Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Was wondering if anyone has experience with SCD– tips, menus that sort of thing. My littlest and I have started the diet after 6 months of gluten-free and soy-free that was not as successfull as we had hoped.

Happy Fall!
Amanda.

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Amanda,
This post apparently slipped by, and I apologize for that. How have your diets been going since you wrote this? I have no experience with specific carbohydrate diets, and maybe nobody else did either. What had not gone successfully with the gluten-free and soy-free diet? Were the kids still exhibiting symptoms?

Once again, I am sorry no one responded to this post, but if you let me know how you are doing, I will see what I can find out to help support you in your efforts to keep your family eating healthy and happily.

Love,
Andrea

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Andrea,
Thank you for your concern. As you may have noticed, I’ve been a bit absent from Gaia and had not even remembered that I had left this post!

Back in September my Sonya was accidently given some soy milk. We took it all in stride, knowing the next days and weeks would be rough but that she would weather through. Unfortunately, she became progressively sicker with each day following the soy incident. She stopped eating and sleeping. Her skin was raw and rashy. She became violent and agitated. Eventually, she stopped speaking– going from saying 5-6 word sentances with perfect grammar to having a vocabulary of 5 total words. All of this in less than one month.

We started Specific Carbohydrate Diet the last week of October. It’s a grain-free, starch-free, sugar-free diet. I’ve learned an immense amount about the human digestive system and this diet over the last few months and would be happy to share with anyone if they have specific questions. Essentially, SCD is the original Celiac diet and relies heavily on foods that do not need to be digestedor broken down by the colon, only absorbed. For some individuals, going gluten-free is all that’s needed to heal and repair the damage to the villi in the intestines and colon. Others need more drastic measures! The SCD diet has the added benefit of helping individuals pinpoint food/preservative/chemical sensitivities that may not show up on IgE or IgG allergy testing.

After 4 months, Sonya and I are doing well. Sonya is her happy, talkative self again. It will be a long road, most likely several years, before she is completely healed. We have hope that by the time she starts Kindergarten she will be able to eat, with moderation, from all the food groups. Even the glutenous ones!

Thank you again for your kind support, Andrea! You are a gem!
Amanda

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

Amanda,
Wow, what scare that must have been for your family! I am so glad that your Sonya is doing better. The SCD diet sounds very interesting. For a person like me, I go through stages with food allergies and digestion problems. I know that for me, sometimes too many of certain kinds of vegetables can even be a problem. So, I agree that going beyond the tests is important, and providing that time for the villi to heal is essential. I hope that by the time she is in Kindergarten, that she will be able to eat from all the food groups. If you have an internet link where others can find more information on the SCD diet, please post it when you can. I would really be interested in learning more.

xo
Andrea

P.S. A lot of people have been absent around here lately. Maybe it’s all the changes to the format. I’m not sure ;)

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

kindergarten?  do you think the school will respect the child’s diet issues?  how do you expect to prevent cross-contamination?  my children can’t so much as eat at the same table with anyone eating gluteny foods, they *will* have a cross-contamination reaction.  just some questions, as they are really big issues in our household.  cross-contamination, for us is the greatest issue.  the reaction is severe, both of my children and myself.  this might be why it took so long before the withdrawals stopped when we first eliminated gluten, cross-contamination in my own kitchen (though i’ve heard from others that the withdrawal reaction from eliminating gluten lasted about six months for them, as well.  did your doctor mention that possibility?  nobody told me, had to find out myself.).  i ended up having to wash all the dishes and utensils in the entire house, scrub all the cabinets and drawers in my kitchen, etc….  um…  pookietooth here at gaia knows alot about SCD, sure she wouldn’t mind if you dropped her a line.

some other things, too.  playdough is made of wheat.  glue has gluten in it, usually, i can’t lick an envelope without getting sick (though it could be something else i’m reacting to).  be careful of the art supplies, even paints have wheat in them.  we get gluten-like reaction from things you’d never connect with food allergies.  my youngest’s reaction to oats (supposedly not gluten, but similar compound) is so severe that oatmeal soap in the bath gives her a terrible rash….  oh sorry.  i’ll stop now.  :-)  hey, thanks!!!

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

boogie,

You are so right, gluten is everywhere. Wheat is the “great thickener,” but it isn’t so great for everyone. Wheat is in shampoos and conditioners. You really have to read everything, and hope that it is labeled clearly and honestly.

Amanda’s kids, if I remember correctly, have specific food allergies that are severe. When allergy is the case, sometimes avoidance for long periods of time can allow the body to heal and the sensitivity to disappear. However, testing if a food allergy has dissipated seems to be risky business. Even if Sonya has to maintain a special diet all of her life, her sensitivities can change over time.

It sounds like you really have been through tons of ordeal with getting gluten free. I really appreciate your sharing your experiences here, and connecting us with pookietooth. For every family that goes through it, the journey may be somewhat different, but the feeling of being able to live a normal and carefree lifestyle comes to a halt. At least by talking about it, we know we aren’t alone.

xo
Andrea

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

boogie,
Thank you for your input! We were gluten-free for 6 months and learned (the hard way, as you did) about some of the ways wheat can sneak into our lives. My little family has come such a long way in the past year. We thought we ate so well, so smartly. Then we were forced to start reading labels! It may seem odd to a non-allergic person how I can feel so blessed by having a loved one get so sick. We’re on our way to a long healthy life, not just Sonya, but the whole family. And that is an extraordinary thing!

Andrea,
Here are some links for more information on SCD. There is probably a better place to *put* them than right here but I’m not sure where that might be…..

http://www.pecanbread.com/
a site mostly for families with Autistic kids but it also has great recipes, helpful charts, and an “overcoming difficulties” section

http://www.breakingtheviciouscycle.info/
a site based on the book that has made SCD known, tips on how to get started and basic information on why the diet works. The book of the same name should be read before getting too involved in the diet. It is available at Amazon.

Re: Specific Carbohydrate Diet

jumping by to sending thoughts for Sonya’s continued healing!