results were. I've read quite a few lab work results over the years now, so I'm sure we'll be able to see at least some of what's going on. The celiac antibody screening isn't that hard to read anyways . . . it's just antibody levels.

We have at least anecdotal evidence that Osiyyah can't tolerate wheat/gluten. He hasn't had a single reflux episode since we cut out all wheat & gluten. Yay!

Stay tuned to see if there's anything exciting with the results . . .

Qadoshyah

A New Path: Gluten Intolerance or Celiac Disease?

I've started to blaze a new research trail. A trail I never looked at or thought about much until the last few days.

As I've mentioned before, Osiyyah has struggled with reflux problems since he was a baby. When we started him on Nutrivene, his reflux greatly reduced. Then we realized cow dairy caused a problem for him. Once we removed cow's milk, his reflux reduced even more. And his "silent" (in that he didn't vomit, but you could certainly feel & hear the reflux) refluxing episodes were few & far between.

Lately though, he has had them more frequently. And it has gotten worse. Worse in that he cannot have anything that is made from cow's milk. No cheese, no ice cream, no sherbet, not even a salad dressing that contains cheese products (like ceasar dressing with romano & parmesan in it). We read labels and if it contains any cow's milk product, we don't give it to him. That helped some, but he has still had a bit of reflux problems here and there with all the cow dairy cut out.

So, something else must be causing this and it's time for us to make some drastic changes to his diet. The next most common allergy is Celiac disease or gluten intolerance (they are different, but very similar). The more I read & talk to people, the more I'm convinced that this is what we are dealing with in Osiyyah. Gluten is found in wheat, barley & rye. Oats often times are cut out of the diet as well and at times added back in at a later date, since they are processed with gluten many times.

Milk intolerance is commonly associated with gluten intolerance. Celiac disease is very common in kids with DS. Those two things right there make me think all the more that gluten intolerance or celiac disease is what we are dealing with.

To quote Kirstin from whattofeedyourkids.com (I'm sure she doesn't mind ;)),

Also, when you have celiac, the villi in the intestine are damaged. The lactase enzyme to break down milk is produced by the villi. When the villi are damaged you don't produce the lactase to break down the milk.

That quote right there makes me believe we may be dealing with Celiac rather than just a gluten intolerance. Especially since Osiyyah's milk intolerance has gotten worse over the last few months. If the villi in his intestine is being damaged more & more, it would make sense that he cannot tolerate an ounce of cow dairy.

I've read a lot the last day about this and am coming up with a plan of action somewhat slowly, but surely.

I'd really like to do the celiac disease screening done asap so that we can start him on a GF diet soon. If we can get the celiac disease screening & gluten intolerance tests done, hopefully it'll show which we are dealing with - celiac or gluten intolerance. Even if all tests come back inconclusive, we will still start Osiyyah on a GF diet in the hopes that it will take his reflux problems away.

Here are some helpful websites that I've come across so far. I will keep you all updated with information & research, as usual :).

http://whattofeedyourkids.blogspot.com/ - LOTS of good information here!

http://whattofeedyourkids.blogspot.com/2008/11/there-are-several-ways-parent
s-can.html

http://gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/gfcf-in-10-weeks.htm - while this site is specifically referring to Autism, there is a lot of helpful info about doing a Gluten free diet.

www.drdahlman.com/gluten-free-products.shtml

www.glutenfree.com/home.aspx

www.celiac.com - this website has tons of info on it and I haven't even scratched the surface!

http://www.cryingoverspiltmilk.co.nz/Food/Glutencancausegastro-oesophagealrefluxdisease!.htm - this article is very fascinating, especially in light of Osiyyah's reflux problems.

http://gfcf-diet.talkaboutcuringautism.org/gfcf-food-list.html - GFCF food list! Very helpful!

http://stewartdehart.stores.yahoo.net/gfsugr.html - My mom found this book, a GFCF shopping guide.

That's all for the moment!
Qadoshyah