Cheated on GAPS

Tonight has been a tough night.  My son that is on the  GAPS diet (please refer to GAPS website for

  details) and needs to be on stage 3, has cheated.  What does that mean?  My daughter is selling candy bars for her school and while he was upstairs, he took one and ate it.  I wasn't sure which one of my boys found her stash but tonight at 11pm I figured who it was.  My 6 year old.  My 6 year old has done well to stay on the diet, he struggles with wanting treats. He has accepted the diet because it stopped his acid reflux he had suffered from for a year.  He really misses sugar.  

After almost four months working through the Intro diet, I put all my kids on full GAPS.  My 6 year was not ready.  I just had a difficult time putting him fully back to stage 3.  Now that he is back in school it is a bit hard to pack all cooked soups and then a snack.  

It looks like that is what I need to do.

Tonight all of his symptoms have officially come back.  A few weeks ago, with the summer of fruit, a cheats of fruit snacks, and what not the neighbors were giving him, his eczema behind his knee showed up.  I almost had it cleared last week and now his allergies and croup have flared up.

His symptoms for my reasons to put him on the diet:

Acid reflux for more than a year.  It has worn his teeth and medications had done nothing to help.
 Eczema in spots of his body
Behavior was becoming more irritable with his tummy aches.

What I found cleared up:

His allergies that caused a constant runny nose most of the year and croup at night around 11-1am.
His speech has improved.
His Acid reflux gone by day 3 on Intro.
Sleeping through the night.  He woke up often since age 2, with "growing pains".  He would often cry for an hour or so in pain.  (Glad that's gone)
His behavior has gotten milder.

It is amazing how much change I have noticed with him.  It has been worth the extra effort.

With tonight's re-occurrence of waking at night with mild croup and night cries, I am planning a full soup week with many detox foot and full baths.  I hope to get back to healing and overcoming my own lazy approach lately, on keeping my kids where they need to be to heal.

 
  It is important to read through the book and prepare to start the Diet.  It is a hard diet to get in the hang of and it does take time.  Understanding detoxing and taking it slow is important not to over load the body.  I am a believer on how important it is to heal the gut and all the problems it leads to when the gut is compromised. Some times I need a reason to keep going and tonight was my trigger. 

There are some great blogs that support the diet and offer information on how to work through the diet.  Here are some ideas for cheats offered on Healthy, Home, & Happy.  Making sure when cheating, to add in some extra detox, such as baths and foot soaks, plenty of water, and ginger teas can help off set the symptoms. 

I would love to hear from you on your experiences with the GAPS diet, leave a comment.

Tricia