I don't want to overload you with background, so i'll just get down to the issue. 
I have 3 kids. All 3, at some point in their young toddler years, experienced severe, painful consipation. For all 3 I noted an excessive banana consumption = constipation link, and if we cut out or severely limited bananas, the issue went away. Great, I'm a CSI now.
Fast forward years later. (We follow an eat-what-you-want family model, no forced meals or one-meal-suits-all style). Dh and I eat a high-meat (organic, grass fed, local) and cooked veg/root veg diet, low starchy grains. our bowels move daily, with no issue. yes, our morning caffeine hit helps this along.
Eldest, if left to chose his own foods, eats a high fat and starchy grains diet (this means cream cheese loaded on bagels, homous on crackers, butter on whole grain bread, etc.) Once in awhile he'll choose some meat. His bowel function is alright, not perfect.
younger child lives on fruits and veggies, hates meat. blueberries, mangoes, dried fruit, nuts, carrots . . . she has the hardest time with bowel movements, and they are generally hard and smal, like a rabbits, a felow vegetarian.
youngest child eats mostly yogurt (high fat, organic), cereal with milk, toast and jam, applesauce and fruit smoothies. She too takes forever to empty her bowels and they are HUGE when she does. I previously saw this as a 'healthy' size.
My background is in health, nursing and nutrition, but in those years I was taught the health-food-store version, high veg and grains, low fat, low meat, lots of water, water, water and good bcteria through yogurt. When I followed this diet (I was vegan for 10 years), I see in hindsight, my bowel function was poor. It is only now, as a nightly meat-squash-potatoes eater that I see what healthy feels like for me. i eat far less overall, and feel good. I've read up on WP and TF, and my internal compass has always been to follow evolution: if I'm faced with a physical problem in my life, I look to my ancestry as a mammal, and try to find the flaw in my modern life (poor footwear, processed foods, too much night-time light, etc.). So eating how I am now feels *right* for me.
and based on what I now believe, how my children are eating feels so wrong. and their physical manifestations of health (bowel function for one) back up this wrong feeling.
So I followed the MDC link to the Fiber Menace and he spoke of how fiber is actually your enemy, that you want small bowel movements twice daily, and a meat and root veg/high fat diet is what your body wants. (totally paraphrasing, don't think it's a quote). that a huge stool is due to all the dead bacteria in your gut.
Do you agree?
how on earth can I get my children to eat the way (I *think*) their bodies need to, if their instinctual desires do not match this? I agree we all need dfferent things, and different diets work for diff folks. so I've left them to it. but I also think there are big red flags in my kids bowels and behaviours that point to a dietary problem.
I'll stop before this gets to long, and look forward to your feedback. thank you so much.
I have 3 kids. All 3, at some point in their young toddler years, experienced severe, painful consipation. For all 3 I noted an excessive banana consumption = constipation link, and if we cut out or severely limited bananas, the issue went away. Great, I'm a CSI now.
Fast forward years later. (We follow an eat-what-you-want family model, no forced meals or one-meal-suits-all style). Dh and I eat a high-meat (organic, grass fed, local) and cooked veg/root veg diet, low starchy grains. our bowels move daily, with no issue. yes, our morning caffeine hit helps this along.
Eldest, if left to chose his own foods, eats a high fat and starchy grains diet (this means cream cheese loaded on bagels, homous on crackers, butter on whole grain bread, etc.) Once in awhile he'll choose some meat. His bowel function is alright, not perfect.
younger child lives on fruits and veggies, hates meat. blueberries, mangoes, dried fruit, nuts, carrots . . . she has the hardest time with bowel movements, and they are generally hard and smal, like a rabbits, a felow vegetarian.
youngest child eats mostly yogurt (high fat, organic), cereal with milk, toast and jam, applesauce and fruit smoothies. She too takes forever to empty her bowels and they are HUGE when she does. I previously saw this as a 'healthy' size.
My background is in health, nursing and nutrition, but in those years I was taught the health-food-store version, high veg and grains, low fat, low meat, lots of water, water, water and good bcteria through yogurt. When I followed this diet (I was vegan for 10 years), I see in hindsight, my bowel function was poor. It is only now, as a nightly meat-squash-potatoes eater that I see what healthy feels like for me. i eat far less overall, and feel good. I've read up on WP and TF, and my internal compass has always been to follow evolution: if I'm faced with a physical problem in my life, I look to my ancestry as a mammal, and try to find the flaw in my modern life (poor footwear, processed foods, too much night-time light, etc.). So eating how I am now feels *right* for me.
and based on what I now believe, how my children are eating feels so wrong. and their physical manifestations of health (bowel function for one) back up this wrong feeling.
So I followed the MDC link to the Fiber Menace and he spoke of how fiber is actually your enemy, that you want small bowel movements twice daily, and a meat and root veg/high fat diet is what your body wants. (totally paraphrasing, don't think it's a quote). that a huge stool is due to all the dead bacteria in your gut.
Do you agree?
how on earth can I get my children to eat the way (I *think*) their bodies need to, if their instinctual desires do not match this? I agree we all need dfferent things, and different diets work for diff folks. so I've left them to it. but I also think there are big red flags in my kids bowels and behaviours that point to a dietary problem.
I'll stop before this gets to long, and look forward to your feedback. thank you so much.
