Re: goal of diet?

[Guest guest]

>

> I am new to this group and I am not sure if the goal of SCD is to reach a

stage 5 diet and

stay there for life or is the goal to progress past stage 5 and be able to

successfully

incorporate illegal foods.

Resuming illegal foods is NOTthe primary goal of SCD. It is healing a damaged

digestive

system and in the case of ASD children, hopefully establishing a better

brain-gut

connection enabling physical and behavioral progress.

" The Stages " is a guideline for progressive introduction of foods in order that

parents

discovered they are best tolerated. It is not an official part of the diet and

only exists on

this website. It cannot include every existing legal food. The best source of

comprehensive

food categories is found in the book BTVC.

I have been on SCD for seven years and have not resumed a standard diet. I

occasionally

eat a restricted food but find when I stay strictly SCD my digestive sytem is

absolutely

sound and pain free.

[Guest guest]

Here is how I've addressed it with my 12 yr old Dyslexic, Dysgraphic,

Gluten intolerant (through genetic testing) child. He has been informed that we

are healing our intestines, the gut / brain connection, healthy eating for life,

etc. I have spoken with him off and on about why we are doing the diet. Kind

of like drip feeding him on why - just bits and pieces of info here and there.

His father and I both are also doing the diet. We've been doing the diet since

Jan 1, 2007. As time goes by he is slowly coming to see it our way, about

healthy eating for life - not just till we heal and then back to the old ways.

I try to make him feel special because we do not eat junk that is bad for you.

He knows we are different so I try to make that a special different. We're too

smart for that, etc. (not that other people are bad for eating their way)

Though there were times in the beginning that I got a bit blunt and said no you

may not have a soda, it'll rot your brain

Last night he informed us that it would not matter any way because the

longer he went without junk the less likely he'd even like it. We had an

infraction incident about a month ago and he did not even eat it all (only took

a bite) because he did not like it - which used to be one of his to die for

foods.

Then last night I was at my sister's home and her kids were eating hot dogs

and for some reason I thought my son was eating a piece too - I saw him from

another room. I said " Zac don't eat that hotdog " and he came over and said "

Mom I'm smarter than that. " I apologized.

So some of what I'm trying to say is that your daughters will probably come

about and embrace this healthy way of eating eventually.

The other thing is that if they have the dark circles under their eyes - I'm

guessing they would benefit from this diet greatly too. Strict 100% SCD to heal

their guts and then maybe at some point in the future if they are somewhere and

they eat a small amount of " illegals " it would not be horrible? For instance at

some point in the distant future my son may eat fresh potatoes and I'd not think

it was horrible - though he will have to remain gluten free. I'm not talking

about going back to fast food and sugar laden, over-processed food though. I'm

hoping that by the time he is away from home he will know what a good healthy

diet feels like and can then make his own decisions based upon how it makes him

feel.

W.

[Guest guest]

What about for siblings though?

-

carolfrilegh wrote:

>

> I am new to this group and I am not sure if the goal of SCD is to reach a

stage 5 diet and

stay there for life or is the goal to progress past stage 5 and be able to

successfully

incorporate illegal foods.

Resuming illegal foods is NOTthe primary goal of SCD. It is healing a damaged

digestive

system and in the case of ASD children, hopefully establishing a better

brain-gut

connection enabling physical and behavioral progress.

" The Stages " is a guideline for progressive introduction of foods in order that

parents

discovered they are best tolerated. It is not an official part of the diet and

only exists on

this website. It cannot include every existing legal food. The best source of

comprehensive

food categories is found in the book BTVC.

I have been on SCD for seven years and have not resumed a standard diet. I

occasionally

eat a restricted food but find when I stay strictly SCD my digestive sytem is

absolutely

sound and pain free.

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

- We've been doing this diet for 1 month now. Before we began we

had a " family " discussion. I know that all of my children have some

leaky gut issues because they aren't able to tolerate several fruits

and vegetables that are among higher salycilates. I told them everyone

is going to do this for 6 months. Then we would decide where to go

from there. After just one month I know that 3 of the 6 of us

definately need this diet. The other three I'm not so sure about. As a

family we will eat this way definately for another 5 months. For my 2

children that don't seem to need this, I may allow them to eat off-

diet at a friend's house or party. (Of course if they have problems,

that'll never happen again).

At the end of the six months we'll re-evaluate and discuss what to do.

I may just keep the three of us on the diet and let the others add

some grains back in. I don't know yet. But I feel it's really

important to have everyone's full support in the beginning. We're all

eating the same, there are no illegal foods in the house. On the plus

side, my kids are now able to enjoy a few of the fruits and vegetables

that they haven't had in years. They're pretty happy about that.

[Guest guest]

gave a brilliant response to this question. I'll just briefly add that, in

theory, SCD will heal the gut to the point that you *should* be able to begin to

include some foods that are " not allowed " on strict SCD, without severe

consequences. Elaine Gottschall's daughter was kept on SCD for seven years, and

then returned to (as far as I know) a fairly " normal " diet and is a healthy

adult today.

With that said, I'm sure that there is a wide range of what different people

consider a " normal " diet. If the diet truly provides the healing that we have

seen with many, many kids here.... most of those parents would not be able to

imagine returning their child's diet to Mc's, Spagetti-Os and Lunchables.

Many will eventually broaden their horizons but will probably stick with a much

healthier, " real food " diet as opposed to standard American fare. Makes sense.

Patti, list moderator

goal of diet?

I am new to this group and I am not sure if the goal of SCD is to reach a

stage 5 diet and stay there for life or is the goal to progress past stage 5 and

be able to successfully incorporate illegal foods. Can someone explain that? I

have one child who is ASD and 2 other children that might benefit for other

reasons, but the main reason I want the entire family to do it is to make it

easier for me and so that my son doesn't feel like he is being cheated. I am not

sure what to tell my 8 YO typical daughter (we all eat like this for a year and

then only your brother does, we eat like this at home -- but you can eat what

you want at a friend's house or this is how we eat for the rest of your

childhood!). How are you all managing this? The reason my typical daughters

would benefit are that my older daughter has circles under her eyes and had

excema as a baby/preschooler. My younger daughter had 2 abdominal surgeries and

lots of IV ABX. She has the circles and a yeasty

tongue as well as excema.

-

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[Guest guest]

Okay, this is helpful to know. I am a big fan of the 80/20 rule in life -- do

what you know is best 80% of the time so that you don't need to feel guilty

about the 20% of the time that you enjoy doing what is not best for you.

I know that there are times when you must adhere to a rule 100% to get

results, but I was wondering if my girls could progress to a 80/20 rule on this

one once we get past some of their own digestive issues.

-

Patti wrote:

gave a brilliant response to this question. I'll just briefly add

that, in theory, SCD will heal the gut to the point that you *should* be able to

begin to include some foods that are " not allowed " on strict SCD, without severe

consequences. Elaine Gottschall's daughter was kept on SCD for seven years, and

then returned to (as far as I know) a fairly " normal " diet and is a healthy

adult today.

With that said, I'm sure that there is a wide range of what different people

consider a " normal " diet. If the diet truly provides the healing that we have

seen with many, many kids here.... most of those parents would not be able to

imagine returning their child's diet to Mc's, Spagetti-Os and Lunchables.

Many will eventually broaden their horizons but will probably stick with a much

healthier, " real food " diet as opposed to standard American fare. Makes sense.

Patti, list moderator

goal of diet?

I am new to this group and I am not sure if the goal of SCD is to reach a stage

5 diet and stay there for life or is the goal to progress past stage 5 and be

able to successfully incorporate illegal foods. Can someone explain that? I have

one child who is ASD and 2 other children that might benefit for other reasons,

but the main reason I want the entire family to do it is to make it easier for

me and so that my son doesn't feel like he is being cheated. I am not sure what

to tell my 8 YO typical daughter (we all eat like this for a year and then only

your brother does, we eat like this at home -- but you can eat what you want at

a friend's house or this is how we eat for the rest of your childhood!). How are

you all managing this? The reason my typical daughters would benefit are that my

older daughter has circles under her eyes and had excema as a baby/preschooler.

My younger daughter had 2 abdominal surgeries and lots of IV ABX. She has the

circles and a yeasty

tongue as well as excema.

-

---------------------------------

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[Guest guest]

As long as you go by the " 100% Rule " while you're starting out on SCD.... and

until you get the result you really want.

Patti

Re: goal of diet?

Okay, this is helpful to know. I am a big fan of the 80/20 rule in life -- do

what you know is best 80% of the time so that you don't need to feel guilty

about the 20% of the time that you enjoy doing what is not best for you.

I know that there are times when you must adhere to a rule 100% to get

results, but I was wondering if my girls could progress to a 80/20 rule on this

one once we get past some of their own digestive issues.

-

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[Guest guest]

>

> What about for siblings though?

>

> -

>

They don't need to be on SCD but it certainly is helpful to those who are when

the whole

family is on the same page. Elaine's daughter has eaten a conventional diet

since she

completed SCD and so do her children.

Carol F.

SCD 7 years

[Guest guest]

Carol,

You might want to re-read my posts. I was asking about direction for the

siblings that DO NOT NEED to be on the diet but who will be doing the diet

because I am not talented enough to cook multiple menus.

-

carolfrilegh wrote:

>

> Okay, this is helpful to know. I am a big fan of the 80/20 rule in life -- do

what you

know is best 80% of the time so that you don't need to feel guilty about the 20%

of the

time that you enjoy doing what is not best for you.

>

, I am not sure what you are asking but SCD requires " Fanatical adherance. "

You

haven't had a chance to read the book yet and are getting ahead of yourself.

Small regressions feed gut bacteria that can multiply vey quickly and interfere

with

progress,

Carol F.

SCD 7 years, celiac

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[Guest guest]

Well, our general guideline is that everyone eats SCD at home. iel is

100% SCD, and our toddler, Mark, is for the most part. We

occassionally(very, very) allow him a non SCD food. Our oldest and my husband

and myself always eat SCD meals with the family, but we occassionally will buy a

special treat that we eat when iel and Mark are not present. If we do

go out to eat, to a friends' home, ect. we bring iel's food. We sometimes

bring Mark's food, but sometimes let him eat what is served. But, I never,

ever cook separate meals at home, and we only eat non SCD food in front of

iel when we are in a situation where we're not eating at home.

Meleah

Re: Re: goal of diet?

Carol, I don't think you understood my post, but others have answered my

questions so my initial concern has been addressed. In general, I would love to

hear experiences from those who are involving the entire family & to what degree

you involve them.

-

carolfrilegh wrote:

---

Grain simply is not allowed on SCD. It may be digestible for someone who

doesn't need

this diet and it may be part of the food pyramid etc, but grains, rice, corn,

soy all contain

gluten and/or starch that cannot be broken down and properly absorbed. It may

be part of

a healthy diet for the genral population but we are npt in that category at

this time.

You really seem to be challenging the diet and unsure that it is for your

family, which is

unfortunate.

<<parts of original post clipped for length by moderator>>

[Guest guest]

Just thought I'd mention that we have seen great improvement in my son's

digestion without using the intro diet or stages at all. We put off some foods

that were obviously going to be harder to digest than others (whole nuts, etc.),

and we backed away from anything that caused symptoms. Otherwise, we just went

with the legal/illegal distinction--though we've followed the diet strictly.

My son has now been on SCD for 46 weeks. Yes, we're counting! My understanding

from BTVC is that many people can graduate from SCD to a less restrictive diet

(though generally not the standard American diet) after a year or two (or

three), depending on how bad their initial symptoms were. We certainly hope to

reintroduce some foods in the next year, though I'm still trying to figure out

what first and how soon.

--Jacquie

Rob or Sunseri wrote:

>We have never eaten an unhealthy diet. I was raised by a health food nut, so I

raised my kids the same way. My daughter already feels like a bit of a freak as

she is about the only child her age who knows she should check a label for

hydrogenated oil. We previously did a similar diet which was also made 100%

from scratch/grain free and although she liked all of the foods and never argued

about it (she was 5), she became obsessed with foods we weren't eating. She

drew menus with pictures of junky food all day long. She played restaurant

non-stop, she asked if we " could just talk about " foods were were not eating. I

didn't like what I was seeing psychologically, and she never felt smarter than

her friends (who all eat very healthy as we all belong to an organic co-op).

She just felt restricted. She knew that they were all organic as well, but they

didn't have this tiny list of foods that were acceptable. The bizzarre part was

that before restricting her diet, her

> idea of a fun treat was a trip to the bagel restaurant to get a toasted raisin

bagel with butter. This was the equivalent of a Dairy Queen Blizzard in our

family. When we eliminated that kind of a " binge, " she began obsessing over

foods she had never even eaten before (cheesecakes and banana splits, etc). I

knew this from all of the pictures she was drawing.

>

> I'd like to see her do SCD for a time and then do a diet that is less

restrictive, but I get concerned when I see advice here about having to start

the intro diet all over again if you eat something illegal. Are there folks

here who have seen a sibling do the diet for a year, then expand it and still

have benefitted from that year? Or maybe a child who does the diet for some

time and then only eats it at home, but successfully eats at a restaurant too?

>

> -

>

>Ed Wendell wrote:

> Here is how I've addressed it with my 12 yr old Dyslexic, Dysgraphic,

Gluten intolerant (through genetic testing) child. He has been informed that we

are healing our intestines, the gut / brain connection, healthy eating for life,

etc. I have spoken with him off and on about why we are doing the diet. Kind of

like drip feeding him on why - just bits and pieces of info here and there. His

father and I both are also doing the diet. We've been doing the diet since Jan

1, 2007. As time goes by he is slowly coming to see it our way, about healthy

eating for life - not just till we heal and then back to the old ways. I try to

make him feel special because we do not eat junk that is bad for you. He knows

we are different so I try to make that a special different. We're too smart for

that, etc. (not that other people are bad for eating their way) Though there

were times in the beginning that I got a bit blunt and said no you may not have

a soda, it'll rot your brain

>

>Last night he informed us that it would not matter any way because the longer

he went without junk the less likely he'd even like it. We had an infraction

incident about a month ago and he did not even eat it all (only took a bite)

because he did not like it - which used to be one of his to die for foods.

>

>Then last night I was at my sister's home and her kids were eating hot dogs and

for some reason I thought my son was eating a piece too - I saw him from another

room. I said " Zac don't eat that hotdog " and he came over and said " Mom I'm

smarter than that. " I apologized.

>

>So some of what I'm trying to say is that your daughters will probably come

about and embrace this healthy way of eating eventually.

>

>The other thing is that if they have the dark circles under their eyes - I'm

guessing they would benefit from this diet greatly too. Strict 100% SCD to heal

their guts and then maybe at some point in the future if they are somewhere and

they eat a small amount of " illegals " it would not be horrible? For instance at

some point in the distant future my son may eat fresh potatoes and I'd not think

it was horrible - though he will have to remain gluten free. I'm not talking

about going back to fast food and sugar laden, over-processed food though. I'm

hoping that by the time he is away from home he will know what a good healthy

diet feels like and can then make his own decisions based upon how it makes him

feel.

>

> W.

>

>

>

[Guest guest]

On Feb 24, 2007, at 9:05 PM, pecanbread wrote:

> Are there folks here who have seen a sibling do the diet for a year,

> then expand it and still have benefitted from that year? Or maybe a

> child who does the diet for some time and then only eats it at home,

> but successfully eats at a restaurant too?

Hello ,

Just thought I would jump in to tell of our experience. After being on

the diet for 3.5 years, my 7 yr old is no longer 100% compliant. She

gets occasional candy/illegals at birthday parties and such. When we go

out to eat(which is once in a blue moon), we go to restaurant where you

can order meat and veggie dishes, or egg dishes like omelets or

scrambled eggs and bacon. So she is still eating pretty much SCD when

we've gone out but you can really never be sure what is in restaurant

food. I give her enzymes when these infractions occur and she seems to

be able to tolerate it well.

When we first started the diet, my thoughts were also on counting the

days until she could eat a standard diet again. However, as time

passed, SCD has become more of a lifestyle thing and now I don't want

to go back to eating grains as a main staple of our diet. As a family

we do not all follow the diet(myself, husband and 2 daughters ). Here

is how I manage that....... For dinners I cook a meat, 3 vegetables(1

raw, 1 fresh cooked and 1 frozen cooked), I will also make either rice

or potatoes for the rest of my family, but not always.

Here was our dinner last night.

-pork chops in onion/mustard sauce

-rice

-butternut squash

-peas

- raw red and green pepper strips

-juice and water to drink

- peanut butter brownie with banana custard ice-cream(scd homemade) for

dessert

The only real difference between my asd daughter's food and ours it

that we have regular bread and also eat rice/potatoes with our dinner.

I do not buy crackers and cookies the way I used to. We snack on other

things now or eat scd treats which are really amazing if you can find

the time to make them. SCD is really worth it. We stuck to the diet

with fanatical adherence for the first 2 years or so(after about a year

my daughter's bowel function was normal). I would not advise anyone to

go on SCD without following it 100% because you will never be able to

judge your progress. The healing is a gradual process, there will be

flare-ups and set-backs even with fanatical adherence but you will

definitely see the steady improvement. If you are adding illegals, that

will just eliminate any of the small gains that you may have made.

Good luck with the diet, you can do it!

Best wishes