Upcoming Talk: Solid Food Introduction
Start Your Baby on Healthy Whole Foods
In case you didn’t know, I work as a naturopathic family physician at Eastside Natural Medicine in Kirkland, Washington. I see people of all ages: adults, kids, & babies for all kinds of things. I see newborns, do well child checks, and offer vaccines to those families that choose to vaccinate.
I love the variety in the patients that I see. I love that I get to see newborns and adults.
I also feel lucky that I get to work alongside the other health practitioners at Eastside Natural Medicine. They’re so much in tune with themselves and present to the world around them, not to mention fun! I want to go to work just to hang out with them!
Anyways, now that I told you how much I love what I do and where I am doing it, I wanted to tell you that I’m doing a talk on solid food introduction for all the awesomely adorable babies in your lives.
Naturopathic doctors take a bit of a different approach when it comes to food introduction. We focus on introducing the least allergenic foods first, and slowly adding foods into your baby’s diet, in a way that helps parents identify food reactions from the get-go. I shared a little bit about my solid food intro approach in this post.
See, when adults come to see a naturopathic doctor for the first time, there is almost always some kind of food reaction causing inflammation & symptoms. Well, that inflammation could have been halted in infancy with parents who were aware of food reactions, what they look like, and how to test for them. I’m not insinuating it’s the parents’ fault for an adult’s chronic inflammatory health issues. But, as parents, you can do a LOT for your child’s lifelong health just by following a naturopathic food introduction protocol.
If you keep giving your baby a food that she’s reacting to, over and over, it will produce inflammation in her body. As the inflammation builds, symptoms appear. Those symptoms can later turn into eczema, chronic ear infections, asthma, belly pain, just to name a few. The sad part is that most parents aren’t aware of the idea that their baby could be reacting to a food they are giving them, and what those reactions look like. So they keep giving their kids the same foods, everyday, unaware that they’re actually causing harm.
The downside of the naturopathic methods for starting solid foods is that it takes time, patience, attention, and intention. The upside is that you get to know your baby’s food reactions and you get to know your baby’s body. This is information that will help you for many years to come.
Because everyone wants their kid to be eating collard greens with breakfast, lunch, and dinner, I will also be touching a little bit on raising an open minded eater. Open minded eating helps your child to eat a variety of foods, which is a big deal, because it helps him to also get a variety of nutrients.
The link to sign up and all the other info you need to come to this talk on March 2nd at 6pm is below. It does cost money ($15 a person or $25 a couple) and you need to register in advance if you want to come.
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