My heart is heavy you guys.  Four times in a week I’ve heard from a mama who has a gagging child.

Children who gag when new foods are introduced are big huge red flags.  Is this happening in your house?  I hope you are paying attention.  I know.  You’d rather bury your head in the sand.  Hope the kid outgrows it.

Dear mama,

 

Don’t do that!

your kid’s health appreciates it!

 

jenna, aka food with kid appeal

 

but the pediatrician said when he’s hungry he’ll eat

I’m not saying that some children aren’t engaged in power struggles with their parents, but if your child consistently can’t tolerate more than a few foods, and further, upon introduction of new foods, all new foods, gags or vomits, your child is in serious distress.  It’s my opinion that’s it’s not just emotional distress.  It’s my opinion that your child has some major digestive distress that causes his appetite to be so low, that he never really feels like eating.

Can you imagine that mama?  Never feeling like eating?  Like every meal was when you were full of fever with the worst flu ever, or a terrible migraine, or right after your dog died.  You get the picture.  Humans occasionally suffer from appetite loss.  But when humans are in constant appetite loss, what drives them to eat?

The other possibility is that the digestive distress has actually caused physical damage to the parts of the body that are involved in chewing and swallowing.  If your child favors purees well into toddlerhood (or beyond) this is a good sign that the child has anatomy issues that need to be addressed.

if your pediatrician insists that it’s a “mother feeding” problem and not a “kid health” problem after months and months of no improvement it is time to find a second, third, fouth opinion.

Just give it a shot.  If you withhold food for a meal or two, when kiddo gags and doesn’t eat, and he’s STILL not motivated to eat, I wager you have more on your hands than a power struggle.

mama, you are NOT crazy

If you have been dealing with a gagging-at-meals child for months, or worse, years, and everyone tells you that it’s simple, just do this or do that, then you probably feel like the worst mother of the year.

Ok.  Just knock that off.

Dig deep.  Use your mama instincts.  They’re there. You are NOT the worst mother of the year.  There is an actual real problem going on with your child and you KNOW that’s the truth.  The problem is that you’ve never solved this problem before and neither has anyone you’ve counseled for solutions, like your pedi, or your mother, or your sister.

Those folks have had their fare share of dinner time shenanigans and they might have solutions to those problems, but your kiddo’s problem is DIFFERENT. So it requires a different solution.

I’m here to tell you that you’re a good mama.  You’re still heavy hearted about this issue of feeding your child. You know something is. Um.  Not.  Right.

You’re still looking for solutions even though every solution you’ve heard of so far, and implemented, isn’t working.  Deep breath mama!

so now what?

Well, here’s the hard part.  There aren’t that many health care practicioners who are aware of the link between digestive distress and extreme feeding issues.  Your challenge now is to either find a medical practicioner who can help you, or figure it out on your own by doing research.  There is plenty of literature on line to look at, so start googling. Once you have some clues (hint: search leaky gut, gut dsybiosis, gut permeability), see if you can find a practicioner who is familiar with the treatment of these issues.

how do I find a practicioner?

• Check in yahoo groups to see if your city has an “organic” or “raw milk” group.  people who are into either one of these things are more likely to use medical professionals who understand the link between nourishment and well being.
• Check to see if your city has a holistic mom’s group.  Network with other moms. These mamas are likely to have referrals for you.
• Visit the whole foods or local natural foods store in your area.  See if there are any referrals on the bulletin board or ask staff who they use.
• Visit a farmer’s market.  Ask the farmers who they recommend.

why can’t i just bury my head?

Because if your child doesn’t eat real nourishing food, his brain and body are starved.  Starved brains don’t learn to potential.  Starved bodies to perform to potential.  Starved organs decline in childhood.  These things shorten life, worse, create disease.  Ack!

you can do this, yes you can

Ok. So.  I agree. This is a hairy problem.  It sucks that it’s not easy to solve.  Don’t fret.  This is happening in kitchens all over the country.  That’s a bad thing, but it also means that you and your child are NOT alone.  There is not some freak of nature thing happening to your child.  There is a resolution.  I can’t tell you what, exactly the resolution is.  But i can tell you that if you just keep at it, you will arrive at your destination.

Which is a child.  That can eat food.  Without gagging.

Believe it mama.  It can happen.

Spill it

What’s your story?  Leave a comment telling us your sob or success story.  I’m here to learn!  See what others have had to say (scroll down to the comments section).

 

 

 

 

 

this is a response to several inquiries on Facebook regarding my method on getting kids to take Fermented Cod Liver Oil (FCLO).  inquiring minds want to know!  i appreciate you all waiting on my response for so long.  i promised I’d write this weeks ago. gasp!

17 months ago we departed on a journey to heal from asthma allergies and migraines.  one big part of our healing and our continued immune support is taking fermented cod liver oil daily. (where to buy fermented cod liver oil)

would you be surprised if i told you my family actually can’t tolerate the flavored FCLO options?  they make us gag!  we like the liquid straight up, no flavor enhancers, no horse pills!

so how did i get my 7 and 5 year old to take liquid FLCO? very carefully.

kidding.  well only partially kidding.  everything i do is pretty darn deliberate.

practice. and relevance.

should i repeat?

practice.  and relevance.

i know.  you’re scratching your head.  i’ll explain.

how do you practice taking fermented cod liver oil?

just like it sounds.  you do it.  every day.  like you practice homework.  or hitting a ball with a bat.  you just do it, like it or not, because it’s the right thing to do, because doing it makes you better.

only we tweaked as we went.  none of us like the after taste, the burning. we really hated the after burps.  which lasted HOURS.  gross.  so we started chasing.  first with water.  no bueno.  then with broth.  that’s good, and effective but i had one broth hater, so it was like trying to get a child wound up on cotton candy and dr. pepper to be quiet in church.  no dice.

but kraut juice, now that was a different story.  everyone was tolerating kraut juice (the brine from lacto-fermented sauerkraut and other fermented veggies) and it was flavorful, enough to hide the FCLO flavor so we started chasing with kraut juice.  bingo!  a winner.

that was then.  this is now.  i still chase with kraut juice.  the boys?  one takes it with no chaser!  right off the spoon. craziness i know.  the other chases with water.  more craziness.  i don’t complain.

they have the burn, the burps. not for me. nope. i prefer it in kraut juice. i shoot it in a glass. a tablespoon of kraut juice, a teaspoon or two of FCLO and down the hatch.  it’s all warm and tingly going down.  i kinda like this sensation first right after breakfast, right before we cycle to school. great way to wake up.

how do you make fermented cod liver oil relevant to a child?

a wee tiny secret for ya. humans are more likely to do things, to be compliant with things if they are relevant to them. how you make something relevant to someone depends on the human and what is valuable to them at the time.  because humans’ motivations change over time depending on circumstances.

for my children, at the time, what was important to them regarding food, was progressing through the stages of a pretty severe elimination diet.  they could not graduate to the next stage of the diet, which included more foods to eat, until they’d passed some milestones, mostly healing milestones on each level.  FCLO is very strong medicine, very healing especially when the gut is rid of difficult to digest foods and foods that feed pathogenic flora in the gut.

so for my kids taking their FCLO daily was one of the things they did to graduate to a more diverse diet.  and believe me.  we were all sick to death of fatty broth and soft cooked veggies and meat after about oh, say, one meal of that.  by week two and three we were very motivated to add other foods into our diet, like eggs and eventually raw veggies!

so they were diligent about taking fermented cod liver oil.

the magic healing power of fermented cod liver oil (FCLO)

now after seeing how powerful it is against virus, we’re all very compliant.  when you pair FCLO with fermented veggie juice, aka kraut brine, minerals and sleep and within 18-24 hours all but one virus we’ve had since starting GAPS has been kicked to the curb.  kids sleep all day, sleep all night, wake up fine.  it’s a true virus butt kicking potion.

so now FCLO is very relevant to us.  we increase doses when we feel run down, sneezy, like a head cold is coming on, or we’re about to travel and experience sleep deprivation and schedule disruption.  curious to try it?  has to be the fermented kind.  the power is in the bacteria people.

here’s where to buy fermented cod liver oil.

(full disclosure, if you buy from clicking the link off my resources page, i make a few pennies. costs you no more. just helps me keep writing content for ya!)

spill it!

what’s your secret ninja FCLO down the hatch trick?

this post is participating in fat tuesday, scratch cookin’ tuesday, monday mania, gluten free  real food wednesday,