Healing The Gut Tribe!

[xekomaya]

If there is no current thread for this, I think we need to start one. Hopefully there are still some mamas around working on healing and we can get a good chat going.

DH and I are both in the need of some gut healing so I've been doing lots of reading. He has IBS, seems to be developing arthritis & is in constant joint/muscle pain. I have all kinds of bizarre problems and I feel like too much of a hypochondriac to list them all but I do think it all originates in my gut. I also have begun to suspect that ds is reacting to foods through breast milk. I only realized yesterday and dropped dairy right away, but it's too soon to see improvements. From my reading it seems that if he is reacting to foods through me, I almost certainly have a leaky gut -- which would confirm my earlier thought.

So is there anyone else still out there? Come on in!

[FrannieP]

You've read through this right?
http://www.mothering.com/discussions...d.php?t=434071

[xekomaya]

Yup - and just about all of the past healing the gut tribe threads - although I still have ~60 tabs open with more research & reading mostly on pub med . DH can't stand to use my computer because all the tabs make him dizzy.

[Shelsi]

I'm really really new to trying to "heal the gut" because of my dd's food allergies. The "cheat sheet" thread makes my head spin to be honest. So I certainly don't have anything to add but I'll be taking notes from all the others!

[xekomaya]

Originally Posted by Shelsi

I'm really really new to trying to "heal the gut" because of my dd's food allergies. The "cheat sheet" thread makes my head spin to be honest. So I certainly don't have anything to add but I'll be taking notes from all the others!

Welcome! The cheat sheet is an awesome resource but it can be really intimidating -- it took me 3 weeks of nursing + a growth spurt to get though it!

I'm not sure how many of the experienced mamas are still around, and I'm just getting started, so if you feel like it, you might as well jump right in

[seventy]

Well Hello.. I'll join/revive this thread if'n ya don't mind.

We're beginning this journey. Well actually, we began a few months ago but we're really getting serious now. It'll be me and my year old nursling. I'll share our histories later (too sleepy now).
I too have read the HTG Cheat Sheet and tons of other related threads. I feel like I could publish a book from all that I've learned.

be back later!!

[Evenstar]

Yes, please

I'm just getting started in the healing, too

[xekomaya]

Oh yay! Welcome!

I was hoping to be able to revive this thread.

Seventy, I'd be really interested to hear how it's going for your family.

So far we've started:
- Probiotics for all
- A house rule that we must drink 1c. bone broth per day
- CLO for me (not sure I can convince DH to try it)
And trying to shift our diet to TF. I'm seeing some improvement already, but my lo is still showing allergy symptoms even after removing diary so I think I'm going to need to start an elimination diet. I'm going to be very picky about what and how I add food back in and hopefully can heal my gut a bit while I do it.

I'm considering staring l-glutamine, but saw some really negative reports online (on pecanbread) so I think I might need more info.

[ReadingMama]

I know absolutely nothing about healing the gut, but came to this forum looking for information about it. I have Crohn's disease and IBS (and several other things) and my son has IBS and GERD. My son experiences belly pain several times a day and often has to go to the bathroom right after he eats. He has really bad gas too (which he is totally proud of!)

We have friends whose children had a food sensitivity test done (called Bloodprint) and they made major changes in their kids' diet. Their kids' belly pain and potty problems have improved dramatically. I'd like to have the testing done to see what foods could be contributing to my son's IBS, but the test is expensive and we don't have regular insurance now.

I'd love to learn more about healing the gut!

[Llyra]

I have been through the cheat sheet a million times, and I'm still learning a lot. I have ulcerative colitis. I'm on the SCD and I've convinced my insurance to pay for really powerful probiotics. Now I'm trying to convince DH to go on the diet. He has some IBS symptoms. He's really resisting, in that way men do when they'd rather be stoic and "tough it out."

Anyway, I thought I'd jump in since I always like to learn more.

[xekomaya]

ReadingMama - Hi, Welcome! How's it going for you? Have you had a chance to look through the cheat sheet? Feel free to jump in with any questions. I hope you're able to come up with a plan of action for yourself and your little man. You should definitely read Breaking the Vicious Cycle if you haven't already.

Originally Posted by Llyra

I have been through the cheat sheet a million times, and I'm still learning a lot. I have ulcerative colitis. I'm on the SCD and I've convinced my insurance to pay for really powerful probiotics. Now I'm trying to convince DH to go on the diet. He has some IBS symptoms. He's really resisting, in that way men do when they'd rather be stoic and "tough it out."

Anyway, I thought I'd jump in since I always like to learn more.

Hi - Can I ask what kind of probiotics you covered?

I had started SCD but couldn't find a suitable intersection of foods that I could digest & ds wasn't allergic to so I had to take a brief break. I'm also looking at GAPS for the supplement protocol, but I think I need to read the book, not just the website summary

We're having a little stall here for an extreme elimination diet for ds's allergies but hopefully will be back underway shortly. I was feeling a lot better with the bone broth & CLO, and then even more so while SCD legal so hopefully I can get back to that soon.

[JaneS]

Yes! I have more time now to learn and contribute, things were a little rocky for a while!

[xekomaya]

Hi Jane! Welcome back. So glad you're here!

[Chinese Pistache]

Originally Posted by xekomaya

Welcome! The cheat sheet is an awesome resource but it can be really intimidating -- it took me 3 weeks of nursing + a growth spurt to get though it!

I'm not sure how many of the experienced mamas are still around, and I'm just getting started, so if you feel like it, you might as well jump right in

Oh yeah. It's been a while since I plowed through it, but it definitely took some time.

Originally Posted by Llyra

I have been through the cheat sheet a million times, and I'm still learning a lot. I have ulcerative colitis. I'm on the SCD and I've convinced my insurance to pay for really powerful probiotics. Now I'm trying to convince DH to go on the diet. He has some IBS symptoms. He's really resisting, in that way men do when they'd rather be stoic and "tough it out."

Anyway, I thought I'd jump in since I always like to learn more.

Just curious, what probiotics are you using?

To the pp that saw some negative reports about l-glutamine, I'd be interested to read them.

[menomena]

Hi! I recognize a lot of faces from the allergy forum...

We're a couple months in to a "serious" healing regime - i.e. more than just probiotics.

We do:
* daily probiotics (more when tummies are upset)
* daily CLO
* daily Evening Primrose Oil
* enzymes with every meal/large snack
* homemade bone broth in everything
* cultured veggies (sauerkraut and pickles, mostly)
* food combining, most of the time (this is more of a yeast fighting thing a la Body Ecology Diet)

We are currently avoiding all of our known allergens/sensitivities + the remainder of the top 8 to allow the gut to heal.

[applecider]

I'm joining this thread to possibly help out my sister. For years she has suffered from "spastic colon" and has been on every med known to man it seems. She's finally agreed to try a more natural approach so I'm doing some research. I think I'd like to take her to a naturopath and also get an allergy panel done. I'm a little overwhelmed with all the info, but I'm doing my best! Plus there's always the problem of I can only help her as much as she wants to help herself. But I think she's at the breaking point and modern medicine has not fixed the problem so far.

[greeny]

I have esophagitis and two small ulcers, and lots of and lots of stomach pain that comes and goes. Have had upper GI and endoscopy (the tube down the throat), and am on Nexium 40 mg once or twice a day. This is, according to my doc, a med that I may have to take for the rest of my life, but my understanding is that it's not meant to be a long-term drug, so I need to get on the ball and start searching for natural cures for myself.

[kjbrown92]

Does anyone know the difference between CLO and fish oil? The naturopath put me on 4 capsules of high potency fish oil a day for inflammation. It lowered my cholesterol about 50 points!! Should I be taking both CLO and Fish Oil? Or do they both do the same thing?

I bought EnzymeGold, but haven't tried it yet (for anyone in the family).

I make bone broth (beef for DS and chicken for DD since they're allergic to the opposing meats!) and use it at least once a week (hard since we're on a 4-day rotation diet).

We take acidophilus tablets daily, and I make coconut milk yogurt.

And we avoid known allergens (and rotate foods).

[Llyra]

These are what I'm using:
http://www.vsl3.com/VSL3/default.asp
They're insanely expensive, so I couldn't get them without insurance paying.

[changingseasons]

I might as well jump onto the thread too....

I'm sure most of you know me from the Allergy forum, but for those who don't- we've been battling serious food allergies in DD for almost 9 months now. I've FINALLY gotten my diet to a point where she's not reacting (or at least where I can see when she's reacting, and what she's reacting to), but I'm down to about 7 foods.

Now that I have my diet somewhat controlled, I'm just starting to get into some serious gut healing. I was doing a lot of supplements, but DD was reacting to one or more of them, so I stopped everything. Plus, I became sensitized and started reacting to my enzymes after taking them for a month... so those are out. What I plan to do instead is introduce a lot of cultured foods. I'm off to find some good, big glass jars at IKEA & Goodwill today, then will make my first batch of NT pickled beets this afternoon (with just sea salt, DD is allergic to dairy so I can't use whey). I'm also going to start growing my own kombucha scoby from a bottle of GT's. I hope to also eventually get some water kefir grains and get that started too.

So I guess right now, the only thing we're doing is: daily kombucha for me, and I just started DD back on probiotics after her last serious reaction. And allergen avoidance.

Oh- and I've cut all sugars out of my diet (except this delicious raw honey that I have... I'm working on that one) to see if yeast might be a contributor to our problem.