I cut dairy out of my diet after Abram was born because it seemed to impact his reflux (which has cleared up now) and tummy. But also because it is hard to digest and was causing me problems as well. I would like to try adding it back into my diet now. It is GAPS-legal…depending on the form. And the GAPS book outlines how to gradually introduce dairy…starting with the easiest forms to digest. And it gives advice about which forms are best for those that deal with diarrhea and those that deal with constipation. Since I’d like to start introducing dairy I thought it would be helpful to myself to write down how to go about doing it. Here is the suggested order of introducing dairy products.

1. Ghee
2. Butter
3. Homemade Sour Cream (made with yogurt culture), Homemade Yogurt
4. Homemade Sour Cream (made with kefir culture), Homemade Kefir
5. Cheese (only certain hard varieties. no soft cheeses except for the ones you make from straining homemade yogurt and kefir)
6. Store bought plain yogurt and sour cream
7. Milk (only raw milk…and only tolerated by some people after being on GAPS for quite a while…some people have to just stick to fermented dairy products for life)

This is strictly a dairy introduction method…it’s not exactly the same as the order if you are going through GAPS starting with intro. On intro some people can have whey, yogurt, kefir and sour cream from day 1. This tends to work well for those prone to diarrhea (high protein dairy). For those prone to constipation it is best to hold off on dairy right at the beginning. And then start with high fat dairy (like sour cream, ghee and butter). Ghee is added in stage 2 of intro. Then butter. But whey, yogurt, sour cream and kefir are all options already in stage 1 if you’re doing intro. The method I’m mentioning is for those introducing dairy while on full GAPS. I’m kind of doing a combo. I’m partially doing intro. But I think I’m going to follow the dairy introduction guide instead of the GAPS intro guide.

Why start now? I have been holding off since we currently don’t have access to raw milk. But we are hopefully starting our cow share next week. Once that happens I will be able to make good quality, raw dairy products…that are safe for me! And I think it will be very beneficial for Abram as well. Sometimes I wonder if I’m missing some things in my diet by not eating any dairy. And considering how much he eats and how thin I’ve gotten already it can’t hurt to have some extra fat, vitamins, minerals and calcium in my diet 😛

So I think this is my plan. I have started using ghee this week. After doing that for a bit I’ll try butter. Next will be homemade sour cream. Those three are high fat dairy products that I will hopefully tolerate well. Then I will move on to homemade yogurt. Since I am prone to constipation this will be the real test. Hopefully it will go well. Of course yogurt, kefir and cheese are my favorite dairy products…the ones I tolerate the least 😛  Hopefully following this introduction I will be able to enjoy them again at some point. If yogurt goes well then I’ll move on to kefir and cheese. And hopefully someday be able to drink plain raw milk. I sure miss that! I want to mention that when introducing dairy you should start very small. Like a few teaspoons at a time to see if you react to it.

I’m very excited to try making butter, sour cream and yogurt soon since I’ve never done that before. And very excited to have Rebecca back on raw milk and milk products. Plus it will be saving us money to not have to buy so many dairy products. For now I’m just happy to at least have ghee to spread on things 🙂  After being dairy free for a while even that is a huge treat. It was great on my nut butter bread yesterday and added a real richness to my soup. I’m hoping to try making sour cream ice cream in the near future too when I can have sour cream. I got a great recipe from a fellow GAPS blogger that I’m anxious to try. So happy to have dairy again. I hope Abram and I both handle it well.