Healing the Gut Tribe.......April - Page 2

[Panserbjorne]

I believe you can start yogurt after the intro diet...we only did the intro for two days and then I waited to start yogurt because of massive dairy sensitivity issues. I intro'd the yogurt with enzymes to counter that but we still can't do any dairy. I'm actually fine with that-it was a stretch for me! OFten people with CD can't tolerate dairy in any form and that is the case for us.

[Gale Force]

Originally Posted by firefaery

Jane-be very careful with zinc. Too much can be quite toxic. For a kiddo his age I don't think I'd be personally comfprtable with more than 10 mg a day. The upper limit for adults (as a supplement-not therapeutic) is 30 mg.

I think the studies used 5 mg/day and was a six month study. But I don't have it right here so if anyone wants me to follow-up, beat on me until I post it.

[Panserbjorne]

Do you know if they took into account other supplements like multis when they did it, or was it just an accross the board supplementation? Either way, 5 mg is enough to make a difference, and not likely to cause a toxic load even with the addition of a multi. If you think of it, it would be an interesting read.

[Gale Force]

Roll call:

I'm Amanda, 37 years old. I have one son Frederick who will be 4 later this month. I started on a candida diet in March of 2003 and was very strict for 9 months. My systemic yeast symptoms disappeared. But I still have heavy metal issues and have been told since the beginning that the yeast won't be totally gone until the metal is under control. Indeed, I get nipple thrush on occasion, but it typically goes away by itself. I've come a long way since the ductal yeast. It's all been diet. I took antifungals but not in a dedicated fashion.

[Gale Force]

Originally Posted by firefaery

Do you know if they took into account other supplements like multis when they did it, or was it just an accross the board supplementation? Either way, 5 mg is enough to make a difference, and not likely to cause a toxic load even with the addition of a multi. If you think of it, it would be an interesting read.

They were infants and toddlers and just gave zinc. I've got it somewhere around here.

[aileen]

hi all.
here! i'm a 32 yo mama to a 3 yo with intense eczema. we've been dabbling in the SCD and NT diets but i'm about to go whole hog because the more i mess up the more obvious it becomes. yesterday we made a practice birthday cake (sunday ), gluten free, egg free, only kefir for dairy, but i used sugar (gasp!) and now i have cracked flaking dry skn across my eyes and nose - just where i used to slather myself with cortizone years ago. i know - practically a hand calligraphed note from the yeast. it's time - i just don't know why i'm dragging my feet so much. i'm really tired of the restrictions. all the elimination diets have really beaten me down.
dd and i are doint NAET right now, (with Levatin, for my fellow MA mamas) and i wish i was super behind it but to be honest, i don't have the faith that it'll solve things the way i feel like SCD might. i'm trying to be open and i can feel the differences as we do the treatments, but, until dd decides to wean, my gut has to be better. still, i hope after every treatment that "this'll be the one she needed to sleep more than 2 hours straight".
ugh - i should sign off, i'm staring down the barrel of at least a year of more crazy diet and i don't know which is worse - that i don't know if i can do it, or that i don't know if i can't. i need an attitude adjustment. where's that shirt i had in fourth grade?
sorry for the bummer turn there friends.
next time i check in i promise i'll be funnier.

[nicolena]

thanks for the yogurt info. i'll start again wed. i'm going for 36 hour yogurt!

oh aileen, it's so hard, huh? i've already gotten into a great big fight with my sister today. i mean BIG. (she was supposed to come help us.) sigh. but the changes i've seen in the small steps i've made so far tell me it will be worth it.

there are just so many cultural/social/emotional attachments and associations to food! even at my littles' young age! they just gorged on funky cheesecake for lunch. a dab of carrot. less than a bite of meat. and no gelatin. i just drank cold stock--gah! because of the worry over getting my amalgams warm. but all this is good even tho i still have the amalgams, right? i never had big yeast issues, tho i can't figure out what stopped them (my old ben and jerry fro yo addiction?). and now i am rambling.........

[Pattyla]

Roll call.

I'm Patty and have had a candidia issue for years but been unwilling to address it head on. Now my dd, Wisteria, who is 2 also has a candidia issue and I wish I would have done something before she came along but I didn't so here we are. We've been doing scd for 6 weeks now (and gf for 3 weeks before that)

I'm pretty discouraged today. Last night dh gave dd a bowl of applesauce for her bedtime snack. She was up forever chatting up a storm unable to go to sleep and today she is a wreck (hangover?). I just want her and I to be better. I want to feed her good food that she likes to eat. I get so sad when she asks for good healthy foods and I can't give them to her. I don't want her to develope issues about food and yet how can she not when I am telling her she can't eat carrot sticks? (she can't have anything raw yet) I feel like we have hit a plateau and I don't no how to get past it. I also have no idea how I am going to get an anti fungal into her. I'm thinking about buying a juicer so that I can make the carrot/garlic juice for us to drink. She was eating raw garlic cloves the other day (but now won't).

I also beleive that she craves certain things because she needs them but I don't know how to fulfill those needs. She craves fish oil and has for a very long time. She craves fish and will eat a lot at one sitting. She also craves fat and will eat butter or other fatty things straight as well. I don't cook low fat but I can see that she needs even more than I am offering but I'm not sure how to do that. I also wonder if she is actually needing a nutrient that is in fat but not necessarily in a high level in the particular fats she is getting if you follow. She rarely is offered beef. We have begun eating lamb several times a week starting 3 weeks ago and we also eat a lot of chicken and fish 3-5x a month. Any insight into this?

[caedmyn]

Roll call:

I'm 26 and have a 3 month old DD. She recently got a weird rash on her butt cheeks which started a few days after I started eating a lot more dairy...since then she's had blood in her poop 4 different days in the last two weeks, although I've eliminated dairy. I have a long history of low blood sugar and acne. I started the Maker's Diet on Saturday and also started taking digestive enzymes. I really hope this helps (me too but especially DD)...my diet was already pretty much the same as the Maker's Diet 3rd stage, so I don't know if starting from the beginning will help or not.

OK, now for my questions...
1) I bought the Enzymedica Digest Gold enzymes...the Houston ones are quite a bit cheaper but don't have nearly as many enzymes in them. Are they just as good or would I need to take more or more than one type with the Houston ones?

2) How long do the enzymes last? It often takes me an hour to finish a meal between tending to my DD...are the enzymes still good? And sometimes I snack constantly throughout the day...do I need to take enzymes with everything I eat, or if I am snacking on raw foods and only eating a little can I skip the enzymes?

3) The Maker's Diet recommends adding yogurt or kefir after the first 2 weeks, and others have recommended them for probiotics...should I add them in a couple of weeks or wait, since it seems that my daughter may have a problem with dairy? I do have raw milk so it would be raw milk yogurt or kefir.

4) Any suggestions on combating low blood sugar while I'm doing this? The diet is so restricted the first couple of weeks it seems like I'm not getting enough to eat and have low blood sugar feelings constantly. I'm eat a fair amount of protein and fat (lots of eggs and almonds) so I'm not sure what else to do.

5) I read that only raw food has enzymes...is this correct? If it is it would explain why I had so many problems with low blood sugar after eating grains...I usually ate them by themselves and they were always cooked! So should I eat something raw each time I eat?

[chasmyn]

subbing

[vegmom]

Rollcall: I am am 29 and have been suffering from systemic candida since i was 16 after being on antibiotics and being on a high carbohydrate vegetarian/vegan diet. That is 13 years(almost 14)! I have 2 dd's (3.5 and 1.5 years old). This year they the eldest has had chronic ear infections (5 over the winter) and dd#2 has had one ear infection. Both of them had one course each of antibiotics. We are seeing a chiropractic doctor for help with this.
Lately i have noticed that after each meal I get bloated and get stomache pains. Is this Leaky Gut? I have the dr. Mercola book and the NT book. I started fermenting - raw milk yogurt-12hr(turned out very bitter), sourkraut (wich tastes good but makes my teeth super sensitive after I eat it-very painful). The kraut is going on its 2nd week. I also made a beet kvass out of NT and it tastes awful. The digestion has improved when i eat and drink these things. I just need to eat them on a regular basis. I don't know if I could finish eating the kraut because of the teeth sensitivities - has anyone had this happen to them?

I have tried elimination diets but fail miserably. I just have no willpower over bread and sugar. My kids have a hard time too. They get offered it at school and from family who know that they are not supposed to have wheat and sugar.:

How does everyone else handle social situations/birthdays/holidays? Cravings? Dh's resistance and bringing junk food in the house? temptation? I have failed so many times, felt miserable and now believe that I will live with this all my life. Is there an AA type program for this? Candidiases Anonymous? A 12 step program would realy be helpful. I realy don't want my girls to struggle like I am.

My kids are also very small. When dd#1 was 1.5y.o. she was classified as failure to thrive. She was 19lbs. My dd#2 got weighed last month at the hospital when she went in for breathing problems and ear infection and was 18lbs. They did not classify her as failure to thrive because she was sick. But it sure freaked me out! Both of them eat yogurt and clo, they did not seem to have any allergies as long as they ate the yogurt and i just figured that since both girls are small that it must be just as they are. Now I am a bit worried. Amanda do you have more info on the zinc study?

Also, what is DCCC?

Thank you for all great information and support!

[Annikate]

Hello to all the new people here!

I am 39 and mom to 2 dds: a 2.5 year old and 1 year old on April 10th!

I found out about healing the gut through searching for a reason why dd2 would NOT sleep. I refused to believe that it was "just her nature" as so many people suggested. : I mean really, how many *healthy* newborns sleep for only 5 hours (total - not consecutive) in a 24 hour period?

Dd also would get dark circles under her eyes, red swollen eyes, and little red bumps underneath them. I KNEW it was related to food. I tried eliminating dairy, tried the total elimination diet, tried chiropractors, applied kinesiology, mainstream drugs (for dds reflux), I tried, tried, tried.

It wasn't until our chiro/naturpath suggested enzymes for dds *allergies* and said both dds stomach and mine were weak that I began to delve more into this. JaneS posted once to a thread of mine not to think of it as food allergies, but to think of it as not being able to absorb/digest.

Well, all of a sudden it clicked. I'd had GI issues actually since birth when I had a rare type of intestinal thing (duodenal atresia) and had surgery for it. Since then I'd been diagnosed w/diverticulitis, IBS . . . but never really thought much of it. 'Til now.

BTW, dd2 really does have a *real* allergy to wheat/gluten so thank goodness we started the SCD about 3 weeks before we went to see her allergist. The improvements in her are nothing short of amazing. And despite having little sleep and even less excersice, I feel great. On the days I feel like my butt's dragging, I can look back and pinpoint it to something I ate but was not ready for yet.

I've got dh and dd1 doing this with me too. (Well, dh's diet is a bit modified. )

[Panserbjorne]

Caedmyn: correct. Anytime food is heated above the 118 degree mark enzymes begin to die. Grains that you buy preground are never living food, whole grains can be made "live" by soaking and sprouting them. Cooking them, however, will destroy those enzymes. This is the traditional reason for consuming things like salads or fermented foods before a meal-gets enzymes going putting less of a stress on the body. Live foods take a major load off the pancreas and help with out of control insulin levels. Eating raw food before eating cooked food will help.

[bhawkins]

OK, sorry if this sounds completly stupid, but how do you know if you have a systemic yeast problem, leaky gut, etc? Please someone point me in the right direction. My 1y/o DS has a reoccuring yeast rash and maybe this is the problem.

[JaneS]

Don't have much time tonight, back tom... work and IL's bogging me down.

but reading the roll call has been AMAZING! How many common themes we all have. Great idea Mehera

Y'all know our story, right? and I'm not admitting my age again

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by bhawkins

OK, sorry if this sounds completly stupid, but how do you know if you have a systemic yeast problem, leaky gut, etc? Please someone point me in the right direction. My 1y/o DS has a reoccuring yeast rash and maybe this is the problem.

Not all all stupid question!!
Mostly digestive issues but also many other, see here:

Symptoms of leaky gut syndrome may include:

• aggression • anxiety • asthma • atypical sensory reactions • bed-wetting • bladder infections • bloating or gas • chronic joint, muscle, or abdominal pain • confusion • diarrhea or constipation • fatigue • fevers of unknown origin • fuzzy thinking or ‘brain fog’ • indigestion • memory problems • migraines • mood swings • nervousness • poor exercise tolerance • poor immunity • skin rashes
http://www.enzymestuff.com/conditionleakygut.htm

Bad bacteria appears to be much easier to get rid of than yeast overgrowth. Bacteria is characterized by:

aggression, moodiness, irritability, 'anger' for no apparent reason
sleep problems but not with the inappropriate giggling or laughter
really foul smelling stools or body odor (we are talking incredible STENCH); bad breath; stinky sweat
ammonia odor
frequently occurs with constipation (infrequent painful stools, streaking/smearing in underwear, etc); see encopresis/chronic constipation...

With yeast, common indicators are:

yeast rashes somewhere else in the body: thrush on the tongue, athlete's food, vaginal irritation in girls/women
intense carbohydrate cravings
inappropriate uncontrollable sudden giggling or laughter (yeast by-products include alcohol so you get 'drunk-like' behavior particularly after eating carbs or sweets)
poor sleep, sleep waking at night
moodiness, emotionalism you don't have a reason for
odd behavior about 30 minutes after eating
http://www.enzymestuff.com/conditionbacteria.htm

Elaine Gottschall believes many people with gut issues have both yeast and bacterial problems and hence uses the term "microbes" a lot to encompass them all.

I think "yeast" can be a catch all term. Bacterial problems are not as well known as yeast b/c yeast has had the author Crook to popularize it, The Yeast Connection, etc.

[JaneS]

Originally Posted by firefaery

Jane-be very careful with zinc. Too much can be quite toxic. For a kiddo his age I don't think I'd be personally comfprtable with more than 10 mg a day.

Thanks, this is what he's getting in the Brainchild multi minerals so I'll just lay off the extra for now.

I swear NOTHING works with this child!!

[Pookietooth]

rollcall
Another Jennifer, with thrush and yeast problems for years, amalgam fillings, PCOS (polycystic ovarian syndrome), depression which is seasonally affected, migraines, asthma (which is better off wheat), tinnitis. One precious ds, who turned three in Feb, who has thrush (white coating on tongue -- he had it almost constantly his first six months or so of life), along with attention problems and sensory integration problems and some autistic traits.

We've been doing SCD since October of last year. We saw some improvement right away (ds became more social, less fearful, potty trained himself - daytime only). Then the improvement slowed, and lately I've been really feeling like we need to do something more.

DS feasts on fruit, which I try to discourage but get nowhere. I hate to deny him stuff that is technically scd legal, but I feel like he's not getting enough nutrients eating mostly fruits. Sigh. For myself, I think that I need to cut out cow's milk of all kinds, as it seems to activate my asthma and gives me migraines. But it's so scary to think of how I would get my calcium, phosphorus, etc.

Jane, I have a feeling that Paradise Herbs Amla stuff would give me a migraine -- I think it's the tannins in walnuts and wine that give me migraines. Oh, bother!

[nicolena]

JaneS--I DON'T know your story--just what i've pieced together! but you can omit your age if you must.

a homepathy question--it is within the realm of "fanatical adherance" to use? nico's getting a molar so i'm liberal with the teething tabs. i'm taking ignatia and argentum to help combat the anxiety i am feeling with the diet.

patty--that's so awesome she likes fish oil! but she clearly wants fats, huh? i've given my nico butter straight! she eats it. her sister needs it more and will not eat it. when we can incorporate it, i'll be given them those frozen almond/coconut oil/honey conefctions i found a recipe for on the scd page. they love them! me too!

re: wondering if you've "got it"--in my developing opinion, i think a host of the complaints mamas have about their babes can be cured thru nutrition. there. i said it! (and it can't hurt to try! my girls got amazingly "better" after just taking bread from their diet!)

[chasmyn]

Can I ask someone in the know some TMI questions about stool? I'd rather PM...