That is how I am feeling right now. Really, really, REALLY yucky. I actually took a pregnancy test because I am feeling very much like I did when I was pregnant with Aubrey. And, no, I'm not expecting. Which at this point is good as I would be very freaked out. The reason Jed has his issues was because I was detoxing during the first month of his pregnancy. I would hate to cause any harm to any of my other children due to detoxing. But I'm still feeling yucky. My head aches, my heart is beating fast and hard, it's hard to breath and the sight or thought of *any* food right now makes me want to vomit. Not pleasant people, not pleasant. I talked things over with my very knowledgable sister, and she thought it sounded like my body was trying to force me to fast. I think she is right on. When I eat I feel even worse! As I was driving home today from the girls' science class I really felt the only thing I could handle would be broth. But nursing and fasting do not go hand in hand. However it is exceedingly difficult to eat. So I have a bit of a game plan. For at least today, if not tomorrow I will only drink broth and some cooked apple. The pectin in apples is supposed to sooth your tummy. I figured if I was really sick, with say, the flu, I wouldn't be able to eat either, so a day or two with just broth won't kill me or the baby. At least I hope not :-) I just drank some broth and I don't feel worse, so this is a good step. Only time will tell how my body copes.
I was discussing the diet with my sister and was telling her that there is most certainly a big difference in reading about the diet and actually doing the diet. Now, don't get me wrong. It is essential that you read up on the diet, and other people's experiences with it. If I were you, I would read, read and read some more. And when you think you've read enough....read some more. Trust me, you'll be glad you did. But saying all that...there is just a big difference in going through this, experiencing all the various symptoms, and all the questions that go through your head. I know we are on the right track. After all Jed gained almost a pound in three weeks. That is AMAZING! Seeing as how he gained a whopping four pounds all of last year. Now, I don't expect for him to keep up this pace, but it is a very good sign non the less. He's eating a lot of high calorie, fat laden foods, all good for him. He loves meat, eggs, and avocados. He also loves anything made with coconut oil. He loves the almonds as well. Seriously, he's eating the best foods for his body right now, and for that I am thankful. Even if we have to compromise with his smoothies.
Lots to do today still. Need to try to squeeze in school before the girls go to soccer, and I go to therapy. The kitchen is getting out of control again. It's pretty hard to be in there when the smell of food makes me sick. Maybe I'll wear a clothspin on my nose :-)
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Monday, September 26, 2011
Team Work
First I must say that egg whites are really, really, REALLY bad for me right now. There seem to be some gray areas in the GAPS intro guidelines. When you get to stage 3 it says you can start making 'pancakes'. These pancakes are made of squash, nut butter, and eggs. Egg yolks are a big part of the diet, and we were eating them in our soups. But these eggs, in the pancakes, would be whole eggs (at least I am assuming). You are supposed to start any new food with only a few small bites. Well, lets just say everyone was absolutely besides themselves to have something other than soup, meat and veggies that we kind of devoured the eggs. Oh. My. Goodness. We were in heaven, however come that evening I would say that I was in another place altogether (much more in the southerly direction). I stayed there for almost 3 days. Three days of being non functional. That was not fun. My sister said to lay off the egg whites and try again in a week. I think I might take a break from egg whites for a year, thank you very much!
Being out of commission for three days did a number on my kitchen and on our food prep. I am ever so thankful that I had a bunch of stuff already made, and for Jeremiah filling in with the cooking! But after those three days we were out of ready-to-eat food. Seriously, on this diet, you must have food up on deck. There isn't anything that is a quick cook (except for eggs now...if our chickens weren't hiding all of them!). So last night I had quite a long list of food prep that needed to happen. Some things were really easy and quick, others, not so much. I was dreading having to do it all by myself. Well, not only did I not have to do it by myself, but I had 5 helpers! We were able to pull it all off in about two hours. Saoirse took over watching the boys. This is a big help as Jonah likes to be a helper, and with the amount of work needing to be done that just wouldn't be practical. The oldest three worked on much of the food prep as Jeremiah and I tackled the dishes. All of our plates, bowls, pots/pan (yes, we only have one pan), mixing bowls, spatulas/large spoons, and silverware were all dirty. All of it. The girls started off by deboning our left over chicken we had for dinner. Jeremiah took the carcasses and put them in the crockpot to be made into stock. Then the girls chopped up 5 green peppers from the garden, and some onions. We put those in the freezer. Isabella put the almonds in a bowl to soak over night. Moira sauteed some onions for a batch of beef stew I needed to make up that night for breakfast the next morning. I strained out a different batch of chicken broth to put in the fridge, and strained out the beef broth. Half the beef broth went into the stew pot, the rest went into the fridge. Isabella unwrapped the butter and put it into a glass dish to be made into ghee. I want to say there was something else that we did, but I can't remember it right now. I was able to put the stew together before bed, so it just needed to be heated up in the morning. It was pretty neat how we worked as a team.
Being out of commission for three days did a number on my kitchen and on our food prep. I am ever so thankful that I had a bunch of stuff already made, and for Jeremiah filling in with the cooking! But after those three days we were out of ready-to-eat food. Seriously, on this diet, you must have food up on deck. There isn't anything that is a quick cook (except for eggs now...if our chickens weren't hiding all of them!). So last night I had quite a long list of food prep that needed to happen. Some things were really easy and quick, others, not so much. I was dreading having to do it all by myself. Well, not only did I not have to do it by myself, but I had 5 helpers! We were able to pull it all off in about two hours. Saoirse took over watching the boys. This is a big help as Jonah likes to be a helper, and with the amount of work needing to be done that just wouldn't be practical. The oldest three worked on much of the food prep as Jeremiah and I tackled the dishes. All of our plates, bowls, pots/pan (yes, we only have one pan), mixing bowls, spatulas/large spoons, and silverware were all dirty. All of it. The girls started off by deboning our left over chicken we had for dinner. Jeremiah took the carcasses and put them in the crockpot to be made into stock. Then the girls chopped up 5 green peppers from the garden, and some onions. We put those in the freezer. Isabella put the almonds in a bowl to soak over night. Moira sauteed some onions for a batch of beef stew I needed to make up that night for breakfast the next morning. I strained out a different batch of chicken broth to put in the fridge, and strained out the beef broth. Half the beef broth went into the stew pot, the rest went into the fridge. Isabella unwrapped the butter and put it into a glass dish to be made into ghee. I want to say there was something else that we did, but I can't remember it right now. I was able to put the stew together before bed, so it just needed to be heated up in the morning. It was pretty neat how we worked as a team.
Wednesday, September 21, 2011
Our First Week
We finished our first week of GAPS. I can say we are all still alive :-) I'm not sure I can write it all down without it turning it into a novel. Seriously, 9 people, 9 different reactions. For the most part the most common reaction was "complaining"! Seriously! The whining and drama were out of this world.
For myself (I'm going oldest to youngest here :-)): Extreme fatigue, and achy sore musles. Waking up each morning on a normal day is hard enough to do, but this past week....whoa! I've been battling a sinus infection, something that this diet can not address in the short term. My hope is that a change in gut will lesson any future allergy and cold reactions so that they don't turn immediately into a sinus infection. I wasn't going to go to the doctors to get meds, and can't afford a consultation with the homeopath. I tried some homepathic remedies with no success. So I looked up online for home treatments of sinus infections. Some were way too drawn out so I went with the echinachea/goldenseal combo and some oil of oregano. Unfortunately the oil of oregano is so strong that it will kill off the good bacteria too. However the copious amounts of garlic and immune tea were not making a dent in my infection. I am glad to say that it seems to be improving already. Other than that there was a whole lot of brain fog. I also have an itchy rash pop out on my stomach. I can only pray that it is benign. I shudder to think it could be something else, something that I would have to treat the whole family with. I've lost 6 pounds thus far.
Jeremiah: I think he's been experiencing a lot of what I was as far as the fatigue and brain fog. I know that his gut is in a healing state as he attempted to get a wholesome meal when taken out to lunch. He thought a salad would fit the bill. However, salad is not on the acceptable foods list at this time for the very reason that they are to rough on the intestinal lining. He found that out in short order! But, hey, at least we know his gut is working to heal itself! He's lost about 6 or 8 pounds on the diet so far.
Isabella: Lots of fatigue. As a matter of fact all the kids have been taking naps pretty regularly since we started GAPS. She's been having tummy pains, or has felt really sick to her tummy on and off. It is hard to tell what from. Not sure if she is reacting to anything. It appears that besides her hiatial hernia she may have another hernia. Right now we will wait and see. As far as the hiatial hernia she has a swallow study test this Friday. Everyone, but me, wants her to have surgery. I am hoping that we will have enough time before the surgery's date (which hasn't been scheduled yet) to make a difference in the hernia. One week is clearly not enough time, but hopefully two months would be. So far Isabella has lost 6 pounds.
Moira: Again, experiencing fatigue like the rest of us. I think she has had a harder time with tummy pain and upset than all the rest. She is finally feeling better in that regards, but says she is still tired all the time. She's lost 4 pounds
Flannery: Well besides the fatigue there has been a lot of tummy pain, plus a sore throat on and off. Above all, the absolute drama from the sugar withdrawl! We are talking *withdrawl*!!! That child cried and cried and stomped and broke down again and again, all over food. I knew she had a sugar problem, but I didn't know it was that bad. Due to her unwillingness to eat much of the food we did have for her to eat she lost 2 pounds.
Saoirse: This kiddo has had tummy pain daily. She had a lot of tummy pain before we began the diet, so I'm not sure what to make of it all. The problem with intro is that there are so many unknowns. Is this pain normal? Is this a die off effect? Is this....? Who knows. So we wait. I try to reassure her that she will eventually feel normal, but that for now we kind of get worse before we get better. For a while there she had a huge increase in the number of times she needed to use the bathroom. I'm wondering if it's her IC. Things are a bit better now. She's also had leg and arm pains. She is usually on the quick side to be able to melt or loose it in a stressful situation, but now she is melting down at the oddest and smallest things! Saoirse has not lost any weight.
Jedidiah: Well, this is the kiddo that kind of started the whole search for health to begin with. (Although I had been on that journey for a time, he really put the urgency in it.) He had gotten that horrid tummy bug before we started the diet and had lost 2 pounds from it. I was nervous to say the least of how he was going to handle the diet. Because I couldn't get him to eat the foods (the broths in particular) I took the advice from the book and gave him a reward after he did eat it. That reward was a fruit smoothie (by his choice). There was no way we could afford for him to loose any more weight, so I felt this step was neccessary. After a few days he was pretty much gobbling up his food, so I decided to stop the smoothies. Oh, my!! Not good!!! Not because he was upset, but because of the reaction his body had. Basically there are just too many toxins in his small body for his body to handle at that rate, so I had to add the smoothies in as they help to slow that reaction. He was completely lethargic, and sick to his stomach. Not 30 minutes after having a smoothie he was on the up and up. It took a few more hours before he was back to himself. I am happy to say that Jed has not lost any weight. He hasn't gained any, but that's ok, he will eventually. My goal is to move him along the stages with the rest of us, but he will just have that smoothie at the end of his meal. He will still get amazing healing, but just at a slower rate. I think that come a year from now, after we are on the full GAPS for a while we will redo the intro. That way Jed should have had enough healing to go through it properly. Almost forgot to add that Jed's speech took a huge nose dive for the worse. Not only did he start talking NON STOP! But we couldn't understand anything he said. Talk about frustrating!!! For those who don't know, Jed has speech apraxia, and failure to thrive. His speech is making a come back finally! He actually had fun doing a reading lesson with me today. I wasn't sure if I should attempt to teach him to read yet, as the apraxia can really get in the way. I didn't want him to be more frustrated than he has been this past week. But I took the chance and he had a lot of fun and did a great job!
Jonah: I can't say this kid has experienced any fatigue!! He certainly has had tummy pain and leg pain (Jed has been having leg pain as well). Because he does everything his brother does that means Jonah gets a smoothie as well. I'm ok with this because there is only so much chaos I can take. I can not take a 3 year old, who can not understand why all his favorite foods suddenly vanished, can't have the smoothie his brother is drinking. Jeremiah was the first to notice, that for the first time ever, Jonah's tummy isn't 'bloated'. I'm not sure if that's what I would call it, but it's true. This kiddo has always, always been ummmm, soft around the edges? He's always had this rounded tummy. I guess I never thought much of it because he's always had it. I was waiting for that toddler stage to end, when kids generally kind of thin out and loose that baby fat look. However, Jonah never did that :-) Well today, as Jeremiah pointed out, Jonah doesn't have a bloated tummy! Wow! Plus, just like Jed he has not lost any weight.
Aubrey: Well, not much to report except that he must be teething again or something as he's been a basketcase the past few days. He still nurses 90% of the time, but he really, really loves food. More so than Jonah did, which is kind of scary :-) He gobbles down his carrots, peas, avocado, and broth. I'm just giving him the foods we are eating, minus the meats. I am thankful that there doesn't seem to be a milk supply issue this time around. I had to add in oatmeal when we tried the full GAPS diet in the spring as my milk supply dropped. I dont' worry too much as now he can eat table foods. He's had a wee too many taste tests of some less than healthy foods in the past, and a round of antibiotics so he needs this diet just as much as the rest of us do. He's the only one who isn't giving me a hard time about eating thier meal :-)
I realized after typing this out some people may not know our history with certain things. It may seem odd for me to be including the information about our weights. I did this for various reasons. There are four of us that are over weight, and we need to loose weight. There are four of us who do not need to loose any weight, and there is one who desperately needs to gain weight. I put our weight loss/gain/or not up for other families who may be questioning doing the diet and are worried about thier children loosing/or gaining weight. As far as gaining, it seems odd to be eating a ton of meat and fat, along with veggies and broth and wonder if your child will gain weight from it all. If you've read the GAPS book or anything on the Weston Price Foundation site, then you know that will not be the case. Or maybe you are like us with a child who is deemed failure to thrive. He isn't the 'classical' case as described in the GAPS book, as he was failure to thrive when exclusively breastfed (and we know for a fact it wasn't a milk supply issue or a milk calorie issue, my milk was actually on the high calorie side of the scale). So I am reporting his weight here for others to see our experience. We also have a few children who don't need to loose weight, and so far they haven't. So that means, thus far, the ones of us who need to loose weight, have and the ones of us who don't need to loose weight haven't. Unfortunately the one who needs to gain hasn't either, but I'm not expecting to see that until there has been a whole lot more healing in his gut. By the way, the failure to thrive child is 5 years old and currently weights 26 pounds. Our 8 month old weighs like 18 pounds already! And our three year old is in the 30 something pound range. So the five year old has a lot of ground to make up, and we are praying that this diet will give him the correct base to be able to start that climb up the growth charts.
For myself (I'm going oldest to youngest here :-)): Extreme fatigue, and achy sore musles. Waking up each morning on a normal day is hard enough to do, but this past week....whoa! I've been battling a sinus infection, something that this diet can not address in the short term. My hope is that a change in gut will lesson any future allergy and cold reactions so that they don't turn immediately into a sinus infection. I wasn't going to go to the doctors to get meds, and can't afford a consultation with the homeopath. I tried some homepathic remedies with no success. So I looked up online for home treatments of sinus infections. Some were way too drawn out so I went with the echinachea/goldenseal combo and some oil of oregano. Unfortunately the oil of oregano is so strong that it will kill off the good bacteria too. However the copious amounts of garlic and immune tea were not making a dent in my infection. I am glad to say that it seems to be improving already. Other than that there was a whole lot of brain fog. I also have an itchy rash pop out on my stomach. I can only pray that it is benign. I shudder to think it could be something else, something that I would have to treat the whole family with. I've lost 6 pounds thus far.
Jeremiah: I think he's been experiencing a lot of what I was as far as the fatigue and brain fog. I know that his gut is in a healing state as he attempted to get a wholesome meal when taken out to lunch. He thought a salad would fit the bill. However, salad is not on the acceptable foods list at this time for the very reason that they are to rough on the intestinal lining. He found that out in short order! But, hey, at least we know his gut is working to heal itself! He's lost about 6 or 8 pounds on the diet so far.
Isabella: Lots of fatigue. As a matter of fact all the kids have been taking naps pretty regularly since we started GAPS. She's been having tummy pains, or has felt really sick to her tummy on and off. It is hard to tell what from. Not sure if she is reacting to anything. It appears that besides her hiatial hernia she may have another hernia. Right now we will wait and see. As far as the hiatial hernia she has a swallow study test this Friday. Everyone, but me, wants her to have surgery. I am hoping that we will have enough time before the surgery's date (which hasn't been scheduled yet) to make a difference in the hernia. One week is clearly not enough time, but hopefully two months would be. So far Isabella has lost 6 pounds.
Moira: Again, experiencing fatigue like the rest of us. I think she has had a harder time with tummy pain and upset than all the rest. She is finally feeling better in that regards, but says she is still tired all the time. She's lost 4 pounds
Flannery: Well besides the fatigue there has been a lot of tummy pain, plus a sore throat on and off. Above all, the absolute drama from the sugar withdrawl! We are talking *withdrawl*!!! That child cried and cried and stomped and broke down again and again, all over food. I knew she had a sugar problem, but I didn't know it was that bad. Due to her unwillingness to eat much of the food we did have for her to eat she lost 2 pounds.
Saoirse: This kiddo has had tummy pain daily. She had a lot of tummy pain before we began the diet, so I'm not sure what to make of it all. The problem with intro is that there are so many unknowns. Is this pain normal? Is this a die off effect? Is this....? Who knows. So we wait. I try to reassure her that she will eventually feel normal, but that for now we kind of get worse before we get better. For a while there she had a huge increase in the number of times she needed to use the bathroom. I'm wondering if it's her IC. Things are a bit better now. She's also had leg and arm pains. She is usually on the quick side to be able to melt or loose it in a stressful situation, but now she is melting down at the oddest and smallest things! Saoirse has not lost any weight.
Jedidiah: Well, this is the kiddo that kind of started the whole search for health to begin with. (Although I had been on that journey for a time, he really put the urgency in it.) He had gotten that horrid tummy bug before we started the diet and had lost 2 pounds from it. I was nervous to say the least of how he was going to handle the diet. Because I couldn't get him to eat the foods (the broths in particular) I took the advice from the book and gave him a reward after he did eat it. That reward was a fruit smoothie (by his choice). There was no way we could afford for him to loose any more weight, so I felt this step was neccessary. After a few days he was pretty much gobbling up his food, so I decided to stop the smoothies. Oh, my!! Not good!!! Not because he was upset, but because of the reaction his body had. Basically there are just too many toxins in his small body for his body to handle at that rate, so I had to add the smoothies in as they help to slow that reaction. He was completely lethargic, and sick to his stomach. Not 30 minutes after having a smoothie he was on the up and up. It took a few more hours before he was back to himself. I am happy to say that Jed has not lost any weight. He hasn't gained any, but that's ok, he will eventually. My goal is to move him along the stages with the rest of us, but he will just have that smoothie at the end of his meal. He will still get amazing healing, but just at a slower rate. I think that come a year from now, after we are on the full GAPS for a while we will redo the intro. That way Jed should have had enough healing to go through it properly. Almost forgot to add that Jed's speech took a huge nose dive for the worse. Not only did he start talking NON STOP! But we couldn't understand anything he said. Talk about frustrating!!! For those who don't know, Jed has speech apraxia, and failure to thrive. His speech is making a come back finally! He actually had fun doing a reading lesson with me today. I wasn't sure if I should attempt to teach him to read yet, as the apraxia can really get in the way. I didn't want him to be more frustrated than he has been this past week. But I took the chance and he had a lot of fun and did a great job!
Jonah: I can't say this kid has experienced any fatigue!! He certainly has had tummy pain and leg pain (Jed has been having leg pain as well). Because he does everything his brother does that means Jonah gets a smoothie as well. I'm ok with this because there is only so much chaos I can take. I can not take a 3 year old, who can not understand why all his favorite foods suddenly vanished, can't have the smoothie his brother is drinking. Jeremiah was the first to notice, that for the first time ever, Jonah's tummy isn't 'bloated'. I'm not sure if that's what I would call it, but it's true. This kiddo has always, always been ummmm, soft around the edges? He's always had this rounded tummy. I guess I never thought much of it because he's always had it. I was waiting for that toddler stage to end, when kids generally kind of thin out and loose that baby fat look. However, Jonah never did that :-) Well today, as Jeremiah pointed out, Jonah doesn't have a bloated tummy! Wow! Plus, just like Jed he has not lost any weight.
Aubrey: Well, not much to report except that he must be teething again or something as he's been a basketcase the past few days. He still nurses 90% of the time, but he really, really loves food. More so than Jonah did, which is kind of scary :-) He gobbles down his carrots, peas, avocado, and broth. I'm just giving him the foods we are eating, minus the meats. I am thankful that there doesn't seem to be a milk supply issue this time around. I had to add in oatmeal when we tried the full GAPS diet in the spring as my milk supply dropped. I dont' worry too much as now he can eat table foods. He's had a wee too many taste tests of some less than healthy foods in the past, and a round of antibiotics so he needs this diet just as much as the rest of us do. He's the only one who isn't giving me a hard time about eating thier meal :-)
I realized after typing this out some people may not know our history with certain things. It may seem odd for me to be including the information about our weights. I did this for various reasons. There are four of us that are over weight, and we need to loose weight. There are four of us who do not need to loose any weight, and there is one who desperately needs to gain weight. I put our weight loss/gain/or not up for other families who may be questioning doing the diet and are worried about thier children loosing/or gaining weight. As far as gaining, it seems odd to be eating a ton of meat and fat, along with veggies and broth and wonder if your child will gain weight from it all. If you've read the GAPS book or anything on the Weston Price Foundation site, then you know that will not be the case. Or maybe you are like us with a child who is deemed failure to thrive. He isn't the 'classical' case as described in the GAPS book, as he was failure to thrive when exclusively breastfed (and we know for a fact it wasn't a milk supply issue or a milk calorie issue, my milk was actually on the high calorie side of the scale). So I am reporting his weight here for others to see our experience. We also have a few children who don't need to loose weight, and so far they haven't. So that means, thus far, the ones of us who need to loose weight, have and the ones of us who don't need to loose weight haven't. Unfortunately the one who needs to gain hasn't either, but I'm not expecting to see that until there has been a whole lot more healing in his gut. By the way, the failure to thrive child is 5 years old and currently weights 26 pounds. Our 8 month old weighs like 18 pounds already! And our three year old is in the 30 something pound range. So the five year old has a lot of ground to make up, and we are praying that this diet will give him the correct base to be able to start that climb up the growth charts.
Tuesday, September 13, 2011
An Introduction
Since we started the GAPS diet just a couple of days ago, there will be lots of background to cover and lots to write about what we've experienced so far. With seven children, who we homeschool, sometimes there is a wee bit lack of time! That means my posts are sometimes long, sometimes short, a lot of times confusing, and hit and miss. I actually have a paper journal to document the things we experience on the diet. But I am well aware of how long (or in our case, NOT long) paper lasts in our house. I didn't want to lose anything that I wrote down, so I decided to put it in an online journal (this blog).
There are lots of things I would like to tell you about my family. Who we are, what we do, and why we are on this crazy diet :-) I am not the most concise in my writing. Sometimes I leave things out, and other times I repeat myself. I chronicle our family's daily (weekly) doings on our family blog. But I know not everyone wants to either read about that, or people who do, may not want to read all about this diet. So I decided to separate the two topics, but as you can imagine there will be some overlap.
I will be putting up a post that lists all of the reasons why we are doing GAPS. With nine people in our family it may be long! For now here is a bit more about us:
Jeremiah and I have been married for 16 years. We became Christians shortly after we married. That tid bit of information is only important because it's the back bone of our family. As listed on the side bar, we have seven children, their ages being: 14, 12, 9, 7, 5, 3, and currently the baby is 8 months old. We are a homeschooling family. We live in the south on a wee bit of land (2.5 acres) that we are trying to make something of. Note the word "trying". Always keep that in mind....the word "trying". Ha! Some people think that because I have so many children that I possess certain qualities or attributes. I've had people think that I must be: brave, patient, organized, a super mom, diligent, and the list goes on. Um, NOPE. Yes, that 'nope' most certainly needs to be capitalized. If it ever appears that I possess those attributes on this blog, then please forgive me, I have no intention of misleading people. I have always been interested in health from as far back as I can remember. We have tried various diets, all with good points, but something was always missing. With the birth of our fifth child my desire for this mysterious thing we call health became consuming. That is not a good thing, but it is reality. This fifth child is now five years old. He started me on a more urgent search of health as he had a few health issues as a wee babe, that continue on to this day. He was diagnosed with failure to thrive at 7 months old. He was tube fed since that time until he was 3.5 years old. With various treatments we were able to see progress in his being able to eat on his own and his tube was removed. He still continues to grow ever so slowly and has speech apraxia. Although his health issues are the most prominent the rest of us aren't in too good of a shape either :-) So on this diet we went.
I was hesitant to use the words "large family" in my title as that description is subject to relativity. I certainly don't think of us as a large family. But I know there are a lot of others who do! We know many families with more children than we have so it really never seems like we have 'all that many'. But I do know, from experience, that there is a difference in having only one or two children and say five or seven children. Logistics are different. How much food you have to cook, how many loads of laundry, how long it takes to get out the door, etc. So my hope here is to share our experiences on this diet, but also to give it the 'large family' spin.
There are lots of things I would like to tell you about my family. Who we are, what we do, and why we are on this crazy diet :-) I am not the most concise in my writing. Sometimes I leave things out, and other times I repeat myself. I chronicle our family's daily (weekly) doings on our family blog. But I know not everyone wants to either read about that, or people who do, may not want to read all about this diet. So I decided to separate the two topics, but as you can imagine there will be some overlap.
I will be putting up a post that lists all of the reasons why we are doing GAPS. With nine people in our family it may be long! For now here is a bit more about us:
Jeremiah and I have been married for 16 years. We became Christians shortly after we married. That tid bit of information is only important because it's the back bone of our family. As listed on the side bar, we have seven children, their ages being: 14, 12, 9, 7, 5, 3, and currently the baby is 8 months old. We are a homeschooling family. We live in the south on a wee bit of land (2.5 acres) that we are trying to make something of. Note the word "trying". Always keep that in mind....the word "trying". Ha! Some people think that because I have so many children that I possess certain qualities or attributes. I've had people think that I must be: brave, patient, organized, a super mom, diligent, and the list goes on. Um, NOPE. Yes, that 'nope' most certainly needs to be capitalized. If it ever appears that I possess those attributes on this blog, then please forgive me, I have no intention of misleading people. I have always been interested in health from as far back as I can remember. We have tried various diets, all with good points, but something was always missing. With the birth of our fifth child my desire for this mysterious thing we call health became consuming. That is not a good thing, but it is reality. This fifth child is now five years old. He started me on a more urgent search of health as he had a few health issues as a wee babe, that continue on to this day. He was diagnosed with failure to thrive at 7 months old. He was tube fed since that time until he was 3.5 years old. With various treatments we were able to see progress in his being able to eat on his own and his tube was removed. He still continues to grow ever so slowly and has speech apraxia. Although his health issues are the most prominent the rest of us aren't in too good of a shape either :-) So on this diet we went.
I was hesitant to use the words "large family" in my title as that description is subject to relativity. I certainly don't think of us as a large family. But I know there are a lot of others who do! We know many families with more children than we have so it really never seems like we have 'all that many'. But I do know, from experience, that there is a difference in having only one or two children and say five or seven children. Logistics are different. How much food you have to cook, how many loads of laundry, how long it takes to get out the door, etc. So my hope here is to share our experiences on this diet, but also to give it the 'large family' spin.
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