Cooking for an allergic child

One never stops learning. When I was growing up I never cooked anything except instant noodles When I got married I had to learn how to cook rice (and use the washing machine too!). So you can say that I am so not Nigella Lawson

Fast forward to today, I not only have to cook almost all meals for our family of 9, I also have to cook special meals for dd and myself since we have severe eczema. God is so not done with me, eh?

When I first saw the long list of foods that dd was allergic to I nearly fainted. Eliminating wheat and dairy is hard enough but her list was super long and included stuff that we eat without even thinking! But the thing that hit me the most is that we no longer have the luxury of eating out – at least till her body heals itself. And I no longer get a break from cooking. That was depressing.

Dh used to bring us out for meals at least once a week, especially on weekends to give me (and the rest of the family I am sure!) from cooking. But now, even when the rest of the family enjoy their food outings, dd and I will bring along our food and eat that. So I still have to cook, albeit in a smaller amount.

Before GAPS, I substitued rice and noodles with quinoa, buckwheat and sweet potato noodles. For seasoning and marinating I used a combination of salt, herbs (Italian usually), honey, pepper, sesame oil and tapioca flour. Is it boring? It hasn’t been as bad as I thought it would be. But since healing the body was top priority, even if it was boring, we still pressed on.

To solve the breakfast problem (do you realise almost all breakfast foods are wheat based?) I serve ourselves leftovers from dinner or eat home-made, grain free granola with almond or coconut milk (made fresh in my Blendtec and then frozen). I used to serve dd Green Smoothies which she loves but they don’t fill her up at all. Even when I add chia seeds and avocados. She is hungry by 10am!

I didn’t bake alternatives to bread since most recipes call for eggs and guar or xantham gum and usually have rice or sorghum as an alternative to wheat flour. But I did manage to find a grain free, vegan free wrap recipe. So we still got to eat something starchy in the morning instead of bread.

So actually switching to the GAPS Intro actually made my life easier since we mainly eat and drink meat and bone broth for all 3 meals. And almost everything is boiled in the beginning. Now if only all the family can switch to this diet

However,  our gas bills have increased since there is almost always a pot of soup cooking on the stove the whole day. And the kitchen is just so hot and humid

But the actual cooking is easy. I usually throw in whichever meat and bones scheduled to be cooked into my largest pot, fill it up with water and some salt. Then I just boil the whole thing for a minimum of 2 hours on very low heat. Then I portion out what is needed for dd and myself for one meal and leave the rest of the soup in the pot. And voila breakfast, lunch and dinner is served!

Boring? Yep. But super tasty! After being weaned from additives and “extra” seasonings, “plain” broth is super delicious!

After progressing through the various stages, we are now allowed roasted/baked meats and not just boiled meats so our meals have been more varied. But whenever I am pressed for time I fall back to just eating and drinking our meat and bone broth.

So while it has been really challenging to cook everything from scratch every single meal, I have, by the grace of God, been able to find some sort of rhythm to our days now.

Moving on to full GAPS will present another challenge I am sure as I have to learn to make new dishes but it will widen our repertoire of dishes served, which I am sure dd will appreciate. She’s been such a trooper. Never complaining about what is served and actually enjoying the GAPS meals.

Chinese New Year and GAPS

We survived Christmas on GAPS mostly because we didn’t have any Christmas dinners and parties Well, I did have one with my friends. It was a lunch gathering and I brought my food along.

But Chinese New Year is a different ballgame altogether. There will be many visits and lunches and dinners out. Oh me, oh my!

Eating at my parents or in-laws place is easier since I can tell them what to cook. But those home visits where everyone will be stuffing their faces with bak kwa, pineapple tarts, love letters……ooh!

Last year although we couldn’t eat any of these tidbits, dd could actually indulge in the sweet red date longan tea or soft drinks. This year? Nope. No sugar. Sugar feeds candida.

But actually what makes the whole thing harder is answering all the questions people ask you about your skin and your diet.

Now didn’t they say that what doesn’t kill you will make you stronger?

 

Doing GAPS in Singapore

While reading and reading and reading, I have come to the conclusion that the Gut and Psychology Syndrome(GAPS) diet by Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride made the most sense.

• What is GAPS?

Here is a great summary of what the GAPS diet is at Sustain Lane‘s The GAPS Diet : The Mother of All Diets?

The basis of the diet as summarised by Dr Cowan in the article above is to  :

Restore the gut flora, heal the villi, seal the cracks. We heal the villi with the Nourishing Traditions diet with a particular emphasis on soup broth, the magic gut restoring food. We replant the villi grass with probiotic foods and Biokult (a probiotic developed by Natasha McBride for the GAPS program), and until we are healed we completely avoid all foods which contain disaccharides: grains, most beans, potatoes, sweet potatoes, most sweeteners, milk (but not other cultured dairy products), and a few other foods.

GAPS was developed by Dr Natasha based on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to heal her autistic son. There have been many success stories about how the diet has helped many others as well. And not just for autistm but ADD and even mental issues.

The focus is on the gut-brain connection. Heal the gut and the rest of the body will re-balance itself. Remove the pathogenic bacteria and the bad toxins leaves the body and the body can function as it is supposed to.

• Challenges of doing GAPS in Singapore

Now the challenge of doing GAPS here in Singapore is the almost non-availability of organic, grass-fed, pasteured or free range meats and eggs, even if you are willing to pay an arm and leg for them. And, on top of that, even if we could afford the organic meat ($50 chicken anyone???) there is no guarantee that the chickens or cows were not fed corn or soy.

So how?

Well, we do what we can and leave the rest to God. Sounds cliche, eh? But seriously what else can one do? We were on a Total Elimintation Diet as those who follow the blog remember. We saw great improvements when we took out grains in the beginning. But after 1 year of eliminating everything that the IgG test said we were allergic too plus all grains, everything regressed. In fact, we seemed to have developed MORE food allergies.

I still blame the start of the  Lift Upgrading Programme (LUP) as the trigger. Our situation deteriorated very quickly once LUP started. Cement dust is lethal. My father developed asthma in his 60s when the school he was teaching in did major renovation works with cement dust flying everywhere.

Back to GAPS Therefore I decided that we should at least try GAPS for 6 months. So we started GAPS Intro at end of September 2011. Just before that I put myself on a strictly 2-week vegetable diet. No fruit or nuts even. It was like a cleansing fast of sort now that I think back. But back then, I just wanted the itch to stop ;( And you know what? I was still itching like mad. It pushed me to GAPS. I need a better strategy! I was going mad with the itch that even antihistamines were not relieving.

• Leaky Gut Syndrome

GAPS believes in the leaky gut syndrome where we become seemingly allergic to many foods because the holes in our gut are letting the proteins through into the blood stream causing an allergic-like reaction (simplified version ). In other words, we don’t really have a true allergy but food intolerances. Once the gut is healed, we should be able to eat almost everything we want, though we really shouldn’t of course

• Books and Blogs

For a detailed understanding of what GAPS is and how it works, I ordered the Gut and Psychology Syndrome by Dr Campbell-McBride book as well as the GAPS Guide by Baden Lashkov. I also browsed many GAPS related blogs such as the GAPS Diet Journey, Keeper of the Home, Tribal Mamas, etc. Google GAPS diet and a whole plethora of blogs and websites will come up. I also joined the GAPS Yahoo forums.

• Candida Overgrowth

After 3 months at the Intro Stage we are ready to move on to full GAPS, sans fruits and nuts because we have major candida overgrowth. We only found out that the candida overgrowth dd had was bad when dd overdosed on grapes and rock melon. She broke out immediately all over her face – red and angry rashes. Kati of Tribal Mamas immediately suspected candida and recommended an OTC anti-fungal cream to confirm it. Her rash cleared in 2 days substaintially but not completely. After 6 weeks of no fruit I gave her 1 tablespoon of carrot juice. Instead of slowly increasing it I rushed to give her 1/2 cup the next day. And again – boom! The redness and rash returned with a vengeance. Sigh. But this time round the anti-fungal cream is not working So there must be something else going on.

Anyhow, we should be progressing to full GAPS in the next week or so, once I get my menu planning and grocery shopping sorted out in the midst of life

• GAPS Cooking

GAPS is by no means an easy diet BUT having come from a strict Total Elimination Diet for one whole year, the transition wasn’t as tough as many others have found it. The constant cooking however does wear one down so now I am planning to cook and freeze meals more meals.

• What are we eating?

Now on to the food we eat. GAPS recommends lots of bone and meat broths to heal the gut – all types of meats. But I don’t do lamb or mutton. The smell just makes me want to gag so we stick to chicken, beef and fish. For the moment we are kosher as well because shellfish makes us itch super bad and pork just doesn’t appeal to me at this point in time.

For chicken, we use Sakura chicken which long ago was antibiotic and hormone free but not now I believe  Some people recommend Kampung Chicken but then I have no idea what is fed to them too.

For beef marrow and bones, I just buy them from NTUC Finest. I know QB Foods sells Australian Grass Fed Sirloin and Tenderloin but that is all that they have. We need the bones and marrows and tendons to make gelatinous broths, not just the meats. So….

I tend to buy salmon for our fish broth as I find them less fishy smelling. Yes, I know farmed salmon is bad for health but where on earth can we find wild salmon in Singapore?! Sometimes I alternate with white snapper or whatever fish is available except Toman fish. Have you eaten that fish? It is totally tasteless

• Is GAPS working?

I wish I could tell you that GAPS cleared out our skin and we are now happily eczema free. Nope, not by a long shot at all It has been very discouraging to say the least. But I have heard GAPS forum members share that the skin is often the last item to heal. Even mental issues are resolved faster than skin issues. Like really?!

But since I told myself that we will press on for 6 months, we shall indeed press on for another 3 months. Besides, after all I have read, I really can’t see putting ourselves back on the standard average diet most people eat. In fact, when the family eats out (I bring along food for dd and myself) I cringe at the foods they order and eat. I especially feel bad when I allow them to eat MacDonald’s and/or KFC. But one battle at a time.

• Other benefits of GAPS

The great side effect of eating GAPS style is the loss of weight! And also the loss of cravings for sweets and bread! By eliminating all carbs, one basically elimimates all processed foods and all the usual snacks and desserts. It is a guaranteed weight loss programme! However, I am still craving coffee with milk! As for dd, her brain fog is almost all gone except when she has either a die-off effect or something else is triggering the rash and itch.

So there you go, our attempt to do GAPS  in Singapore despite all the obstacles. Hopefully I will have a better update come end March