Welcome to Our Nourishing Roots. My name is Kendahl, a stay-at-home mom of two boys living in the gorgeous Arizona desert with my husband. When my younger son was born with a cleft lip and palate, it became the tipping point for me to embrace a Nourishing Traditions diet shift. (buy Nourishing Traditions here)
Starting out by switching to local raw milk and pastured eggs, the shift rippled through to other nourishing practices such as soaking and sprouting grains and nuts, making homemade yogurt and water kefir, and committing to daily fermented cod liver oil and butter oil for optimum health. I felt my “mommy brain fog” lift, and I started to feel better.
Now I am on the GAPS diet as the rest of my family eats both GAPS foods and traditional Weston A. Price Foundation (WAPF) foods. (you can buy Gut and Psychology Syndrome (GAPS) here to find out more) We are all experiencing greater health and continued healing by honoring our bodies with truly healthy foods. I’m glad you are here to share in that with us.
Hi Kendahl, so glad you found Weston Price and Nourishing traditions. I have been using RAW Dairy products since 1985 I Love them Milk ,Cream ,Butter, eggs,Yogurt, fermented veggies, grass fed meats &poultry, Homemade Kombucha and so much more. Hope your son will thrive on the nutrient dense foods Good luck I saw you on my Facebook
Welcome! Glad to have you here
Adorable kids. I’ve been floating around on Real Food blogs for years now, don’t know how I missed yours!
Very nice blog, and sweet little boys!
Love it!
Meg Logan
Thanks! Part of not seeing me until recently is that I just launched. Happy to see you here
Hello Kendahl,
I have my son in my arm right now. He was born 2 months early with cleft lip and palate. He’s been home from a 1-month hospital stay for almost 2 weeks now and off a feeding tube for one week. It has been most stressful to say the least and there are many more doctor’s appointments to come, not to mention the surgeries. Perhaps this diet you embraced for similar reasons would help give me more stamina and provide my son with more of what he needs to develop well from this point on. There is no raw dairy available in Alberta except for cheese in select stores but there are other things I can try. Thank you for the hope when I need it; I’ll follow along.
Christina, I will support you as much as possible here. I have yet to write a post on my thoughts and feelings as I dealt with my son’s cleft, and how that translates into my food coices, but I would like to write one soon. I think you will definitely feel better as you make nutrient-dense food choices, especially when you are under the stress of a new baby, and a new baby with special needs. If you can get your hands on fermented cod liver oil, it’s a superfood that really helps me with brain fog and tiredness from stress.
When I started real food I only did three things: I found raw milk (and drank it every morning), I found local, pastured eggs (and ate them every morning!), and I bought fermented cod liver oil (which, you guessed it, I took every morning). So I pretty much focused on breakfast, and then let myself off the hook for the rest of the day. As that got to be a habit, I found that I wasn’t stressed if I added one more thing. And then one more. Always gradually.
So be kind to yourself, and move in the direction you think will benefit you the best. And go slow, step by step. It will all add up over time to a great change. And you can do it in a way that doesn’t add to your stress, but helps to relieve it. Another good starting point is to get your hands on Nourishing Traditions. I don’t know if you are able to pump breastmilk and give it to your baby, but if not, Nourishing Traditions has a recipe for infant formula that is leaps and bounds better than anything you can buy. The two recipes for infant formula are on page 602 and 603. I know that this will give your son needed nutrients and needed healthy fats if you are unable to give him breastmilk. There is always a way to get him healthy food!
If you are able to breastfeed, just remember that everything good you are doing will go to your baby and help him as well. So he will get your cod liver oil benefits, and your probiotic benefits, and so on.
And I want to acknowledge the steps you have already taken: you sound like a loving, caring mother who is willing to do the best thing possible for your son as he grows and devlops through some challenges. You reached out here, in spite of all the stress, to make active choices in what you can do for him. That is so wonderful, and I find it inspiring. Thank you for this
Please email me with any more questions you might have at kendahlATournourishingrootsDOTcom. Feel free to ask me specific questions about what worked, etc.
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Hi Kendahl,
You have such sweet looking boys. I’m so glad that you all are doing well. I love finding other blogs of people on the GAPS diet. It’s so encouraging!
It’s so true, and I am glad you found me. We’re feeling better and better all the time
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Yum. I am going to go bake the caramel bars right now! Happy Holidays!
Jane Casey
Awesome! They are SO good
I love your website! I am actually going to start the GAPS diet this week and I am thinking I will do your 30 day challenge. I am so glad I found your site! There are so many resources her on GAPS I did not know about. Thank you for putting all this together! Blessings to you and your family. Ester
Thanks Ester
Hello ! Where do you find raw milk, local pastured eggs and fermented cod oil in the Phoenix area ? Thank you !
Raw milk I get through a dairy out in Queen Creek. They are listed on the Arizona page of the realmilk.com location list that you can find at the link. You’ll need to call them to find out where you can buy milk.
As for cod liver oil, I order through my resource page and get the Green Pastures butter oil and cod liver oil blend (gel for my kids, capsules for me and my husband) from Radiant Life.
Local pastured eggs are trickier. For a while I was getting them at the Phoenix Public Market on Saturday mornings from Jimmie at Chile Acres (he’s the best!), and I’ve also found that the Mesa Farmer’s Market on Fridays has a few good vendors who have great eggs (look for the ones in the turquoise boxes). You can find lists of local farmer’s markets here.
Thank you !!!!!
Hi Kendahl,
Mommypotamus felt we may have some things in common and I’m so glad to be here.
We were never a processed food family, but neither traditional either. I too am a stay-at-home-mom (best job in the world:). My second child arrived 10 days late, is almost 7 months old and was born with a cleft lip and palate. I was shocked to say the least…..
During my second month of pregnancy my own aching teeth caused me to find WAP. I began FCLO and began small steps toward traditional eating. I completely understand breakfast being the “meal” of the day!
My little guy had a lip repair in Dec. and his palate repair is just a month away. It pains me that we don’t get those special nursing sessions that I had with my (now 2 1/2 year old) daughter, as he is unable to get complete suction.
He gets FCLO on his bottom each night, exclusive breast milk (via haberman bottle) up until 3 wks ago, when table foods were introduced. I don’t know what to do next regarding foods….. He has had chicken broth, soft boiled egg yolk with grated liver and grated meat in stew broth. I’m fearful to give him the wrong things too early and hinder his gut. As he has had two doses of antibiotics thus far:( Our first bottle of BabyBiotic is gone and I will be ordering more.
I am taking FCLO Blend and Skate. Wondering what amounts you recommend as I find different dosages from everywhere. I haven’t yet read Gut and Physiology but, know the GAPS diet would benefit. Should I start Biokult before the diet? It may be awhile before I start as pumping has my days filled up right now.
I’m drinking 1 qt of raw milk and 3ish eggs each day + 3ish yolks and kefir in smoothies. I eat liver once a wk and try for broth 4 times a wk. We eat wild fish 2 times a wk and grass fed red meats. I have soaked nuts and oatmeal thus far. Starting to feel in a rut, not knowing what to dig into next!
I apologize for this novel of a post! Thanks for listening:)
It’s so good to hear from you! I have yet to write a post all about how I came to real food via my son’s cleft, but that was definitely what happened!
I wouldn’t worry too much about dosage on the skate/cod liver oil or the butter oil. Offer a scoop and if your kids ask for more, then give it to them. My older son stopped wanting so much and lo and behold it showed up in a muscle test where his body said “just give me half of what I used to get!” So that’s my woo-woo way of saying “listen to your body, and it will fluctuate”.
If you want to do GAPS, then definitely read my GAPS preparation post and get a copy of the 30 Days on Intro Diet ebook. It’ll make life a lot easier! And if you don’t have any major GAPS issues, then you might not need to do GAPS for very long (and for some people, not at all). Regardless, jump into the next real food thing you think sounds like fun. For me right now, it’s catching a sourdough starter since my family is back to grains. It’s fun to think of all the fun things I can make from one!
As far as cleft issues go, I think you sound like a superwoman. Hang in there, get lots of rest and stress-relieving and food and fun! My little clefty is 3 now and I look back on his first year as the definition of “survival mode”, but I’m not sorry I did it. I just wish I had known a few more things about the benefits of sleeping, eating lots of food, and keeping stress low.
I’m so glad you’re here
Let me know if you have any more questions!
You are welcome to see pictures of my boy on facebook:) Yours are cute!!