Let’s just say I have spent countless hours researching allergies among children the last couple of weeks.� The GAPS Diet is something that has come up repeatedly.� I was wondering if anyone had experience with it for allergies.� The diet, and ones similar to this one, have been popular and successful–at least anecdotally–with kids on the autism spectrum, but I haven’t heard much about allergies.� I want to do anything I can to lessen Mikey and Nico’s allergies, of course, but Nicholas is also a little behind in speech.� There are scads of anecdotal stories and a few small studies suggesting that children on diets that remove certain foods, like gluten, show improvement in speech and other developmental delays.� I’d be lying if I said I didn’t sit up straight in my chair when I read that.
It’s not an easy diet, but the last three months haven’t been easy, either.� I am the consummate Mom Clich�: willing to do anything for my boys. :)
I am sorry that your going through this! I don’t have any experience with the GAPS diet, but Stephanie over at keeperofthehome.com uses it for her family. There is lots of information on her blog. She isn’t a medical professional, but she has a lot of really good, family-tested information. Best of luck!
Thanks, Kim. I’ve been going through her archives and she has a bunch of great links. I just wish I could find something that says, oh, MY SONS HAVE BEEN CURED OF ALLERGIES. ;)
I have really terrible seasonal allergies & allergy medicine doesn’t always seem to work. I have heard that not eating gluten and dairy is supposed to help make allergies better & just make you feel better in general. I’ve tried a few times, but I’ve never been dedicated enough to actually follow through with it long enough to see if it makes a difference.
I haven’t heard of it, but my son and I are allergic to nearly everything just to the point of messing with your tummy. We’ve gone on a vegan-based diet, adding in our proteins. He does a ton of soy, and I have to do rice milk. I went off of it a while, and I can so tell a difference. GAPS sounds great, though. We’re watching what we eat and doing sublingual immunotherapy. It’s been AMAZING.
Children with celiac disease show lack of energy, difficulty concentrating, delayed cognitive and physical development, irritabiliy, and skin sensitivity on top of the chronic tummy aches, vomiting and diarrhea. You can test your child for celiac disease to see if exposure to glutten could be causing some of the symptoms, and to determine whether it makes sense to try it out (it seems like everything contains glutten!). The reason the diet is sometimes helpful for children with autism is that autism has high commorbidity with other disorders and one of them is celiac disease. In Argentina there is a high incidence of celiac disease but its not diagnosed in 85% of those who have it.
If you are up to it, it’s worth a try. Once you start a glutten free diet, it takes a few weeks for the immune system to quiet down and for the digestive system to heal and begin absorbing nutrients adequately. Once that happens, you start to see improvement in the symptoms.
I don’t know, however, if eliminating glutten when you do not have celiac disease has an impact on how the body reacts to other allergens. Consulting a pediatric nutritionist any allergist might offer the right answers. Pediatricians often miss these things.
I hope this helps. Good luck on the quest!
What is sublingual immunotherapy?
For the last month Mikey and Nicholas have vomited just randomly. Nicholas more than Mikey, by far. Last week I went to the pediatrician and we are having testing done next week for Nicholas. It’s possible he might have another allergy (on top of nuts). We’ll see. I don’t think he has celiacs. I would be shocked if he did because the little boy that I do know who has it was in such severe pain and discomfort before he was diagnosed.
That said, my mom gets joint and muscle pain when she eats too much gluten and dairy, so some intolerance isn’t outside the realm of possibility.
How interesting that there is a high incidence of celiacs in Argentina. Is it because the Italian population is so large there? I know in Italy celiacs is a problem, and my great-grandparents immigrated to Argentina from Italy in the early part of the last century.
The author of the Shivaya Naturals blog, Heather, wrote an entry recently about her children’s food allergies here: http://www.shivayanaturals.com/2010/03/spoonful-of-sugar.html
It seems like she may be a wonderful resource for you regarding your kiddos’ allergy concerns…I pulled her e-mail for you: [email protected]
Best wishes! Allergies can be tricky stuff for sure…
Grace–Thank you! What a great post. Makes me feel less crazy about all this.
Yes! Definitely connected with Italian genes and a shared tendency to eat lots of glutten rich foods. I have two close Argentinean friends who were diagnosed as adults. They did not experience all symptoms, but rather just a couple and not all the time, thus their condition was never spotted. Hopefully it’s just allergies!
My son has numerous food allergies, nuts, eggs, strawberries, etc… And, he has always ben an “allergic child” but he was my 1st so I had no idea food was causing his problems! I get so frustrated when I think about how miserable he was as a baby and toddler but did not have the words to express himself. Doctors are so quick to dismiss symptoms unless there is a sever reaction. Over time I have become more aware of how his diet affects his behavior. I took him off milk and his red cheeks and round belly went away. He started sleeping soundly for the 1st time in his life. The changes were dramatic. We now stay away from a ton of things and supplement and he is happy and healthy.
You and your boys all seem to be sick quite frequently. I’m wondering if you aren’t exposed to an environmental toxin that’s leaving you all chronically inflamed? It’s shameful what they will allow in building materials and furniture, and even in personal products. I recently discovered ingredients 2 & 3 in Nexxus mousse are butane and propane, meaning it’s hazardous waste. ON MY SCALP. Disgraceful. But I digress :) Hugs and heaps of good luck to you.
AmyK–I agree. We have had our home checked. It is an older home, and we have steel pipes which are the healthiest building material for plumbing, or at least that’s what I have read. No mold in the house, etc. Part of the problem is that Mikey is allergic to Chinese Elm trees. They are all over the neighborhood, and the biggest one is in our backyard. We are slowly greening up our house. I am confident that the change (to our household habits and our diet) will make a remarkable difference.
While it doesn’t follow traditional testing methods, Entero Labs is run by a top gastroenterologist who was the Staff G.I. at Baylor Univ. Medical. You can do the labs from anywhere in the country and the research shows (in the US and Italy) that it’s far more accurate in determining sensitivities than blood tests. https://www.enterolab.com/
Good luck Jules! Allergies are a tricky lot. I’ve not heard of GAPS … I perused the site though and it looks interesting. Much of my mom’s side of the family has colon issues … so it perked my interest too. And Probiotics are big right now. It’s just so hard to know. Like soy … soy was the answer a few years back. Now it’s bad. If only God would give us a nice PowerPoint presentation … “these guys are whack-jobs … but these, these know what they’re talking about … ” it would be so much easier. *sigh*
Hey…
I really hate this for you.. I haven’t read a lot about this diet nor have I had the time to read the website, but.. I just wanted to make a comment or two.
1–Soy, it’s not bad!! It’s a phytoestrogen, and estrogen is wonderfully protective (at certain times) and in many published journals, investigators have shown that various phytoestrogens have been shown to reduce stroke infarct size and other such goodies! The rule here is.. moderation. Plus, women have been shown to be much more adaptive to damage of many kinds…hypertension, etc., thought to be mediated in part by estrogen. Yay for our hormones..we are special.
Soy became ‘bad’ because it was a fad.. like Atkins. Your body wasn’t meant to consume bacon three times a day, with no carbs. Yes, you loose weight, but that’s because your body goes into keto-acidosis, thus burning other molecules for fuel. Again, moderation. Extra carbs bad..some carbs, good. Same with soy. Same with estrogens… :)
2– So, I don’t really have a second point, except to reiterate the ‘moderation’ point. Our body was made to consume and metabolize many things, mostly in moderation. Thus the reason why we need a variety of fruits and veggies to get all our vitamins and minerals and not just carrots and lettuce. Our bodies are horribly complicated, and I think that anytime there is a one time, one ‘fix all’, that’s a dangerous proposition.
Of course, my disclaimer, is that there are exceptions.. lactose intolerance, celiac/tropical sprue, etc…
One thing that I didn’t know for a long time about allergies is that they are cumulative. For example I’m allergic to three things: dust mites, dairy and grasses. If I can get rid of one trigger the others become less difficult. I can “sort of reduce dust but I can’t do anything about the grass all over the place so during allergy season I totally cut out dairy and it makes the hayfever much more bearable. I actually haven’t taken allergy medecine for the past 5 years since I found this out. So I would say get your kids tested and find out specifically what they are allergic too, then you can do your best to control exposure to whatever you are able to control.
Ah, brilliant tip. Thank you!
Jules,
I’m on the GAPS diet for my fatigue and it’s pretty much cleared up every problem I have, from PMS to allergies. The fatigue lingers but I think that will take years. Let me know if you have any questions! I think it’s a great diet!
I too went on GAPS with fatigue being my largest complaint. Within 72 hours of removing grains from my diet I had more mental clarity then I’ve had in over ten years. Praise the Lord! I hope you find what’s helpful for your family. Does your tree allergic son take a spoonful of local raw honey with acv every day? You could always give that a try!
Hi – I have been on GAPS for about nine months now and my symptoms are definitely improving. Basically, I’ve had food allergies, hay fever, skin problems, depression and lots of colds and flus throughout my life.
After nine months of being on the diet, my depression is gone and I can think very clearly. In short, I feel like a new person. As for my allergies, my hayfever acted up this past spring and I still react to certain foods. However, the minimum time people are recommended to be on the diet is 2 years. It takes a long time to undue the damage to our guts and to rebuild healthy flora.
Because I already feel so much better, I truly believe that the more my gut heals, the more the rest of my body will heal. I am already able to eat a certain kind of cow’s cheddar cheese and I used to be very allergic to it. I hope this helps!
Hi, I know this is a bit late to comment, but I wanted to share that I’ve been on the GAPS Diet for over a year now, along with my husband and two kids. I used to have horrible seasonal allergies. Grass pollen and ragweed were the worst offenders. This has been the first summer I didn’t need decongestant or allergy medication of any kind. My husband also has similar allergies. Now, after he mows the lawn, he’s not blowing his nose for the following hour like he used to.
I’m still not 100% over the allergies, but I know I still have more gut healing to do. When the ragweed levels are very high, I may have a slight headache that I can handle without aspirin. And that’s it. For someone who used to get multiple allergy-related sinus infections each year, this is wonderful news.
I also used to have reactions to certain fruits– minor tongue swelling, searing pain, itchy mouth, that whole deal, but I no longer have those reactions.
The diet is a ton of work, but completely worth it. Best to you and your family!
Hi Pam,
I am so encouraged by your post! I’ve had allergies to dust, tomato, and chocolate all my life. I was also allergic to most pets for most of my childhood. After a REALLY long time on shots I tested negative for dust and mold only to have them come back with a vengeance over the last few years. In addition, I recently tested positive for most pollens and have the itchy/swelling in my mouth that you described otherwise known as Oral Allergy Syndrome. The allergist said that even with shots he could only give me a 50/50 shot at eliminiating the mouth reactions. I could deal with being allergic to tomato and chocolate, but I started to lose it when nuts, avocados, apples and peaches joined the list. I started GAPS intro a few days ago and just needed someone to tell me that there is hope. I hope that you continue to feel better and that all of your allergy troubles are a thing of the past! Blessings, Amix76