GAPS Intro Week 3

Read why we're doing GAPS here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 1 here.
Read about our GAPS Intro Week 2 here.

Since we're doing one stage each week, Week 3 = Stage 3.

This week we introduced egg whites, soaked and dehydrated pecans (crispy nuts), avocado, and cilantro.

The egg whites were a massive, but not unexpected, failure. Apparently the whites are the ones that usually cause problems for people, rather than the yolks. So, no egg whites. We tried some pancakes made of egg yolks, summer squash, and crispy pecans all blended together, but they were problematic. I'd eaten the nuts by themselves without too many problems, but after the pancakes I decided we needed to hold off on the eggs and nuts till after we've had more time to heal. Disappointing, but on par with where we were before.

Thankfully we were able to eat the avocado without problems, and LMS is liking avocados a lot more than she used to. She will actually eat them as a snack and ask for some at meals. I'm still not super-fond of the texture, but they're good for us, so I'll eat them.

Surprisingly, the cilantro did seem to give me a few problems. I'll need to try it again in a few days to make sure whether it's ok or not.

Thanksgiving was less than festive for us, but it wasn't terrible. It was nice to have a low-key holiday, even if we weren't able to eat traditional Thanksgiving foods.

Other thoughts:

1. During the healing process, symptoms sometimes get worse before they get better. This is certainly true for LMS, who has had more meltdowns than usual. I'm not at all surprised by this, though, given all that's going on.
2. It took several meltdowns and several conversations where I tried to figure out the reason for that specific meltdown, for me to finally realize a few things. LMS really likes the independence of being able to get her own breakfast together or her own snacks. She is really, really struggling with that right now. She doesn't like that I have to heat things up for her to eat and that there's nothing ready to grab out of the pantry.
3. We've found a couple solutions though. She now knows how to heat up a small dish of mashed butternut squash and some leftover meat from dinner in the microwave (we've always had over the stove models, which she can't reach, so she hasn't had any practice using one), so as long as there's a container with food in the frig, she can get that herself. We've had multiple discussions about snacks and what we can and can't eat, and she's decided that a Bubbie's pickle is an acceptable snack option. Right now I have to get them out of the jar for her, but I will be putting some into individual, reusable containers so she can get one herself.
4. I think I've decided to hold off on introducing foods that we've had problems with in the past. Rather than experience frustration at not being able to eat them yet, we'll just wait and let our intestines heal more. So even though GAPS says to introduce eggs, nuts, dairy, and so on at certain points, I think we'll just try to be patient.