Hey folks!
I’ve had a lot of questions about how we feed our girls, Zoe (Age 4 in May) and Sagan (age 2 in July) so I’ll take a crack at that finally. Just a few “rules of engagement” upfront:
1-I am not suggesting what we do is the “best” way to do things, it’s just what we do. I’ll provide some reasoning behind what we are up to, use that information to your best advantage, not as doctrine written in stone.
2-The kid topic seems…dodgy. Folks get really cranky about this stuff. I have suspicions why this is the case but I want this to be a practical piece on how we feed our kids, not a psychological treatise on bad internet behavior. Be nice. You may be wondering where my prickliness comes from on this, just check out some of the comments which popped up on posts related to type 1 diabetes…folks get really cranky and reactionary about the feeding and watering of kids.
Feeding the little ones starts not long after their arrival, so I think a little context there could be helpful: Nicki had pretty easy pregnancies with both girls (easy for me to say sitting on the sideline!) and reasonably uneventful deliveries. We had some problems with latching Zoe (long story) and Nicki ended up pumping for 9 months in that case. Sagan latched pretty easily and is coming up on 2 years of breastfeeding. All things considered we were lucky and the girls got off to a pretty damn idyllic start when you think about epigenetics, gut biome etc. Nicki ate well throughout both pregnancies. Not “perfect paleo” but quite well and tried to keep her glycemic load consistent and not too high. We opted for an A1C in lieu of a the OGTT (oral glucose tolerance test). I did a great podcast with Lily Nichols RD on this topic and I have written about this several times on the blog. We used a lot of the information from Chris Kresser’s “Healthy Baby Code” to do our best to shore up any possible nutritional deficiencies Nicki might have faced, I highly recommend this program.
Ok, what did/do the girls actually eat?
Both girls exclusively took breastmilk up to about 6-7 months of age and then we started rotating in the following:
Meats (including some liver, heart etc), bone broth, squash, sweet potatoes, fruit and soups. I make the bone broth weekly using a pressure cooker and we cook as much as possible with this. This process is dead simple: Add bones to the pressure cooker + a tablespoon or two of apple cider vinegar. Bring up to heat, let it cook for a few hours, turn it off and let it cool off, typically overnight. Store the broth in mason jars in the fridge! The girls will also drink this straight with just a pinch of added sea salt. If we are out of bone broth we do use this commercially available option from Thrive Market which is pretty damn good.
We cooked and blended most of the girls food initially, but both girls STRONGLY preferred…wait for it….pre-chewed food. I know, “dirty and unhygienic” right? I’ll be honest, it was a bit odd for me at first but they strongly preferred the pre-chewed food vs what came out of a blender. We rotated in things like liver and egg yolk pretty frequently as these tend to be both very nutrient dense, but can give some kids GI problems initially. Fortunately, we seemed to have no issues. I could make a pretty strong case for holding off on solid food longer than what we did as the GI lining of infants is not fully formed until around age two. Why might this be? Infants absorb large, intact proteins (antibodies/immunoglobulins) via the breast milk which are critical for the immune status of newborns. The realities of modern life being what they are however, we started introducing solid food a bit sooner than what MIGHT be biologically optimal. This is a key takeaway: You can be awash with information, but what can you reasonably pull off and not hang yourself from stress? For us, introducing some solid food meant a bit more freedom and it seemed like better sleep for all of us as the solid food seemed to “stick with” the girls quite well and helped them sleep through the night.
What about “non-paleo” foods?
We kept Zoe grain free until almost 2 years old at which time she’d get the occasional bit of white rice or corn tortillas if we made tacos. Zoe also started taking some goat milk around 12 months. Here is another takeaway: I actually DO try to get as much variety and latitude in the girls diets as possible, while weighing the immunogenic potential of the foods they eat. I’ve had the good fortune of interacting with thousands of people who went through this process before me and I noticed certain things that consistently caused problems. What’s the first food we are supposed to give our infants? Most people (our pediatrician included) tend to gravitate towards some kind of rice cereal. Even the orthodox medical types know that rice is much less immunogenic than say wheat. We tended to rotate through potatoes, yams, bananas, plantains and squash for carbs. And purple sweet potatoes. Our girls absolutely love those! I can make an easy argument that all of these foods are far more nutritious than rice cereal and tend to be less immunogenic. Ok, back to that goat milk: Zoe started “weaning” around 9 months (remember Nicki was pumping all that breast milk) and Nicki felt like we needed some kind of supplement to fill the gaps given the decrease in breast milk for Zoe. We opted to make a powdered goat milk formula designed by Mt. Capra. I know some of the WAPF leaning folks will lose their shizz at not going for one of the liver formulas, but the goat milk formula was both convenient and seemed well tolerated by Zoe. Again, this is some of the process of trying to figure out “what is best” vs “what can I pull off.” During this time Nicki was a co-founder of a tech start-up and I do whatever the hell it is that I do…said another way, we are really busy. Had Zoe experienced problems with the goat milk formula you can bet that we would have tried more time consuming options, but I weighed the risks/rewards and opted for something that was much more time efficient than the liver formula (and easy to do on the road) but much better than the soy/cow milk based formula.
Some folks will read this and think “Wow, that’s a very balanced, reasonable approach…I thought Robb might be pretty zealous about all this.” Others will be appalled by the degree of non-paleo latitude I practice. Funny how the interwebz work!
As I said, it seemed like Zoe was doing pretty well on the goat milk but then we noticed that Zoe had a really distended belly after drinking it. She also seemed to have some wacky-poo things going on. We deleted the goat milk and within a day or two all issues resolved. We motored along pretty well until summer hit last year and one of the truly amazing features of summer became a staple for us: watermelon. Zoe would eat, literally, a half a watermelon per day and again started having poo problems and a distended belly. I have some fructose malabsorption issues so guessed that she might also. We pulled out the watermelon and again, in 3 days, no problems. Zoe does fine on low fructose fruits like bananas, peaches etc and there is a reality of dose to be considered here. She does not eat the same volume of these other fruits as she does in watermelon. Take Away: People are unique and you need to tinker and figure out what works. Fruit is great, but as with all things, the poison is in the dose. Similar story with Sagan: The kid can sit and eat a whole flat of blueberries. At first there were no issues, but we noticed Sagan developing some kind of eczema on her arms. We added more liver for Vit’s A and D. No change. We reduced her amount of fruit and within a week one arm was completely clear and the other arm was 90% better. Again, fruit is good, too much fruit may not be.
I know someone will bring up “raw dairy” so I might as well address it here: Other than some grassfed butter and ghee in the sweet potatoes for both girls and some goat cheeses on the occasional gluten free pizza (I’ll get to that later) we no longer do much dairy for the girls. Raw milk is a pain to procure where we live and I’ve seen enough WAPF type folks migrate towards the paleo side of the street (due to dairy issues, even from raw milk) to decide that the cost/benefit story was not favorable. Y’all do what you want, but that’s how we have tackled things.
Pre-probiotics
As I mentioned above, the girls get a wide variety of fermentable carbohydrate in the form of bananas, white potatoes, a little white rice, etc. Both girls eat homemade sauerkraut like it’s some kind of magic elixir. Sagan will eat SPICY kimchi until her tongue burns and she wipes it with a napkin, chugs water and then eats more! Zoe will not touch the stuff. When introducing new foods we are fairly insistent that the kids try it. If they don’t like it, no biggie, we shelve it for a few months and try again. It’s not a lot of drama and we notice that the girls have a decent variation in what they initially like and what they grow in and out of.
A quick lesson on hyper-palatable foods
Zoe was about a year and a half old when Nicki decided to make some “christmas cookies” with Zoe’s help. These were an almond meal snicker-doodle type of cookie and they are DAMN GOOD. Zoe had a lot of fun helping, and when she tried one of these cookies you could see some kind of light in her eyes. For days and weeks afterwards, Zoe requested those cookies.
Now, hang with me on this as I think it’s important. We let Zoe try some good quality ice cream prior to this and she was totally uninterested. Similarly, when we’d do a coffee out we let her try a pretty watered down hot cocoa…she had a few sips and was done. Both of these things were way sweeter than what I’d normally eat and I too am pretty uninterested in either ice cream or hot chocolate. Those cookies though…they were “just right.” They ticked the palatability box in ways that are hard to describe other than saying I’m not a big sweets guy but I could eat a metric ton of these. They are much tastier than what we normally do, but not over the top like most of the stuff you find commercially. It was like crack for Zoe. I related this story on Facebook in the hopes of getting folks to think about just how powerfully hyper-palatable foods can override our sense of taste and satiety. What I got was a bunch of people telling me Zoe had, at the age of 1.5 years, associated these cookies with “The Holiday Season” and it was in fact NOT a case of hyper palatability, but wistful nostalgia of “The Holidays.” I say “bullocks” and I’ll use one other example to make my case. As Zoe got older we let her try some 90% dark chocolate. She liked it, but no big deal. Then, Nicki switched the type of chocolate to an 85% variety. I’ll be honest, the 85% tastes WAY better than the 90%. Result? Zoe was obsessed with that chocolate. We had to just stop the whole thing entirely for a month and then went back to the 90%. Result-2? Zoe was NOT obsessed with the 90% chocolate. She would ask for it occasionally, but not every 5 min like the 85%. This is largely speculation but I “think” that if anyone, kids included, is eating a largely whole food diet, foods that are WAY out of the ordinary (like commercial ice cream) are overwhelming. But, if we start ratcheting up the palatability we can find a sweet spot where the foods are bypassing satiety signals and that can spiral on and on. This makes more sense to me than ascribing deep emotional connections in a 1.5 year old to “holiday foods.” Can we get a double hit of hyper palatability and emotional ties to an event like the holidays? Absolutely, but I think that comes later. As an aside we have found both girls love the Paleo Power Balls. I’m pretty fond of them too and “might” hide a few packs in my sock and underwear drawer.
“Treats” and other potential pitfalls
We don’t have “treats” in the house, we have food. I have not tied emotionally charged behavior or rewards with food. It’s not an easy road to navigate but as may have been made clear by my missive above regarding “holiday cookies” I think we can get into deep water by tying hyper-palatable foods to rewards. We occasionally have gluten free pizza, chocolate and a gluten free cookie or muffin. It’s not a big deal when we have these things, it’s also not a big deal when we do not have these things. Again, some will see this as balanced and reasonable, some will call it orthorexia.
What about gluten exposure?
There is some literature that indicates early exposure to certain foods, like gluten or dairy, can decrease the prevalence of things like type 1 diabetes and celiac disease. This exposure needs to happen at around 7 months of age…but the flip-side of this is we also know these foods are suspected triggers for a host of GI problems and aforementioned autoimmune diseases AND there are research papers saying the exact opposite, that we should limit exposure of these foods as long as possible to decrease the potential for problems. It’s not a cut and dried topic. We also know that highly processed foods, particularly carbs, tend to shift the gut micro biome towards an unhealthy state. I have seen enough people report that their kids GI problems resolved after removing commonly offending foods that I opted to kick the can down the road on this and keep the kids as gluten free as possible as long as possible. Perhaps it’s a great idea, perhaps it’s a mess. My mom lamented that she did not know that smoking during pregnancy (and while all of us kids were growing up) was a bad thing. In that day and age they simply did not know. We are earlobe deep in information and this is one area that I simply do not know what the right option is. It likely depends on the individual. As far as I know Zoe was “100%” gluten free up until the age of three when we had dinner with some friends at a BBQ joint and our friends ordered some sweet potato fries that were lightly breaded. Zoe really wanted to try them and I thought “good a time as any to test this out.” She had a few fries and fortunately, had no reaction to them. Now, this does not incline me to start ordering toast for her meals as the likelihood of me getting a cross contamination is increased, and she loves “paleo” carbs. Also, I did not start out as reactive to gluten as I am now. I ate it almost daily as kid and I have no doubt there was some brain fog and other problems, but the terrible GI distress and neurological issues I now experience did not happen until after I caught giardia in my 20’s. As far back as the 1950’s we can find literature connecting giardia infection with the development of celiac.
This is why I encourage people to keep an open mind and to tinker. What might not have been a problem for you last year might be a huge issue this year. My hope is that feeding the girls as well as possible early on will set them up for better health than I have. Again, we have a lot of information to process and I just do the best I can to make good decisions.
Are the girls healthy?
The short answer (fortunately) is “yes, very.” Both girls are 98% percentile on height, 15-20th percentile on weight. They are tall and skinny. Both girls have been early walkers and talkers. Our pediatrician and I had a few dick measuring contests on our first few visits as he was pretty put off by the whole paleo gig BUT he has been quite impressed with the health and development of both girls. He related a funny story to me about nine months ago that really shifted things: One of his colleagues discovered that our girls are patients of his. The guy said “that paleo diet is spot on and Robb really knows his stuff.” Clearly I have that guy snowed! The net result was that our ped looked at all this with a fresh set of eyes and you really can’t ask more than that.
Why bother with all this? The girls will eat what they want eventually?
I’ve had a few people, almost gleefully, proclaim that at some point the girls will be out with friends and will eat whatever they want. This was relayed as almost a victory on their part that no matter what my efforts, my kids will one day eat “non-paleo food.” I don’t want to speculate as to the psychology of these folks, but I’ll tell you why I do this: It’s my job as a parent to do the “best job I can.” I don’t let my kids climb on the furniture, we have wrestling mats and foam blocks for that. They say “please” and ‘thank you.” All of this is, hopefully, setting them up for success. It is not my intention to raise automatons, but kids need some lane-lines to not be little animals. I do my best to supply that. Zoe, at the age of three can tell you what the outcome of poor decisions are: Consequences. As she gets older, IF she understands where the lane lines exist, she can make informed decisions about what is involved with going outside the lane-lines, be this related to food, drugs or picking good friends.
I hope you have found this to be helpful, I’ve tried to be a thorough as possible. I do not put this stuff forward as the way YOU should do things, I’m just sharing what we have done and provided some of the reasoning behind it. I’m not recommending that you try to tackle this as some kind of perfectionist crusade, we can leave that for the raw-vegans. What I hope you take from this is an understanding of how one very busy family navigates the feeding and watering of their kids. I also hope that if you or your children’s early life story is not optimal you may have found a few things you can do to stack the deck more in your (and your kids) favor.
You are lucky.
I am divorced and tried to feed my kids a Paleo diet while they were with me.
Their mother and her mother fought me on it a ton. I even had one child complaining to child protective services about what I was feeding them and how it wasn’t healthy. CPS basically told me to lighten up on the restrictions to make the kids happy despite the obvious health issues that were occurring with the way they were eating when they weren’t with me.
Very sorry to hear that. We’ve seen the food topic become a…leverage point…in situations like this. Hang in there.
Hey Jimmy,
Sorry to hear that you are having such a struggle. Surprised the CPS had anything to say about that. A call like that would not have made it past the screeners in my county. Good luck to you.
It wasn’t the reason for the investigation, but a topic that came up during it.
My oldest didn’t want to spend a lot of time in my home that had stricter rules than his mother’s home. So, his method of getting his way was twisting stories to his counselor at school so they would call CPS. It happened a few times before I let him have what he wanted which was to spend as much time with his mother as he wanted.
Neither his mother nor I really like the situation, but it has helped reduce a ton of drama that was occurring.
Bulletproof coffee is a good sub for breast milk, right?
As always down to earth and non preachy! Beautifully written. Thanks for sharing…our girls are teenagers now and while certainly not raised like Zoe and Sagan (foodwise) are okay eaters thanks to me reading your book in ’12 and making some changes. The education is ongoing. I like to think that food education is one of the critical things you can teach your children. That and “please and thank you”!
Thanks Stew!
Great article thanks for sharing Robb. Out of interest are you willing to share their vaccination status. Such a hot topic at the moment but a bit of a hot potato too so don’t blame you if you would rather keep it private.
We have also raised our 21month old paleo/primal (he drinks some raw dairy and raw cheeses, kefir etc) – he’s also still breastfed. He seems to be very healthy – he does get sick occasionally but seems to throw it off quickly and his energy levels never seem to dip. I also think his good nature partly comes from no sugar highs and lows, I get a lot of comments on how pleasant a baby he is.
Thanks to you and all the paleo community who have posted on this topic to give us novices confidence and guidance. I consider raising our boy paleo one of the best parenting decisions we made
Short story is we have been “selective”. I’ve tried to stick with the stuff I got as a kid as that all seems reasonably well vetted. I’m planning on doing a thorough post on vaccination the day before I shut the site down as that will likely destroy the interwebz
I’m interested in the vaccine thing too. We’ve just put them on hold until we feel more educated on it. I understand if you avoid that one.
Thanks for sharing Robb.
Ha ha- yes vaccination, circumcision, public breastfeeding etc All best avoided really unless ur feeling particularly brave and combative!
YEA…those are hot topics!
Nothing has made me laugh this hard all week haha. Love your honesty and realistic views. Way to go dude.
Bahahahahaha dick measuring contest w the pediatrician. I snorted a little at the lunch table surrounded by coworkers
:0)
Me too! Robb you really are hilare!
Even though my kids are grown, I enjoy your analytic, yet readable content on paleo. Very interesting and reasonable for all.
How are you children with fish products? I read somewhere that in the northern EU countries, they feed their infants IKURA [salmon roe] so that they get used to the ‘fishiness’ taste and it is very good for them.
They both like fish and once they hit about 18 months i give them lemon flavored cod liver oil a few times per week (Carlsons). I think people assume kids will “only” eat sweet things, and then they inadvertently train the kids to do just that. There are some things the girls do not like, but in general they have a pretty wide range of foods they clearly enjoy, including fish.
Thank you. Definitely needed to see this today. I have been Paleo since 2010 due to Crohn’s. I am trying to raise my 18 month old granddaughter and struggle with what to feed her. Long story, but she was on formula until 12 months. I got her at 9 months and researched the WAPF formula. It was just not doable at the time which caused me a lot of guilt. I skipped the rice cereal and did fruits & veggies. She was slow to walk and talk. She is now tall and slim. The slim part had me worried. I haven’t done a lot of fermented veggies yet. Wasn’t sure if it was too soon. She loves milk kefir, but I don’t think she tolerates it well. We had a similar incident with GF cookies and GF chocolate covered pretzels. She cried and cried for more. She also seems to have a weakness for GF grains (tortilla chips). I think we will just have to avoid those things. This article made me feel better and reminded me that I am on the right track. It’s tough to balance it all sometimes.
What a lovely piece. I totally get the ‘hyper-palatable’ thing. Our 2 year old daughter will enjoy 100% (yes, 100) dark chocolate, dried figs, even quality Amish ice cream all with normal exuberance. But, I made these RIDICULOUS Valentines ‘paleo’ cookies. Holy cow she was like an addict looking for her next fix!
Anyway, love your approach, it seems quite similar to ours. Which is nice as my husband routinely asks me, “well, how does Robb Wolf feed his kids?”
Robb – Thank you so much for this thoughtfully created post…you’re spot on that it’s not abiding to strict rules, but gently trying out multiple, drama-free approaches to find what works for the whole family.
I have 3 children, two sensitive to dairy and the third gluten-intolerant (thank goodness I understand their trigger foods because we didn’t for a long time). Therefore, we keep the home dairy- and gluten-free, it’s what works for our family…another family can have a different but equally valid approach.
My kids are old enough now that they’re able to self-test foods and gauge how they feel (we talk about symptoms like rashes, trouble falling asleep, hard to control temper, upset tummy). What a wonderful thing to learn as a child!
Yes, it is more difficult when they become school age, but it is navigable. We send home lunch and keep a stash of organic lollies/gummy snacks in the teacher’s desk for birthday celebrations or class rewards.
And, of course, someday these kids will all be adults and free to wallow in a diet of cheese puffs and energy drinks…but I already see them making choices in the right direction. My 5th grader got some 72% dark chocolate for a gift and said, “Mom, this is too sweet. Could you please only get 85% or darker?”
Thank you for sharing! I find it challenging mostly for others to watch us raise our kids in a similar manner because by the looks of it our kids are thriving eating real food and are not begging for junk food all the time.
Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it. Proverbs 22:6 (NIV)
Great job, Dad!
Very cool, Robb. Thanks for this.
You’re doing good. I have a 7 year old son and a 2 1/2 year old daughter. We’ve been a version of Paleo (we eat raw dairy, occasional rice and fermented oatmeal w/buckwheat groats) for 4 years. When we attend other kids birthdays, the kids eat cake. I don’t bake much at all, so other than fancy dark chocolate from time to time, we don’t have treats in the house. We cook from scratch for every meal and opt out of the school lunch program to pack our kids their own healthy lunches. Here is where I’ve made my “peace” with letting some junk food in. We buy organic potato chips baked in avocado oil for my sons lunch (daughter doesn’t like chips), and we now buy gluten free bread so the kids can have some toast with raw grass fed butter along side their eggs and beet kraut. We haven’t let any other processed foods in, but these have made a recent appearance and the kids are very happy with them. They eat very healthy, a wide variety, are very active, and I don’t see it as a negative. When I first started eating this way, there was no way I would have let those foods in, but, I’ve relaxed over the last year and this is a good spot to be in. I love to watch the kids pile their eggs on the gluten free toast…. I do it too! 🙂
Sounds like we have been on parallel tracks! I’ve certainly mellowed a good bit with time and i think this has been for the better.
Thanks for this Robb. Admittedly, my own personal success story with Paleo has led me to be a bit overzealous sometimes striving for perfection not just in my life but in the life of our one-year-old as well as my wife’s. As you can imagine, this has sometimes led to a battle of the wills with my wife and I (who is 80/20 at best concerning Paleo). I definitely appreciate the idea of “mellowing out a bit” and not being so uptight….as I’ve loosened up somewhat on “non-paleo” foods (except wheat and soy) we’ve both learned that the sky has not, in fact, fallen and our little guy is still flourishing….as is our marriage :-). I really appreciate your voice and your passion and all that you do!
Awesome, glad it was helpful. I look at it like this: Let’s get as much latitude such that we do not see problems. For both girls, they can eat enough fruit that they get GI problems, so we dial it back when that starts. So, i like having some wiggle room to back up if we need to. If things are super restrictive out of the gate, not many options.
Great stuff, Robb! Sounds like you got some very healthy, thriving kids. Soon they’ll be ready for their first weight training session 😛
I found the part about hyper-palatable food, cravings, etc. particularly interesting, as you touch on a lot of things I’ve been thinking quite a bit about myself.
Zoe definitely isn’t the only one who finds dark choclate irresistible. I pretty much had to stop eating that stuff altogether, as my intake started to get out of control, haha.
Thanks Eirik!
The hyper-palatability story (IMHO) is really where the rubber hits the road with all of this. The Darwinian Evolution story must tie in to Optimum Foraging strategy which has palatability as a fundamental driver for nutrient intake and also toxicant avoidance. We SHOULD get bored with certain foods. Hyperpalatability and the ability to alter flavors and textures can get us into deep, deep water quickly. If folks had a better grasp of this with regards to their kids it’d help us all.
Great read Robb! Totally enjoyed catching up a bit on your two lil’ cuties 🙂 or rather 3 and life. Thanks.
This is the perfect post for me as my son is 5.5 months old and I’ve been researching how to introduce foods to him! Thank you for the inspiration! I’d love to give him liver. How did you guys prepare it for your kiddos?
We just grill it with bacon fat and then chew it or cut it super small!
Wow. I saw this post in my inbox and decided to peruse it over lunch, as I have a 3 year old that I strive to feed as healthfully as possible. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a day school that allows me to bring all of this food and snacks. While I have not historically been a follower of your work (exclusively anyhow–seems like everyone has their paleo “heroes” and their word is gospel), I will definitely be tuning in more now. Why? You’re about the most sane proponent of this lifestyle I’ve seen. Truly. And that’s something because it seems like most “at your level” are sooooo absolute and sooooo line-in-the-sand about things. You mention not wanting to raise automatons. Bravo! But I meet folks all of the time who follow x-paleo expert and are the definition of automaton–as adults! I don’t think they’d know how or what to eat if x-paleo expert didn’t tell them. Talk about disordered eating.
While I found the nuts and bolts of what your daughters eat informative and useful, I fell in love with this post when you got to the the things that are working for YOUR family, and how you are willing to use some trial and error in there. Bigger bravo for that! I, too, get the “he will eat what he wants at some point”. Yes, I hope so. I hope my son will actually choose what he eats. But my largely choosing for him as his parent is ground work, not only for a healthy physiological landscape, but a healthy mindset around food and eating. {enter your relative flexibility on that matter} Obnoxious comments like that are akin to telling me “Your son will make his own life decisions later, you can’t do anything about it” in reference to our raising him as a Christian. Or, perhaps less controversially, to think we are silly for getting our son involved in swim lessons or other sports or taking him on hikes in order to foster a love of physical activity because he instead might learn to hate it. (Yes, these people exist.) I guess they are trying to justify making different choices for their kids/family by semi-insulting mine(?)
I could go on and on. (I sort of did, sorry…) But, in this day and age of every other so-and-so having a blog and being so absolute and rigid in their approach to something like eating, this was just the breath of fresh air I needed. Thank you for that.
Hey Heather!
I really appreciate this. It’s a balancing act between giving folks guidelines that are simple (and helpful) vs turning those things into dogma. An intriguing (and frustrating) reality is folks LOVE black and white rules. Love them. You don’t need to think or adjust, just “check out.” That is ok so long as the Rx is working for you. When it does not, one is stuck. I think this is another reason why some folks put out overly simplistic guidelines as they do not really understand how to navigate the nuances. I can promise you I was more rigid with this stuff 10 years ago. Fortunately, I had kids after working with LOTS of people, I had to learn a good deal of empathy and how to meet folks where they are.
Keep up the strong work with both you and your family!
Same with my 18-mo, he eats the same Paleo foods we’ve been eating for years with no issues. I make for him homemade farmers cheese from raw goat milk that he enjoys and it doesn’t bother him. Although he doesn’t really care for occasional homemade paleo cookie, he does LOVE wild salmon caviar and lox. Those two he can have any time of the day. Do you think it’s the salt that’s making it so palatable?
IDK, that’s just a LOT of good flavor! Our girls def like salty food too, which I think is good evolutionary wiring.
Great article. However, now I may be obsessed with the idea of Christmas cookies… Any chance of sharing the recipe? (I actually rarely bake, but my mum doesn’t ill paleo baked goods much at all, and it would be nice to have something we could all enjoy for special occasions).
Just tell me you will not sell your body on the street to pay for these!
http://courtneyscraftinandcookin.com/2013/02/27/paleo-snickerdoodles/
Awesome! Thanks so much. So far I have been remarkably restrained as trying to get on too of some SIBO issues, but bookmarked and saved for when I can broaden up my diet a bit again. Fantasizing about it slightly.
You only need the one kidney anyway, right? I could probably get quite a few of these for the spare one.
Hi Robb, what a great post, thank you for sharing so much detail. Could you explain more about the “pre-chewed” food please? Did you and Nicki chomp on these foods and then spit them out? How chewed up? Aryuveda posits strong health benefits from saliva. Very interesting. Liana
Hey Liana!
So, it was a bit of a random discovery. We were out to eat and all the food was way beyond our ability to cut small enough for Zoe. So, i chewed it, put some on my finger, then down the pie-hole! What struck me is that where she’d normally be a bit disinterested in the solid food, in this case she just went crazy. So, the next morning at breakfast I did my usual blender food and some chewed. She would not even consider the blended food.
I chewed things quite thoroughly when she was young and did a bit less and less as she got teeth. Seemed to work and was a lifesaver while eating out.
That is really interesting to me, Robb, as our LO Is pushing 9 months and still not interested in solids. I guess I will try this technique and see what she thinks of that! Did you chew pretty much anything and everything for her? Any tips on what to start with? I’ve tried pureed sweet potato, banana, carrot, chicken, avocado…she hates them all! She did seem to take to egg yolk but unfortunately, it caused her to throw up all evening! :/
Also, if you’re too busy to make your own bone broth I recommend fresh Bare Bones. I went to a talk by them last week – they use high pressure pasteurization so no preservative or salt.
I loved this article Robb! Thank you for sharing! I’m a family nurse practitioner and can’t tell you how much I wish every family approached the health of their children in such a thoughtful way.
Thanks Dawn!
My 7 month lil man is a big fan of avocado. I just chew it up myself and “spit” it on a spoon for him. I don’t think you mentioned avocado in your article Robb but I think it’s a great first food for a baby. So far he’s just had breast milk, avocado, egg yolk and banana. Tonight I plan to chew up some mule deer steak for him 🙂 Thanks for the article.
I can’t believe I forgot avocado! It was and is a huge staple for us as well.
Just want to add a note about avocado in case anyone else has the same experience…..it was a first food for each of my girls (2 years apart). Each one did fine with it at first, but when I gave it to them at a later time, several hours later, they threw up over and over again. (Not easy to watch in an 8-month-old!) A little bit of Googling has shown that others have had this issue, but I’m not sure where the problem is. Common co-allergens with avocado are bananas and latex, and we haven’t had any reactions to them. I’ve stayed away from the avos though 🙁
I’ve been anxiously awaiting a post like this ever since you had kids! Thanks for sharing your journey and insights. I am curious to see how things develop as your kids grow up, go to school, make their own friends and get invited to 3 birthday parties a month. Not saying that to be cynical, but I’m interested to see how things evolve as the girls’ social circle expands. Do you let them eat the cupcake with 2 inches of icing?? Keep is posted!
Hey Amy!
They ahve stuff like that so infrequently that i don;t sweat it much. AND they really do not like the over-the-top sweet stuff. It’s remarkably self limiting.
Great write up! I really enjoyed reading it. I like the flexible approach you use. Not set in stone and accommodating for the individual needs of each child. I think this article should be read by adults for direction on their own food choices. A more “try it and see what works” approach, but still only having unprocessed sources of food.
Going by face morphology, your kids look really healthy! Wide jaws, big eyes and developed sinus. Great job!
William Prowse IV
School is a bit of issue for us. In third grade they let the kids get what ever they wanted off of the ala carte line instead of their lunches [without notifying the parents, BTW] and their nutrition section in gym hammered home the importance of whole grains. Weird to hear the kids come home and start quoting these teachers verbatim.
Thanks for the article. Very interesting. My wife and I eat mainly whole foods and paleo as much as possible as I have GI issues and the strict paleo has done wonders for what my GI doc could never help with. One of the challenges we continue to struggle with for our 2 little boys (4 and 2 years) is that they get introduced to all sorts of processed food when we are at friends houses, birthday parties, play dates etc… so it tough for them to see something like goldfish, or cookies or pizza at the market and not want it now. Luckily they LOVE juicing and raw veggies so they get alot of the good food but it would be nice to cut out more of the junk food. In a society still driven by processed foods, keeping the kids sheltered is a challenge…
Sounds like you guys are doing a great job of navigating that middle ground. It ain’t easy!
Hi Robb! First of all, thanks for all your work, which is so important! This article is great, especially with the clear, logical, sane, informed reasons for your choices with your girls. Obviously, one day they will be on their own and making their own choices. I can tell you that, for my daughter (who also has celiac) that she had to be transitioned from a not terrible but mostly Standard American Diet to essentially paleo (though it wasn’t called that back then) at about 5 years old in order to help her heal from a brain injury and resulting developmental side effects. But my point is that I always taught her the “why’s” about how we eat and I made her a part of the process. She wouldn’t dream of “cheating” on her diet now because she is aware of how bad she feels when she eats something that doesn’t work for her. She loves her meat, veggies, nuts, and sometimes treats herself to a small amount of fruit she knows she can handle. She eats a huge variety of veggies and doesn’t miss grains or chips or popular junk at all, not even when with friends or family at parties…all without any mom-stalking (in fact she’s kind of strict with me now). She’s very very healthy and bright and working to create a career of helping nursing home patients get a diet that helps their brains too. We worked with Dr. Phil Maffetone (who I know you’ve interviewed and followed a bit) and he was our teacher…learning how to evaluate your own body’s needs are key. It can be done, raising kids who do that. Cheers and thanks!
That is a fantastic story! Thank you.
This is great. So down to earth, but informative! My twins are such great eaters, and I attribute it to a healthy start of bone broth, marrow, egg yolk, etc. just like your kiddos. A lot of people like to say that I just “got lucky.” I really don’t feel that way. I take very seriously the responsibility that I have to expose them to the awesome flavors this world has to offer. I also wonder if breastfeeding has some influence on flavor preference as they are now (very acrobatic) nursing toddlers.
I need to make some sauerkraut to see if they like it!! 🙂
Our girls LOVE fermented foods…kraut, kimchi…they go wild over all of that stuff.
I think one could make the following argument: We were lucky in many regards but then we did not let grass grow under our feet and have tried to strike a balance between doing a good job and not getting too neurotic. It ain’t easy, but it’s fun!
Agreed!!!! 🙂
Thank you for the article! I want to share our experience with gluten. My 3 year old daughter has only eat gluten a handful of times. Very consistently, it weakens her immune system enough that she usually catches something and develops a fever the next day. Once, at 2.5, she had some minor stomach and bathroom issues. Overall, I’ve noticed that her reactions are getting milder and milder each time she has gluten. I believe the fact that we’ve avoided it is why she is getting stronger against it. This is purely anecdotal, but I wanted to add our experience to the mix.
Some other pieces of information: She is extremely healthy and has only ever been sick after gluten plus one time after a vaccination. Only twice has the fever lasted more than a day (a triple gluten exposure and the vaccination). She is tall and thin, walked at 9 months, and has always been quite verbally advanced in 2 languages. I attribute all of this to the fact that we have been paleo since a year before I got pregnant, she was breastfed up until 3, and we’ve kept her gluten free and mostly WAPF.
A side note about fish: my daughter loves salmon (especially the skin) and fish eggs. Just raise your kids to find this food normal and they won’t think it’s gross!
I so wish I would have known about this diet when my kids were babies. I would have been able to breastfeed longer and not have my own hormones be so out of whack. I did it until I mentally felt like I was losing it and then quit. By the third kid, I let go of the guilt. Having found a healthier way of eating to heal my own autoimmune disease, my kids eat what is given to them and they are feeling better because of it. They are 16, 14 and 10 and I don’t get on them about what they eat outside of home and they are not gluten free or even paleo for that matter. They see me making good choices for my own health and they really respect that so much so that my 16 year old daughter who has been struggling with her blood sugar posted a picture of herself on a school trip to California on social media with a bag of carrots rather than a box of crackers which I am sure she would have rather had because she is learning what makes her body feel good. My 10 year old daughter packs her own lunch for school everyday and packs a decent protein, a couple of veggies, a fruit and some kind of snack and kids are asking her about her lunch. Her friends have never seen purple carrots or eaten radishes and they are almost excited to see what she brings to school. My son, well, he is 14 and really could care less (or so he says) what all the crap he eats does to his body. He eats well at home though and that is all I can worry about. Thankfully none of them have issues (yet) but the autoimmune disease runs rampant in my moms side of the family so it is always on my mind and I remind them that taking care of their body now is so much better than having to deal with all the crap I have to later in life. We do what we can. I don’t want them to grow up with dogma around food or make it a control issue. I have learned to let it go and take it one meal at a time. Great article. All the best to you.
Thanks Stephanie!
Thanks for this. I was actually thinking earlier in the week, “I wonder what Robb Wolf feeds his kids.”
We’re feeding our 2.5 year old a pretty clean diet and she loves it. I was worried that she would be fighting it by now, but she happily takes her lunch to daycare and chows down on ground beef while the rest of the kids have “kid-friendly” meals.
Her palate is also geared towards the salty and fermented. If she is going to have a food related fit, it’s for more olives, butter or plain fermented fish oil (gross).
I don’t know if you see this with your kids, but ours is rarely sick. She escapes most of the plagues of daycare and I attribute it to her diet.
I try not to be a lunatic about her food, but for many things parenting controlling as much as we can for as long as we can is our strategy for now.
Thanks again for the article and all the good work you do.
Zoe is in a Montessori pre-school and although she has brought a cold or two home, it has not been as bad as we’d feared. Clearly some good chow mixed with luck has been at play here!
Great post, Robb! Your daughters are adorable!
Luckily…they look more like mom than me!
This is good stuff, Robb. And definitely wins for most use of the word “damn” in a blog post about feeding kids. (<—– That's praise, not criticism.)
I'm not sure if Zoe is going to preschool where she eats lunch, but I was wondering if you had tackled the lunchbox prep issues yet. Notably, the deli meat conundrum. I've found some organic options without carrageenan but they are a challenge to find. If / when you have to feed Zoe outside of the home on a regular basis, will/do you use these types of products?
(And, I will just put it out there … if anyone with an entrepreneurial bent is reading, I think the space is wide open for more Paleo-friendly lunchbox meat options!)
Hey Kristine! Zoe is in a Montessori pre-school and we do send the lunch. I have honestly not scruitinized the packages we get (mainly from wholefoods). So long as they are gluten free, that’s the largest hurdle i’m concerned with right now.
Great write up Robb and thanks for what you do. Religion, parenting and diet are the three things that will cause the pitchforks and torches to come out. I think you nailed it with giving your kids the best start possible. Our kids (6&3) have been in daycare a long time the visual comparison of kids across time is an amazing. Our kids have kept the height/weight ratio pretty steady (upper 90s H and 50/60s W) and solid muscle, even our pediatrician says this to us.
We try to maintain the swim lanes at home because at daycare and with friends it is can be anything goes when the parents are not around. I will say one thing our daughter, 6 does that the son, 3 does is drink whole milk and she does have a bit of an extended belly. Something for us to think about.
I was wondering if you were ever going to write about what you feed your littles! Been waiting to hear about it ever since you had the first 🙂 Awesome article and a very sane and balanced approach. I’ve been paleo for many years and both of my kids (5 and 2) have been paleo since birth. We have opted to keep out gluten and all grains except the occasional white rice in sushi and popcorn on movie night. When we do treats they are the “healthy” version (homemade or some store bought stuff after CAREFULLY reading labels. It’s become somewhat more complicated now that my oldest is in school – there are treats at school, as well as birthday parties and holidays. Navigating these occasions is sometimes really challenging. We allow non-paleo stuff about 1/3 of the time. Sometimes I send her to birthday parties with a special treat of her own that I’ve made at home. I’ve tried to strike a balance. I feel like if I allow it every time there is an occasion, it would be a weekly or more thing and I’m not comfortable with that. It’s tough! Would love to hear more about how you handle these types of situations (holidays, birthday parties) as you go along! Thanks for all you do, Robb! Really appreciative of the information and resources you provide.
Thanks Michelle!
We’ve had enough interest in this topic I think we are going to do a free downloadable guide. We will really dig into all these nuances…thank you for he kind words AND the hard work with your family!
Can’t wait to read it Robb! Great article. I have a 5 year old, 3 year old and 5 month old that we are raising paleo and it’s nice to have your perspective.
Robb, this seemed like a fairly well-rounded article, presenting your point of view clearly but without a lot or rancor. It seemed…balanced and healthy. Which seems right.
John
Oh boy, Robb — if I knew then what I know now. Thinking we were doing the right thing, our daughter’s first solid food was Gerber infant cereal with pureed, jarred fruit mixed in. Cheerios followed.
Thankfully food truly changes everything, and despite still feeling that “mommy guilt” for not knowing enough about nutrition back then, you would never guess she started her first five years on processed baby foods. Things are much different now, clean eating, all the way!
That’s fantastic. We do the best we can, where we are, with what we’ve got!
My older kids have always eaten anything and everything up until jan last year.
I found out I was coeliac so I started looking into paleo as i found most gluten free products are just full of crap anyway.
Miss 10 has similar issues as me (tested negative for coeliac) and she has learnt what she should should eat. She refuses food items offered if she is out.
Miss 4 will ask me if something is gluten free but will happily eat any items made on kinder cooking days, however she doesn’t seem to have any reactions that I’ve noticed.
Mr 14 has noticed that all his school friends eat crap all the time and commented the other day in the shops that no one realises how much sugar and crap is in packaged foods (we were in the cereal isle) he will not eat junk food even if out with all his friends and they are all eating it.
I am more relaxed in what they eat and still allow gluten free bread, white rice and occasionally potatoes.
Sometimes they will talk about how they used to eat __________ and remember how good it was but are now always happy with an alternative.
I do wonder thou what will happen when they grow up and need to feed themselves.
my oldest lives on macdonalds and noodle cups and rarely eats anything in have available when she is home.
Hey Robb, very much appreciate your balanced approach. As I raise dairy goats specifically because I can’t tolerate cow dairy, I also appreciate your candor about goat dairy. What should be emphasized about dairy goat milk – even knowing it is easier to digest than cows milk : #1. Dairy is NATURALLY only available part of the year (limits exposure). #2. Raw dairy is best but those animals need to be fed their natural diet of browse. #3. Raw dairy is healing for many of us, even with autoimmune issues. #4. All the above are VOID if a body can’t tolerate ANY dairy!!!
LOVE it!
Paleo was not invented when my kids were born but we ate very differently than the typical American. All was well until the kids begin to venture out into the World . One day my son came home with a description of a delicious food he had eaten that day, “It was like a round cake with a hole in the middle”, he had discovered doughnuts. Another time, ” It was a gray flat circle with dark stripes of it , he had discovered the hamburger. Hopefully an early introduction into natural food will be of some benefit in their lives.
HA! I remember Donuts…
I appreciate you being open about this. I will never understand why people get so upset because (1) every kid is different, (2) every family is different and (3) everyone is trying to do the best they can with what they have. It doesn’t have to be a contest!
We started shifting toward paleo food when my oldest was about a year and a half old. She’s five now and is 100% self-regulated with her sugar and junk intake. She is the only kid I know who will take a GIANT bowl of M&Ms from grandma, eat a handful and bring the rest back to me saying “I don’t want the rest of these because too much sugar makes me feel bad.” We eat pretty well at home, and my kids (thankfully) are starting to notice how they feel when they eat junk food. THEY choose to avoid dairy and sugar a lot of the time just because they know how it makes them feel. The hope is that they are learning to listen to their bodies and enjoy eating food they grow and prepare themselves without all the emotional baggage around what they ‘can’t have’.
I feel you on the fruit though. I’ve actually seen my son, at 18 months, eat an entire watermelon in one sitting… Thankfully it didn’t bother him in the slightest but now we save the watermelon for dessert!
That young man’s GI tract is stronger than our whole family! We’d be pooping like geese!
Robb,
I’m so grateful to have crossed paths with you almost 10 years ago (I can’t believe it’s been that long). Of all the things I’ve learned from you, of all the things I am grateful for, it is feeling that I am doing “the best I can” at feeding and watering my girls.
Our stories match up fairly well with how we’ve introduced foods with Vada. She loved egg yolks, sweet potatoes, liver and more in her first year and a half. I wish she loved fermented foods more, but I contribute this partially because I’m not the biggest fan either. I’ve noticed she likes to eat what she sees us eating (not surprising). At 2.5, she hasn’t eaten any sugar besides that from fruit. She’s eaten some corn we grew last summer but we’ve kept her grain free so far. I foresee white rice in her future and occasional corn tortillas as well, but so far she hasn’t showed interest in either when she’s been around those foods.
Regretfully, I do use a larabar or raisins occasionally to reward good behavior or assist in our potty training. Maybe this is something I should retract from doing. I also find myself getting some anxiety over upcoming birthday parties and holiday parties due to the crappy food provided. Before it did not bother me, but now that Vada is older she doesn’t quite understand why her food comes from a red cooler while the rest of the kids eat pizza and cupcakes.
Faelynn is almost 5 months; she will be showing interest in food soon, I’m sure. I’m excited to see what foods become her favorites.
Thank you for this post, but more so thanks for helping me feel confident in feeding my family. Forever grateful.
Has it really been that long!?
Sounds like you guys are doing great and if targeted rewards are working, I say stick with that. especially where the potty-training story is concerned. I would not sweat the BD parties either…think about our childhoods! One exposure here and there is no big deal (unless there are some serious symptoms, like some kids have). You guys need to ehad up to reno for a visit later in the summer!
We started off so great with my first born. She was basically a Paleo baby at around 8 months when I was turned on to the diet. We both thrived on it. Once my mat leave ended and I was back to work we slid back into old habits. I maintained many aspects of the diet but eating out was our vise! While we are mostly Healthy at home we ordered off the kids menu too much when we ate out. I really struggle now to get her to eat foods she used to love like yams. It’s a slippery slope when you start to provide the hyper palatable foods! Baby number two is mostly Paleo and I’m trying hard to bring #1 back. It’s not easy!
Thank you for sharing your experience Robb. We’ve taken a flexible paleo approach with our children as well. Do you have any ideas for breakfast? We normally give the kids eggs and fruit, but sometimes I can tell they are burnt out on that combo. On the weekends, I will occasionally make plantain pancakes or almond flour scones, but those are too time consuming for our weekday mornings. Also, do you set boundaries for family members or friends concerning the girls? My mom has come a long way, but she still thinks that anything that is gluten free is healthy including waffles and mac n cheese. Palm to forehead! She watches our girls a lot, and I occasionally broach the subject which results in her loading up on the veggies for a week or so. Then she gradually gravitates back to refined junk. I usually pack the kid’s breakfast and lunch for her house, but she still offers snacks. Ok I’ve gone on and on. Thanks again for the post!
I too find myself eating entire watermelons when they are placed in front of me… one of those foods that definitely goes straight to my dopamine receptors.
Great post Robb. One question though, what is the problem with the descended belly? I see this in my 18 month old and am curious. It could also be fruit related as she eats very similar to your children, but am wondering what the issue is. Looks like I may have some more things to tinker with. Thanks for the help.
Very interesting post!
I raised my daughter paleo-like back when I didn’t even know there existed something like that!
She is now 21 years old and mostly sticks to healthy, whole foods and cooking from scratch herself, as this is what she saw me (and her grandmother) do all of her life. (The occasional pizza or burger is there as well when going out with her friends, but she knows she will feel tired, brain foggy and itchy afterwards so she limits this very much.)
Funny fact is that I raised her on whole foods, mostly vegetables, meat, eggs, fish and some fruit because of practical reasons.
My best friend had a baby 6 month before I gave birth and I got a first hand impression on how her little one was fed. Much out of boxes and cans for convenience, many sweets and treats like chocolate, lollies and gummy bears (we live in Germany, Haribo gummy bears are practically a staple for kids here).
And I saw how baby and furniture looked after having some chocolate and running around the house …
That was the point I decided my little one would not get any smeary or sticky sweets to mess around with but rather apple slices, carrot sticks and so on.
We have a garden and when she was old enough she would just help herself directly from the growing vegetables and fruits. Until today she likes many vegetables better when raw instead of cooked.
Interesting fact was this: she didn’t like any chocolate, lollies and even honey or jam back then because she found them to be way too sweet! In our grocery store the cashier gave each kid a lolly while the parents were paying – our daughter refused it and asked for an apple or a cucumber instead!
My parents-in-law frequently made clear that they thought we were treating our daughter cruelly by withholding sweets and treats from her and they brought chocolate and candy at every visit – only to be disappointed that she passed them on to me to give them to her friends …
It changed a bit when she started kindergarten because she imitated her friends, but one piece of candy was enough for a week.
So it is possible for kids to live without “normal” convenience foods and sweets and become healthy adults 🙂
She likes to cook from scratch herself and practices a lot to prepare for her own kids to be raised on whole foods, too.
Thanks for the great article. One question though, do you worry about their calcium intake? I struggle with this with my trio of boys. Thanks!
I have just experienced something that comes up a lot in Paleo forums when talking about kids’ food education. We have spent Easter with relatives who let their kids eat tons and tons of sugar each and every day and my up to now Paleo toddler just experienced sweets and ice cream. I had to chose between being the nazi mom and letting her have something the other kids were having. I chose the latter. I have been the kid who was not permitted to eat what others were eating and I don’t want to do this. But I now feel as the mom of an addict. She keeps repeating “this is good!” How do I get out of here?
Hi Robb,
Thank you for posting this! I’ve followed your work for almost a decade now and seeing as I am expecting my first child any day now this article is great! I do have a couple questions. I unfortunately have quite severe food allergies (eggs, almonds, gluten and to some non gluten grains as well). Before pregnancy I did a lot of gut healing with prebiotics, probiotics, and a very limited diet. My first question is around eggs. I am concerned that because I cannot tollerate them that there will be no transference through my breast milk and what your thoughts are regarding adding egg yokes into pumped milk? Also I’ve read about the addition of probiotics, specifically B. Infantis in the early months of life with the breat milk to help the gut bacteria flourish and am wondering your thoughts on that as well.
Thank you!
Pre-eating kids’ food. You are all in man!
Robb, I enjoyed your article. You have very pretty girls. I have no small children at this point.
What caught my interest most was your mention of bone broth. Where do you get your bones? I have been wanting to make my own.
Hindsight as a parent can be disheartening! I was diagnosed Celiac in the end of 2014 and my 25 year old son and 21 year old daughter both have the DQ8 genes. I never had sugar or soda or much processed food in the house, but we ate grains like nobodies business. I this this article is great and I hope that my kids will pay more attention to my grandchildren’s diets than I did to theirs. Great Article
Thanks for sharing! I’ll file this in the brain box in case I’ll ever actually have kids. In the meantime, I’ll feel free to recite excerpts from this while expressing in my expertise in child raising to my friends and colleagues who actually have children. 😉
Regarding the haters who relish in the thought of your girls eating poisonous things when at other people’s houses or while you’re away, I give you this:
One day at work, I was sitting in the cafeteria with another paleo friend. There was a sort of elementary school function mentorship thing and the kids were also on lunch break. My friend and I watched child after child get chicken strips and French fries from the fast food line in sadness-we are talking like 20 kids. Then there was this adorable child who sat down at the table with the other kids. This kid went to the salad bar and made himself a spinach salad with chicken on it and not a single person (little or big) made a big deal about it at all. He wasn’t with his parents, he made his own salad, and he could have eaten at any section of the cafeteria that he wanted.
So there’s that.
Dear Robb
Thanks for that article. I enjoyed it very much. I have 2 children, age 2 and 9mths. I live in Italy which is definitely not Paleo friendly although you can find solutions most of the time. I wouldnt be a strict paleo eater anyway but I liked your part about treats – about food just being food. I am trying to find that balance going forward…i dont want food to be a hot topic you know; that some is good and some is totally off limits. Its tricky. I would like to follow the old advice of “everything in moderation” but frankly I dont think its possible to be moderate in todays world. Nothing is moderate about how food is marketed to us, nothing is moderate about the manner in which marketeers target children with some food etc. For now I just give them whole food at home, subtly give some limits to the grandparents regarding the frequency of pizza and pasta and basically just hope for the best on the rest of it
Great article! I stumbled across it from a link on MDA. My kids are 16 and 18 now. I fed them well as babies and toddlers and they are both great (though different) eaters to this day, despite all of the crap they are exposed to. But I wish I knew then what I know now…didn’t know about bone broth and organ meats. So glad this info is more available now!
Thanks Robb. My first little baby girl is almost 6 months old and we’re planning her first foray into something other than breast milk. Being a parent is friggin awesome, but definitely overwhelming at times. 🙂 I respect your perspective and approach and found this article to be particularly insightful. cheers, man. Any other resources/books you recommend on the subject? Wanting to soak up as much information as possible. All the best to you and yours.
Thanks Brianna! Chris Kresser’s Healthy Baby code is amazing…that’s likely the main thing that comes to mind. Keep me posted on how things are going!
Loved reading this and the entertaining way it was written as well. 🙂 Question for you. I’m all in for a functional medicine / mostly paleo type diet and have had my family (including our 5 kids) down that path as well for the last 2 years. I even just completed my functional medicine health coaching certificate. Anyway, though there are certainly a lot of factors involved, I need some reassurance with one thing. My kids are small in stature. Like, really small. Most of them are barely hanging on at the bottom of the height chart (if not under) and below 20th for weight. I will give the potential cause as my husband is Filipino and only 5’3 (and “tall” for his family) and I’m Caucasian and 5’6. However, I can’t help but have a nagging fear that I’m “causing” it by rarely having dairy or such. Of course most everyone outside of the paleo world will tell me dairy is essential for those growing bones. Two of them are completely intolerant of any dairy. We try to eat a very wide array of foods, mostly protein, veggies and fruits with occasional GF muffins and such. They get basic supplements. Can you encourage me here? Thanks for all you do!
Terra- Height is certainly influenced by nutrition but the #1 driver is genetics. You would need to be REALLY limiting their options to induce such a deficit that it negatively impacted their height. they may not be basketball stars, but might end up being damn good gymnasts!
Great tips and advice for future generation. Awesome!
What a great article, Robb! Thanks for writing this. I have 2 girls, 9 yo and 4yo and we’ve struggled with the “opinions of other people” when feeding our kids. Don’t know why some folks feel the need to chime in.
I think your approach sounds very balanced and that’s all we can do as parents, “the best we can do”.
I am coming back to the Paleo diet after a brief stint with LCHF/Keto…ugh. Glad to be back and hearing your voice of reason.
Hi, this is a great article, came across because I was looking for information regarding what type of milk to give my 13 month old instead of raw cow’s milk or Goat’s milk.I breastfed until she was about 10 months. She hasn’t done well on either raw cow or raw goat milk; she got tested and showed that she is very sensitive. The Dr. suggested to try Hemp or Almond milk, I just bought it today but was a true struggle, she didn’t want to drink it. She still loves her bottles right before bed and a couple of times at day care, any suggestions? any alternatives if milk really isn’t necessary at this age anymore? Thanks in advance for your thoughts on this!
If she doesn’t do well with cow or goat milk, and is not breastfeeding anymore, then I suppose your options would be to just stick to solid foods and don’t do milk all-together, or maybe do some milk from a breast milk bank.
Hellooooooo Robb and team!
Thoughts on letting a 3.5yo skip a meal (in tonight’s case it was dinner) just because he didn’t seem interested and was engaged in some “unstructured play”. Continued to play until bed time.
Bravo… Fills in the gaps and basically affirms my attitudes towards this. Thanks for the post. As always I appreciate the approach.
I can’t tell you how reassuring it is to read this. I have a 9 month old and when I started to tell other mothers what he eats and why I decline the offer of bread or pasta etc I am either looked at as if I have two heads or I am made to feel like a terrible mother and questioned constantly about not providing my child with the nutrition he needs.
I not only know I am a good mother but I am providing him with nutrient dense foods instead of empty calories that could be destroying the GI tract etc. However… I do now have my spiel under control and can answer back with one sentence that usually glasses over their eyes and doesn’t offer resistance or comments, plus is diplomatically assertive and polite. 😀
Thanks again, you’re blog was a pleasure to read!