A New Mom’s Story Part III

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

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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.

milk

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.

baby

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.

hummus

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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.

Building Immunity in Babies and Young Children

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


A New Mom’s Story: Part II

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)

muesli

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

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

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.

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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.

Building Immunity in Babies and Young Children

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


A New Mom’s Story: Part I

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.

Baby

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.

Baby

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?

baby food

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.

Building Immunity in Babies and Young Children

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