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OT: new diet for family – odd behaviors??
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We are on a Phase 1 (of 3 phases) diet of mostly veggies, fruits, meats and eggs. No grains or seeds/beans. We were already gf for 4 years but with all the advancements of gf baking we ate pretzel sticks, bagels, baguettes, etc. We are doing this as a family for my dd7 with special needs. The diet is to balance the maganese and iron levels in the body. We started on Mon and we already see some improvement with her behavior. They see the best results when it’s done as a family. It also means no coffee for mom or dad!
My ds5.5 is an extremely picky eater! For the past 6-8 months we’ve been consistent with him eating what is in front of him. He’s improved in that he’ll try things now but still hates most food. Interestingly, he’s also color blind so he looks at cooked shrimp as green and white, butternut squash is green, etc. I realized that it must look disgusting to him and I wonder if that’s a piece of his problem? If yes, how do I handle the food avoidance thing?
My dd2.5 is really struggling with the diet change. Both her and my ds5.5 are laying around, tired, yawning, cranky. Could this be a detox type thing they are experiencing? No sugar, complex carbs, etc. If yes, how long do you think it lasts?
Any insight to a dietary change like this would be helpful. I’ll also direct my questions to our Naturopath. Thanks.
I have no suggestions for how to help your son’s color blindness and food avoidances, other than just to encourage him to try things at least once or twice and remind him that things don’t always look they way they taste.
For the lethargy, this is a normal reaction when you remove complex carbs and sugars from the diet. When we did GAPS two years ago, all of us were having the same reaction. My kids even ran fevers for a day or two. But laying around, being tired, cranky, etc. is all normal when you remove glucose from the diet. I would caution you about keeping it out for too long, as we really do need glucose for energy, especially children who have tons of energy and utilize every calorie that they eat. Even if you do no grains, you can still get carbs from potatoes, sweet potatoes, butternut squash, and raw honey.
Make sure they’re still getting plenty of good fats (ie. coconut oil, ghee, pastured butter) to help with their energy levels. Also, it’s important to listen to the body and get extra sleep/rest during something like this, as it can have a stressful effect on the adrenals. If you’re sleepy, listen to your body and go take a nap! We often think that children don’t have “stress” because they’re not paying bills, dealing w/ jobs, etc., but they absolutely do. Removing a food group from their diet can be stressful, as can lack of sleep, tension or fighting amongst siblings or parents, getting in trouble, or struggling with school.
I would just say that any time I have had to cut grains, I get irritable and tired. Cutting sugar definitely has that effect, but beans and grains are also carbs and our bodies are used to metabolizing those as energy.
I would be hesitant to completely cut grains and beans out of the diet of a child unless they had specific health complaints. I understand the need for solidarity in family diet improvements, but cutting a whole food group for a child that may need it seems a little unnecessary. Is there a reason the little ones couldn’t have maybe one serving of whole grains a day? Or you could reduce more gradually for them and see if their symptoms improve?
It could just be a phase and I am sure they will adapt eventually, but aren’t there nutrients in those foods that most children need? I am sure you have researched all this and are supplementing as necessary for those kids who may need it.
Usually the detox from sugar takes 2 weeks to one month. Kids’ systems seem to work faster, so hopefully that will go quicker for them!
The approved foods incl sweet potatoes, butternut squash, ghee, honey and plenty of other nutritious veggies and fruits. And coconut oil! I just needed some kind of time frame to understand how long the transition could take.
Lindsey, does your family eat any grains? Seeds? Beans?
Thanks for your replies.
Yes, we eat all foods now. From January to September of this year we were grain-free, but still ate beans, nuts, and seeds. Beginning in May, we started eating quinoa and brown rice again. By September, I was sprouting wheat and baking with it again. So it was a slow transition for us, but we were never intentionally “low-carb”. I am a die-hard WAPFer (Weston A. Price/Nourishing Traditions) foodie. The eating style that most resonates with me is traditional preparation of grains through soaking, sprouting, or sour-leavening so as to make nutrients most available and to make the grain (wheat, spelt, rice, rye) more digestible and to neutralize phytates. I also give our beans, nuts, and seeds a 24-48-hour soaking in water and apple cider vinegar to make them super digestible and easy on the stomach. I keep my family supplied w/ raw milk and cream, pastured butter and eggs, cage-free organic chicken, and grass-fed beef. And I lacto-ferment as much as I can when Armenian cukes are in season. I always keep a quart or two of LF salsa in the fridge, along with yogurt cheese and Bubbies pickles.
I believe that being grain-free (and therefore unintentionally “low-carb”) wreaked some havoc on my body. When my energy levels plummeted (and a few other unpleasant things), I realized that I needed carbs and sugar STAT! So we quickly transitioned back into eating traditionally prepared grains and even (GASP!) organic white sugar. I use mostly raw honey and coconut sugar for baking, but lately I have been listening to my body’s craving for plain sugar. I don’t think this is a bad thing either, as I am not trying to recover from candida or anything like that. Actually, I am hypothyroid and have a pretty bad case of adrenal fatigue. So my emphasis during recovery has been lots of high-calorie foods w/ plenty of salt and a drastic decrease in water drinking. In six weeks, I have gone from a basal body temp of 96.7 to 97.9-98.1. This has been very exciting for me! And I’m finally starting to see a lot of my “mystery” symptoms disappearing.
So, I’m sorry that had zero to do with your question! I guess I’m just proud of myself for feeling better and raising my temp all by myself! But I would caution you against a long-term elimination of these foods, unless absolutely medically necessary, especially for the children.
Blessings,
Lindsey
sorry not a lot of time to read everyone else’s posts so if this is over kill sorry.
Detoxing from the items mentioned can take one person 3 days others 2 weeks. Within that time you can have all the things you mentioned be on the high side including, bowl issues, flu like symptons, nausious feelings, etc. It can be like having the worst cold you’ve ever had. You have to just hang in there it will get better. Good luck I know for me when I do any type of detox, well almost any, I have 2 days of feeling like sh**. After that I’m good to go and things slowly start moving in the right directions. the engery will not come right away you need time for that to replenish but it will come.
Sorry have to run.. kids waiting!
Maybe this will help?
http://ournourishingroots.com/8-ways-to-get-enough-carbs-on-gaps/
It sounds like you are doing GAPS, or something similar. Thought I’d share the link I found recently.
hth,
Becca<><
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