What’s not to love about a bountiful spring harvest of chard? Especially when it’s locally grown just outside of town by Tecolote Farms. I truly cannot wait to get my CSA this week and remake this Asian inspired recipe that you will certainly want to try yourself. This time around I am going to take it to another level by adding sautéed shiitake mushrooms that cook up in a flash and can be added as a topping. Don’t miss my comments in parenthesis for items I have changed for an end result that meets all dietary challenges.

Flavor Bomb Greens and Noodles

Ingredients
Brown rice noodles- approximately 125g for four servings (I also like Buckwheat noodles but Cauliflower Rice would be a perfect grain free option)
A few large handfuls mixed greens (I used 2 bunches of Swiss chard but you can certainly add kale, spinach, etc.)

Dressing
2 Tbsp. tamari
2 Tbsp. cold-pressed sesame oil (or olive)
2 tsp. raw honey (or maple syrup)
2 tsp. brown rice vinegar
Zest and juice of 1 lime
1 clove garlic, minced (or Tecolote green garlic, chopped whole)
1 Tbsp. fresh ginger root, minced
2 spring onions, sliced
½ red chili, minced

Toppings
¼ cup mixed black and white sesame seeds
¼ cup unsweetened desiccated coconut
¼ cup cashews
½ cup cilantro, chopped
½ cup mint, chopped

Full Instructions Here

Chard Wraps

Late last summer I got hooked on chard wraps and, because I believed them to be the best lunch hack ever, I wrote this blog post boosting my find. With chard in great supply right now and spring temperatures rising you may want to enjoy this raw lunch treat now. The best thing about Chard Wraps is that there absolutely is no end to the possible filling combinations. Here’s a taco version from the kitchn that is sure to be everyone’s next favorite.

Don’t miss out on these fabulous tastes of spring, sign up now for one of the few remaining seasonal CSA with Tecolote Farms.  It’s an unbelievably short season here in Texas so take advantage of these delightful veggies now before it is too late!

Green Garlic

Radishes

Leeks

Baby Lettuce

We just finished a fantastic series featuring new mom Jane Catherine Sherman and how her baby daughter motivated her to shift what she feeds the whole family. Learning that dairy products were the cause of little Savanna’s croup inspired Jane Catherine to research the benefits of a plant based diet and what it would take to embrace a new way of eating and living as a family. She and her husband Jason agreed that what wasn’t good for their daughter probably wasn’t good for them and began making changes just weeks ago.

In my practice I have clients who are brand new to the idea of plant based eating taking baby steps forward and families who have now embraced the changes for years. They all have inspiring stories to tell! Over the course of the next month I will highlight some of their experiences as I break down plant based eating one meal at a time.

• Part II: We will take a look at the all fruit breakfast, why it is important, and how to make it happen.
• Part III: We break down plant based lunch options, whether you are packing for a child or yourself or eating at home.
• Part IV: Is all about the evening meal, starting with a raw veggie salad and ending with a plate that is 80% plant based.
• Part V: Will contain a list of staples every plant based kitchen needs on hand and tips to keep you going.

You will also want to keep your eye on Lauren’s Kitchen during this month as I plan to feature some favorite plant based recipes from these clients.

While you are waiting for next week’s installment here are a few supporting articles to get you thinking and possibly even taking action.

Want to learn a bit more about the plant based eating movement? A great documentary to start with is Forks over Knives.

Need some concrete reasons outside of your own motivation to join the plant based movement? Here are 10 from ultra-marathoner Rich Roll & Here are 7 from U.S. News & World Reports Health.

Finally, what motivates individuals to change is a fascinating study and one that psychotherapists have studied for years and the tech companies of today cash in on. If you are interested in a good book on the subject you may like to read “Change for Good”.

In the mean time, consider this as you restock your fridge and pantry…

“If it came from a plant eat it. If it was made from a plant don’t.”

~Michael Pollan

Tender baby lettuce is just the best and in the Austin growing season they make a short and sweet appearance. Don’t miss out on this taste of spring by visiting Tecolote Farms at the SFC Downtown Market or reserving your CSA now. Deliveries for CSA’s are now underway so this may be your final chance to sign up!

What kind of recipes does one need for using baby lettuce? In my humble opinion all these perfect bites really need is a dash of plant based dressing. And (because I don’t think we can ever have enough tasty dressing recipes up our sleeve) here are two of my favorites to add to your collection.

Dijon Almond Butter Dressing

Ingredients

1/4 cup unsweetened almond butter (I buy fresh ground from Wheatsville or Whole Foods)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 small shallot, very finely minced (about 1 tablespoon)
1 tablespoon whole grain Dijon mustard (Annie’s organic)
1/3 cup fresh orange juice (1 orange)
1 teaspoon orange zest
3 teaspoons honey (or maple syrup)
1/4 teaspoon teaspoon sea salt
Freshly ground pepper

Full Instructions Here

Lemon Chia Dressing

Ingredients

Zest and juice from 1 lemon
2 teaspoons of chia seeds
1 cup of filtered water
½ cup of raw cashews
1 garlic clove, peeled and smashed
¼ teaspoon of oregano
½ teaspoon of kosher salt
2 tablespoons of fresh dill, minced
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Full Instructions Here

I have so enjoyed this past month of posts by Jane Catherine Sherman. I hope many of you have gained from her real life experiences as a new mom, struggling with food choices and discerning the right path for her growing family. Last week we learned that croup can often be aggravated by sensitivities to dairy products and that healing symptoms can be as easy as eliminating those products from the diet. Unfortunately these early signs are often overlooked by new and even experienced parents who seldom make the association between what goes in and the symptoms the body produces. This happens to be a favorite topic of mine (just in case you haven’t heard). I love nothing more to see these issues handled early in life before the body learns compensations and work-arounds so it can keep going. Here’s a classic post I have written and recently revised that sums up what parents should be on the lookout for and why.

Enjoy!
– Lauren

***

Feeding Baby Part 4: Feeding the Whole Family

As my husband so bluntly put it, if our daughter can’t eat it, then we all won’t eat it. It’s not fair for us to all eat separate things. I’m paraphrasing a bit, but this sentiment started a whole new trend in our family.

(Savannah age 1)

As we watched our daughter struggle with her diet, we saw how certain foods can really wreak havoc on your body and even how some good foods just may not sit well. So, for the last few months, I’ve delved into the proverbial research rabbit hole to learn as much as I could about diet and what to feed our family. I was learning what to put in my daughter’s body, but what I didn’t expect was that it would cause me to want to change my diet and that of my husband.

Working with Lauren over the years has taught me to rethink what I put in my body but, truth be told, I was never able to completely give up the dairy and the meat.  These were integral parts of my diet, and who doesn’t love a good hamburger or a nice blue cheese. But, I came across the movie “Forks Over Knives,” and everything finally clicked in my brain. I began to think, if we could do this at least 85%- 90% of the time, then we would definitely be improving our health drastically. As with any life change, it doesn’t matter how much you read or hear about something, you have to be ready to change in order to be successful. And, our daughter had taught us that we were both now ready.

Although we have been progressively eating better as a family, this was a big step. You don’t realize how much meat and dairy you eat until you try to eliminate it from your diet. But, here we were, adopting a plant-based diet.

Within the first week, we immediately saw improvement in our health. I didn’t wake up with that bloated feeling in the morning, and my husband and I both starting having less headaches. Our clothes were looser because we weren’t carrying around that extra water weight, and our sleep was improving. Seeing those immediate effects encouraged us to stick with this new diet.

We’ve just started down this road, and it takes time to change years of eating habits. But, in the meantime, we’ve found some great recipes that don’t make us miss meat or dairy.

Middle-Eastern Spiced Squash + Bean Stew (Courtesy of Sprouted Kitchen)

This recipe lends itself to lots of adaptations depending on your mood. You can use an almond milk or coconut milk yogurt for garnish as well.

YotamOttolenghi’s Tamara’s Ratatouille

YotamOttolenghi’s “Plenty” cookbook has some great recipes that can be adapted to various diets. This is one of our favorites, and it’s a great way to get our daughter to eat vegetables.

***

I commend Jane Catherine and her husband for not only their awareness of their daughter’s needs but also for seeing the benefits in making dietary changes themselves. As she said, knowing something intellectually and taking steps toward change are two different things. Sometimes what we need is a catalyst. For Jane Catherine and Jason it was the symptoms expressed by their sweet daughter. Unfortunately for some it takes a more serious diagnosis before real lasting changes take hold. Trust me early symptoms like sinus congestion or croup are much easier to heal than chronic conditions that having taken root in the body.

A big thank you to Jane Catherine for her amazing 4 weeks of blog posts. No doubt we will hear from her in the future. And, because what we eat should always be our first medicine, I will continue more on the benefits of going plant based next month.

Gemmotherapy for Everyone:
Building Immunity In Babies & Young Children 

This book is full of easy to use Gemmotherapy protocols for everything from colic and sinus congestion to skin conditions and ear infections. An indispensable guide for anyone caring for young ones.

Buy the Book

Farm fresh leeks are an icon of spring and if you are here in Austin, you will find leeks aplenty at Tecolote Farms. Subscriptions are still open to this season’s CSA or you can select your own at the Saturday SFC’s Downtown Farmer’s Market. Leeks are a favorite at the Hubele home,  probably because they are plentiful in the region of Germany where my husband was raised. I use them in most of my soups, lentils, curries, and stir-fry. Here are two standout recipes to try for yourself that allow the sweet flavor of leeks to shine through.

Simple soups can make dinner prep a breeze and this Vegan/Whole 30 approved recipe is sure to be a crowd pleaser. Double the recipe as you will definitely want leftovers. For the finicky child you can even produce a smooth texture with a few spins of an immersion blender.

Broccoli, Potato, Leek Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp coconut oil
3 large leeks, white and light green parts only
1 quart chicken or vegetable broth (or 1 quart water and vegetable bouillon cubes)
1 pound baby potatoes
1 bay leaf
1 pound frozen broccoli florets, defrosted and thoroughly drained (or steamed fresh broccoli)
2-3 cloves garlic, minced
Recommended seasonings: salt, black pepper, smoked paprika
Splash of apple cider vinegar, optional

Full Instructions Here

Here is a veggie side that is as beautiful to behold as it is to eat. With just a few tweaks, this classic recipe can be made vegan and not a bit of flavor is lost.

Leeks with Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette

Ingredients

3 leeks
1 tablespoon olive oil ( or coconut oil)
1 tablespoon unsalted butter ( or Earth Balance Coconut Spread)
1/2 cup chicken stock [or vegetable stock or vegetable bouillon ]
1/2 cup water
1-1/2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf Italian parsley
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Full Instructions Here

Over the past weeks I have had the pleasure of co-authoring with longtime client Jane Catherine Sherman. Jane Catherine, like all new moms, discovered there were some surprises in store for her and her husband as they integrated a new family member into their two career household. The challenges they faced involved food and how to integrate the sometimes conflicting messages heard from their pediatrician, family members, and their homeopath while responding to the responses from their sweet daughter.

In the first installment of this series Jane Catherine shares their experience with formula and the surprising solution they discovered. In today’s article she shares what happens when they are advised by their pediatrician, like all parents of one year olds, to begin the standard issue  whole milk. Having reactions to formula was one thing but all toddlers need whole milk, right?

Enjoy!
– Lauren

***

Feeding Baby Part 3: The Great Milk Debate

We were not a dairy free household, so when my pediatrician told me to start my daughter on whole milk I didn’t think twice about it. Yes, she did have issues with formula but my husband and I were fine with milk so it seemed like a natural choice. Besides, whole milk is meant to be the perfect food especially for picky toddlers – full of protein, calcium, vitamin D and vitamin B-12.

The first few weeks all went well, but then we started to notice a definite change in her digestion – more gas, bellyaches and painful constipation. We immediately started the Fig and Walnut Gemmotherapy protocol just as we had done when she was on formula. Unfortunately, this time it wasn’t enough. Her digestive system was already so inflamed that her symptoms kept getting worse. The constant runny nose started next followed by congestion and cough. We started a different Gemmotherapy protocol to combat the “cold” symptoms, which helped her heal each time she got sick. But, what we didn’t realize was that it was the dairy in her diet that caused these symptoms.

The final straw for me came was when she was diagnosed with croup and had a choking cough so terrible it would bring any mom to tears. Until that point, it had not even occurred to us that it could all be from the whole milk we had added to her diet. We just thought that these were normal toddler sicknesses and growing pains. However, by this time we had progressed from adding only whole milk to include yogurt and cheese also in her diet – all typical toddler staples.

We met with Lauren to discuss the croup diagnosis we had received. She made it clear that, from her perspective, the dairy in our daughter’s diet was the root cause of these problems and with the appropriate Gemmotherapy protocol and removal of dairy, she would be much better. We immediately replaced the whole milk with almond milk. This decision was definitely met by an onslaught of questions from our family. Where will she get her calcium? Where will she get the fat and vitamins? Whole milk is good for babies. There is no way that’s the cause. The same questions and concerns ran through my head, but I knew in my gut I was making the right decision.

Confirmation to me that we had made the right choice was the fact that almost overnight, my daughter’s symptoms improved. The rash on her face was the first to clear up followed by less gas and no constipation. The cough and congestion took a bit longer, but once it cleared up it hasn’t returned. We had spent a lot of time and energy with humidifiers, easy breathing rubs, eucalyptus oil, and sleeping upright in a chair, anything that would help her breathe and be comfortable. Now she’s been clear for over a month despite our crazy hot and cold weather.

To make sure she got all the same vitamins she would be getting from whole milk, we chose organic unsweetened almond milk fortified with calcium and vitamin D. I’ve seen some recipes for making your own fortified almond milk, which may be my next venture when I have more time. We also increased the amount of calcium enriched foods and fat in her diet including oranges, dried figs, almond butter, white beans and broccoli. This white bean hummus recipe is a fan favorite around our house. The white beans are easier than chickpeas to digest. I also substitute roasted garlic for fresh since fresh garlic can also upset some stomachs. It’s also great for “hiding” other healthy foods she may not want to eat that day.

***

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about feeding babies and toddlers and keeping them symptom free I’d love to hear from you. Guiding new moms and families is one of the favorite parts of my job. Are you new to the Gemmotherapy products mentioned in this series? If so here is an article to get you started.

Be sure to join us next week as we share the final installment of Jane Catherine’s story. You’ll appreciate hearing where all this has led them as a family.

Gemmotherapy for Everyone:
Building Immunity In Babies & Young Children

This book is full of easy to use Gemmotherapy protocols for everything from colic and sinus congestion to skin conditions and ear infections. An indispensable guide for anyone caring for young ones.

Buy the Book

Spring is here, well at least some days of the week, and so are gorgeous spring veggies. Throughout the month of March we pay homage to five super stars of spring that will be appearing in the first CSA deliveries from Tecolote Farms. Texas’s first and longest running CSA program! Don’t miss out on your share of these beauties by reserving your Tecoloate Farms CSA basket this week!

If this bundle of beauties doesn’t look like a spring harvest I don’t know what does! You no doubt have sliced your fair share into salads, but have you ever tried roasting them? Here’s a fabulous mix of Roasted Potatoes, Radishes and Fennel that can serve as the perfect center or side dish for your next Brunch or Luncheon.

Ingredients

1 pound fingerling or very small yellow potatoes (creamers work well)
Olive oil
Flaky salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound radishes, tops removed
1 fennel bulb without stalks, about 1 pound
1/4 cup unsalted butter (replace with Earth Balance Coconut Butter or Ghee)
1/2 lemon, juiced (about 1 1/2 tablespoons)
1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon maple syrup
Fresh mint leaves or dill fronds to garnish

Full Instructions Here

Prefer your radishes raw? How about this spin on a Raw Vegan Radish Salad that uses the tops as well.

Ingredients

3 large white radishes (all radishes work well)
2 cups radish tops (greens)
6 tablespoons cashews (soaking for 30 minutes)
2 tablespoons lemon juice (from 1/2 lemon)
2 teaspoons whole grain Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon maple syrup
1 dash salt and pepper

Full Instructions Here

As you have probably discovered on your own, radishes are best eaten shortly after picking but these tips here will help you extend their shelf life for up to a week.

Enjoy!

Last week I introduced you to Jane Catherine, a long time client and new mom who, when faced with some challenges in feeding her baby, was opened up to an entirely new perspective. Last week she shared the struggles that followed the sudden end to her breast milk supply. This week she will take you through her thought process regarding the introduction to solid foods.

Enjoy!
– Lauren

***

Starting Solid Foods – Why Rice Cereal Didn’t Make Sense

As someone who tries to eat a healthy balanced diet, I never understood how rice cereal made sense as the first food for my daughter. Why should my goal be to just fill her up as many people recommended? Is it only because she’ll sleep better? I understand the value of sleep, especially with a daughter who didn’t sleep through the night until 10 months, but I’m not going to feed her something just to make her feel full. Why would I not feed her fruits and vegetables that are nutrient dense and fill her up? I understand that rice cereal is supposedly “easy” on little ones’ digestive systems so the risk of gas or any other unfortunate mild side effect is low, but the same could be said for avocado or bananas or butternut squash. We opted to forgo the “filler” foods and instead chose to feed her avocado, bananas, butternut squash, pears, and other similar types of fruits and vegetables.

The battle to resist filler foods has only increased as she has gotten older. Everywhere you look there is a new “snack” for toddlers from Cheerios to puffs to cookies. But, I couldn’t shake the feeling that these are no different than adult snack foods – sweet, salty, addicting, and no nutritional benefit. Of course, she will eat them, that’s not a problem, which is more than I can say about her homemade dinners some days, but I’m not going to have chips and cookies every day, so why should my toddler? It has not been easy, and we’ve succumb to the snack foods every once in a while. But, for the most part, we try to make homemade meals and snacks or at least choose healthier options like squeezable apple sauce or frozen spinach nuggets. Below are some of our favorite recipes so far:

Sprouted Kitchen Muesli Bars (Courtesy of Sprouted Kitchen)

Full Ingredients & Instructions Here

This is a great option for breakfast, snack, or whenever my daughter just feels like being picky. I’m not a fan of brown rice syrup given the recent arsenic warnings, so I opt for Bee Free Honee or regular honey. For babies under one or those with a vegan diet, the Bee Free Honee is a nice option. There are also plenty of gluten free muesli alternatives should you prefer to keep them gluten-free

Overnight Oats

For some reason my daughter prefers these overnight oats to the traditional oatmeal I make on the stove top. I’m not complaining, though, because these are much easier. This is also a great vehicle for hiding healthy stuff like ground flaxseeds and chia seeds.

Ingredients & Instructions

1 banana, mashed very smooth
½ cup rolled oats (gluten-free if you prefer)
1 cup almond milk (I’ve also done ½ almond milk and ½ coconut milk, which tastes great, too.)
2 tablespoons ground flaxseed
1 tablespoon chia seed
1 tablespoon almond butter (optional)
Cinnamon and vanilla extract to taste

Put all the ingredients in a mason jar and mix well. Let sit overnight. Stir again and serve.

Red Lentil Soup

Lentils are amazing sources of nutrition for little ones, and the red ones are much easier to digest for their little bellies (i.e. less gas). Add carrots, sweet potatoes and red pepper, and you’ve got tons of vitamins in one little soup.

Ingredients & Instructions

1 large onion, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 cup red lentils, picked over and rinsed
3 1/2 cups reduced-sodium chicken broth
3 cups water
1 sweet potato, roasted and cubed
1 red pepper, chopped
2 carrots, chopped

Cook onion and garlic in oil and a pinch of salt until soft and translucent. Add carrot and red pepper and sauté for 5 minutes. Add lentils, broth, water, another pinch of salt and pinch of pepper and simmer, stirring occasionally, until lentils are very soft and falling apart. Once soft, add cubed roasted sweet potato. Serve.

***

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about feeding babies and toddlers and keeping them symptom free I’d love to hear from you. Guiding new moms and families is one of the favorite parts of my job. Are you new to the Gemmotherapy products mentioned in this series? If so here is an article to get your started. Looking forward to sharing more of Jane Catherine’s story with you next week when she takes on the great milk debate.

Gemmotherapy for Everyone:
Building Immunity In Babies & Young Children

This book is full of easy to use Gemmotherapy protocols for everything from colic and sinus congestion to skin conditions and ear infections. An indispensable guide for anyone caring for young ones.

Buy the Book

Spring is here and even better – So are spring veggies!

If you can’t grow them in your own garden, then there is no better way to enjoy them than through a local farm CSA. We are lucky enough to have several of those to choose from here in Austin. However, if you want to go with the oldest running CSA in Texas, then there is only one choice: Tecolote Farms, owned and managed by Katie and David Pitre.

Now is the time to sign up and reserve your spring CSA with Tecolote and subscriptions are limited so don’t miss out. Deliveries will begin in late March, weather dependent. Subscribing to a CSA not only supports and sustains our local farms but it also supports and sustains your commitment to a Plant Based Diet.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to the goodness of Tecolote veggies my very first year in Austin, at a time I was mourning the loss of the markets in Germany. That year a brave bunch of us from Travis Heights began a cooking group and prepared a week of gluten-free vegan meals for our four families one afternoon a week. The group survived an entire year with many stories to tell and while we chose not to continue, we have all remained loyal to Tecolote farms over the years.

In this first post of a new series that celebrates soon be harvested spring bounty at Tecolate I will feature one of the first spring veggies: green garlic. This is garlic in its immature, sweet, fragrant stage. No need to separate or peel as the entire bulb and stem can be chopped then sauteed or used raw.

Ready to have some fun in the kitchen adding in a little green garlic? Then test drive these plant based beauties!

Mini Potato Pancakes (Korean gamjajeon) with Green Garlic and Chives

Ingredients for 24 (2-inch) Pancakes

1 1/2 pounds potatoes
3 tablespoons chopped green garlic (white and light green parts only)
2 tablespoons chopped chives
1/2 teaspoon salt
Vegetable oil for frying
24 flat-leaf parsley leaves

Dipping sauce

3 tablespoons soy sauce (replace with gluten free tamari or coconut aminos)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 teaspoon sugar (I use honey, maple syrup, or coconut sugar)

Full Instructions Here

Baby Greens Salad with Green Garlic Dressing

Ingredients

1/4 cup amaranth grain (or other whole grain)
3/4 cups stock or water
1/2 pound asparagus, trimmed to bite-size (or green beans, sliced summer squash, etc.)
1 tablespoon nut oil (or olive oil)
Sea salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 cup currants
1/2 medium purple onion, finely chopped
Tender greens (lettuce, spinach, arugula, baby kale, chard, beet greens, etc.) to fill a medium-sized salad bowl
Handful sprouts
2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds
1/2 cup edible flower petals

For the dressing
1/3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 stalk green garlic
Pinch cayenne
1 finger-pinch sea salt

Full Instructions Here

May I introduce you to Jane Catherine Sherman, a long time client, who has spent the last year learning the ropes of being a new mom while juggling her role as wife and a full-time career. I have had the pleasure of working with this sweet family pre and post baby. I’ve watched these past months with both curiosity and great respect as several of their beliefs regarding the “right way” to care and feed baby have been challenged one by one and pushing them to open up to alternatives not so widely accepted.

As they have navigated these changes so beautifully as a family, I asked Jane Catherine if she would be willing to share their story. I believe it to be insightful and encouraging for expectant and new moms as well as grandparents.

Join us for the next four weeks as this new mother exposes some real life situations that can and did throw even the most well researched parents. Their story clearly depicts the importance of remaining open and not attaching to fixed ideas of the right way with our children. I believe their sweet daughter has only just begun to lead them down a path of shedding old concepts and opening to the new.

Enjoy!
– Lauren

***

Feeding Baby

To know me is to know I’m a planner, so, of course, I had everything planned out for how I would feed my daughter once she was born. It seemed simple. Breastfeed exclusively until she was six months old, then slowly start incorporating nutritious, whole foods into her diet. But alas, as with all things pregnancy and baby, nothing goes according to plan.

Fast forward ten months, I’ve just had my healthy, eight-pound baby who wants nothing more than to eat constantly, and after the first weeks I have nothing to give her. I’m bone dry with no milk in sight. If pregnancy taught me anything, it taught me that your body has a mind of its own, and there is no sense in forcing it. So, I turned to the next best thing – formula. Or, so I thought.

My husband and I spent days agonizing over what formula to get – soy, non-soy, organic, non-organic, sensitive stomach, etc. We even thought about ordering overseas for a goat’s milk based formula. In the end, we opted for an organic, cow’s milk based formula, which was the best fit for our budget and dietary practices. Unfortunately, this was not the best choice for our daughter’s digestive system.

She spent the next 6 to 8 months of her life constantly battling painful constipation and gas. We researched tons of at-home remedies and tried even more from warm baths, prune juice, pureed prunes, and finally suppositories. And forget about sleep. She would wake up multiple times throughout the night each time for two hours at least. I will always have a not-too-fond memory of my husband running to the nearest 24-hour drugstore at 2:00 a.m. in search of infant suppositories while I tried to comfort a crying baby who had been up all night miserable from constipation. We spent our days hoping for dirty diapers and more often than not they didn’t come regularly. According to our friends with kids, this was a normal part of baby growing pains. We were told babies could go a week without a bowel movement before we had to worry. Some even recommended adult medications like Miralax. None of this felt right in my gut. She was an otherwise healthy baby, so surely there was a more natural solution.

We reached out to the Homeopath that had supported me through my pregnancy and her suggestion was a Gemmotherapy protocol to support healthy elimination. Our first step was starting her on a small dose of Fig and Walnut extracts two times a day. We quickly saw improvement with more regular, non-painful bowel movements. But, even with the Gemmotherapy, her digestive system still needed more support to deal with the formula as she was often waking at night with discomfort. After another discussion with our Homeopath, we made the difficult decision to slowly start weaning our 6 month old off formula and replace it with an organic, no sugar added coconut water and a well balanced diet of plant based foods. She would still have some formula but in much smaller quantities until we could wean her off completely. To say we were nervous is an understatement. Everything we had been told and read said that formula was the gold standard for nutrition after breast milk. What if she doesn’t get enough vitamins? What if it stunts her development? What if she becomes a sickly baby? We had all the fears you would expect from parents deviating from the pediatrician recommended norm. But, we kept going back to the idea of how could something supposedly so good for her make her a miserable wreck?

We immediately saw positive changes in her digestive system. Within a day, she started to have regular daily bowel movements without any pain, and she started to sleep more soundly through the night. And, as every parent knows, a baby who gets good rest is a happy baby.

As new parents, we tend to hang on our pediatrician’s every word as if they have all the answers. But, sometimes we just have to go with what feels right in our gut. The combination of Gemmotherapy and coconut water worked better than we could have hoped, and our daughter continues to thrive and develop successfully without any of our fears coming true.

***

If you or someone you know is interested in learning more about feeding babies and toddlers and keeping them symptom free, I’d love to hear from you. Guiding new moms and families is one of the favorite parts of my job. Are you new to the Gemmotherapy products mentioned in this series? If so here is an article to get your started. I am looking forward to sharing more of Jane Catherine’s story with you next week when she makes some decisions regarding solid foods.

Gemmotherapy for Everyone:
Building Immunity In Babies & Young Children 

This book is full of easy to use Gemmotherapy protocols for everything from colic and sinus congestion to skin conditions and ear infections. An indispensable guide for anyone caring for young ones.

Buy the Book