Thank you so much to responding to my question. I was quite worried actually and now to know that other people experience this also, puts my mind to rest now. I will do this for sure, to use the meat broth for the time being instead of the bone broth and I suppose will have to move slowly into the bone broths. Now to be curious, wondering why the bone broths would have such a reaction? hmm, least I know I am okay! and most likely do not have a medical problem.

Thank you!

Carrie

Please start with meat broths, as opposed to bone broths. Early in healing, bone broths trigger reactions in a number of people. Simmer your meaty bone for 1-3 hours and use that instead.

All my best,
Baden

Great stuff re: the stool progress! And I totally understand why you would, correctly, refer to those as diarrhea -I just find that in checking out what’s happening for people that I need to first distinguish between a transient issue -a liquid stool, for example, which can happen in healing alongside all sorts of other random stool stuff- and the more concerning issue of very frequent liquid over several days or weeks which can result in dehydration, nutritional deficiency, etc.

There can be different causes of a red spot on one’s tongue, but if you know this to be candida-related and you feel at some point that addressing it directly is necessary, coconut oil is an excellent approach. Warning: This will trigger tremendous die-off, and will exacerbate early intro’s die-off! One must be prepared for that (do die-off relief baths, etc). Start with a teaspoon per day or less and work up slowly.

All my best,
Baden

I’m now at stage 3, diarrhea has gone on the 9th day and 3 days after that, I tried sauerkraut juice. It was ok so I tried to eat a little bit as well, today. I’ve read about true diarrhea but even if it was 1-2 per day, what I had was completely liquid (…) so ..I couldn’t name it differently. The tricky part was to realize if it was a die off or a gastrenteritis symptom, since I could’n believe that die off could be that hard..Now I’m just having bad times with candida (it appeared with a big red spot on my tongue) and I’m doing whatever possible to avoid medicine.

Thank you very much again!

Sorry -I wasn’t clear enough about the step here. What you’ll want to do is scan the post above these comments to find one of the forums. Options are listed under, for example, the subheadings above of ‘Online Support Groups’ or ‘Phone Pool’. Through those, you’ll connect with hundreds of other families, some of whom have dealt with histamine reactions in ferments.

All my best,
Baden

I just want to clarify first: True diarrhea I define as more than three stools per day that are very loose, liquid and require rushing to the toilet. 1-3 looser stools per day I don’t really worry about, so long as a person remains hydrated with electrolytes (not just water). Stool consistency will change a lot in the first few months of healing.

True diarrhea as a die-off symptom is not all that common -except where a person is taking too high a dose of probiotic. Happily, many people have read the ‘Probiotics’ guide in the GAPS Guide book before starting, and successfully avoid the issues associated with going too fast.

I love your plan! Take a break from all probiotics and when the diarrhea is gone, start with a teaspoon of sauerkraut juice. Increase by a teaspoon per week (or less, as tolerated).

All my best,
Baden

thank you very much, you are really helpful and I feel quite a relief with your support…. (I also had an answer at the forum, it is so good to know that there are people who can help that much!)

You are right about probiotics, I haven’t taken any since tuesday and I feel better. I am still worried about diarrhea, but since wednesday I have it once a day (watery, unfortunately) except from yesterday where it was slighlty better…Actually it is the only symptom I have at the moment, but I really don’t feel like taking even the slightest amount of prob. for now. I’m in intro 1 again, -5 days now- and I think I’ll go really slow and observe. For how many days is it ‘normal’ to have diarrhea as a die off symptom? I never had a diarrhea like this before…

I will continue having as many detox ‘feet-baths’ as possible, and I will try to dring more water (this was always hard for me). Do you think it would be better to try fiirst the sauerkraut juice, the following week in intro stage 2, then increase the amount, instead of trying probiotics?

Thank you again for all your help!

Bless you for doing GAPS as a working mum of a three year old!! That’s where I was at when I started. (My son is now seven.) Hang in there

Your English is lovely and your approach to this site is perfect.

I can sense your overwhelm and confusion. I’m going to break your comment down, answering each of the many questions basically in the order you’ve presented them. This said, the most important piece may be the very final one re: probiotics.

1. It is not necessary to access a GAPS Practitioner live. That is, when a situation is complex, feel free to contact a health practitioner familiar with GAPS who is living in any country. Practitioners have offered excellent support by phone and online, as well as live.

2. Yes, it can sometimes take some days for a post on one of the Support lists to be moderated or responded to. If a few days has passed, it may have gotten lost in the shuffle of so many posts. On the other hand, it may be that no one feels able to answer it. Tip: The more concise and straightforward a question we present, the higher the chance it will be answered. In any case, once a post has gone unanswered for several days on one of the email lists, feel free to “bump” the post up. Just add the word “bump” to the subject line of your original post and re-send it.

3. In GAPS, what we avoid eating is only a very small part of the program. Even more important is daily bowel movements, probiotics, nutrient-dense food, detoxification, etc.

4. If you won’t do enemas, you must find another way to release the contents of your bowels -otherwise you will feel awful and begin a downward spiral into worse health. If you won’t do enemas (or another way to ensure healthy bowel release) or drink much water and cannot access detox baths, the program may not be a good fit for you at this point. Again, GAPS isn’t just about avoiding certain foods -it’s more comprehensive than that, and all aspects are important. This said, it really does sound like you do understand the importance of the whole program, and that you’ve been doing much of it quite well! That’s great.

5. Sometimes on GAPS we just get a flu, like anyone else It’s possible that your recent six days of headache, fatigue and nausea are a normal flu. Also, a number of people experience flu-or-cold-like symptoms in early healing. In either case, Stage 1 with lots of detox baths (if one can access those) and electrolytes (http://gapsguide.com/2008/12/22/electrolyte-sport-drink/) can help a lot. All of this said, my sense is that your approach to probiotics may be making things unnecessarily difficult for you. Please see my answer #6.

6. You are jumping to a very high dose of probiotics, which in many people will indeed trigger or worsen loose stools. For probiotic use, please follow the detailed instructions in your GAPS Guide book, pages 104-110. One of the main notes therein is that a child or sensitive/very ill adult would start with 1/10th capsule of BioKult (just as an example of one probiotic; it will be different for each brand). An adult who is not sensitive or super ill would start with 1/4 capsule, max. Increase by only that much again once a week. Starting with or increasing by more can trigger terrible problems, unnecessarily so.

Danae, I hope this is helpful for you!

I think you’ve done a phenomenal job so far. You’re in that really difficult part of the ‘massive learning curve’. Once you get through this, it will be easier!!

All my best,
Baden