The Hand of God (a pause to give credit where credit is due)

That afternoon I was able to research and process what the yellow poop meant. There are three things that can cause it: bacteria infection, lack of stomach bile, or GERD (reflux). Elianna has already been tested for bacterial infections, obviously has GERD, and the lack of stomach bile hit a chord. Where had I read that? Leaky gut and lack of stomach bile...?

I headed back to my GAPs book where I remembered it. And spent the rest of the day reading as fast as I could. I needed a crash course.

Life is funny. In fact, every day I am glad it is not me making the world spin. And every once in a while we are afforded the rare opportunity to look backwards and see a chain of events that were divinely orchestrated and designed for a given moment. About 5 years ago I began the discussion of yeast and candida with a friend, and learned about sugar. Another friend gave me the book "In Defense of Food", and I learned about grains and flour. I made some changes in our home, and in our diet. We moved to a small town called Davis, and I met some new moms. I went to a nutrition talk and examined the issue of organic produce. I made a great friend who introduced me to Dr. Mercola, elderberry, and the perils of diary. Another great friend was diagnosed with breastcancer, and I spent two years learning about phytoestrogens, environmental pollutants, and plastics. Elianna was born. I was severely anemic, and learned that food combinations can help heal the body faster. Meat eaten with orange juice helps the body process the iron more efficiently. Elianna was sick. And I met a woman who was feeding her family a most controversial diet from a doctor in the UK, that had been started for autistic kids. She had the resources I needed to survive my elimination diets, and without knowing me she spent hours discussing nutrition. She loaned me her book on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet and the GAPs Diet.

Friday I headed back to my GAPs book. Yes....multiple intolerances....leaky gut....lets in proteins it shouldn't.....lack of bile....this was all falling into place.

Doctors and nutritionists had been unable to give me guidance on what to feed Elianna next, and she needed food NOW. I had been warned to stay away from high protein foods because she would most certainly react, but the GAPs diet has been successful on thousands of patients since before 1990. This was more than the crap-shoot answers the allergist could give me, and more than any study done to date on this condition in the United States. So GAPs it would be. I would find grass fed beef, and we would start with bone broth. And I would do it immediately.

That night Elianna would not sleep. She cried, had sunken eyes, and had barely eaten 25 ounces all day...for six days. How could her body fight the change in her intestines when she was not even getting enough nutrition to heal? I made the decision to add formula back into her almond milk. Only two scoops, instead of the 5, but it was enough. She slept that night, and she ate well.