Our Latest "Adventure!" (GAPS)

Time to stop being silent here...for today anyways. :) Lately life has just been more of a priority than blogging on here and that's a good thing in my opinion! I've been wanting to share our latest "adventure" for a while though.

As most of you who've read my blog earlier know, Tate has been told that he has "Geographic Tongue" - basically a continually peeling & raw tongue in his case. AND that he was born with it and will have it for the rest of his life. To keep it short and sweet, he definitely was not born with it - it only showed up about 1 year ago, and I do not believe that it is a life-long sentence either. It appeared from something, and fixing/getting rid of that something should (in my practical mind!) get rid of it too. :)

So, after a random comment from someone at our church who also has a son with health issues about a diet that can apparently CURE certain conditions, and after a particularly bad & discouraging day where Tate seemed to be getting worse and worse, I goggled the diet. And quite by accident I happened across a similar diet - but one that went deeper, and truly addressed the ROOT issues of health problems of all sorts. In short, the diet is called Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) and it says that health issues come from the GUT - and the fact that our bodies are not absorbing, digesting and using nutrients properly...or at all. Now, if there's anything that makes sense to me, this is IT! After trying a TON of different supplements, vitamins, other remedies, etc. with Tate and seeing nothing work long-term, it was so strange to read about the fact that DIET and the right kinds of FOODS could be the answer we were looking for. Real stuff...not pills, not antibiotics, not vitamins or herbs - FOOD. Real, live food.

After a month or so of researching and reading about it I dove into it with the kids. I won't go into all the details here, but the results have been nothing short of amazing so far! We have a long way to go still, but wow...I am a full, full, full believer that this is the answer.

The Diet in a nutshell
~ GAPS is a grain free (so NO grain whatsoever - not even ANY gluten free grains like rice or quinoa, etc)
~ The most important aspects of GAPS are drinking bone broth or meat broth (so like the broth that you have left in the roaster after roasting a chicken, or if you boil the bones/skins after wards it makes a bone broth as well) It is VERY healing.
~ Another VERY important aspect is fermented foods...Sauerkraut, fermented veggies of all types (carrots, pickles, etc), and fermented dairy - Kefir, yogurt, etc.
~ And eating FATS! Yes, fats! We've all been taught that fats are bad for you...but they are truly SO healthy, assuming you consume the right ones, which would be animal fats (tallow, lard, butter, homemade sour cream, coconut oil, olive oil) - not the fats (lard) you buy on the shelf at the grocery store, but the kind of lard that has been rendered and needs to be stored in the fridge. Our bodies need healthy fats.

Our Results in a Nutshell! :)
~ Tate's tongue has not peeled even ONE time since starting the diet about 2 months ago!
~ My energy level has gone WAY up - even though I'm pregnant! Normally I'm a very tired pregnant mama - but not this time around!
~ All of our kids have started gaining weight - especially important for Tate who was not gaining at ALL before
~ Tate's moods have greatly increased. He used to cry all the time - about almost anything before...the tears have virtually disappeared unless he's hurt, or very upset about a legitimate reason, or very tired. He's SO MUCH more even keel!
~ Jenna started saying real words shortly after starting GAPS - so cute. :)
~ Digestion is just so much better overall - barely no bloating or heartburn this pregnancy, and far less "gas" coming from the kids as well. :)

And there's more, but I'll stop there for now! The diet is not a short-term, quick fix. It is a long-term, dedicated way to heal your body and your gut - and it takes TIME. But it also gets to the root of the problem and fixes it - unlike all other medicines, etc. that I can think of which only treat the symptoms. It's not a forever diet either - it heals your body, and although you'll probably never WANT to go back to your previous way of eating, it heals you gut so that it can handle grains, etc. again. It doesn't mean you'll never be able to go out to eat again! :) From what I hear GAPS can take 1-5 years to fully heal an individual - maybe more for very sick adults.

Ok, now after that long post, if you made it this far, I thought I'd share a picture to show how much healthier Tate is looking now. The picture with the horse was taken about 2 months before we started GAPS...and the 2nd picture (it's not a great one as he doesn't seem to make his way into my camera's view as much anymore) was taken about a month or a few weeks ago. Can you see the difference?

If you're interested I'd be happy to tell you more - just email me. :) Or here are some websites that talk about it:

http://www.gapsdiet.com/
http://www.gaps.me/