Two weeks on SCD!

As of yesterday, we have been on the SCD diet for two weeks! We have definitely learned a LOT this past week. Gabe had a huge issue with constipation for the first week. We were having to give him laxatives about every day to clean him out. You don't want that sitting inside any longer than it has to be! The constipation has gone now and he is having multiple bowel movements a day -which is CRAZY for Gabe. I can probably count on one hand the times where he has ever pooped more than once in a day and it not be diarrhea. These are very normal and solid. It's like his bowels woke up and decided to work correctly now. This has put quite a damper on potty training though. We use to be able to put him in big boy pants all day pretty much. Now, we never know when he's going to have to go and he refuses to tell us that he has to go. He has been completely #1 trained for about a year now with accidents here and there on occasion.

   So far, the diet is proving slowly that we have made a very good decision to give it a try. We haven't really introduced many new things yet. I have made almond pancakes with honey syrup for breakfast or sausage patties. Boiled or grilled chicken, pork, or steak for lunch/dinner, Snacks are the hardest to replicate. He LOVES his almond flour Monster cookies, and he now likes organic Dole ripe bananas, pecans, and almonds as snack options. He is so funny when he eats bananas....he walks around with it in his hand like he is so cool.  :)

So far, the biggest improvements have been with his bowel movements and attention span. We haven't seen a big speech improvement yet. We are hoping that comes soon!  :)

Monster Cookie Recipe as requested. : )

Here is the recipe for the cookies I baked Gabe last night. They turned out really well. I only made 1/2 the recipe for my first attempt ( 1 cup= 1/2 cup). The next time I will try the whole amounts.

From: Breaking the Vicious Cycle

Monster Cookies

5 cups nut flour
1 cup raisins (didn't use these)
1 cup walnut pieces (didn't use these)
1 cup flaked unsweetened coconut (used coconut flour instead)
1/2 cup melted butter (used Spectrum Shortening instead)
1 cup honey
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt (used iodized sea salt instead)

1. Mix all ingredients
2. Drop by large tablespoonfuls on to greased cookie sheet.
3. Press flat with a buttered fork (so the dough won't stick to the fork).
4. Bake at 325 degrees until golden brown (15-20 minutes).

They baked faster than 15 minutes for me, fyi (we like our cookies soft and chewy though). I also added an extra egg and extra honey in the batter and on top after they came out of the oven as a glaze. I think the only changes I will make next time will be to add vanilla, cinnamon, and maybe nutmeg to the batter for some flavor. You could also add some berries or pecans in the batter for more flavor as well! I'm really picky about my cookies, but these really are amazingly great. Soft and chewy, and they don't have an over-powering nutty flavor either. ENJOY!   : )

SCD update days 3-5

We are 5 days strong with the SCD diet!!!! You have no idea how excited we are to say that. We were SO scared (mainly me) that we wouldn't be able to do it because it seems so scary and impossible.We are very blessed that Gabe loves to eat meats, so that has made it a lot easier on us. The hardest part was doing the intro diet and not having any snacks for school and in between meals. It's hard to explain to a 5 year old why they can't have a snack unless it's more meat or eggs (which Gabe is not a fan of).  That really sucks. Other than that, the diet has been really pretty simple. Gabe is such a wonderful little boy and we are so blessed to have him as our child. He amazes me everyday and I would take him a million times over ANY typical "easy" child any day! He is the strongest little boy I've ever known. 

I think he is feeling pretty icky the last few days due to the yeast die-off. The rash has gone away, but now he is having issues with constipation (normal for the diet) so we've been giving him milk of magnesia. It's funny because Elaine's book talks a lot about how to get rid of diarhea and what not to eat for that, but doesn't mention much about constipation. The PecanBread.com website mentions that it can be a side-effect from die-off, but doesn't really say how to keep it from happening. Maybe he will just have that problem until his gut heals a little more. Who knows.

Last night we bought some almonds and ground them in to flour to make some cookies that I found a recipe for. They were actually really simple to make and Gabe absolutely LOVED them. He was so thrilled to have "cookies" again. haha I made the first batch of 6 and tried one, but it seemed pretty bland so I ended up glazing them with a little bit of honey on top. That helped a lot. Gabe didn't seem to care either way though once I told him they were cookies. hahaha Gotta love boys! I was shocked that the almond flour turned out to work WAY better for baking cookies than any gluten-free product we tried. They rose well and didn't flatten as soon as I took them out of the oven. I would highly recommend using it!

 

Here is a picture of the cookies after they came out of the oven.  : )

 

Specific Carbohydrate Diet...Days 1 and 2

 Last week, Gabe had one of the worst weeks we have experienced. He was hardly using any of his words spontaneously, terrible focus, extreme hyperactivity, not sleeping/restless sleep/frequent waking, and got several bad reports home from school about attention span. It was so upsetting to see. We had planned on starting the SCD (specific carbohydrate diet) after the first of the year, but with last week we thought it would be best to start as soon as possible.

Yesterday was the day. We started the intro part to the diet, which consists of eggs, homemade chicken soup, and very lean meats like broiled chicken, steak, hamburger, etc. You do this intro diet for 3-5 days to "detox" the body and kill off the yeast quickly. Breakfast has been the toughest meal for us as Gabe is not a fan of eating eggs. We made him some yesterday and he did try really hard to eat some, but not as much as he usually would have. He is use to eating his GFCF Van's waffles with syrup and butter. Eggs just don't quite compare I guess.   : )

All-in-all, Gabe has been wonderful about it. He did climb the shelves in the pantry yesterday trying to get to some chips that I hadn't noticed yet. I grabbed those and threw them away with everything else. He did get in to a candy cane today from the Christmas Tree. I had no idea that he even knew those were edible. LoL Goes to show that even though he didn't try to eat them before, nothing is safe when you are detoxing from yeast! We gave him several extra enzymes to help flush it out before it messed up the new diet too much. He has had really rosy-red cheeks all day today and even broke out in a small red rash around his neck and ears. I'm sure this is all the yeast dying-off. It's weird how quickly the body can fight it off when there is nothing for it to feed on anymore. I'm hoping that his die-off symptoms aren't too severe. I feel bad for him and wish that I could make time go by faster for him. Wouldn't that be nice? I think he has been having some night terrors recently as well, he has been waking up randomly and crying or running in to our room for comfort, which he didn't use to ever do before.

So far, so good though. We are staying strong and trying to be extra supportive and patient with Gabe for the next few weeks. We want to give this diet an honest shot because we know that Gabe will benefit greatly from it. I will keep updating his progress.  :)