Nursing Issues

[Pat Robinson]

Digestion, detox, nutrition, allergies and nursing?

[Katy Delaney]

I am looking at starting the GaPS diet for my son in the next month or so (we have to move house first). I was going to get all three of us on it, for ease of planning and convincing mr 4 to do it as well as for our general health. The only question I have about me doing it is that my 1 year old is still breastfed. She eats a fair bit, and having had a completely drug free and natural pregnancy and birth, only 2 lots of vax and having done baby lead solids with her has a lot better immune system and gut than her brother. She will eat anything whereas he has self selected down to white foods only...
My question is that if I do the intro diet (which is essentially a detox) is that ok while breastfeeding? I am gonna assume that a lot of her diet will be breastmilk while on the intro diet (although she will probably have more soup than mr 4 will!) and I definitely do not want to compromise our breastfeeding relationship... I know a detox is generally not recommended while breastfeeding, but can't find any ifo specifically about breastfeeding on the GaPS intro...
Will ask our nutritionist when I see him in a fortnight, but if anyone knows anything that would be great!

[Pat Robinson]

Do you have/had any mercury (silver amalgam) fillings in your teeth? Do you have any history of antibiotics or steroids during pregnancy or nursing? Candida? Eczema? Asthma? Allergies? These issues impact your toxin load and detox concerns.


The key is to open detox pathways with nutrients and improve stomach acid to increase bio-availability of nutrients. That will naturally allow detoxification. We are always detoxing into breastmilk, it is a matter of gradually opening detox pathways, not dumping toxins rapidly due to rapid weight loss. That is probably my bigger concern, adequate calories while you are nursing. I'm not sure which fats are allowed in the intro diet. I'd focus on getting adequate fats for calories. I believe nuts are limited, which is a huge resource of nutrition and calories.

I'm more inclined to focus on *adding* nutrients to detoxify the body naturally, rather than eliminating a bunch of foods. The big four allergens: dairy, soy, gluten and corn don't help anyone, imo. I'm more of a proponent of whole food dairy-free probiotics, also.

Here is my Cliff Notes for healthy guts. http://heal-thyself.ning.com/forum/topics/13-month-old-girls-stool

It feels more approachable for children (and adults) to add foods than to fight about removing them. There are many gluten-free "baking" alternatives, buckwheat, coconut flour, almond flours, etc. It seems more doable to partner with ds than to impose the diet. By adding similar and delicious substitutions for foods he enjoys, compliance will be more beneficial in the long-run. Sneaking and "cheating" food dynamics are unhealthy psychological situations to initiate, in my opinion.


There is a GAPS help yahoogroup also. http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/GAPShelp/


I guess, I don't see healing the gut as an all or nothing process. I trust in making healthy lifestyle changes which enhance our diet and life. A "diet" feels temporary, transient. Healthy eating habits and patterns are modeled and adopted. In my experience dietary changes which are imposed, are often discarded or ignored, long-term.

Many of the healing foods on the GAPS diet are wonderful to just include in a healthy diet. We do many of them routinely.


HTH, Pat

[Katy Delaney]

Thankfully I don't have any of those things (candida, amalgam fillings etc)
I will be slowly over the next month or so before we move transitioning and slowly replacing what he likes to eat. Unfotunately he craves things that are not good for him - our nutritionist identified lactose and gluten as problems as well as phenols, which pretty much covers his whole list of foods that he will eat (sorry for the dodgy grammer there lol) I guess I do see the GaPS as a temporary thing, the reading I have managed to do so far is that after 2 years the gut should be healed and more stuff can be introduced...
I should also mention we are hoping to help his aspergers/sensory processing/adhd issues as well...
more reading to do I think...

[Pat Robinson]

Our son has had similar behaviors. Are there specific foods which you are trying to replace? We've found gluten-free alternatives. The ladies here are amazing with substitutions and recipes. There are several of their blogs highlighted on the front page, left side.

There are key nutrients to help with detoxifying anti-nutrients such as phenols. The Detox Puzzle site, and Eating Cultures, listed on the front page, right side are very informative about identifying your/his blocked detox pathways and how to effectively and safely detoxify with nutrients.

The key nutrients are zinc, magnesium, B6, B12, molybdenum, folate, vit C, selenium. These are all available in food. Epsom salt baths for the sulfates can help tremendously also. There is a thread "Nutrient-dense foods" on the front page, top left.


Pat

[Jade]

Hi Katy, I just bumped your WWWM thread asking how it's going & then I found this thread lol. So how is it going?