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@oskarsmommy: Hi, I'll try to keep this short but there is really so much to say. So what brought us to GAPS- sensory seeking behavior, eye contact issues and lots of food allergies. The premise of GAPS is that these behaviors are brought on by toxicity in the gut. Because the gut is leaky, toxins, and food particles get into the blood stream and eventually to the brain. This is why a lot of GAPS people present with picky eating, various abdominal symptoms in addition to whatever we think of as the "main issue". Because we all have different exposure to toxins in our environment and different levels of "leakiness" in the gut, GAPS ends up encompassing a huge range of mental and physical issues. The doctor that came up with the protocol originally did it to heal her son of autism.
If you are considering following the program, I consider the book a must read. She really goes in depth into how it works.

So then the GAPS diet is actually much more than just a diet. It is a program that on the one hand has you detox the toxins in your environment, and most importantly has you heal your gut and repopulate it with beneficial bacteria so that you will not react to every exposure because your body will be able to deal with it. The main components are eating a lot of meat stock which has gut healing properties, while eating a diet that is easy to digest, and avoiding those things that are harder for our bodies to digest because those feed the pathogenic bacteria which we are trying to root out. So very roughly- you can eat meat, fish, vegetables, fruit, with emphasis on high quality fats. You are avoiding- anything artificial/processed, most starches, grains and legumes (with a couple exceptions). Dairy is split- fermented is fine, fresh is avoided. The other thing you want to have a lot of is fermented foods, to populate your gut with probiotics.

So our experience- when I read all that it involved I was really overwhelmed but also I knew instinctually that this was what I had been looking for. (I could not accept that my kid would have to live with multiple food allergies for the rest of his life and was worried about how behaviors would develop as he got older). I took about two months to slowly learn to make the main components of the diet, while we ate the things that were off-plan that we still had. Then I dove in to the diet. (In retrospect I should have taken more time to get comfortable with everything).
With my 4 year old, we did the Intro diet for a month (this is the more strict version when you are going through stages but provides much quicker healing). The rest of the family ate Full GAPS, which is much more sustainable long term. After a month I was super burned out from all the cooking (that's why I suggest taking longer to prepare and stock up food in the freezer). So then we switched to Full for everyone. We were on a great trajectory for another 4 or 5 months, then started to get a little more lax when LO started in a new school. Thankfully I could send his lunch so that was good, but we definitely couldn't keep up with all the stock/broth and that definitely slowed us down in terms of healing.
What I can say is that we completely healed the eye contact issues and the vast majority of behavioral concerns. We also healed quite a few food allergies. We still have a couple that are not 100% but reactions are much, much less. We were pretty good following Full GAPS for most of the past two years (with some "cheats" on vacation/holidays), and this past summer started adding in occasional non-GAPS foods most of which have been fine.
What more can I add- I will say, that when I personally follow GAPS I have zero anxiety. The more closely you follow the protocol in the book the quicker you will see healing. But also, it's a marathon not a sprint. I have seen with my own eyes that it works, and I sincerely hope that more parents find out about it so they can heal their children.
Hope that helps and happy to answer any more questions!