We officially started the GAPS diet yesterday. It went a bit easier then expected. We were able to get broth down Taylor and he ate well the rest of the day.
The kids loved the tomato soup for lunch and for snack I added Italian herbs and meatballs. We all ate it up. For dinner we had broth and chicken. We will be going through a lot of chicken this week. I added lemon juice and sage to the chicken and it was wonderful.
Today I will be making chicken veggie soup. I have some broccoli, cauliflower, carrot and summer squash mixture in the freezer. I am going to roast these veggies with some coconut oil fresh herbs, and salt.
No spices are used right now, but we can use fresh herbs.
Mom and I went to the Garden Center on Friday and bought herb plants. The men who work there are so very nice and helpful. I will go there from now on to get my gardening needs.
Attitudes seem good. We have had a few meltdowns, but for the most part the kids are dong better than they have for a long time.
Addi had the stomach flu yesterday and Edy had it today. I do have to say that usually the stomach flu takes Edy out for a good 2 days. It only lasted a few hours. I am waiting to see if it blows through the rest of the family. That is the fastest that we have ever gotten over the stomach flu.
My stomach looks flatter today and I am not as bloated as I have been in the past. So far I am down 4 lbs. I know that a lot of it is water weight and I do need to eat more today because I am still nursing the baby.
Connor ate more meat yesterday then he has any other day of his little life. This is encouraging. He was still a bit whiny yesterday, but not nearly so much as in the past.
Here are the recipes for the things I have made so far and what is for lunch/dinner today.
Stock:
For an average stock pot size:
3 lbs of chicken or beef bones and meat.
1 onion
5 carrots
2 cups of diced celery
salt
pepper corns
Filtered water to top of pan
Brown your bones and place them in the bottom of your stock pot. Add the veggies. fill with your water. Let this come to a boil. Turn the heat down to a simmer and let this cook for 24 hrs. The longer you cook your stock the more good stuff you will get out of your bones and meat.
Tomato soup:
1 stick of butter, or 1/2 c of coconut oil
One onion
1 quart of tomatoes
1quart of chicken stock
salt to taste
Saute your onions in your fat until they caramelize. add your tomatoes, chicken broth and salt. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes.
Put the soup in the blender and blend til smooth.
I add oregano and basil for an Italian taste.
To this I added meatballs. We are not doing eggs this week so these are eggless.
3 lbs of organic ground meat
2T oregano
2T basil (I will use fresh herbs when my plants get a bit bigger.)
3 cloves crushed garlic.
Make into 1 inch balls and line them on a jellyroll pan.
Bake in the oven for 20 min at 400.
Put into soup base.
Chicken veggie:
3lbs Chicken
2 bags of vegetable medley mix
3 quarts of chicken stock
Preheat your oven to 450 degrees
Mix your veggies with coconut oil, salt and fresh rosemary
Put them in a dish so that the bottom is covered. do not crowd the veggies
Roast for about 30 min.
While the veggies are roasting saute your chicken in coconut oil. When the chicken is about done add 1/3 cup of lemon juice and a few leaves of fresh sage. Salt to taste.
Add the roasted veggies and stock to the chicken. Simmer for about 10 minutes.
Salt to taste.
I have purchased natural hot dogs that are going over well for a snack. We are encouraged that we are already seeing some small improvements in the kids, not to mention that by the time we have our family reunion I will be one hot mama! :)
Sunday, February 28, 2010
Friday, February 26, 2010
Preparation
Tomorrow we start the GAPS diet. It has taken this week to prepare.
I have made 3.5 quarts of beef stock and I will be making another 7 quarts today.
I am also in the process of making about 7 quarts of chicken stock.
I will probably be making stock every night for the next few weeks.
I have made about 1.5 quarts of sauerkraut. I will probably be making this a few times a week.
Today I need to make yogurt so that I have enough whey for the next few weeks.
Tomorrow I will go shopping with Cindy so that we can get organic ingredients for the soups that we will be eating this week.
Darrin and I have started reading through the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book. It is fascinating. Breaking the Vicious Cycle did not go into the detail and scientific study and theory the way this book does. This book gives you a great foundation of the why not just the how. I think this is important. It is so much easier to keep going with something that is hard if you know why you do it, not just how it is done.
We will be on the diet for the next 2 years. When we are done we will probably continue with the basics here at home, but we will be free to eat "normally" when we are not at home.
I do hope that in that 2 years that our eating preferences will change and that we will want to make wise choices in our eating. I do not want my kids to fall back into their present eating habits.
Who knows what the next 2 years will bring, but we are optimistically hopeful for the future.
I have made 3.5 quarts of beef stock and I will be making another 7 quarts today.
I am also in the process of making about 7 quarts of chicken stock.
I will probably be making stock every night for the next few weeks.
I have made about 1.5 quarts of sauerkraut. I will probably be making this a few times a week.
Today I need to make yogurt so that I have enough whey for the next few weeks.
Tomorrow I will go shopping with Cindy so that we can get organic ingredients for the soups that we will be eating this week.
Darrin and I have started reading through the Gut and Psychology Syndrome book. It is fascinating. Breaking the Vicious Cycle did not go into the detail and scientific study and theory the way this book does. This book gives you a great foundation of the why not just the how. I think this is important. It is so much easier to keep going with something that is hard if you know why you do it, not just how it is done.
We will be on the diet for the next 2 years. When we are done we will probably continue with the basics here at home, but we will be free to eat "normally" when we are not at home.
I do hope that in that 2 years that our eating preferences will change and that we will want to make wise choices in our eating. I do not want my kids to fall back into their present eating habits.
Who knows what the next 2 years will bring, but we are optimistically hopeful for the future.
Thursday, February 25, 2010
New Phase
We are starting a new phase of our journey. On Saturday we will officially be on the GAPS diet. You can see it here. We will be using this diet for the next 2 years.
It is very much like the SC diet that we did when I was pregnant with Connor. It has some variations that are a bit more difficult, but should prove to heal the kids and the grown up guts.
The introduction diet starts with homemade stock that I am making form ox tail for the beef stock and chicken feet for the chicken stock.
The purpose of the stock is to get the good beef and chicken fat and the healing properties that are in the bone marrow and connective tissues. The ox tail and chicken feet need to be organic so that the antibiotics and other things fed to "normal" animals is not transferred to those eating the stock.
I have also made sauerkraut for the first time. In the first weeks we will be using the fermented juices that contain probiotics.
One of the main purposes of the introduction diet is to get the body used to an over abundance of probiotics.
We are healing the gut with the broth and getting the gut flora in balance with the probiotic.
For week one our daily food intake will look like this:
Morning:
Wake up and drink 1 cup of filtered water and a dose of probiotic.
Around 10 am a cup of broth with a bit of probiotic liquid and meat chunks added.
for lunch will be soup made with fresh veggies, organic meat and stock. A bit of probiotic liquid will be added to each bowl.
Afternoon: Stock when hungry with probiotic and meat added
Dinner: Soup of fresh veggies, organic meat and probiotic liquid.
Snack: Stock with probiotic and meat.
The stock can be eaten any time during the day when you are hungry.
There are 6 stages to the introductory diet. I will be taking one stage per week.
We should be able to move through this fairly quickly since the kids are not as sick as some of the other children on the spectrum.
After week one we will slowly be adding in foods. Next week is fresh egg yolks, yum! :(
I hope to post each day the recipes that I used for that day so that in the end I will have some recipes to pass on to others who wish to use this diet to help their children with gut issues.
My hope in doing this diet is that we see some significant progress with the kids, we have not seen any big leaps for awhile, and that in the end I have made this diet workable for those that are facing the mountain of Autism.
The diagnosis of Autism in itself is a mountain. Add onto that all of the supplements and other treatments and a person can start to suffer a mental breakdown. I hope to make at least one of those steps as simple as possible by giving step by step instructions. If I can make this diet a no brainier, just follow the steps before you, then it will give caregivers of children with autism a bit of a mental break and maybe we can get more people using this method of treatment.
I am looking for soup ideas for this next week. They need to be broth based.
So far I have:
Beef veggie
Chicken Veggie
Tomato
Split Pea
Cilantro
Chicken Mushroom with spinach
French onion
Butternut squash
Cream of Mushroom (chicken based with yogurt used as the cream and probiotic added before eating)
I would appreciate any suggestions and recipes for other broth based soups. They need to contain no starches, just fresh organic ingredients.
It is very much like the SC diet that we did when I was pregnant with Connor. It has some variations that are a bit more difficult, but should prove to heal the kids and the grown up guts.
The introduction diet starts with homemade stock that I am making form ox tail for the beef stock and chicken feet for the chicken stock.
The purpose of the stock is to get the good beef and chicken fat and the healing properties that are in the bone marrow and connective tissues. The ox tail and chicken feet need to be organic so that the antibiotics and other things fed to "normal" animals is not transferred to those eating the stock.
I have also made sauerkraut for the first time. In the first weeks we will be using the fermented juices that contain probiotics.
One of the main purposes of the introduction diet is to get the body used to an over abundance of probiotics.
We are healing the gut with the broth and getting the gut flora in balance with the probiotic.
For week one our daily food intake will look like this:
Morning:
Wake up and drink 1 cup of filtered water and a dose of probiotic.
Around 10 am a cup of broth with a bit of probiotic liquid and meat chunks added.
for lunch will be soup made with fresh veggies, organic meat and stock. A bit of probiotic liquid will be added to each bowl.
Afternoon: Stock when hungry with probiotic and meat added
Dinner: Soup of fresh veggies, organic meat and probiotic liquid.
Snack: Stock with probiotic and meat.
The stock can be eaten any time during the day when you are hungry.
There are 6 stages to the introductory diet. I will be taking one stage per week.
We should be able to move through this fairly quickly since the kids are not as sick as some of the other children on the spectrum.
After week one we will slowly be adding in foods. Next week is fresh egg yolks, yum! :(
I hope to post each day the recipes that I used for that day so that in the end I will have some recipes to pass on to others who wish to use this diet to help their children with gut issues.
My hope in doing this diet is that we see some significant progress with the kids, we have not seen any big leaps for awhile, and that in the end I have made this diet workable for those that are facing the mountain of Autism.
The diagnosis of Autism in itself is a mountain. Add onto that all of the supplements and other treatments and a person can start to suffer a mental breakdown. I hope to make at least one of those steps as simple as possible by giving step by step instructions. If I can make this diet a no brainier, just follow the steps before you, then it will give caregivers of children with autism a bit of a mental break and maybe we can get more people using this method of treatment.
I am looking for soup ideas for this next week. They need to be broth based.
So far I have:
Beef veggie
Chicken Veggie
Tomato
Split Pea
Cilantro
Chicken Mushroom with spinach
French onion
Butternut squash
Cream of Mushroom (chicken based with yogurt used as the cream and probiotic added before eating)
I would appreciate any suggestions and recipes for other broth based soups. They need to contain no starches, just fresh organic ingredients.
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
Communication
It is very exciting that the kids are becoming much more verbal, but this also creates new challenges for us as parents.
Normally if Edy says something inappropriate I can speak with her and she understands that it was either not the right time to say it or not right to say at all.
With Addi it has been more difficult. She likes to repeat what she has heard. She is starting to come up with and express many of her own thoughts, but she is still very quick to repeat what she has heard.
The other day I was on a field trip with her and her kindergarten class. There is a little girl in her class named Abby. She is a bit on the heavy side. We were standing next to her and Addi proceeds to point and say "Abby is fat." I was horrified. I know Abby heard her. I also know that this was not an original thought of Addi's.
It is very sad for me to know that there are kids in her class that are saying things like this about another little girl. I want to teach Addi that this is not a kind statement and that it is not for us to judge and we should be kind and loving toward Abby, but she does not understand. All I can tell her is that we don't say that. That is about the extent of her understanding.
And so we enter a new and challenging time of parenting our Autistic and for that matter normal children.
Normally if Edy says something inappropriate I can speak with her and she understands that it was either not the right time to say it or not right to say at all.
With Addi it has been more difficult. She likes to repeat what she has heard. She is starting to come up with and express many of her own thoughts, but she is still very quick to repeat what she has heard.
The other day I was on a field trip with her and her kindergarten class. There is a little girl in her class named Abby. She is a bit on the heavy side. We were standing next to her and Addi proceeds to point and say "Abby is fat." I was horrified. I know Abby heard her. I also know that this was not an original thought of Addi's.
It is very sad for me to know that there are kids in her class that are saying things like this about another little girl. I want to teach Addi that this is not a kind statement and that it is not for us to judge and we should be kind and loving toward Abby, but she does not understand. All I can tell her is that we don't say that. That is about the extent of her understanding.
And so we enter a new and challenging time of parenting our Autistic and for that matter normal children.
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