That’s great information about the broth Meg! Thanks for commenting. I’m happy to help in whatever way I can. Sometimes it might take me a while, but I eventually get there! 😉

Maggie, prayers for you and your son. I can truly empathize. Thank you for your kind comments. You’re right, it is no walk in the park. Very well put! We’re dealing with eczema too…. I kind of think eczema is a liver issue as well. Have you ever looked into this? It’s just a thought but I plan on looking into it more. Sigh… GAPS is confusing. LOL. I guess I should say, our bodies are incredibly complex. I pray for you two to see immediate results. There’s always hope. <3

Thanks so much Dandy! I looked into the differences and sounds like meat broth is definitely the way I should go. I also read that glutamates (what is in MSG) increase as you increase the cooking time and temperature of the broth. So this is probably what I am reacting to now that I read about it. I’ll probably give my body a break and then try the meat broth. They say some people have to build up very slowly with it. Thanks again for taking the time to help me out. I know you don’t have much spare time with all you have on your plate so I appreciate it!

I’m so glad you found some information!! Woohoo! So happy to help, albeit in a roundabout way. I know the GAPS diet calls for meat broth and not really bone broth. Did you read anything about meat broth causing histamine problems? Maybe a switch to meat broth? Just a thought. Hope you and your little one feel better SOON!! <3

Dandy,
Thanks for the info! I looked up histamine and that sounds like it could be it. Thank you for the suggestion! Bone broth, ferments, and several other things I eat regularly are high in histamines. And symptoms include headaches and heartburn. It said histamine intolerance is cumulative, so it is like a glass of water that fills up (high level of histamines in diet), but you won’t experience symptoms until it overflows. Which makes sense because it didn’t start right away with the bone broth. I read it is probably related to certain gut bacteria that breaks food down into histamines in your gut, causing high levels. However, it didn’t make sense how that could happen seemingly overnight when I never had an issue before. Then I read how a histamine intolerance can be caused by hormones levels due to breastfeeding and other hormone changes (menopause, birth control pills etc). This would make sense! I’ll have to read more about it. I guess until I stop nursing I will just cut down on bone broth. I haven’t started fermenting myself yet, but we eat Bubbie’s pickles and sauerkraut. Maybe I will start giving him a few drops of the juice. He may have just been reacting to what was going on with me, so cutting down on broth will help him. After I suspected the broth I pretty much entirely cut it out, except for a bit here and there to see if I had the reaction again, and his eczema is pretty much all gone except for one small spot! I have also been putting tallow balm on him frequently and his skin is so much better (it was really dry).

Yes, when it involves your little ones it makes you want to exhaust every avenue to get to the bottom of it as quickly as possible. I reached out to a few bloggers I follow that highly recommend bone broth and haven’t heard anything back. So I really appreciate you responding. Take care!

Hi Meg, thanks for the encouragement! I just want them able to eat everything, I want it so badly.
Die off is something I’m still trying to decode. I am by no means an expert! I’ve not heard much about bone broth causing die off reactions. I have heard it causing histamine problems, but I am not familiar with that either. Although our sons’ eczema did get much worse in the winter, it was always gut-related. I feel for you – I know exactly what it is like when your baby is suffering with eczema. Do you ferment? I am sure a few drops of kraut juice would help his little tummy. Sauerkraut fermented for about 6 weeks has always been the best for us, but you can go as short as a week if you need to. I think if you were experiencing die-off, you’d have headaches and general malaise and crabbiness. I’m sure you know that the heartburn does have something to do with the gut being out of sync though. Let me know if you figure it out. It’s so, so very hard to decode.

I have been meaning to write and ask you a couple questions, mainly about die-off. You wrote a few things in this post, but what exactly do you experience with die-off? I introduced bone broth into our diets about 3 months ago or so and within the past 3 weeks or so I have been getting headaches and heartburn, both of which I never get typically. Also, my 9 month old son has a lot of eczema all of a sudden. We are all on probiotics and my 9 month old mostly just has breastmilk, fruits, vegetables and bone broth.

I was thinking maybe his eczema and my symptoms are related since he is breastfeeding and maybe my body is experiencing some sort of die-off. It is freezing cold here in the Northeast and the air is dry, but it seems like too much eczema too quickly to be all weather related. I’m stumped as to what it is.

Last question. This is probably not what you want to talk about right now on your diet, so just disregard this message if you are starving and can’t handle a response. : ) Your pre-GAPS diet sounded a lot like how I cook. I do my best to make home-cooked meals and snacks with real ingredients, but also live a real life with 3 small kids and no extra time. I would really like to start replacing some of the bread we buy at the store with homemade sourdough bread. When you did eat grains did you make your own bread? Most of the sourdough recipes I read either seem unrealistic for me at this stage of my life, or require kitchen tools that I can’t afford to buy right now. Any thoughts?

Sending prayers to your family as you continue on your GAPS journey!