I know you’re doing everything you can to nurture and soothe your fussy, upset baby.
It can be so confusing and overwhelming trying to figure out what’s agitating them when all you’re left with is a handful of clues, like crying, or spitting up, or yucky poops and rashes. And it can be so incredibly scary and upsetting to you when your baby just cries relentlessly and won’t settle, or is losing weight, no matter what you do.
Maybe you’re nursing or pumping and bottle feeding them around the clock to manage reflux, and they’re still spitting up, and you’re crying over all that spilled milk.
Maybe you’ve already cut 5, 10, 20 foods and haven’t seen your baby feel better and now there’s nothing safe left for you to eat and you’re hungry all the time.
Maybe your baby is having awful, stinky, mucousy gas and stools, red burning diaper rash, or is going multiple days or even weeks without a single poop.
Or maybe you or the pediatrician or lactation consultant are concerned about slowed growth or weight gain.
And despite all of the things you’ve already done, nothing is working to fix your baby.
You just feel deep down that something still isn’t right but aren’t sure what.
My Nurturing Tiny Tummies program at Food With Thought specializes in helping new moms figure out how to help their babies that are fussy, or have upset tummies, or are experiencing slowed growth. And nothing seems to be working. Because I’ve been there myself.
I had a really rough go with my newborn almost a decade ago. By about 3 months old, my son was projectile vomiting when exposed to corn through breastmilk. He was put on reflux medication (they didn’t work). He pooped every other day or 3 (“That’s normal!” said the pediatrician) and woke crying 4-8 times a night on a good night. I ultimately had to remove gluten, dairy, soy, corn, eggs, citrus and strawberries from my diet, as my son couldn’t tolerate these foods. I subsisted on vegetables, a few fruits, coconut, rice, poultry, soy-free chocolate, and little else for what seemed like an eternity.
Postpartum depression rolled into something much deeper. By one year, my son’s pooping and sleep still hadn’t improved and his growth rate had started to decrease, so the doctor advised me to bring most foods back into my diet as well as introduce them to him directly. At his 18 month checkup, we discovered that he had plummeted to around 2% on the growth curve. Gluten and eggs were found to be the culprits this time and removed again from both of our diets. The new diet helped a little, but not enough. I threw up her hands and enrolled in a nutrition program in order to help rebalance my son’s gut, resolve his food sensitivities, and support his sleep. Not only is he now around 50th percentile in height and weight and tolerating all foods except gluten (wheat allergy!), but my journey through gut healing helped so much that baby sister does not have any food allergies or restrictions, poops a few times a day, and is increasing in growth curves, not falling.
My story is not unique, though it certainly is what led me to this work. I see the same themes show up with so many of my client families with young babies, over and over and over again. Every week I work with moms just like myself, and babies just like my son. And just like yours. I am on a mission to help the struggling moms and babies to thrive. Because it matters to get your baby started off in life right.
How I’m Different
Many nutritionists, lactation consultants, and pediatricians will advise you to remove nearly everything from your diet for extended periods of time, or to even stop breastfeeding and switch to expensive hypoallergenic formula until your baby turns 1. We hear from so many moms that full elimination diets are nearly impossible to implement while still being able to have a life and find time for things other than cooking, but that they’re also scary because they cause nutrient deficiencies and can make them feel hungry constantly. And we hear complaints about the high cost of formula, the grief from stopping breastfeeding before their goals were met, and the fear that if the baby doesn’t tolerate any formula after drying up their own milk, there’s nothing left for the baby to eat.
Chances are, if you’ve read this far, these are your day to day concerns, too.
Many of our incoming clients have already seen multiple other providers about their concerns around their baby’s digestive issues and pooping, growth, and possible food allergies. They have already invested hundreds if not thousands of dollars, still don’t have the answers they deserve, and aren’t getting what they need for themselves and their babies to thrive.
I feel this is unacceptable.
There are answers for you out there. And this is exactly why my approach is different.
I don’t believe that you need to stop breastfeeding, or go on a total elimination diet and feel hungry all day long. I think these actions are extreme, and quite possibly are some of the worst things you can do, because not only do I find that some of our baby clients don’t actually have any food reactivity (instead it’s imbalanced gut bugs), but breastmilk and nutrients from a diverse diet and a happy mama also impact establishing and stabilizing a healthy gut, and is the foundation of good health throughout childhood and into adulthood.
I am thorough with my clients, finding details that other providers have missed. And, unlike most other providers, I work with both the breastfeeding mom and the baby, because I find that this is what gets the best results. I also look at the baby’s microbiome within a developmental context, which most other providers miss. Using symptom and historical health information, food logs, labs, and my own clinical knowledge, we investigate mom’s and baby’s health and identify the root causes and evolution of baby’s symptoms to help find the right combination of recommendations for moms and their babies to coach our clients back into balance. And all while continuing to breastfeed, if that’s the right choice for your family.
You’ve probably spent way more hours and way more resources than you’d probably like to admit in trying to figure out how to help your baby. We appreciate that you’ve already tried a lot of different things, and that you may just be waiting and hoping that what you’re already doing may eventually work. And maybe a few things have improved by this point!
But if you’ve read this far, likely there are still some underlying concerns that deeply worry you as a mom.
Chances are, you’re missing some detail. Perhaps it’s a nutrient insufficiency that you didn’t realize was at play, or that your baby’s issues aren’t coming from a food allergy or sensitivity, but instead from the unique combination of bacteria that live inside your baby’s gut. The internet can be very insistent that baby’s reacting to a food molecule in your milk. But what if the internet is wrong? What if the answer is in front of you but you don’t know how to uncover it or what to do about it?
I get how exhausting and busy the postpartum period can be. I’m a mom of a kid that had health issues, too! That’s why I’ve broken my program into 6 steps:
While this program requires active participation in and out of nutrition coaching sessions, I am fully present for your health journey, offering as much handholding and support as you need along the way so that you feel you are getting answers and making progress towards your and your baby’s health goals.
I also know how important it is to you to get your baby feeling better, and so I stay with you as long as you are needing us to do so.
As a result, many of my our clients graduate our programs eating many more foods and feeling calmer knowing that their babies are also happier and doing better.
Interested in learning more about how I can help you help your baby?
Apply now to meet with me and see if working with me is a good fit for your family.