Probiotics vs Prebiotics

Over the years I’ve worked with many families of children who have either been diagnosed with Autism, are going through the process or are thinking it might be something they should be considering. As a result many of them ask me about Zac’s diagnosis and what it was that made us think he might need to be assessed and how did we as a family cope when he did finally get diagnosed so today, I’ll share that story with you.

Product Review – Soft Drinks

Over the past 30+ years there has been a huge increase in the consumption of soft drink (both full sugar and now diet options), sport drinks and energy drinks.

It’s nothing to see a young teen walking to school with an energy drink in their hand at 8am, or drinking a sports drink, even though there isn’t a piece of sporting equipment in sight and consumption of these is becoming more and more common.. 

So let’s break it down, what is really in these drinks.

Supporting Your Child’s Learning Challenges

Let’s be honest, all kids have a bit of a disobedient, defiant or impulsive streak. They question us, challenge us and definitely have a mind of their own, but is there a line where this behaviour becomes too much to handle? Is there a point where this behaviour isn’t “normal”?

This was the exact situation we came across in the early days before Zac was diagnosed with Autism.. what was normal behaviour for a child (boy) his age and what wasn’t..  now before you panic..  if your child does have some challenging behaviours or learnings I’m not suggesting they have Autism but there’s definitely some things to think about as far as what you can do to help them.

GAPS Diet Long Term

Over the years I’ve talked about The GAPS™ Diet extensively, how we were doing it as a family and the ups and downs that went with that. It’s been a number of years since we did The GAPS™ Diet and I find that a lot of my patients are very curious as to what we’re doing now so I thought I’d share that with you and perhaps give you a strategy for the long term lifestyle approach we’ve adopted. 

My decision for the family was to find a happy medium whereby we were still monitoring our gut health and eating based on The GAPS™ Diet  but it was a much more relaxed version.

As a GAPS™ Practitioner, when I’m working with patients, the general rule of thumb is that after you’ve finished the Introduction Diet you move to The Full GAPS™ Diet and follow that for 18 months to 2 years before transitioning off The GAPS™ Diet.

Autism and Sex and the City

In the real world we don’t all have nannies and live in housekeepers, we don’t wear designer clothes and we can’t just drop everything and go to Abu Dhabi for a week.

In reality we all have different situations, some of us have additional help at home and some of us don’t. Some of us have “easy” children and some of us don’t. Some of us have children that require much more of us and some of us don’t.

Whatever your situation though, mothers do have one thing in common, somewhere along the way of having children we lose ourselves and this isn’t exclusive to those of us that have children with additional needs.

Autism and the C Word

As many parents of children with Autism have done before and many will continue to do after me I have read a number of articles, blogs and websites promising the one thing most families are looking for..  Brace yourself people I’m about to say the “C” word….  Promising a “CURE”..  yep I said it…. CURE!!!

The thing is, I’m not just a mother of a child with Autism, I’m also a practitioner who works with families who have children with Autism…  I work in an industry where we’re touted as “charlatans” with unproven methods and treatments that don’t work, promise a “cure” (yes I said it again) and leave families heartbroken.

Bone Broth vs Meat Stock

Being a GAPS Practitioner has meant promoting and using lots of meat stocks and bone broths as part of the healing process. The one thing I’ve come to realise very quickly has been the confusion between what the two are and when is the best time to use them. Today I thought I’d cover off the difference between bone broth and meat stock to try to make it a little easier for you all.

The first thing I’ve noticed is it seems to depend on where you live in the world as to what you interpret as being a broth or a stock as in the USA they tend to use the word broth for what we call stock so no wonder everyone’s confused.

The below explanations are given based on The GAPS Diet and the way we use meat stocks and bone broths to support gut health, healing and sealing as well as ongoing health maintenance.

Kick Sugar Addiction Now

Sugar, Sugar, Sugar…. It’s the curse of the 21st Century…

It’s behind obesity, heart disease, anxiety, depression, migraines, chronic fatigue syndrome, mood swings, PMS, Type II Diabetes, inflammation (which of course leads to other significant health conditions), cancer and don’t even get me started on kids behaviour when they’re on a sugar high..

Cheating on GAPS

So I was looking for something the other day and stumbled upon this and thought it might be a good reminder for those of you out there who might sometimes wonder why you’re putting in all the effort to do The GAPS Diet with your family.

When we were doing the GAPS Diet I would do a nightly poll on how everyone was going with all the changes and restrictions that were involved. The questions asked went something like this:

Convincing Your Partner to do The GAPS Diet

So you’ve come to the realisation that you and your family REALLY need to do The GAPS Diet…  there’s only one thing standing in the way… your partner!!  They’re not too keen on the whole idea…  it may be they think it’s a load of rubbish, maybe they’re more inclined to listen to their doctor rather than a Naturopath or GAPS Practitioner or maybe they’re in denial that there’s any issues at all. Whatever the case, the question is “how do I handle this?”

Well, here’s a few tips that might be of use, and of course make sure you do it in a comfortable, relaxed setting where you’re not going to be interrupted, and have some books or information there to show them if you think that may be useful.