Disclaimer: Everything in this post is what we've decided is best for us and the results we've seen in our kids- I'm not a healthcare practitioner, just a mom. Please don't consider me as anything more than that. I certainly don't want to present my experience as the standard or my views as the ideal. I'd rather just feel free to share things here that have been helpful for me, with the hope that they may be helpful to someone else. Also, these are fuzzy phone pictures, but fuzzy phone pictures are becoming some of the most precious things in my life.

Hi guys! Just wanted to pop in and answer a couple questions. After this post the other day, several people have asked for more info about which probiotics we're using for Casper. Ok, ok, you should know how excited this makes me. Gut health!! You guys want to talk about it?! I'm totally game! Our family has seen awesome results from this Gut Pro probiotic supplement, so we're sticking with it for our new baby, too. We like that it's potent, it doesn't contain any filler ingredients, it's gluten and dairy free (in case you are worried about a sensitivity there), and it's cost effective. We buy the powder, not the capsules, which is definitely the way to go if you want to use it long-term. It seems very pricey and it certainly is a big investment up front, but we've done the math for the way our family uses it and for us it actually ends up being one of the most affordable probiotics on the market.


I just saw that they also have a brand new infant probiotic formula. Exciting! For Casper, we have been using the regular powder that the rest of the family takes. We just put a tiny spoonful of the powder on his tongue when his mouth is open, usually right before he's going to nurse. How much do we give him? Every day is a little different, but we do try to do it on a daily basis. I don't feel comfortable recommending an amount for you to give your baby, but I know that starting slow and building up to an amount that fits his/her specific needs is the recommended protocol for most probiotics. The nice thing about having a bottle full of powder (as opposed to capsules) is that everyone in our family can take however much they need that day. For example: Grant just took a little extra last night because he felt a sore throat coming on. Probiotics support a healthy immune system!


As I said in the post the other day: "We've been giving him (Casper) probiotics daily and can really tell that they have an effect on his digestion- in a great way." YES. My babies are happier and more comfortable with probiotics in the picture. Because better digestion = better sleep. Way more sleep! Also, way less tears! Better digestion comes with having a balanced gut, which is where the probiotics come in. If I knew back in the day what I know now, poor Hadley wouldn't have had so many sleepless, colicky days. But she started feeling much, much better at around 2 months old, when we really got serious about probiotics and changing my diet (which affected her because she was nursing). At 5 weeks old, Casper has gotten at least triple the amount of sleep that Hadley got in her first 2 months. Our experience so far with him affirms our thoughts on what an important role the gut plays in our babies' world: It's huge! For more information on gut health and other digestion topics like this, you might like to read this post.

Hey guys! So, I regularly receive emails with questions about digestion, diet, going gluten free, and gut health.. which I love. (Add in Jesus, husbands and wives, babies, homelife, etc, and you guys know practically all my favorite subjects!) By the emails, it's apparent that these topics are weighing heavily on a lot of our minds lately. And we all just love to talk to someone who will get it; someone who's been there, done that, right? I thought a new series of posts with some of the food-related FAQ's I've received might be a good idea. Hopefully this will help start beneficial conversations, spread some answers around, and share the digestive love. Thanks for even considering me as someone to ask about these things, because I know I'm just learning along with you guys. 

A bit of my history and some gut groundwork before we hit the questions--- The biggest food changes in my life happened in the first year after Hadley was born, when I was helping my own body heal from antibiotics, birth, and the toll of growing and nourishing another human being. I didn't feel like myself for months after Hadley was born, and I could tell that Hadley had some digestive issues. So, I started reading. And not caring how weird my food got. I was desperate to feel better and help my baby, and I feel like in our culture, that's what it takes. It takes really feeling bad or really being concerned about your baby to embrace the gravity of gut health and make any real sacrifices/changes when it comes to food.

Basically, to squeeze a whole lot of research into one tiny nutshell, here's what I learned and what guides my thinking today: Gut health = Whole health.  Once I understood the concept of the gut being the "second brain" of the body, everything made so much sense. The gut (the 25 feet of intestinal tract inside you) plays a gigantic role in your overall well being. The 3 main jobs of your gut are: a) digestion of foods and conversion into vitamins b) absorption of nutrients and c) prevention of toxins from entering the bloodstream. The gut is at the heart of whole health and, as Hippocrates (Greek scientist and father of Western medicine) said, "all disease begins in the gut." Knowing that, here's how I approach the pursuit of gut health:
1. Eating real, whole, nutrient-dense foods, prepared in a way that your body can digest them.
2. Healing any damage in the lining of the gut to prevent toxic substances from leaking out into the blood stream, and also to enable your body to absorb and use nutrients properly.
3. Establishing and then maintaining a good balance of bacteria in the gut, which enables proper digestion and allows your body's immune system to function correctly.

Now on to some email questions from readers and friends.

1. What is the GAPS diet? GAPS stands for "Gut and Psychology Syndrome" and it is a temporary healing protocol that you can follow anywhere from a couple months to 2 years in order to heal chronic disease, severe allergies, mental illness, digestive problems, yeast overgrowth, depression, constipation, eczema, bloating, and countless other symptoms and disorders. The diet is free of grains, starches, and refined sugars, and rich in healing bone broth, fermented foods/drinks, healthy fats, proteins, veggies, and fruit.*
*fruit- some of you may remember reading that for a few months I didn't eat any fruit. I'll explain why in the next post in this series!

2. When did you start the GAPS diet? I didn't start GAPS until after Hadley was born. She was a couple months old when I started cutting out dairy, gluten, sugar, and other yeast-feeding foods. Then, about a month into eating that way, I read about the GAPS diet and decided that was what I needed. The idea of taking stress off my body by way of what I eat and healing it with real, nourishing food was immediately appealing to me. I was breastfeeding, so I completely skipped the Intro Diet. I found a helpful, simple list of recommended foods and foods to avoid while on the Full GAPS diet, and basically just jumped on board and based all of my meals around that.

3. Did you have a particular health issue that motivated you to try GAPS or was it simply to get healthy? I was motivated to do the GAPS diet because after Hadley was born I took an antibiotic and I could tell that it had thrown my body out of whack. I was not recovering well and struggling with all sorts of symptoms related to a yeast overgrowth. So, a yeast imbalance was one of the main reasons, as well as Hadley's digestion issues (gas, colic, thrush, cradle cap). Also, bloating and constipation were both an underlying, lingering thing for me for years. I knew my gut needed repleinshing with good bacteria and healing as well. And yes, I did see major success by changing my diet! There were huge improvements (practically immediately) for both Hadley and myself.

4. Did either you or Grant do the Intro Diet? I did not, because it's not recommended while nursing. The limitations of the Intro diet make it difficult to take in enough calories for you and a growing baby. Grant did his own modified version of the Intro Diet, I would say. He really focused on lots and lots of healing bone broth. But his situation was such that there were many things that, according to the GAPS protocol, were "OK" for him to start incorporating, but in reality they didn't sit well with him at all. So he experimented on his own to find foods that worked for his system and continued to tailor things as needed. The nice thing about the GAPS diet is that it encourages you to pay attention to your own symptoms and modify things to suit your own body- and you can still see results even if you don't follow it legalistically. 

5. I'm about to order the book, but before I do, do you think it is absolutely essential to read the book, with so much info available on the internet? The book. Great question! For me, the book wasn't essential. I'm sure I could have followed the diet protocol more accurately and precisely with the book by my side, and I know I would enjoy learning all that it has to offer, but at that time in my life (nursing a newborn and feeling completely overwhelmed), I had no time or energy to read a book. I felt like I was barely hanging on, and I was desperate to just start making changes. I started looking around for helpful blogs and googling tons of stuff, and was able to (in my opinion) glean enough to go on. :) I'm sure I did things "wrong" all along the way, but the basic principles made sense to me and I felt like I could follow the idea of Full GAPS diet to the best of my ability without reading the book, and I wanted to see where that got me. The outcome was that I was seeing results, feeling better overall, feeling great about what I was eating, and I had peace that the Lord would bring insight to me as I needed it. If you are interested in seeing some of the blogs that were (super, super) helpful to me, here are 4 of my favorites! 



Anyone interested in these foodie topics like me? Yay! I thought so. And some people are understandably skeptical. I get that, too. Are you thinking this whole gluten-free thing is a trend? Or you're wondering why everyone claims to have food allergies today? For a really, really awesome read, you should check out Chrystal's Love Your Guts post. Her family's story is incredible (and so is she). I love what she says right here:

"When you consider how connected our gut is to the function of every part of our body, it makes sense that you’d want it to be in tip top shape. And trading in some of our comfort foods for less inflammatory, more nutrient-dense versions seems like a small price to pay for a lifetime of feeling WELL."