GFCF AND yeast free, anyone?

[MommaMoo]

My ds is showing signs of having Asperger's syndrome. I'm going to have him evaluated. Anyhoo, he was a sickly child up until a year ago when I had him tested for food sensitivities. He has problems with 26 different foods. He is doing remarkably better now that he's off of most of those foods, and I think the main culprit was wheat. Now that I believe he has Asperger's, I'd like to go CF and yeast free, in addition to being GF. I read that there may be a connection between candida and autism. I have suffered for a long time with yeast problems, so it makes sense that ds would have that issue, too. It's just going to be so ridiculously restrictive. We have settled into a successful diet plan for him, and now pretty much all of the foods he eats will have to be eliminated, like his crispy dried fruit, PBJ's, GF pizza, and even his rice bread. I need to be on this diet with him, but I think I may focus on ds first. Has anyone done this type of diet with a young child and been successful with it?

[Pinky Tuscadero]

I haven't done it myself, but I hear amazing things about the GAPS diet (Gut and Psychology Syndrome). You'll find plenty of support for this type of diet on the Traditional Foods forum. It can be done!! Good luck!

[MommaMoo]

Thanks! I will check it out

[tanyalynn]

I'm not sure if you've been over to the Allergies forum, it's a good place to get lots of ideas for working around various dietary restrictions, and we've had interesting discussions on why we need to avoid the foods we need to. Everyone's got somewhat different reasons, but there are some common themes, and we've had discussions several times on why people have candida issues, since figuring that out if often helpful in getting the gut back into balance (help fix the underlying cause, plus the candida itself).

[crunchy_mama]

I follow a GF/CF diet for myself. I have also been on a candida diet in the past as well. I am on a loose one right now- no grains except a minimal amt of corn- I do eat some sugar- but in natural forms and maybe just maybe a very small serving every couple of days. I have not done it w/ the kids though. there is a very, very , very difficult detox period especially if you are doing this for the first time and you are a hardcore addict.

There was a SCD support thread somewhere around here and that could probably be helpful w/ transitioning your son. I know I read lots of mamas talking about getting their kids on and the struggle there. It is not exactly a candida diet as it allows raw honey and fruits, but kind of close. Also, as Tanya said see what you can find on the GAPS diet as well.

[MommaMoo]

I've looked into GAPS, and that looks good, but I couldn't find much info on SCD when I googled it. It just gets so very confusing. I read on one of the GAPS websites that blood tests for food intolerances are useless because it can change daily, so I don't know how accurate it was for ds. And then foods that are totally prohibited for candida are allowed on GAPS. I didn't know that there were discussions about these issues on the allergies forum. I guess I only thought of that as a forum for environmental allergies. I will start searching around there for info too.

[Ruthla]

The Allergies forum seems to be primarily about food allergies, with the occasional question about environmental allergies tossed in.

Just from the title you gave, GFCFYF, I don't see why pretzels and pizza would need to be "out", so long as you made yeast-free versions of them with GF flours. IF you can still have soy, you can use soy cheese on the pizza. PB&J works on rice cakes or corn tortillas. If you need to be grain free, then that's a lot more restrictive. You'd need to rethink your whole approach to eating.

I'm not familiar enough with GAPS or SCD to give you any practical advice.

[crunchy_mama]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

The Allergies forum seems to be primarily about food allergies, with the occasional question about environmental allergies tossed in.

Just from the title you gave, GFCFYF, I don't see why pretzels and pizza would need to be "out", so long as you made yeast-free versions of them with GF flours. IF you can still have soy, you can use soy cheese on the pizza. PB&J works on rice cakes or corn tortillas. If you need to be grain free, then that's a lot more restrictive. You'd need to rethink your whole approach to eating.

I'm not familiar enough with GAPS or SCD to give you any practical advice.

I think she is referring to a Candida diet, not specifically a yf. Most candida diets don't really allow a lot of grains and certainly not corn or rice cakes.

[MommaMoo]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mama

I think she is referring to a Candida diet, not specifically a yf. Most candida diets don't really allow a lot of grains and certainly not corn or rice cakes.

Yes, the candida diet is very restrictive. So is GAPS, which is looking good to me, but that actually focuses on healing the gut. I was worried about doing GFCF along with yeast free, because that would be next to impossible when I add in all of ds' intolerances. I just learned of GAPS, thanks to Pinky Tuscadero. That seems much more workable.