Our diet

After spending three months on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and four months on the GAPS diet we've now come into our own and we're following our diet. I finally have found a group of foods that are allowing Ellie to thrive and that I'm managing to survive on. While I would love to be eating a more expanded diet, I'm not ready to wean so I'm sticking with this and taking it one day at a time.

For the most part our diet is the SCD/GAPS diet in that we don't eat grains or starchy vegetables but we have departed from time to time, like with stevia. The big difference I suppose is that we don't eat the way GAPS is prescribed anymore. We eat relatively low fat, we don't eat organ meats or cook vegetables in loads of lard and we aren't eating much in the way of soups, though that's probably a seasonal thing. And our focus is on lots and lots of fresh produce.

I am in a good place where I'm no longer reading and re-reading diet books or trying to introduce new foods with the assurance from some book that it will be well tolerated only to be disappointed when Ellie has a reaction. The number of foods we're eating is quite small ... I mean the fact that I can compile the foods into a list is indication enough that we're eating a small group of foods. But they are very nutrient-dense and there is not an empty calorie in there. Our nutritionist assures me that Ellie is not missing anything nutritionally, and that actually she's eating a healthier diet than 99.999% of America's two-year-olds. So what are we eating?

Here's the list of foods that are working for us:

Salmon/ all fish

Chicken

Turkey

Shellfish

Chia/Flax/Hemp seeds

Avocado

Green apples (peeled)

Blueberries

Raspberries

Carrot

Celery (juiced only)

Cucumber

Cauliflower

Tomato

Asparagus

Green beans

Peas

Lettuce/mixed greens

Spinach

Zucchini

Butternut squash

Mushrooms

Cashew butter

Cilantro/ parsley/ all herbs

All spices, especially curry

Olive oil

Duck fat

Sauerkraut juice

Fermented beets and cucumbers

Stevia

Supplements: Gut Pro, Vit D, Cod Liver Oil, Magnesium, Stevia, Apple Cider Vinegar, Digestive Enzymes, Bile Salts

Every food on this list represents trial and error and it's through a lot of missteps and tummy aches and bad nights that we've arrived at this beautiful list of foods that work for us.

There are a few minor points where my diet can break from Ellie's. For example, I can tolerate almond butter and she cannot; she can only tolerate cashew butter. And I can snack on whole nuts. I can eat sauerkraut and she can only have the juice. I can munch on celery but that's too fibrous for Ellie so she has it juiced. But for the most part we are eating the same foods. The plan is to keep things stable (i.e. no trialing new foods) for a while and focus on introducing new supplements, including bile salts, which seem to be going well, and additional lactobacillus. As she continues to poop regularly and sleep well the hope is that she'll experience enough healing to be able to add more foods sometime next month.