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Healing the Gut in September

28K views 590 replies 44 participants last post by  Panserbjorne 
#1 ·
Hi mamas..........
Happy September 1st! We have a new month and thread. Will this one make 50 pages?
 
#4 ·
Quote:
It's likely. when will we get our own subforum???
Poking my head in to say that would be too cool. We do a lot of gut healing stuff in this family but I haven't posted in this thread before because it is way too hard to follow any discussion that is all combined into one reaaaally long thread!

But while I'm here, I'd love to hear any success stories for getting rid of yeast once and for all. DD has been on SCD for closing in on six months and gets no grains of any kind but we still had a super nasty yeast flareup earlier this week. I have to keep her on antifungals constantly to control it and that is probably not good for her liver. She has such a restricted diet as is. I suspect we'll have to take the plunge and start limiting fruit more, but then she'd be on a diet of only meat and veggies and she really loves fruit.
I've already had to cut pretty much everything else she really liked out and I hate that. She is allergic to nuts and beans and eggs so pretty much all SCD-legal foods except meat, fruits, and veggies are not an option.
 
#5 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by krissi
Poking my head in to say that would be too cool. We do a lot of gut healing stuff in this family but I haven't posted in this thread before because it is way too hard to follow any discussion that is all combined into one reaaaally long thread!

But while I'm here, I'd love to hear any success stories for getting rid of yeast once and for all. DD has been on SCD for closing in on six months and gets no grains of any kind but we still had a super nasty yeast flareup earlier this week. I have to keep her on antifungals constantly to control it and that is probably not good for her liver. She has such a restricted diet as is. I suspect we'll have to take the plunge and start limiting fruit more, but then she'd be on a diet of only meat and veggies and she really loves fruit.
I've already had to cut pretty much everything else she really liked out and I hate that. She is allergic to nuts and beans and eggs so pretty much all SCD-legal foods except meat, fruits, and veggies are not an option.
Unfortunately fruits are very high in sugar even if it's legal. This feeds the yeast. My DD has very mild yeast issues but she gets a bad diaper rash if I give her more than one little bit of fruit a day. You could just try keeping low sugar fruis like berries and avocadoes. Avocados make great dessert.
Have you tried coconuts? Coconut milk, oil etc. You can make coconut milk jello with stevia. Definitely cut out juices. I know stevia is illegal but it's still the best sweetener if you can't do honey.
Sorry to say I haven't been able to get rid of yeast on SCD so I'm doing the yahoo group candida diet, which would be hard for kids without eggs.

Have you tried buckwheat? I know it's a complex carb and illegal. However, its gluten free and not really a grain... If you prepare it a la Nourishing Traditions, soaking it in yogurt or water and whey/lemon juice, and then make pancakes or something. This candida diet doesn't recommend it per se but it's the best option if you must cheat.

Are you giving her enzymes?
 
#6 ·
nak
i think i may need to do the SCD. TMI allert ahead. lately i've been having pains in my belly and feels like i need to go to the washroom really bad. well i try and go and the only thing that comes out is this clear goopy stuff that looks like egg whites. its coming from my bum. any ideas?
 
#7 ·
I, like many of you it seems, am doing SCD to try to help issues with my 3 month old ebf daughter. I had been on an elimination diet, so I already had a good feel for what set her off (massive yakking and screaming are usually how reactions show themselves). I'm now 2 weeks into SCD, and it is so tough to figure out what is causing what! Of course it doesn't help that I'm also starting new supplements and enzymes, but I think I get most frustrated because I'm not really judging my body's reaction, but hers, which is much more unpredictable. For instance, is that spit up because she gulped too much air while nursing or because of the grape juice I drank this morning? Sometimes it's absolutely clear (like the preSCD night after a glass of soy milk which will forever be etched in my memory), but other times it's so hard to know. I religiously keep a food journal and reactions log, but even with that it's hard. Ok, so enough whining. Here's my question - if it isn't necessarily time, per SCD, to start a food yet, but I know it doesn't cause a reaction in DD, can I go ahead with it? Or could it be causing harm that I just don't know about? For example, I'm still in the cooked fruits and vegetable stage (which is sooooo hard from a time perspective), but I know DD does fine with lettuce. So, can I go ahead and start salads or do I need to wait? I never thought I would yearn for lettuce so much!

Another question - at first, her stools were normal curried yogurt with the little seeds. The seeds went away and about a week later is when all the other bad stuff started happening. Could be coincidence, but I can't shake the notion that it's not. She only goes about 2 times a week, but that might be just because I'm eating so little that produces waste, plus it can be normal for ebf babies to only go once a week, or so I read. She did go more frequently when I started enzymes (I've backed off for a bit for my own sake), but other than that I can't see much linkage to what I'm doing and her stools. So, I feel very in the dark about how fast to proceed with SCD since most of that seems to be based on stools. If I don't have diarrhea and she's not yakking, are we good to move ahead or do I somehow need to get a better feel about her stools, too? Ahhh, this is all so hard. I'm very much a likes to follow a map person, and this is a route with no clear path directions, it seems. Thanks for all your help - I have learned so much from all of you!
 
#8 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by babygrant
nak
i think i may need to do the SCD. TMI allert ahead. lately i've been having pains in my belly and feels like i need to go to the washroom really bad. well i try and go and the only thing that comes out is this clear goopy stuff that looks like egg whites. its coming from my bum. any ideas?
Yikes you poor thing, that's a new one, even for me! Do you have loose stools right now otherwise? What other symptoms? I think inflammation in general can create mucus production from a variety of causes.
http://ibscrohns.about.com/od/relate...mucusstool.htm
 
#9 ·
Well stool comes out as well but it's covered with the goopy stuff. I am on Synthroid for hypothyroid disease. Umm other symptoms....I can't tell I have to go to the bathroom until I REALLY need to go and can barely hold it. No diarrhea. Pressure in my bottom. That's about it.

Man, I'm glad that I don't know anyone IRL that comes on MDC and can read this
 
#10 ·
Success story on yeast from someone I know IRL:

Quote:
I have done so much reading on this topic and still have not found
more than 2 sources that agree on any one "cause". Here's a read
that I can across during my hunt for truth in healing my daughter,
and all that it speaks of is exactly what we experienced. We tried
it ALL...except for (at that time) the fermented foods to feed good
flora. We did take probiotics but NOTHING worked until we started
eating kefir and kim chi. She can now eat anything with
no "symptoms"...this includes the occassional birthday party garbage
she eats. And since we've been eating the WP way she's only had 2
headaches and NO other symptoms...that's within 8 months, before
she'd get about 4 to 6 in a month and every symptom you can think
of...headaches, smelly feet, blisters in her mouth, dark circles
under the eyes, ezcema, constipation, caught infections
easily..colds/flu/pneumonia and on and on and on.....

Anywho here's the link to read

http://www.regaininghealthnaturally....on_Sense.shtml
 
#11 ·
Quote:
Unfortunately fruits are very high in sugar even if it's legal. This feeds the yeast. My DD has very mild yeast issues but she gets a bad diaper rash if I give her more than one little bit of fruit a day. You could just try keeping low sugar fruis like berries and avocadoes. Avocados make great dessert.
Have you tried coconuts? Coconut milk, oil etc. You can make coconut milk jello with stevia. Definitely cut out juices. I know stevia is illegal but it's still the best sweetener if you can't do honey.
Sorry to say I haven't been able to get rid of yeast on SCD so I'm doing the yahoo group candida diet, which would be hard for kids without eggs.

Have you tried buckwheat? I know it's a complex carb and illegal. However, its gluten free and not really a grain... If you prepare it a la Nourishing Traditions, soaking it in yogurt or water and whey/lemon juice, and then make pancakes or something. This candida diet doesn't recommend it per se but it's the best option if you must cheat.

Are you giving her enzymes?
Sadly DD has what appears to be a severe case of leaky gut syndrome. She tested with 52 food sensitivities when we did IgE/IgG testing. All grains were high sensitivity including buckwheat...she is even IgG allergic to rice. She is moderately sensitive to coconut too. I have wondered about trying coconut because it wasn't a high sensitivity...I am hesitant to experiment much because we are always walking on thin ice with her gut and it seems like every little thing causes a setback. They're delayed response allergies too so it could be up to three days until we saw an impact from anything which makes it hard to trace. We saw major improvement when we cut out these 52 foods all at once, and then even more dramatic when we switched to SCD, so I know it's helping, but it leaves little left to work with.

I know that fruits are high in sugar but I just feel like I've taken so much away from her already. I may just have to limit it more. We already cut out juice a few months ago except for OJ once a week or so as a treat. (She looks forward to an Odwalla orange juice how most kids would look forward to ice cream!) She eats a lot of apples and bananas though. Avocadoes are already a mainstay and she gets a half of one for breakfast every morning and also following dinner. I hadn't thought of berries being lower in sugar...that's definitely a good point.

I feel like we're caught between a rock and a hard place because if I cut down on her fruit then I have to increase her meat and that can cause other problems. Or somehow cross my fingers and hope she's going to be willing to eat a whole bucket of broccoli and carrots each day. I think she's not getting enough calories as is. I'm trying to tend toward lower oxalates also and that makes it even more crazy.
:

We do enzymes...primarily Candex in the morning and evening and No Fenol in between meals (which also helped a lot with stool consistency). It hasn't helped much with keeping yeast away. Her yeast is all intestinal and manifests as behavioral symptoms. We can get rid of it with fluconazole but then it comes back at the drop of a hat.
I don't want to have her on fluconazole all the time in order to be able to function.

I guess I'm kind of rambling. I know we'll have to limit fruit more too but I'm just not sure how to pull that off yet. Anyone know of other good natural antifungals beside GSE? I think her yeast might have developed a tolerance to GSE. It isn't working as well as it used to. I am guessing I probably should be rotating antifungals but I don't know much about how that works.
 
#12 ·
JaneS that is an interesting link...hmm...gives me some ideas. I haven't been able to successfully introduce yogurt yet. We only have goat milk as an option for yogurt or kefir because of nuts/coconut/cow's milk allergies. I am wondering now if I should be serving the apples with a side of goat yogurt though and maybe encouraging her to dip them. She thinks dipping stuff is fun. Maybe that could counteract the yeasty effect of eating apples.

Maybe researching fermented veggies a little more might be good too. She loves cabbage salad and maybe some kind of fermented cabbage would be a hit.
 
#15 ·
Posted this on the other thread. Forgot it was a new month.

I think we are going to switch to the program on candidasupport. Really at this point it is such a small step from where we are that it is hardly noticable. I'm hopeful that it will fill in some gaps for us. Sadly it doesn't let us add back in a single food and makes us eliminate a couple more. If it works we will all be happier.

So I'm working on incresing my intake of fats. Never thought I would say that. I also didn't realize how difficult that can be! I need some ideas on how to get more CO into me w/o nuts, fruit, or dairy that doesn't include taking it straight. Increasing dd's fats is easy. I'm just feeding her pats of butter. She is thrilled. Guess I shouldn't have been fighting this in her. (she has craved butter for a long time).

I think that this program will be somewhat easier and cheaper. I'm not sure what to do about all the extra suppliments I have been taking. I think I'll keep them up untill the bottles run out.

Oh and I cured my fathers leg cramps while I was home. Got him taking magnesium and he is thrilled. This wasn't the first time I tried to convince him that magnesium was his problem but it was the first time it sank in. My mother however was hopeless. She just doesn't want to go through die off. In general they nit picked my parenting so much that I didn't want to start any deep conversations anyhow. This was one vacation that I wish I hadn't bothered taking. It was far more work than staying home would have been and no rest or relaxation. Silly me thinking my parents would be supportive of me at this time. I sure hope I can figure out how to overcome this programing and not do the same thing to my amazing DD. I don't want her to have to move half way across the country as an adult just to escape me and live her own life.
 
#16 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by firefaery
subbing. Just got through a couple of days with an infant pooping mucous and spitting up mucous so thick I had to remove it from his mouth. It started the day I tried clarified butter. Ugh. It may be a bug, but that would be a very strong coincidence.
Poor little one.

It has taken me 2 months to figure out what people meant by 'subbing'

Duh
 
#17 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by JaneS
Success story on yeast from someone I know IRL:
Ok Jane, I'm now more confused than ever.
: I want what that says to be true but I don't trust it. I feel terrible when I eat anything off this diet. Horrible stomach pains. I just don't know what to do anymore.
:
 
#18 ·
Thanks, Jane, for the link. It really helped me in my confusion. It made sense to me. How does one deal with an acid pH? DS tested acid last time I tested him, whereas I am more in the middle.
 
#20 ·
Krissi,

Went through something sim w/dd. SCD did not work for her candida, and she also couldn't have eggs or dairy. We did a rare foods rotation diet where you only eat things you haven't eaten before and you do a 5-7 day rotation. I found that w/ dd's leaky gut that was the only way to prevent new allergies from forming. I did give her some grains, sprouted as mentioned before, quinoa, amaranth and millet. We did a week of very intensive meat and veggie and fats only then added in the fruits. Glycerin was the rec sweetener. I think the fruits were mango, kiwi, cherimoya, persimmons, ...I can't remember the rest. I also did nystatin (Dr. Cook's book on Candida) for her and ate lots of garlic myself as she was nursing.

Good luck!
 
#21 ·
Sigh. Good news and terrible news.

Well on the good news front, I started my older DS on reuteri for his loose poops. The results are phenomonal!! He is a normal boy after all. I plan to keep both of us on the diet for a long time, is there any problem w/that nutritionally speaking?

And the awful news.

It looks like my 21m old has a rare genetic disorder, MPS.
We are very lucky though because it seems that he is on the very mild end of the spectrum. I'm thinking Schiele's or mild Hunter's. I'm going back and forth btw the two. His urine was sent out on Thursday to the U of Alabama to the top guy in the field to get more answers. We are seeing the geneticist on Wednesday, and the ENT on Thursday (to remove his adenoids and put ear tubes in). We are hoping to get this diagnosed ASAP so that he can start the enzyme therapy (once a week for life or until a cure).

On a side note, my lil' guy is much MUCH healthier than other MPS kids his age. I am attributing this 100% to his non-vax, non-crap (only SCD), and no antibiotic ever history. Because of all this, I know he is going to be okay.

Onwards to another journey.

Amy
 
#22 ·
Hi all. I posted back in June about having illeitis. I was throwing up, middle distended, bad belly pain. I got morphine in the ER and lots of tests. Then admitted for MORE tests. The tests are still going on- CT scans, MRI's.... So last night almosto EXACTLY the same thing happened as when I went to the ER, only I didn't go in. (I live with my mom and I asked her to take me in- when I could move!- and she said "you were there a long time last time"
)

Anyway, it happened again last night. Has happened in years previous but not so close together. In fact, I think I had a couple more times like this between my ER visit and now. I get a stomach ache that gets a bit worse and a bit worse and eventually I end up all sweaty and chilled and curled up on the bathroom floor. I go from that to bare naked on the bathroom floor. Eventually I throw up several times and luckily this time I had diarrhea- usually I feel like everything is "stuck' and won't move which makes my heart rate soar and my belly even more distended. I didn'[t get to sleep until 6 a.m. Then I called the nurse because the clinic I go to is open Saturday mornings. She said I should've gone to the ER. And if my belly gets all distended again, to go. I'm on popsicles, flat pop, water and broth for now. I feel dehydrated and exhausted. If it was a certain food that does this, I'd avoid it.....
 
#24 ·
There is alot of validity to the acid alkaline theory. It is just almost never presented correctly. Your body has a very small range and doesn't vary it's pH level all that much. However it varies enough to cause problems. The way people usually talk about it is in terms of acid foods and alkaline foods. While foods will have one proerty or another, they will not necessarily push you in that direction. Lemons are very acidic, so much so that they will shock your bosy into alkalinity. So eating that particular acid fruit will not make you acidic.

Also different people metabolize things differently. This is somthing that I am just learning alot about. Meat supposedly makes your body acidic. That's not true for everyone. If you are a person who requires alot of fat and protein in your diet, meat will actually make you more alkaline. A person who can't handle (metabolically) much meat or fat will tend towards a more acidic body with the ingestion of meat. You most likely know you're type already (if you do better with a significant protein and fat source at every meal, or can go days without meat and feel fine on just veggies and fruits with some nuts and seeds) and knowing it you can actually test it. You can get inexpensive pH strips and take reading after eating different meals. I was very acidic and alkalinized after adding a large amount of meat and oil. I'm trying to get my friend who is a very different type than I am to do her readings as well. Problem is she'll NEVER eat meat to attempt it. But taking a reading will tell us regardless as she's been vegan for over 17 years. If she's eating her correct diet (which according to metabolic testing she is) she will be alkaline.

I think it has been dismissed as being invalid simply because everyone did react differently so it was a hard theory to put in a box if you weren't acknowledging people's individuality and specific needs. That's my take on it anyway.
 
#25 ·
Thanks firefairy, it helps. I still don't understand it though. I know Mercola is into metabolic typing while very much advocating protein/fat and low-carb, and WAPF is not. I tend to lean towards the WAPF view on most everything.
But also, the Bechamp "blood as the third element" theory is based on alkaline/acid balance, too. They talk about how these living units that are smaller than cells or "mycozymas" mutate according to the ph in the blood to form viruses, bacteria and eventually fungi.
I just don't know who to believe. I guess the proof of the pudding is eating it. I'll have to wait until I find what works for me and my kids.
But after reading that article, I'm scared now. I've been low-carbing for several months, and I'm afraid that after I get "cured" or I will think I'll be cured and go back to eating normal NT style the candida will come back with a vengeance. I don't want to eat low-carb forever!
 
#26 ·
Quote:

Originally Posted by Kundalini-Mama
Sigh. Good news and terrible news.

Well on the good news front, I started my older DS on reuteri for his loose poops. The results are phenomonal!! He is a normal boy after all. I plan to keep both of us on the diet for a long time, is there any problem w/that nutritionally speaking?

And the awful news.

It looks like my 21m old has a rare genetic disorder, MPS.
We are very lucky though because it seems that he is on the very mild end of the spectrum. I'm thinking Schiele's or mild Hunter's. I'm going back and forth btw the two. His urine was sent out on Thursday to the U of Alabama to the top guy in the field to get more answers. We are seeing the geneticist on Wednesday, and the ENT on Thursday (to remove his adenoids and put ear tubes in). We are hoping to get this diagnosed ASAP so that he can start the enzyme therapy (once a week for life or until a cure).

On a side note, my lil' guy is much MUCH healthier than other MPS kids his age. I am attributing this 100% to his non-vax, non-crap (only SCD), and no antibiotic ever history. Because of all this, I know he is going to be okay.

Onwards to another journey.

Amy
I want to send love to your family. It is so true that when it rains, it pours.
s


I saw Reuteri in capsules by Natures Way at the store yesterday. I have a 25 month old. Should I use 1 capsule a day (sprinkle it in his smoothie/yogurt)? Or do I need to find a chidrens formula? I was using Primadophilious powder ofr him in the past.

Thank you,
Jennifer
 
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