Slow and Steady

Over the past few weeks, we decided to bite the bullet, conquer our fears, and with a lot of prayer and the support of some amazing mamas, start D on a rotation of broths! Boy oh boy, has this been an adventure. So far, D has had each of 5 different broths about 3 times. He has not had any FPIES reactions, but I wouldn't say it's been easy, and we have a ways to go. He gets Beef, Elk, Salmon, Buffalo, and Snapper in rotation, every other day. We are currently giving him 1 1/2 tsp by medicine syringe because he still refuses a bottle and just wants to splash the broth around when given a spoon. I'm sure the taste is definitely not something he enjoys much either. When you're used to sweet, creamy breastmilk, why would you want salty or fishy or gamey tasting broth?? Next rotation we up it to 3 tsp every other day. He seems to be tolerating them pretty well, but still has some crankiness, restless nights, gas, and mucousy poops, but he's not in pain from these symptoms, and all of them are usually related to die off. They don't really concern me because it's just his body doing what it's supposed to, healing itself. God created our bodies to heal and by giving him these nutrient rich, gelatin filled, good fat containing broths, D's gut is healing!

Please keep prayers coming for Daniel's healing gut! We are on the right track here and I thank God daily for leading me to GAPS to not only heal my son, but to heal my whole family also!

An FPIES Birthday

 

Celebrations and holidays can be very hard on FPIES families and GAPS families because they are often filled with high fructose corn syrup, sugar, grains, and many of the common FPIES trigger foods. Our culture tends to place the focus on food as opposed to the actual event. Although I did have food at Daniel's birthday party for the adults, there were only grandparents and an uncle in attendance, so it was very low key. We focused on watching Daniel open presents, he had a present cake, and blew out a candle after we sang "Happy Birthday."

He seemed to have an amazing time and slept so well that night from all of the extra attention and excitement! He'll never know that his party was "not normal" and he didn't even realize that he was "missing out" on the smashing of the cake experience. He loves his Mama milk and still doesn't show a major interest in food. It saddens me when I hear mama's saying their doctors told them that their babies NEED more than just breastmilk to grow and develop. I'm not a doctor of course, but I have a healthy, smart, energetic little boy who is thriving at the age of 12 months on breastmilk alone! What more could I ask for?!

A Poisoned Mind

As I mentioned in an earlier post, there is definitely a different mind set when you decide to use GAPS to heal the gut for FPIES as opposed to the traditional trial and error and wait til your child "outgrows" it approach. With GAPS, there is some degree of pushing through symptoms, especially when you feel they are related to die off or detox. With the traditional approach, any sign of symptoms tend to cause bells and whistles to go off in the momma's head and she watches much more closely, sometimes pulling a food from the diet. GAPS focuses on healing and sealing the gut, so that any and all foods will someday be tolerated because the "leaks" of "foreign" proteins into the system are gone. The traditional approach focuses on trialing foods and watching for symptoms to find out if that specific protein will cause problems or a reaction. Unfortunately, it doesn't include healing. It's a waiting game. When will the immune system mature enough to not want to attack that specific protein, and when will the T cells finally forget about their earlier attack of that protein. GAPS doesn't recognize rotation diets for the sake of tolerating a food. You start with a VERY tiny amount of the food and if symptoms are seen, you remove it completely and try again in a few weeks after the body has had more time to heal. With the traditional approach, you start with a small amount, then if you get to a point where symptoms show up, but then back off the food to a smaller amount and they go away, you keep that food limited to a specific amount/day. For instance, a child can have 1 Tbs of carrots every other day and have little to no symptoms, but if they have more than that on any given day, or have it 2 days in a row, symptoms return.

I'm sure there are more differences, but these are the ones I have found to be most prominent for me. I am so blessed that I didn't have a long period of time thinking like an FPIES momma, and have transitioned much easier into the GAPS mindset. Everyone has a right to choose how they want to deal with their child's illnesses, so please don't take that as an attack on anyone who has decided to use the traditional approach to FPIES. I am just taking the path that I feel God has led me to, and He is blessing our steps down it so far. I meet more resistance, and get some eye rolls, but Daniel is showing GREAT improvements!


I'm ending with a little rambling from the mind of a sleep deprived momma...

I have a theory, that I have not had time to research or look into, but I'll share it as clearly as I can get it from my brain to my finger tips.

A lot of the foods that are common FPIES triggers are foods that are highly detoxifying or highly fibrous causing them to be harder to digest. My theory is that maybe FPIES is the body's way of saying, "WHOA! I am not ready for a detox/advanced food of this nature!" Our immune systems are there to help clean up and keep us healthy, so the fact that it has been shown to be an immune response makes sense. Detox and die off symptoms are similar, but not as extreme as FPIES symptoms. BUT if the body were being detoxed too quickly and too strongly, i believe it could produce a super strong immune reaction like the one seen with FPIES. Think about the food poisoning analogy that is often used: the body has something "foreign" introduced, and the body gets rid of it/detoxes as quickly as possible (vomit and diarrhea). Due to the leaky guts in these FPIES kiddos, and the immaturity of their immune systems, their detoxing symptoms would be much more severe, like food poisoning. Does that make ANY sense to anyone but myself? It's just a thought that was brought on by reading more about the GAPS process.

Update and Daniel's Current Regimen

As you know, FPIES blogs tend to talk a lot about poop. Just over the past 2 weeks or so, Daniel is finally having normal breastfed baby poops! This is a major step in the right direction! He now poops only 1-2 times a day, as opposed to 10-12, like before.

God has blessed us so richly with the ability to feed me my very expensive diet and to have found good probiotics. As of today, Daniel gets a 1/4 of the children's recommended dose for the probiotic we use and about 1-2 tsp of 100% grassfed beef broth. So far, things are going great, and he's still gaining weight and meeting milestones! As I said above, his poops are normal, and other than a few extra hiccups (common with adjusting to food other than breastmilk) and the normal disturbed sleep from teething, he has no symptoms that warrant alarm. I can't help but say it again that God has led us to the right path for healing! I pray daily that GAPS will be our family's answer to our digestive problems and that God has given us this diet to also help us have the chance that our next child will not have to suffer the way that Daniel has!

We tried using coconut oil for his dry skin a few days ago, and he was chewing on his hands...that night we were reminded where we have come from: screaming, gas, bloody mucousy bright yellow/green diarrhea. BUT, it didn't take him DAYS to recover, it took the 2 hours or so that he was up in the night, and once the diarrhea was over, he slept great and was his same old self the next day. Just a month ago, he would have been "off" and having symptoms for days following any kind of upset to his system. It's amazing to see how far we've come. I thank God every day for giving me such a happy baby in spite of all this mess!

Up next, we plan to finally get brave and try elk and bison, and possibly fish broth. Rotating the broths gives a better variety of nutrients and the good fats and gelatin that help heal the gut. Once we can get Daniel's gut a little more healed, we'll be able to start trying to add some veggies and fruits! I'm hoping we can find a fruit he'll tolerate before his first birthday so he can have a nice frozen, fruity treat on his birthday...if not, I have made a promise to myself to not be disappointed or mope about it. He is healing, and that is more important to me than him having a special birthday treat. He won't remember it anyway!

That's where we're at!

Little House on the Prairie

If you're a woman, I'm sure you've read the books, at least once in your life time. Lately, I've been longing for the pioneer days. I always used to think I would have been better suited to grow up in the 60's or 70's due to my attachment parenting, breastfeeding, baby wearing, non-vaxing, parenting style, but the deeper I go with my research into using traditional whole foods to heal my son and my family, the more I feel I should have been born long before the 60's. I've become so enthralled with the traditional way of doing things, that I have actually searched our area for real estate on the prairie so I can live on a farm and raise chickens and goats and pigs, and have a root cellar and a dairy cow, and a cute little farm house for Daniel and our future children to grow up in. I've researched canning, preserving, fermenting, kefiring, soaking/sprouting of grains, stocks/broths for healing, becoming a homeopath or herbalist, homeschooling, etc. You name it, I want to learn more about it! When I think about it even more, I feel that God put me in the perfect era. I am different and unique. I am a pioneer of my own, banning together with and learning from others, trying to bring back these most basic of skills and ideals. By allowing this challenging FPIES diagnosis for Daniel, God has ignited a passion in my heart to learn more about how to use the gifts He's given us in a way to improve Daniel's health, my health, and my husband's health. He has given me the ability to share information with members of my family, and has increased my confidence when dealing with resistance. So many wonderful blessings have come from something I once thought to be a doom filled diagnosis! I'm blessed with the fact that I am learning about using these whole foods to heal through the GAPS diet as early in our journey with FPIES as I am. Once you get into the mind set of an FPIES momma, it can be hard to break into thinking like a GAPS momma. I'll be writing more on that in a later post, so now back to my regularly scheduled thoughts...Little House on the Prairie, yes, now where was I? Sleep deprivation anybody? I have recently looked into taking some classes in nutrition based on the traditional whole foods movement, sponsored by the Weston A. Price Foundation via Hawthorn University. As of right now, I don't have the time or money to pursue these classes, but as Jason climbs the corporate ladder and Daniel becomes more able to entertain himself for longer periods of time, I plan to make this dream a reality. In the mean time, I have discovered an amazing website and blog called GNOWFGLINS, Enjoying "God's Natural, Organic, Whole Foods, Grown Locally, In Season". On this site, there is a wealth of information pertaining to GAPS, Whole Foods, and Homesteading, and she offers a membership option where you can take online classes. I have found many other blogs devoted to these subjects also, and plan to compile a list for the sidebar here. I feel like a sponge right now, just soaking up every last drop of information set before me.

Jason and I have had many discussions concerning these subjects over the past few weeks and have decided that we have a goal! We eventually want to live out on the plains, east of our city, but close enough to "come into town" for activities and family events, on a small farm with chickens, dairy goats, possibly pigs, a dairy cow, a rather large organic garden, a greenhouse, and of course Jason had to add he'll need a big truck, lol. This is our ULTIMATE goal, and we know it will take time and a lot of work to get there, but we have also set some short term goals and are working on our plan to make this happen! Who knows, maybe in a few years you all will start calling me "Laura."

You Can Lead a Baby to Broth...

This week, we start pushing grass fed beef broth! I'm nervous, but excited. Our first attempts last week were unsuccessful. Daniel has no interest in food. Kind of disappointing, but a blessing at the same time. We need him to have a little bit of interest so he'll want to try the broth, but it's nice that I don't have to be worried about him reaching onto people's plates and putting stuff into his mouth that could cause a potential reaction. We're going to start having family dinner time. Hopefully, sitting at the table in his high chair, surrounded by people eating, will begin to peak his interest in the broth I'll pour onto his tray. Keep us in your prayers that we skate through, reaction free, and can then try bison or elk!

Some of you may be wondering why in the world I would be feeding my barely 6 month old baby meat broth. You may be asking yourself, "Don't you usually start with grain cereals?" Why yes, most doctors will tell you to start with grains, then veggies and fruits, then meats. My kid is unique. Due to the FPIES, we have a very high chance of him having a severe reaction to grains, specifically rice and oats, so those are out of the picture. "Why not sweet potatoes or peas?" Well, those common first foods are also very common FPIES trigger foods, along with a few others that you would normally feed first. So, for now, we know he handles beef through my milk, and he needs the gut healing properties of the broth, so grass fed beef broth it is! We're going GAPS, as it has been around for over a century, and has been proven time and time again to heal. God may not be snapping his fingers and healing Daniel in the blink of an eye, but He is giving me this protocol to follow. He's giving me the hope that other success stories provide. He's giving me the support of other mommas who are trusting in whole foods to heal their children from the same and similar issues. He's also giving me the support of a very loving family who is helping me to raise my son during this confusing stressful time! They say it takes a village, right?