Milk Addicted Kids - Nutrition Care for Children

Transcription

Milk Addicted Kids:
Your Kid’s Brain
On Dairy
Go From Cranky, Constipated, and Picky
To Happier, Healthier, and Functional
©Judy Converse MPH RD LD
TABLE OF CONTENTS
1
Do You Have A Milk Addict?
2
Why Is Being A Milk Addict So Bad
For Kids?
3
Why Kids Get Milk-Addicted
4
Do You Notice These Problems?
5
What About Those Commercial
Formulas?
6
How To Remove Dairy Successfully
(Don’t Make These Mistakes!)
7
Upstream Clean-Up and Support
8
Can My Kid Ever Eat Dairy Again?
9
Buying What You Need and Getting
Help
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER ONE
Do You Have
A
Milk Addict?
Your Kid’s Brain On Dairy:
Better Without It?
There’s Nothing Magical About Dairy Food
There’s nothing magical about dairy food. Many other foods
give calcium, protein, and more. You’re not a bad parent if you
think you might need to pull it out of your kid’s diet, or if you
suspect it is linked to his behavior problems, allergies, or other
problems. It definitely can be. Does your kid seriously love
dairy food – to the exclusion of everything else? Here’s how
you can tell if it may be more harm than good. Does your
child…
•Have at least three servings a day of dairy food? That includes
any of these items: Cow’s milk (plain, flavored, organic, lactose
free, low fat, high fat, or any kind of dairy milk), cheese, mac
and cheese, ice cream, frozen yogurt, Greek yogurt, any dairy
yogurt product, cheesy pizza, cheese crackers or processed
snacks (Goldfish, Cheezits, Doritos, Cheetos), kefir
No information contained in this booklet is medical advice. Check with your doctor or licensed health care provider before using new
foods or supplements. © Judy Converse 2016
• Drink formulas every day, like Pediasure, Boost, Ensure,
Muscle Milk, Nestle’s Quik, Ovaltine, yogurt smoothies,
milk shakes, instant hot cocoa mix, hot cereal mixes with
powdered milk in them?
• Dislike other protein sources, like fresh meats, fish, chicken,
eggs, nuts, lentils, seeds, beans, peas, hummus, nut or seed
butters?
• Refuse mixed dishes or from-scratch foods like casseroles,
stews, salads, fresh vegetables cooked/roasted or raw, or
anything not “smooth” or processed?
• Like fruits and fruit juices, but no vegetables?
• Tend to be constipated with firm or hard to pass stools,
fewer than one daily or every other day?
• Ever need laxatives, suppositories, or medically supervised
cleanouts?
• Have mixed irritable stools, sometimes firm and dry,
sometimes loose, sometimes pebbly?
• Have eczema – infrequently or often?
• Have illnesses often? Colds, stuffy nose, seasonal allergies
every year, or multiple times a year?
• Have asthma?
• Have difficulty potty training? Still in diapers or pull ups
past the age of three?
This describes many kids. What they eat may be a big reason
why. From plain organic yogurt with fresh fruit to pink
yogurt
squeezed from a tube, from over-sweet, artificial, milk protein
drinks like Pediasure to mozzarella sticks, dairy protein is the
only protein that many kids eat. Some even refuse solid food
almost completely, in favor of drinking milky calories in
formulas, flavored milks, kefir, or yogurt smoothies - well past
their first year.
If this is your kid, you have a milk addict, and it isn’t healthy. If
your child is stuck like this beyond the age of two, it’s time for
a healthier diet. You may be amazed at how much healthier
and more functional your child can become, with a more
varied diet. But how do you get them to eat anything else?
That’s what you’ll learn later in this booklet.
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER TWO
Why Is Being A Milk Addict
So Bad For Kids?
When Dairy Stops Doing Good
Milk’s Missing Pieces…And Unwanted Parts
Being addicted to milk means your child doesn’t get nutrients
that are absolutely not negotiable for normal growth,
development, learning, and behavior. If it’s milk protein all day
every day, and few to none other sources for protein, minerals,
fats, or carbs, there is so much missing. Your child will show it
too, with jagged behavior, learning problems, frequent
illnesses and colds, social difficulties, constipation, bloating, or
even problems like asthma, eczema, allergies or worsened
autism features.
Long short, milk lacks nutrients children need once they get
past their first year. Milk protein from breast milk is great for
baby’s first year as a primary food. After that, it’s still great, as
long as kids are also starting other foods too. After a year,
toddlers are growing too fast, moving too much, and getting
too busy to stay on a liquid diet of mostly milk, even if it’s
mom’s milk. Minerals, vitamins, and various healthy carbs, fats,
and oils are missing from milk, infant formulas, and dairy food.
Toddlers relying on just dairy food well past their first birthday
are at risk for anemia and weak growth or gain. Milk alone
(even breast milk) is not enough, once toddlers are walking,
scooting, climbing, talking, and getting to their very important
work of play, restorative sleep, and exploration. They also need
solid food. But milk addicts wont have it, no matter what you
do.
A common picture in my pediatric nutrition practice is meeting
a young child who grows weakly or even has failure-to-thrive
(unable to grow above 5th percentiles). Some of these kids are
developing at a slow pace too – language delays, stilted social
efforts, or gross motor delays. Their parents are worried: Their
kids don’t seem very social, especially with peers. They may
have fierce behavior swings and epic tantrums, which are
worse when hungry (at which point only one thing will do:
Something dairy). By epic, we’re talking all-out screaming for
forty minutes or even two hours, if left to “cry it out” – and
once they’re exhausted from all that, these kids still won’t eat
anything but milk, dairy food, Pediasure, cheese, or the like.
Reflux and/or constipation are often in the mix too. Maybe it’s
already medication-dependent (Miralax, Prevacid, Nexium, or
other proton pump inhibitors) – and the medication does not
seem to be much help. Some kids I work with come to me in
worse shape: They are tube fed, or perhaps have already lost a
section of intestine to tissue damage or inflammation. Parents
are weary and have been around the block: Specialists in
gastrointestinal disorders, developmental pediatrics, feeding
therapy, and perhaps a neurologist or speech and language
pathologist have all had a look at the child, done many tests,
suggested treatments, to no avail. The kids still don’t eat well,
still lag for growth and development, still rely on prescription
drugs, still get sick often, still need physical therapy, feeding
therapy, speech therapy, and so on. Wouldn’t you like to stop
paying for all those professionals, all those appointments, and
hassling with insurance for it all? This can happen with a
nutrition program – I’ve seen it happen hundreds of times.
Developmentally, milk addicts (especially those with an autism
diagnosis) often show more profound language delays. When
they are on the younger end, say age three or four years, they
may speak more like a one to two year old, or be non-verbal. If
they are school age, say six or so, they may have expressive
language praxis issues, meaning that they can talk but not in a
typical way. They may use echolalic language (repeating what
they hear but not using functional conversation very often),
misuse pronouns, refer to themselves in the third person, or
misunderstand social context. In fact, language effort is often
the first area of functioning that shifts when dairy is withdrawn
completely: Your child may begin to use language in a new,
more typical way, make eye contact, or comply more typically
with your requests. This doesn’t happen overnight, but it can
emerge in two or three weeks and continue to improve, with
the right strategy.
Maybe your child isn’t this bad. Perhaps they just like a lot of
dairy food. Even in that case, you might be surprised at how
differently your child behaves, grows, sleeps, learns, or
socializes, once dairy protein (casein) is no longer their major
food.
I’ll say it again: There’s absolutely nothing magical about dairy.
Many other foods deliver protein, healthy fats and oils, the
varied carbohydrates kids need. You can get your child to eat
them, and your child is likely to be healthier for it.
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER THREE
Why Kids Get Milk-Addicted:
Immune Reactions &
Opiates
It’s Not Your Fault
There’s Chemistry Working Against Your Kid
Some kids manage dairy just fine. They love it, they eat it… but
they also can happily eat all sorts of other foods, like
vegetables, nuts, eggs, seeds, meats, and more. When we’re
talking milk addicts, we’re talking about kids who will not do
that, who freak out if expected to try a new food, who become
anxious eating with others because they have to look at
vegetables or salmon, or who actually break things or harm
themselves when they don’t get their “milky”. Are you a bad
Mom? Nope! It’s your kid’s chemistry. Knowing how this
happens is the first step to changing it. What’s going on here?
Two problems: Immune reactions, and, poor breakdown of the
dairy protein that leads to an opiate-like substance in your kid’s
brain.
Kids truly addicted to dairy food may have immune reactions
to it, and for some reason, seem to crave the very foods that
are most triggering. Reactions to milk protein can start in
infancy. Some kids outgrow this, some don’t. Some kids are
told they have outgrown it, when they haven’t. If your child
had trouble with milk based formula or even your breast milk
(if you ate dairy while breastfeeding) as a baby, chances are
higher that there may still be trouble.
Besides symptoms mentioned already – bloating, rashes, picky
eating, irritable stools, frequent colds and sniffles – milk
protein reactions can show up as an allergy (IgE reactions,
checked with a skin prick or blood test), or a sensitivity (IgG
reactions, checked only with a blood test). If you have checked
milk allergy but not milk sensitivity, then you didn’t get the
whole picture. Your child may still be reacting to milk, and may
still be better off without it.
You don’t need blood tests to follow through on breaking milk
addiction, but you can do testing if you want. Your MD
allergist, gastroenterologist, or pediatrician can do IgE testing
for milk allergy. Of course, when this is positive, kids are
usually already having dramatic symptoms, like vomiting,
stomach pain, or hives soon after eating milk.
Kids whose symptoms are more murky are likely to have IgG
reaction to milk. However, in-network health care providers
don’t usually offer IgG testing. Typically, only integrative health
providers do this testing (naturopaths, functional medicine
doctors, or functional nutrition dietitians like me).
You can also just do an elimination trial. But, this will fail if your
child also has other food reactions going on at the same time,
from foods s/he keeps eating. You may not notice a clear
enough change from removing all dairy protein with an
elimination diet, if your child also reacts to gluten or peanut
butter and eats those foods daily too. If you remove dairy
completely (no cheats!) and don’t see changes, this can mean
that other foods are probably triggering trouble too.
But there is more to the story. Even if your child has no
immune reactions to dairy protein at all, s/he can still have
poor digestion of this protein. Dairy protein (casein), when
only partly broken down in the gut, can have a powerful
impact on behavior and functioning, depending on the
condition of your child’s gut wall and the microbes growing in
there too. This can be where the really strong addiction kicks in
– when milk protein acts like an opiate!
Why Kids Get Milk Addicted: Opiate Theory
There is another powerful mechanism that creates that potent
“addict” behavior you know so well, the behavior that triggers
tantrums and meltdowns if your child doesn’t get the milk or
cheese or pizza or whatever version of dairy it is he is used to.
This mechanism is what can make it truly difficult to get
children off milk and dairy, unless you know how. This
mechanism is not an allergy, even though allergy or sensitivity
may be present at the same time. In this case, a chemistry has
evolved in which your kid is literally addicted to milk. You can
measure this with a urine test. This is not a standard-of-care
test – that is, your pediatrician may never have heard of it, and
your insurance isn’t likely to pay for it. But it has been used for
over a decade in the functional medicine community to screen
children for problems with digesting milk protein (and wheat
and soy proteins, which have a similar digestive process in the
gut).
This is a urine polypeptide test. It checks urine for protein
fragments (“peptides”) leftover when dairy protein (casein) is
poorly digested. It also screens for peptide fragments from
wheat protein (gluten).
Why are these peptides a problem? Because these peptides
resemble opiates in their chemical structure – and they can be
addicting, so much so that your child ends up on a poor diet,
refusing other foods, and with behavior problems. When these
peptides are formed from foods we eat, they’re called
exogenous opiates or dietary opiates. Eating dairy protein
every day when your gut can’t properly digest or absorb it
means your gut will allow lots of these diet-sourced opiates to
form. They reach the brain, where they do no good at all.
You’ve probably heard of endorphins. These are our own “feel
good” chemicals, which also have a chemical structure
somewhat like opiates. The same receptors in our brains that
bind with drugs like morphine also bind our own endorphins.
We make endorphins with laughter, with sustained exercise
(“runner’s high”), when enjoying flavors or aromas of favorite
foods, or when meditating. It’s feel-good chemistry! But notice
the difference: Endorphins are made by our own chemistry,
and can lead us to healthy habits. Exorphins come from
external chemical sources, like drugs, and can lead us to
unhealthy dependency. This is the case with milk-addicted
kids. They are absorbing milk protein as something called
casomorphin, an exorphin compound formed from poorly
digested milk protein that is addicting.
Just like endorphins, exorphins like casomorphin can make you
feel good. They can drive food cravings in all of us to some
degree. But when it’s gone too far, expressive language and
cognition become impaired. Tantrums and behavior problems
ensue. And noticing physical pain or being able to
appropriately avoid danger can be impaired too. When a
parent tells me with pride that their picky eater kid is a toughie
who can seriously bonk his head and keep on going without
missing a beat, I know that we may be looking at the effects of
casomorphin.
Normally, these opiate-like peptides are made in only minor
amounts from foods. Good digestive function takes apart a
dairy meal to near completion. But with weak digestion, an
overly permissive gut wall (that is, a gut that lets these
peptides pass through to the bloodstream), and the wrong gut
bacteria (that worsen rather than lessen the impact of these
peptides), these peptides will show up in urine in larger than
normal amounts. If they’re in urine, that means they are
circulating widely throughout the body – and in your child’s
brain.
Why is this bad? Because these peptides mimic opiates – so
much, that they are named after morphine: Casomorphin acts
like opiates in the brain. It binds the same receptors as
endorphins, drugs like morphine... and yes, heroin. It is indeed
potently addictive. Children who adamantly refuse foods other
than just wheat, just dairy, or both may have this addiction
active in their brains (because wheat protein, aka gluten, can
form an opiate like substance too, when poorly digested).
Not only does this deny a child other more nutritious foods
needed for their brains and bodies to grow and thrive, it can
cause constipation (ever needed a morphine drip or opiatebased painkiller… and get constipated?), and disrupt behavior,
learning, social skills, and language development. In my
experience, the more diet-sourced opiate measured in urine,
the less verbal and more developmentally delayed the child
will be. In fact, clinical trials with naltrexone, a drug used to
treat opiate addiction, have shown better behavior and verbal
ability in children with autism. This demonstrates that persons
with autism may live under the effects of opiates in the brain
day in and day out. Is it because of food they eat? Possibly.
Here are signs of active “opiate” chemistry in a milk-addicted
child:
•dilated pupils, especially after a meal
•disrupted sleep pattern, especially between 1-3 AM
•silly, happy or calm affect mostly or only after meals
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
hard tantrums when hungry or if preferred food isn’t given
firm or constipated bowels (often laxative dependent)
extreme refusal of other foods, will go hungry if need be
language issues: May have garbled or unclear speech,
functional speech or language delays, comprehends and
hears but doesn’t have equal ability for expressive language
social delays, not age appropriate with peers
difficulty potty training, doesn’t sense need to “go”
seems unaffected by cold, will go out without warm
clothing
seems unaffected by bangs/bruises that may make other
kids cry
poor self regulation: Hyperactivity, rage reactions, may hit
or lash out at peers, difficulty calming down, wanders or
elopes, impulsivity
may eat 40-60 grams daily of casein (dairy protein) as milk ,
cheese, or other dairy foods, without other protein sources
may drink five to eight cups daily of milk, Pediasure, or
other dairy protein formulas, past the age of two years
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER FOUR
Do You Notice These
OTHER PROBLEMS?
Milk Addiction Goes With…
Problems With Behavior, Learning, and Mood
We’ve established that milk addicts are kids who still rely on
fluid milk as a major protein and calorie source, well past the
age of twelve months, when weaning off breast or formula – as
the bulk of daily calories and protein – is typically under way.
They are drinking forty to sixty ounces of milk a day (about five
to eight cups), and displacing solid calories because of milk
intake. Or they’re eating yogurt daily along with fluid milk –
and it doesn’t matter if it’s from a goat, a cow, sheep or a
camel (yes, some of my patient families have tried that too!) –
it still has casein in it, it can still form an opiate like peptide,
and it can still create rigid, picky appetites.
This lowers intake of other foods that kids need by age two
or three. Milk addicts refuse other foods. They are often
oral tactile defensive – that is, they hate varied textures in
foods, hate to eat or chew, hate seeing others’ food or
chewing, and may even hate other food smells. Perhaps they
have delayed chewing skills (which is why some stick to the
bottle in the first place), or still rely on suckling a bottle,
thumb, or pacifier to calm themselves. Oral tactile issues or
oral motor delays may keep this child drinking from a bottle
beyond age three or four. When they accept foods, it’s often
dairy items only – sweet yogurt, cheese, ice cream. A few
random solids might be in the diet, but on balance, their diets
lack other foods rich in essential minerals, vitamins,
and healthy brain fats. There is often pallor, grey shiners under
the eyes (which can be caused by anemia, milk protein allergy,
or both), white dots on fingernails (too little zinc), and a blank
countenance (too many casomorphin opiates!). Inattention,
hyperactivity, anxiety, and reactivity are often dogging these
kids as well, from a dairy-dependent diet that is void of so
many essentials while making too many toxins.
Growth failure or a weak growth pattern is common in this
scenario too, though some kids grow robustly and may even be
downright chunky with this eating habit. Doesn’t mean they’re
healthy!
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER FIVE
What About Those
Commercial Formulas?
Healthy Alternatives Needed!
What Your Doctor Didn’t Tell You About Pediasure
Parents in this predicament are often told by their doctors and
feeding therapists to turn to high-calorie, vitamin fortified,
milk-based drinks like Pediasure, Peptamen Junior, Carnation
Instant Breakfast, or Boost, in hopes of providing a few
micronutrients and extra calories. I have seen this fail, fail, and
fail for many kids. Pediasure, Boost, Muscle Milk, and Ensure
are of course all made with dairy protein. Some also have soy
added. They reinforce the addiction to opiates formed from
casein and soy. And, these have genetically modified
ingredients I don’t like, with added processed sugars and corn
syrup. Though a few nutrients are added to these drinks, they
still lack the benefits that can only be found in eating whole,
real food. If your child really needs to drink calories, you can do
better with your own nutritious whole food smoothies! For
non-dairy nutrition boosting options, click my blog for ideas
and recipes here. Use protein powders like collagen or egg,
whole eggs, or nut butters to boost protein in smoothies. Don’t
use soy protein. For more on protein powder options to add to
smoothies, check out my blog on that topic here.
Note: If your child is dangerously underweight and dependent
on a formula, get medical supervision to make changes, and
contact me for an appointment so we can monitor closely. Be
sure to check with your care team about replacing these
formulas. I often find that children placed on formulas for
growth pattern do better on a dairy (and soy) free regimen –
but the transition has to be done with total body nutrition,
digestive, and gut support. This process can take a few months
for severely addicted kids in growth failure, so get support.
Pediasure is possibly the top pick by pediatricians and GI
doctors nationwide, when they see an underweight child. And
that is downright unfortunate. Why? Because if your child has
a reaction to the soy and dairy proteins in Pediasure, it can do
more harm than good. Besides weakening growth pattern even
more, these reactions can cause diarrhea or constipation,
rhinitis, dermatitis, or brochospasm. But, it's routine for
pediatricians to suggest Pediasure anyway, without checking if
a protein intolerance, allergy, or other reaction is part of the
problem. I like to check first with lab tests to find the reactions
a child has, or I choose a more hypoallergenic option instead (if
for some reason labs aren’t done) – like Elecare or Neocate, for
families not ready or unable to make their own foods and
formulas. For families who have time to be in the kitchen,
there are many ways to boost protein, fats, vitamins, and
minerals without dairy or soy drinks like Pediasure! Recipes are
offered at my blog, here.
Why I Don’t Like Pediasure, Boost, Ensure, or Similar
Products!
Full disclosure: Another reason why I do not like Pediasure (or
Boost, Ensure, or similar products) is because they contain
genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The corn (sweetener),
soy protein, and milk protein in this formula are GMO. This
means that these foods were created from crops altered by
inserting genes from bacteria into the plant. These bacteria
produce a toxin that kills crop pests, so now the plant is
engineered to produce that toxin for itself. The problem is, this
bacteria, and its toxin producing ability, end up in our guts too,
where it kills the helpful bacteria we depend on to digest and
absorb food normally. It may also transfer this toxin producing
ability to our own gut flora! This toxin, glyphosate, is linked to
food allergy, organ failure, and cancer.
Infants are especially vulnerable here. They must develop a
healthy profile of normal gut bacteria, and a healthy gut wall,
to prevent allergies and asthma later on, to digest food
normally, and to avoid susceptibility to infection. GMO foods
and formulas have no place in a baby’s diet, in my opinion.
Another problem with GMO crops is they need more
glyphosate (aka RoundUp) to grow properly, compared to nonGMO crops. This extra glyphosate has been found in foods,
including foods marketed specifically to infants and toddlers.
The World Health Organization has declared glyphosate a
probable carcinogen.
While most of the developed world bans GMO crops in the
food supply, or at least requires labeling of any GMO product,
the US continues to allow them, and refuses to require
labeling. Many parents do not wish to expose their children (or
themselves) to GMO foods. Buying locally sourced organic
foods is the best way to avoid GMOs. For more on why I tell all
my patients to avoid GMOs, click here. Look for this label on
foods to assure best possible effort to be GMO free:
Another unhappy part of the commercial formula story is corn
syrup, which may have traces of mercury in every spoonful, due to
methods used in manufacturing it.
Last but not least, Pediasure, Boost, Elecare, Neocate and even
many better (non-GMO, less allergenic) powdered
supplemental protein and calorie products for kids have loads
of sugar or corn syrup. There are times when these formulas
are necessary or useful, but often, there is a better way that
will help your child grow, gain, and feel better sooner. Sugar
does not help your child grow. Calories like this tend to disrupt
so many other layers of metabolism and absorption that
they’re not worth relying on day in and day out, for kids who
need to gain. A little sweet here or there is of no consequence
for a healthy gut, but eating them as major sustenance every
day? That’s when they are literally more trouble than they’re
worth.
So even if your child seems to manage a product like
Pediasure, Ensure or Boost well enough… Why would you feed
your baby, toddler, or child anything that is a probable
carcinogen? Or anything that would disrupt the body’s own
crucial balancing efforts, for preventing allergy or asthma? Or
something that may have traces of mercury in it – every day?
As crazy as this sounds, this is what most pediatricians in the
US today are doing, when they tell you to give your child
formulas that are made from GMO foods like Pediasure. You
can do better and your kids can feel better!
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER SIX
How To
Remove Dairy
successfully
Don’t Make These Mistakes
Make All Your Effort Pay Off!
Kids often seem to crave the very food that is making them sick
and less functional. Removing all dairy foods can make for
dramatic improvements – IF – and this is a big “if” – all that
dairy food your child ate is replaced with an equal or better
value food. If you pull dairy food only to replace it with low
protein, low fat starchy snacks, your child is likely to feel worse.
Your child will also not improve on a dairy free diet if you make
these other mistakes:
You give another triggering protein to replace the dairy
protein. Usually, parents give soy as a substitute – which is
often as triggering as dairy protein. It may look like it works for
a week or two or a bit longer, but soon after, kids can get stuck
on soy and suffer the same trouble as when they ate dairy:
Picky eating, bloating, constipation, eczema, and behavior
problems. Skip soy milk, soy yogurt, tofu, edamame, soy ice
cream substitutes, tempeh, or protein bars or drinks fortified
with soy protein. Those are unlikely to help your child progress,
if dairy is a problem.
 You don’t put back the protein and fats you removed, and
you give starchy processed filler foods in place of dairy. Your
child will feel worse, and growth may suffer! It will take
time, but expect your child to broaden his repertoire, so
that other nutritious foods come in to the mix. The key to
success on this is restoring a healthy gut biome – more on
that later.
 You try it for too short a time. For real success, expect to do
this for at least four months.
 You let your kid cheat a lot with “a little” dairy food, like
having pizza every weekend but no dairy the rest of the
week. Or, like keeping that Ranch dressing or yogurt your
kid loves, but removing fluid milk (you’re still giving your kid
milk protein every day in that dressing). Or allowing weekly
classroom treats with milk in them (cupcakes, cookies, ice
cream). For some kids, this is still enough to cause trouble.
You have to be strict, to be sure of your results.
 You remove dairy, but keep gluten and soy. If dairy causes
these opiate-like features, guess what? Gluten and soy can
do the same. You may not see full benefit unless soy and
gluten are also withdrawn. These two proteins can form
opiates similar to casomorphin. I have observed kids who
switch one opiate source for another – they stop dairy, but
go to town on bread, cereal, pasta, and soy - and remain as
picky, crabby, constipated, and undernourished as ever.
 You trade milk for a milk based formula like Pediasure,
Ensure, Boost, or for soy milk (they’re still getting plenty of
casein this way).
Once trigger foods are replaced with good nutritious food,
your child will likely be sick less often, may grow and eat
better, will become interested in other foods, and will
probably behave better too.
Finding out what foods are triggering for a child is something I
routinely do in my practice with lab tests. If you remove
dairy protein only to replace it with something else that
triggers allergy or sensitivity, your child is not going to
improve much or feel well. If you need that help, contact
me via my website at NutritionCare.net.
You don’t have to do this lab work to trial dairy free. You can
use elimination trials, but if these become cumbersome
and confusing, get the quick answer: Do the lab work, and
move on. It does require a blood draw, which kids generally
manage better than you might expect, especially if done by
an experienced pediatric phlebotomist.
Mom Holds All The Cards!
In my twenty odd years’ experience, I have weaned many kids
in my practice off an unhealthy dairy-dependent diet. Their
moms were boots on the ground, doing the hard work. If you
are ready, you can use the same tips and strategies that
hundreds have paid me to walk them through, one on one.
What works best in your house may be different, or need some
tweaking - but this strategy is what most often succeeds for
families of milk addicts I’ve known.
Before you begin, know this: You are the key to the success.
You hold all the cards. You are the one with your child day to
day, shopping, preparing food, setting limits and boundaries,
offering options, and watching them grow and change. No one
knows your child better than you. Your commitment to better
health and a better life for your child will guide you best.
But, if the prospect of a dietary restriction upsets you, your
child will be upset by it too. If you need your child to happily
receive this change in order for you to be calm and happy, or if
you need them respond or react in a certain way in order to
soothe your fear or uncertainty, you will fail, because you’ve
given away your power to a small child. Keep that power for
yourself to fulfill elsewhere. Set the tone, and lead the way.
• Listen to your own intuition along the way Follow it.
• Don’t let your child dictate the outcome They will whine,
protest, throw food, have fits, cry, and generally make you
doubt everything you’re doing. Keep calm, carry on. Stay
focused, with an upbeat demeanor. Don’t complain, don’t
explain why you are doing this (especially to a toddler!)
• Don’t need your child to like this, or agree with you. You can
answer questions like “where’s my favorite
milk/cheese/yogurt” with “they were out of that brand, and
don’t have it now. We’ll have this brand instead. Do you want
vanilla or strawberry?” Then, walk away if tears ensue, or allow
a favorite distraction for your child as a reward for being brave
with a food change. End of conflict – don’t engage it.
• If your child is very bright and perceptive, s/he may also
learn quickly to be very manipulative with you. Good for you!
You probably have a future scholar on your hands. Meanwhile,
hand him off to a neutral party when it comes to meals, as
often as you can. A nanny, a neighbor, a friend, or even dad –
anyone whose heart strings are unpluckable, compared to
yours. Detach. If that’s not possible, leave the room while your
child eats and enjoys that favorite distraction.
• Be chill, be firm, be positive Don’t lament or enlarge that
your child won’t participate in pizza parties or ice cream
socials. This may not always be true. Some kids go on to eat
these things will little impact later on. Instead, enliven the
“gain” part of the story. There are many new foods and dairy
free versions of favorites to enjoy and introduce.
• Don’t tell your child that “dairy food is bad for you” or talk
about how dairy food affects him or her. Negative messaging is
of no value here and will probably backfire, by creating
unnecessary anxiety for your little one. And, down the road,
your child may do fine on some dairy food; there is no need to
instill fear in them about it.
• Attitude is everything. Kids pick this up from their parents,
and peers pick it up from your kid. One family I worked with
was so positive and committed with follow through on new
foods, mom called it her “eating clean” campaign. Her
daughter proudly announced that at school, and her peers
followed suit – by begging to trade out their junk snacks for
her good ones!
• You do not need permission from your child’s school (or
anyone else) to change your child’s diet. If your child attends
school, just give the absolutely necessary details. Don’t expect
teachers or other school staff to care. Some do, most don’t.
This can simply mean you say “Alice doesn’t eat dairy food.
Here is her snack and lunch. Here are some snacks to share
with her peers if that is helpful. Please don’t give Alice milk,
yogurt, or cheese. Please let me know of special events in
advance so I can bring treats she can eat and share with her
peers (cupcakes, cookies, and yes even pizza that is dairy
free).”
• Don’t go cold turkey. You can if you want, but it will be
harder on your child and harder on you, to abruptly pull out
dairy foods your child depends on. Few families succeed this
way, in my experience. Your child won’t just start eating new
foods because there is nothing else to eat – the opiate
addiction part of this puzzle assures that your child will
willingly go hungry for days, sometimes weeks, sipping juices
or sugary foods. Follow my steps for the right sequence for
success.
• Do Upstream Cleanup: Implement herb and probiotic gut
support first. This will make it easier for your child to accept
new foods. Changing your child’s gut biome environment is key
to successfully busting picky appetite, so this comes first. See
the next section for herbs and probiotics to buy.
• Do Upstream Support: Implement multivitamin and mineral
support before making major food switches. That Flintstone’s
chewable or those Nordic Berries won’t cut it – your child will
need stronger mineral support than these typical kids’
products offer. Mineral status is another key to success here.
Iron and zinc impact appetite, mood, detoxification, and selfregulation. So, you will want your child to be in good status
before they try new foods. Many kids I work with eat new
foods just because zinc was restored – with no other measure.
So, don’t skip this part. See the next section for more.
• Before you start, list all the dairy your kid eats
Start with the hidden stuff, since that is easiest to replace and
least noticed by kids when it is removed. Look everywhere,
from hot dogs, cookies, or pancake mixes to cream dressings,
soups, sauces. It’s not just the obvious dairy that has to go, like
the yogurt, mac and cheese, milk, or ice cream. It’s all of it.
Most processed foods have dairy protein added, including
meats – like sausage, hot dogs, ham, soups, candy, and more.
Choose which of your child’s dairy sources are easiest to
replace. For example, instead of CLIF bars with soy or dairy
protein, choose LUNA bars that use pea protein. Meanwhile,
build a recipe arsenal for favorites like mac and cheese, creamy
dressings, alfredo sauces, pizzas, instant mashed potato, or
anything to which you habitually add milk, yogurt, sour cream,
or cheese. Dressings, sauces, yogurt, and milk or milk based
drinks can be switched out with coconut based yogurt (not
soy), almond milk, cashew milk, coconut milk, or hemp milk, as
long as you add a protein supplement powder (click here for
ideas). Additions of everything from chopped olives or ripe
avocado slices instead of cheese, to eggs (whipped into an
aioli) or sesame tahini (for a tasty sesame orange dressing),
can fill in the blanks left by pulling dairy out. There are options
– including gluten, dairy and soy free hot dogs! Surf the web,
and see resources at my blog at NutritionCare.net too.
• Implement enzyme support with my recommended
chewable enzymes when ever your child has dairy. Using any
old enzyme won’t work; you need a product that specifically
breaks down casein so that it won’t form as many casomorphin
opiate molecules. Using enzymes instead of dairy withdrawal
can ease constipation in kids who are milk addicted, but
relying on those while continuing a steady dairy diet won’t give
your child nearly the same benefits as withdrawing it
altogether. They can, however, mitigate transgressions, and
can especially help with bloating or behavioral reactions (but
not allergy reactions). Save enzymes for those must-do school
activities or special occasions that include food, when your
child will absolutely miss out if eating a substitute.
Now that you know the pitfalls to avoid, you’re ready to roll up
your sleeves and dive in!
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER SEVEN
Up-Stream
Clean Up
And Support
Clear Your Child’s Gut First
Follow This Sequence For Success With Dairy Free
Going dairy free and restoring good nutrition can help your
child in so many ways. Hyperactivity, anxiety, insomnia,
meltdowns, tantrums, weak growth pattern, bathroom
accidents, communication and socialization – all these have
potential to improve. Follow this strategy to make it happen.
You will need to purchase some high quality supplements, for
the best outcome. Do you have to? You don’t have to do
anything. But I can tell you that in my experience, this is how it
works best.
Week 1 – Upstream Cleanup and Dairy Detective Work
You will need strong herbal supplements and a high potency,
broad spectrum probiotic to initiate gut biome balancing. This
paves the way for better digestion, absorption, appetite, and
bowel habits. Expect to see some nasty stool be purged, or not
– but it may happen. Some children simply start having more
normal, comfortable bowel movements right away with these
tools. If your child is uncomfortable, more gassy, complains of
stomach pain, or shows any reaction that is intolerable,
including hives, then stop. You have hit deeper issues that
need guidance. Contact me for an appointment to move
forward with professional monitoring.
If your child tolerates this without much trouble, you’re good
to go. I recommend these products:
•BioBotanical Research Biocidin drops, one drop for every 10
lbs body weight. Start with a single drop in water daily and
work up to full dose. Your child will use this x one month.
•Citricidal Liquid Concentrate (grapefruit seed extract). Start
with a single drop in water daily and increase to 10 drops.
Twice daily is ideal if tolerated. Your child will use this x one
month.
•Gaia Herbs Glycerite Goldenseal Tincture. Start with a five
drops in a strong tasting drink your child likes, or just place in
water (this is a strong bitter herb). Increase to 10 drops daily.
Twice daily is ideal if tolerated. Your child will use this x one
month.
If your child is very sensitive, you may use lower doses or just
one of these items at a time. Support detoxification with
Epsom salts in the bath nightly, about a cup; allow your child to
soak for 20 minutes.
If your child can swallow capsules, you can buy capsules of
each of these items. Look for Advanced Biocidin Capsule,
Grapefruit Seed Extract capsule, or a 400 mg Berberine
capsule. Use one at a time to start. All three at once may be
too strong.
Berberine is derived from goldenseal, and is a stronger antimicrobial. It is my preference over goldenseal, but tinctures for
just berberine are difficult to find formulated in glycerite (not
alcohol) which is preferable for children. A tincture called Core
Berberine is available from a maker called Energetix. I make
this available to clients working directly with me. You may also
be able to purchase it on Amazon.
If your child feels tired, mopey, has malaise, has a strong
behavioral reaction, or has uncomfortable messy stools with
these herbs, then it’s too much too fast. Slow down. Use one
at a time only or use a lower dose.
If your child shows patches of reddish rings that are pale in the
middle but not raised, then this is possibly a fungal (ringworm)
rash. When fungal infections leave they exit through skin,
stool, or urine. Show your doctor if you have concerns.
If your child has any rashes or concerning symptoms, contact
your doctor.
Let your doctor know you are using new herbs or supplements.
Begin with Biocidin x 3 days. If ok, then add the Citricidal to
this water as well. If all continues ok, then add the Core
Berberine also. Give this in water daily. These are strong
tasting herbs, so they must be diluted in water or diluted juice.
Younger children may do well when these are placed in an oral
plastic syringe and squirted into mouth. Others may be fine if
these are placed in their water bottle for the day, and they
simply sip all day. Still others finish a four or six ounce cup of
water with herbs before being given preferred activities or
foods. Regard this as you would a medicine: It’s not optional.
As long as the herbs are taken in, it doesn’t matter how. Do not
put any of these directly on your child’s tongue. They are too
strong.
Next, add a probiotic. For kids who do well with chewables, I
recommend Klaire Labs Prodegin – chew one to two daily. For
kids who won’t chew this, I recommend Klaire Labs SDC Legal
LactoPrime Plus capsules. Open the capsule and mix in any
food or drink. Do not microwave or heat this. Use one to two
capsules daily this way. Give the probiotics opposite from
herbs – that is, a few hours apart. It’s okay to give either of
these around food, if easier.
For your first week, do some dairy detective diligence. Find all
that hidden dairy by checking processed foods. Toss foods with
these ingredients, and find their dairy free alternates:
Milk, non fat dry milk, milk powder, casein, calcium caseinate,
whey, lactose free milk, cheese, Parmesan, lactose, cream,
yogurt, low fat yogurt, frozen yogurt, ice cream, buttermilk,
sour cream, whipped cream, mozzarella, cheddar
Usual suspect foods that you will need replacements for
include….
Cream dressings, Ranch dressing, French dressing, chowder,
prepared boxed or canned soups including tomato soup,
processed frozen pizzas, burritos, or microwaveable meals;
mac and cheese, yogurt, ice cream, whipped cream, Alfredo
sauce, Bolognese sauce, any sauce that is creamy, cereals, hot
dogs, sausages, power or protein bars, protein drinks, Goldfish
crackers, cheese puffs, Cheezits, Doritos, or most any cracker,
chip, or cookie that is store bought
All of these foods have versions right now, available on store
shelves, that exclude dairy ingredients. Will they say “dairy
free” on the labels? Maybe, maybe not. Dairy free does not
mean casein free. It means there is no whole milk, cheese or
dairy in that food; but there may still be protein like casein or
whey in that food. You just have to read the label for yourself
to be sure.
Many products don’t say dairy free on the label because the
product comes from a factory where there is cross
contamination from dairy foods. As long as the item does not
have dairy ingredients actually in it, it is okay to use, even if it
came from a factory that may have dairy stuff around. You
don’t have to go that deep to succeed with busting dairy
addiction. In this first week, check your cupboards, and start
replacing the hidden dairy items. Have them all cleared out by
end of week one.
Week 2 – Upstream Support and Dairy Distancing
By now your child is on good herbal and probiotic support, and
you’ve replaced hidden dairy proteins. You may already see
some changes, but don’t worry if you don’t. Keep going with
this regimen. Until all the dairy protein is gone, you may see
slow shifts.
Now it’s time to give good mineral and vitamin replenishment.
You’ll need a good multivitamin and mineral supplement. Does
your child take a chewable, powder, or liquid? Here are my
recommendations:
Chewables: Progressive Labs Children’s Chewable
Powder: Klaire Labs VitaSpectrum
Liquid: Douglas Laboratories Liquid Multivitamin
Follow label recommendations for your child’s age and weight.
These products vary greatly in their formulations; it is hard to
get the same formula across these different formats, but any
of these will give your child a better profile than a generic
supermarket chewable or gummy vite. If you want to keep
using your current multivitamin, you can – but take note of the
zinc content. It should be at least 10 mg. Also note if there are
other minerals present at all, like selenium, chromium,
magnesium, or iron.
Meanwhile, continue replacing dairy-laden foods, and
continue your herb and probiotic regimen. It will look like this:
• Breakfast: Multivitamin and Herbs with morning meal
• Evening: Probiotic with dinner or bedtime snack
If yogurt is a favorite, bring in dairy free options like coconut
yogurt (So Delicious brand), Daiya brand, or Chia Pods. Let your
child choose flavors, so they have some control over the
change. If you’re ambitious in the kitchen, try making your own
cashew or almond milk yogurt –recipes abound on the internet
for this.
If yogurt is a big daily protein serving, you can add a collagen
powder to your child’s dairy free yogurt. It dissolves readily,
has no particular taste, and is hypoallergenic.
Week 3 – Cut Cheese
This is tough, no bones about it. Replacing beloved cheese can
be hard. You have to ditch all dairy cheese, from goat to Brie to
Parmesan, to the child favorites of mozzarella, cheddar and
American. Cheese substitutes often have soy, wheat, or other
ingredients in them you may not like, so read labels. But,
substitions can be had. Try these options:
Daiya “cheese” shreds
Non-soy non dairy mac and cheese
Homemade dairy free mac and cheese
Homemade cashew cheese
Chopped black olives
Guacamole, ripe avocado slices
Jerky sticks instead of cheese sticks
Whipped coconut milk instead of whipped cream
Cashew or coconut based frozen treats (“ice cream”)
Continue herbs, probiotic, and multivitamin.
Week 4 – Replace All Fluid Dairy Sources and Add Protein
Supplement
Pull out fluid milk and give your child an unsweetened
replacement. You can use almond milk, coconut milk, hemp
milk, or a combination of these. Don’t use a sugary version –
Use your milk substitute for drinking, putting on cereal, or for
baking or cooking.
Week 5 – Hang In There!
This week, you can withdraw your child’s herbs, but keep the
probiotic and the multivitamin. You can continue the herbs if
you notice it just works better, but a month may be enough to
restore a more balanced biome that allows for stronger
digestion and absorption. Some children need an herb-andprobiotic rotation for many months. If your child feels better,
eats better, grows, sleeps well, and feels happy, you’re on the
right track – stay on it!
Your aim here is total dairy avoidance. That’s because each
molecule of casein can elicit over thirty casomorphin opiate
molecules. Once attached to endorphin receptors in the brain,
they are very tightly bound, and take weeks to leave. And each
casein exposure will send your child’s immune system into
overdrive to make new antibody to it, if they’re sensitized;
those antibodies hang around for months. So have patience.
Once all the dairy is gone from the daily routine, you may not
see changes for two or three weeks. During that time, your
child will likely be jonesing hard for dairy – don't cave! Giving
“a little” to get them over a hump of tantrums will give a short
reprieve but it will prolong the entire process, keep appetite
stuck, and will make true progress elusive.
A bonus measure is to put Epsom salts in your child’s bath
nightly. Use about a cup and allow your child to stay in the tub
for twenty minutes. This will replenish tissues with magnesium
and sulfur, which help calming, digestion, and detox pathways.
This can help casomorphin exit the body with less behavioral
volatility. This measure alone helps many kids settle down and
sleep better at night. Double bonus for calming and good
sleep: Add a two to five drops of pure organic lavender
essential oil to the bath.
By now you should have replaced all the dairy your child eats.
Brace yourself… Prepare for a lot of whining and crabbiness. If
all seems super stuck, then replace all the gluten and soy too.
Both can also form those exogenous opiates, and confound
your dairy efforts. Luckily, this is a lot easier than removing
dairy, because there are so many gluten free breads, pizza
crusts, bagels, crackers, cookies, pasta - and just about
everything else! Soy is inconsequential and easy to miss. If you
add this piece, be kind to yourself, and take whatever time you
need to find substitutes and recipes. They are everywhere! You
can also contact me for an appointment if you need support.
Kids with picky appetites tend to eat mostly processed foods.
You may see that when you move away from the dairy and
gluten junk they loved, you find they’re eating more junk – it’s
just gluten and dairy free. That is okay – as long as the trend
moves toward healthier, whole food. This can take several
weeks or months. It goes faster when you optimize that gut
biome environment with herbs and probiotics, and give back
good minerals that help appetite pop. Be patient – these are
big changes for you and your child. You are building new tissue
every day in your child’s brain and body with these new foods;
allow time for it to work. Consider those processed items as a
bridge piece, or a halfway house of sorts: First, break the milk
protein addiction; then, break the junk addiction. It is much
easier once your child accepts other proteins and is no longer
dependent on casein.
Keep this program going for the next three months. If things
seem stuck, here is what may be going wrong, based on my
two decades of clinical experience with busting picky dairy
eaters:
•There is an untreated, latent infection in your child’s gut.
Consider stool testing to identify and clear it. Be persistent
with this piece!
•There is marginal iron or zinc status that needs repair.
•There is some soy or gluten confounding everything; remove
both. Put in other proteins, as powdered supplements or as
whole food: Eggs, meat, fish, chicken, lentils, nuts, hemp
hearts, homemade broth, collagen, hemp powder, nut butters,
seeds, seed butters. Rice
• protein or pea protein powders are available too; make
sure they are boosted with lysine to be adequate.
• You need a different probiotic, or you may have added
Saccharmocyes boulardii probiotic. Don’t. Thought this
strain can be helpful in some cases, it can exacerbate fungal
infections for others and keep appetites stuck, especially if
used for more than 30 days.
• There is some hidden dairy somewhere. Look everywhere.
Even hydrolyzed dairy, such as is found in formulas like
Nutramigen, Compleat, or Alimentum, can throw this effort
off.
As weeks go by, expect your child to gradually show more
interest in other foods. This can be subtle at first – but it
won’t really kick in until all the dairy (and possibly all the
gluten and soy) are one hundred percent gone. Your child
may simply be willing to let you place a new food on his
plate, but won’t touch it; or your child may ask about foods
he’s never cared about at all, but still won’t eat it. Don’t
give up. Keep track of new behaviors, interests, or
comments your child makes.
If none of this works, then something is missing. That is my
experience. Keep looking and you can find what it is. If
you’d like my help, I’d be glad to hear from you. There are
many more foods, recipes, supplements, and ways to
replenish your
child when dairy is withdrawn, as well as all sorts of lab tests to
consider if your child is stalled in faltering health or lesser
functional ability. Use nutrition and food to bring your child’s
true potential and personality to the fore, not to change your
child. If you are needing more help, visit NutritionCare.net and
get in touch!
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER EIGHT
Can My Kid
EVER EAT
DAIRY AGAIN?
Dairy No More, Ever?
It Depends
This varies. Even hard core milk addicts, who get that way in
the first place from a leaky gut, can sometimes do fine eating
dairy again, in moderation. This usually takes a year or two of
avoiding it completely and using an ongoing program of a
healthy, plant-strong, real-food diet plus probiotics,
supplements, and herb rotations to restore gut tissue. The goal
is not to go back to eating a picky diet again, but to perhaps
include dairy in a diverse diet, if it’s tolerated!
Some kids simply always do better with very little of it or when
avoiding it completely. Kids with IgE allergy may simply always
need to avoid it.
Either way, give your dairy free trial a good long stretch: Four
months at a minimum, twelve months is even better.
Antibodies to milk protein and casomorphin can take weeks or
many months to break down and leave the body, after a single
exposure. So, be patient, be committed. If your child is happier,
healthier, stronger, and more themselves – that is the goal.
When reintroducing dairy, it can be helpful to use an enzyme
called di-peptidyl peptidase 4 (DPP-IV), with each dairy serving
(capsules or chewables are available). It will help break the
casein down and can mitigate its impact. It may not have much
impact on antibody reaction, but it can make it easier to digest
dairy protein.
Milk
Addicted
kids
CHAPTER NINE
Buying What You Need
AND GETTING HELP
Buying What You Need
For This Program
These Products Will Help You
Visit EmersonEcologics.com or call them at 1-800-654-4432 to
order any of the supplements suggested in this booklet. To
access any product at that site, log in as my client. This gives
you a ten percent discount, as well as access to products that
only health care providers can normally purchase. Use MyNCFC
as the log in, and use 80303 as the password. Or, simply call
and tell them you are my client to access these products with
discount. If you're ordering probiotics, defer the costly chill
pack shipping for a big savings if you like, but store them
immediately in the fridge on arrival.
Can you hunt for cheaper alternatives? Sure. But, I have no
idea if those will work as well as the products mentioned here,
which I have used for years in my practice. I do also use many
others - there are hundreds if not thousands of other options.
If you’d like more help, I routinely customize and simplify
supplement protocols for my clients. Contact me via
NutritionCare.net for an appointment, if you’d like a
customized supplement protocol or need more help. I’ll
complete a nutrition assessment for your child in order to
recommend supplements specific to his or her case.
For new foods, check ThriveMarket.com, or visit your local
Trader Joes, Whole Foods, Alfalfa’s, Vitamin Cottage, CostCo, or
any retailer of gluten and dairy free foods. Most supermarkets
now carry a wide assortment of these foods too.
For supplements, cheaper is not always better. Read those
labels as carefully as you’ll be reading food labels. Cheaper
supplements usually have more fillers, lower potencies, lower
purity, or less quality control for toxins or contaminants. The
products I’ve suggested here are brands I have worked with for
years, and have seen them help children in my practice.
Where Will My Kid Get Calcium?
I’m always asked this question! Lots of foods have calcium, and
in forms that are healthier to digest and absorb than milk. Only
about a third of the calcium in milk is well absorbed, compared
to about seventy percent from the calcium in leafy greens!
Eating too much protein and sugar will also make your body
waste and lose calcium, so if your child has been eating 60 or
70 grams a day of milk protein, then their calcium balance and
bone density will probably suffer more than benefit. You can
also give a daily supplement of calcium citrate, calcium lactate
(lactate is not a protein and will not confound a dairy free diet
free diet effort), or any form other than calcium carbonate,
which will diminish digestion over time (it’s an antacid, like
TUMS). Naturally calcium rich foods are..
Sesame seeds, sesame tahini
Hummus
Chick peas
Almonds, almond milk, almond butter
Bok choy
Broccoli
Kale
White (canelli) beans
Foritifed orange juice or other juices
Blackstrap molasses (good in hot cereal or smoothies)
Hemp seeds or hemp hearts
Chia seeds
When Is Professional Support Important?
Parents take on nutrition support and dietary changes for their
families every day, on their own. Why? Because nutrition
intervention is not taught in medical schools. Doctors do not
learn much about it. This leaves parents believing they have to
do this alone.
You don’t. Just removing dairy food from a child who is overly
dependent on it can be daunting, complex, and difficult. I often
hear parents sigh “we tried that, and it didn’t work” – only to
learn that there were missing crucial pieces in the sequence
that set them up for failure, after spending a lot of time,
money and angst on a doomed-to-flop nutrition project. Get
help! Especially if…
•Your child’s growth pattern seems to have slowed down.
•Your child has a body mass index below the tenth percentile.
•Your child isn’t growing out of clothing anymore.
•You’ve been told to put your child on psychiatric medication.
These don’t fix nutrition problems (which have a big impact on
mood, learning, attention, and behavior), so rule those out and
repair them first.
•You don’t know how or what to prepare for your child to eat.
•Your child is determined to eat non-food items, like wood,
metal, plastic, fabric, ice, or dirt, past infancy. This is a sign of a
serious nutrition deficiency called pica.
•Your child can’t attend school anymore due to illnesses,
anxiety, or fatigue.
•Your child has other conditions that are nutritionally
demanding, like asthma, rheumatoid arthritis, Down’s
syndrome, autism, growth failure, feeding tube, or severe food
allergy.
You don’t have to go it alone. Contact me at NutritionCare.net
if you’d like one on one help.
About The Author
Judy Converse MPH RD LD
Judy is a pediatric nutrition specialist. She is a licensed
registered dietitian with graduate and undergraduate
degrees in nutrition and public health from the
University of Vermont and University of Hawai’i. Her
passion for all things nutrition began early and carried
through her many years as a Division I soccer player at
collegiate and national levels. Judy completed her
graduate work and dietetic rotations across sites in
Honolulu and Boston, and later created a television
program on the unique foods and culinary herbs
thriving in Oahu’s community food gardens. She went
on to work in outpatient care for Kaiser Foundation Hospital, as a nutrition educator for a large health
insurer, and as a grant writer for a non-profit comprehensive care clinic.
Her real calling emerged with the birth of her son in 1996, who experienced deep challenges from birth
for feeding, growth, allergy, and more. With little guidance to be had from her pediatric providers, Judy
dug into her infant nutrition training and expanded it, to help her son and other children enjoy their full
wellness potential through integrative nutrition.
Judy became a pioneer among dietitians in introducing functional nutrition for babies and kids to her
field. She published the first accredited learning module for dietitians and nurses on nutrition and autism
in 2008, has lectured widely for national associations serving families with autism, and has authored five
books on using nutrition to help kids thrive. Her client families include those challenged by autism,
ADHD, asthma, allergies, feeding and growth concerns, behavior/mood/learning concerns, constipation,
and other gastrointestinal symptoms. For families who are ready for a whole food, whole body, functional
nutrition approach, Judy is an indispensable asset to pediatric care, for children ages 0-18 years.
“
Your child’s birthright is health, wellness,
and reaching his or her full potential.
Judy Converse MPH RD LD
QUESTIONS?
Is individualized nutrition care right for your
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