Carrots and butternut squash, oh my!

[momofmine]

Help me figure this out guys. We've been doing SCD for about 6 weeks now, and are overall doing great. But my 4 yo still has some looser stools or diarrhea every now and then. It seems to be related to adding foods back in. Carrots seemed to cause problems. Then yesterday I made mini-muffins with just butternut squash, cinnamon, coconut oil, eggs, and a teeny tiny pinch of baking soda, and this morning he has a tummyache and then had diarrhea. It was the kind where you see little globules of fat that cling to the side of the bowl. Now, after the D, the tummy is better.

What is up? When he eats just bananas, meat, eggs, coconut oil, olive oil, he has perfect stools. It seems like adding in anything beyond that upsets things. I have been waiting to get to a more solid baseline before trialing things like enzymes and probiotics.

Any thoughts ladies?

[tanyalynn]

Well, whome has gotten me thinking about salicylates, and I started looking at foods that we'd need to cut out, and carrots and butternut squash (I think) are high in salicylates. Have you ever looked into food chemical sensitivities? And I wonder if you could trigger the same thing by being on the regular diet you're on and then giving a baby aspirin?

[lil_miss_understood]

No ideas, just bumping.

[momofmine]

Sorry I posted this on the wrong thread! I've been on MDC too much today!

[hummingmom]

Cinnamon is extremely high in salicylates, and often causes reactions even in the tiny amounts that are typically used in baking. It's also an anti-fungal, anti-viral, and general anti-parasite, so it could be stirring up some activity along those lines. I'd be inclined to suspect that, rather than the carrots and squash, which are moderate salicylate foods and generally well tolerated on the SCD.

Personally, I can't handle coconut oil either (not sure if it's allergy, die-off, or whatever), but it sounds like that's not a problem for your son.

[momofmine]

Originally Posted by hummingmom

Cinnamon is extremely high in salicylates, and often causes reactions even in the tiny amounts that are typically used in baking. It's also an anti-fungal, anti-viral, and general anti-parasite, so it could be stirring up some activity along those lines. I'd be inclined to suspect that, rather than the carrots and squash, which are moderate salicylate foods and generally well tolerated on the SCD.

Personally, I can't handle coconut oil either (not sure if it's allergy, die-off, or whatever), but it sounds like that's not a problem for your son.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought the cinnamon. Huh. Thanks for that perspective. The anti-fungal/parasite/viral thing is very possible, because I do think they have had some die-off reactions from the CO.

The coconut oil did seem at first to have some die-off related to it, but after about 6 weeks now, it is good, and in fact, I think the fat is helping them. But I wonder if it is possible they had a little too much CO that day, because we had been away for a couple of days and didn't have any.

My older child had a mushier stool later in the day also, so it must have been something.

I think I'll just keep moving forward then, and just hold off on the cinnamon. I do think I need to get some probiotics into them. I don't want to do the fermented veggies yet, because we haven't progressed to any raw stuff. And we had a particularly rough time with probiotic supps before, but maybe it's time to try again. I'd like to try enzymes and probiotics next, and see if that helps.

[tanyalynn]

If the raw-ness of fermented veggies is a problem, have you considered making some sort of fermented veggie and using just the juice as a probiotic supp? Pickle juice (in reasonable quantities, it is quite salty), or if you could make a kimchee where you add quite a bit of extra water.

[momofmine]

You know, that is a really good idea. Now I am remembering that actually The GAPS book suggests something like that, just taking a few spoonfuls of the juice, and I think adding it to the soup. (Wouldn't that kill some of the good bacteria though? I should go look that up.) Well my LO won't eat soup anyway, so that's a moot point. But I bet I could get him to sip a little off of a spoon.

Thanks!

[gilamama]

mix it up like a sauce for something that you guys do eat maybe?

[hummingmom]

Pecanbread.com has a bunch of information on fermented veggies, including a recipe for rejuvelac, which is made from cabbage juice. There's also an anecdote showing that Dr. Haas, who developed the SCD, strongly encouraged the use of traditional sauerkraut.

On that note, I really should get around to starting the new SCD support thread. Okay, I've done it... it's in Health and Healing. I'm guessing that's the right place, as it seems like more of a "gut healing" than an "allergy" topic.

Hope to see you there.