For a wet nurse or milk donor who follows GAPS, the usual nursing diet is Full GAPS. It includes nourishing meals with meat stock, animal foods and fats, fermented foods, and other Full GAPS foods she tolerates.[1][6] A separate FAQ gives more specific food adjustments for a pregnant or nursing mother who is reacting to foods. Those adjustments are not a blanket restriction for every donor.[2]
This article stays with food. The complete wet-nursing and donor-milk guide explains why GAPS prefers human donor milk, while the donor-vetting guide covers the health questions and the network guide covers availability and backup planning.
Full GAPS Is the Nursing Route
In the official Baby FAQ, Campbell-McBride says the Introduction Diet can initiate die-off and detox in a nursing mother and put toxins into her milk. She also says Intro can change the milk’s nutritional composition. For a woman nursing a newborn, the FAQ directs her to Full GAPS instead.[1]
That does not remove the healing foods associated with Intro. The same answer includes stock, soups, and stews inside the Full GAPS route. It also gives a later, limited opening for Intro: once a well baby is eating solids and breast milk is used only for topping up, the mother may begin Intro.[1]
A separate breastfeeding FAQ answers a mother whose 22-month-old still has food allergies or sensitivities after four months on GAPS. Campbell-McBride recommends Stage 2 to Stage 3 Intro for that mother, alongside the New Baby Diet or Intro for the child, while milk gradually becomes supplementary. This is advice for that child’s ongoing food reactions and the mother’s gut healing, not an age-only rule for nursing donors.[2]
Meat Stock, Soups, and Stews Every Day
The breastfeeding FAQ begins its practical food list with homemade soups and stews made from meat stock every day.[2] You can build a meal around it. A pot of stock can become soup at lunch, a stew at dinner, or a warm drink beside a meal.[5]
The older FAQ answer names both meat stock and bone broth, but the 2020 book makes a newer distinction. Campbell-McBride says the GAPS Nutritional Protocol focuses on meat stock and does not recommend bone broth for at least one year, and for some people for several years. Meat stock is made from raw meaty joints, bones, skin, fat, cartilage, and other soft tissues and cooked for a few hours. Use meat stock for this meal plan.[5]
Build the Rest of the Plate
Build meals around tolerated Full GAPS foods. The expanded “New Baby” chapter emphasizes generous animal fats, fermented foods, and protein from meat, fish, and liver.[6] The breastfeeding FAQ adds practical adjustments when a mother reacts to foods, including cooking vegetables well when raw fiber is difficult.[2]
That distinction leaves room for a varied Full GAPS plate. A nursing woman who tolerates raw vegetables does not have to remove them simply because another mother needs cooked vegetables. Use the reaction-specific advice where it actually fits.[2][6]
| Food Group | How the GAPS Nursing Guidance Uses It | Practical Place in the Day |
|---|---|---|
| Meat stock | Daily in homemade soups and stews.[2] | Soup at lunch, stew at dinner, or a warm cup with a meal |
| Animal fats | Used generously.[2] | Fat from the stock, butter or ghee, meat fat, egg yolks, and tolerated dairy fat |
| Animal foods | Meat, eggs, organ meats, fish, and high-fat dairy form the concentrated-food emphasis.[2] | Build complete meals around foods the donor already tolerates |
| Vegetables | Cook well and serve in soup or stew when raw fiber is difficult.[2] | Add directly to the daily stock-based meal |
| Fresh juice | Start with a small amount and increase gradually.[3] | Use as the raw-produce route when whole raw plant foods are not sitting well |
What to Do When Full GAPS Foods Cause Reactions
The breastfeeding FAQ does not tell a nursing mother to push through every Full GAPS food. It says to avoid a food when she reacts badly to it. It also recommends limiting raw plant fiber, cooking vegetables well, and using fresh juice to receive the benefits of raw fruit and vegetables without the same amount of fiber.[2]
The older FAQ suggests soaking nuts in salty water and using them in baking, but the 2020 book gives fuller preparation instructions and calls for fermenting nut flours. Follow the complete preparation for the particular nut and recipe; an overnight salt-water soak alone is not the book’s fermented-flour method.[2][5] When dairy is tolerated, the FAQ names butter, ghee, sour cream, and natural creamy cheese.[2]
This creates a useful donor conversation. Ask which foods she already eats comfortably, which foods she avoids because she reacts to them, whether dairy is part of her diet, and how often stock-based meals realistically happen in her week. The goal is an honest picture of what she eats, not a perfect menu performed for one meeting.
Fresh Juice During Nursing
The official breastfeeding FAQ answers yes to juicing during pregnancy and nursing. It says to begin with a small amount each day and increase gradually to avoid reactions. It also gives a GAPS milkshake variation: fruit-and-vegetable juice whisked with one to two raw eggs and a generous spoonful of homemade sour cream.[3]
That milkshake is an option, not the only way to drink juice. The useful distinction is that the nursing guidance gives fresh juice a place alongside protein and fat, while the amount still begins small and moves gradually.[3]
Processed Foods and the Vitamin A Example
In the Vitamins FAQ, Campbell-McBride tells a breastfeeding mother to avoid processed foods and says Full GAPS is best through the breastfeeding period. The question concerns a baby with elevated blood vitamin A. The answer distinguishes synthetic vitamin A used to fortify processed food from natural vitamin A in foods such as liver.[4]
In that specific answer, Campbell-McBride discusses functional deficiency, testing the mother, changing her diet, and donor milk in severe cases. She also explicitly allows reducing or temporarily stopping liver if the vitamin A result is a concern.[4] A raised result needs interpretation for that mother and baby; this example is not a reason for every donor to remove liver or to dismiss a baby’s blood-test result.
A Simple Full GAPS Day for a Nursing Donor
A simple day can stay ordinary. Breakfast might be eggs cooked in ghee with leftover well-cooked vegetables. Lunch can be a meat-stock soup with chicken, vegetables, and the fat from the stock. Dinner can be fish or meat with cooked vegetables and a tolerated fermented food. Fresh juice can be included, beginning with the small amount the source names and increasing gradually.[2][3][6]
That is a meal-building example, not a fixed menu. A donor who does not tolerate eggs, dairy, nuts, or a particular vegetable can build the same Full GAPS pattern from foods she does tolerate. The source itself tells the nursing mother to remove foods that cause her reactions.[2]
What This Looked Like in Our Family
I have nursed for almost six years straight, and most of the time I ate whatever I made for the family. After our fifth baby, I tried Intro while nursing. It was too restrictive for postpartum and breastfeeding, so I moved to Full GAPS.[7]
In our kitchen, that meant a pot of meat stock in the morning, chicken in stock with cilantro and lemon when I was exhausted, and weekly batches of yogurt, kefir, ghee, and sour cream. We hid organ meats in ground-beef meals because none of us liked eating them plainly. Preparing food the whole family could eat helped me feed myself while nursing.[7]
Read my nursing-on-GAPS family story for the full chronology, including the sixth pregnancy and the wider Full GAPS and Weston A. Price-style postpartum food that followed.[7]
Build a Nursing Menu That Fits Real Life
Nursing Mama on Full GAPS is coming to the WFLI shop. It will help you turn the nursing-food framework into complete meals, a manageable cooking routine, and a plan the rest of the household can eat too.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a Wet Nurse Have to Follow GAPS?
The current wet-nursing chapter asks for a healthy woman whose own baby is healthy and thriving. It does not say every donor must already follow GAPS. This food guide explains the GAPS nursing framework when the donor is following it.[5]
Should a Nursing Donor Start Intro?
Not as the newborn-nursing starting route. The Baby FAQ uses Full GAPS while nursing and gives a later exception once the baby is eating solids and milk is only a top-up. A separate FAQ recommends Stage 2 to Stage 3 for the mother of a 22-month-old with continuing food allergies or sensitivities, while the child’s diet and the mother’s gut healing are addressed and milk gradually becomes supplementary.[1][2]
What If the Donor Does Not Tolerate Dairy or Nuts?
The breastfeeding FAQ says to avoid foods that cause her reactions. It does not require dairy or nuts when they are not tolerated. It gives meat, fish, eggs, organ meats, animal fats, well-cooked vegetables, and other tolerated foods as parts of the wider nursing pattern.[2]
Does GAPS Use Bone Broth for This Plan?
The older FAQ names it, but the newer 2020 book says the GAPS Nutritional Protocol focuses on fresh meat stock and does not recommend bone broth for at least one year, and for some people for several years. Follow the newer distinction.[5]
References
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. GAPS Frequently Asked Questions, “Baby,” question 2.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. GAPS Frequently Asked Questions, “Breastfeeding,” questions 1 and 3.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. GAPS Frequently Asked Questions, “Breastfeeding,” question 2.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. GAPS Frequently Asked Questions, “Vitamins,” question 3.
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “What We Shall Eat and Why, With Some Recipes,” meat-stock and bone-broth distinction, nut flour and nut-preparation instructions, and A-Z, “Wet Nursing.”
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Psychology Syndrome, expanded second German edition (2015), “New Baby,” nursing nutrition passage. English descriptions here are translations of the German text.
- Garnica, Ebonie. Nursing on GAPS: Almost Six Years of Our Family’s Experience.
Leave a comment