The Blog
Bone Broth for Babies
I’ve already written about the incredible benefits of consuming traditional bone broth during pregnancy, but this nutrient-dense liquid is also amazing for babies! Unlike store-bought broth or stock, which is cooked for only 45 minutes to 4 hours, bone broth is simmered for quite a long time. As the broth simmers, nutrients leach from the bones, leaving you with a wonderfully nourishing and flavorful liquid.
I'm Pregnant & Why I Decided To Share The News Early
It’s the social norm to wait 12 weeks, or about 3 months, to announce the news of your pregnancy. This is when the first trimester is over and the risk of suffering a miscarriage is greatly reduced. I followed this unwritten rule with my first pregnancy. With the exception of my immediate family, I kept the news from even my very best friends. I’m terrible at keeping secrets and I really hated every minute of having to keep that one.
What To Eat During Labor
Featured on The Tot.
Eating and drinking during labor, especially in the early stages, can provide you with the necessary energy and help you remain more comfortable. Labor is very aptly named because it is a physical task that requires both strength and stamina. Restricting your food intake during labor cause stress, nausea, vomiting, and headaches. Being properly nourished and hydrated can prevent you from becoming exhausted, which can prolong labor and lead to fewer contractions that are less effective.
Pineapple for Conception & Brazil Nuts for Implantation
In some trying-to-conceive circles, the foods to eat and foods to avoid can start to sound like folklore. It’s hard to know what might actually boost your chances and what’s a wild rumor. Pineapple and brazil nuts are often suggested foods to aid conception and implantation, but an explanation as to why they might help rarely accompanies the recommendation.
Miso Quinoa Stuffed Squash
It’s so important that a new mother eats energizing and nourishing foods, but with such little time to spare in the early days, she can use as much help as she can get. I made this stuffed squash dish for a friend who recently had her baby. It makes a wonderfully thoughtful offering for a new family because it presents really well and it’s also healthy, but it tastes like comfort food.
Planning Another Baby? Why Your Fertility Nutrition Matters
Women often consider using nutrition to prepare their bodies before becoming pregnant for the first time, but it's rarely considered for a second or third (or fourth or fifth) pregnancy. Once a woman has had a child, especially if she conceived with relative ease, she considers herself sufficiently fertile and probably doesn't think she needs nutrition to boost her fertility.
Maca Fertility Fudge
Every ingredient in this maca fertility fudge has been added for its fertility boosting properties. These tasty treats are stored in the freezer and help to balance blood sugar, stabilize energy, and provide lasting satiation.
These fudge squares are little bombs of healthy saturated and monounsaturated fat to nourish and support fertility. With the fat-free fad thankfully mostly behind us, many people are starting to embrace the fact that we really need healthy fat to function optimally. Nothing else that we eat (or don’t eat) has a bigger impact on our reproductive capabilities, but unfortunately, there’s still some confusion around what fats are good for us. I’d like to write a long post about this subject soon, but for now, I’ll try to simplify things as much as possible.
What We Ate: Thanksgiving Dinner Roasted On An Open Fire
We spent Thanksgiving at our off-the-grid cabin, a few hours north of Whistler, Canada. It’s such a magical place to be this time of year. The air is crisp, but still mild and the trees are bursting with colour. Friends of ours built a cabin on a nearby property and hosted an outdoor Thanksgiving feast, roasted over an open fire.
Why Your Baby Should Be Eating Fermented Foods
Offering children a variety of foods helps to broaden their palates, but "sour" is an important flavour that isn't usually given to little ones in western cultures. Traditionally fermented foods are a wonderful way to introduce sour flavours. Many children consume highly processed foods that are overwhelmingly sweet and salty. Giving fermented foods to children from an early age can actually lessen their desire to over consume sweet foods.
How I Prepped My Body For Pregnancy
To call the changes and adjustments a woman’s body goes through during pregnancy "miraculous" would be a bit of an understatement. Although a miracle, the reality is that carrying a child through those 40 weeks does take a toll on your body in many ways. Not all pregnancies are planned, but having time to prepare yourself physically definitely provides many benefits to you and your baby, even long after birth.
The best things a woman could do to prep her body really varies for each person, depending on her starting point. Some important things to consider addressing would be….
Salted Maple Hazelnut Fudgsicles
This week we celebrated the fall equinox. I absolutely love fall, it's my favorite season. The crisp air makes me feel energized and I can't get enough of the golden leaves on trees, wool sweaters, stove fires, hot tea... I adore it all. I should probably be posting about seasonally appropriate things like root vegetables, squash, and warming soups, but I had to get one more summertime treat in! These fudgsicles are dairy-free and use "nice cream" as a base, which is simply blending frozen bananas to make delicious soft-serve ice cream with wonderful consistency.
Mango Ginger Creamsicles
These mango ginger creamsicles are a kid-friendly treat and wonderful on a warm day. The ginger in them is subtle, but it’s a great ingredient to broaden your little one’s palate. Introducing your children to a wide variety of flavours from a young age can help them to be less picky. Using new flavours in their favorite treats is easier on the less adventurous child: like ginger in creamsicles.
What We Ate: Camping
It can be challenging to stay committed to healthy eating when you're out of your daily routine. My family travels often, so I've had some practice and this series "What We Ate" was created to share some of the ways I've managed to keep us eating well when we're away from home.
Baby's First Finger Foods: Size, Shape, Texture & Flavor
When babies begin eating finger foods, stick or finger shaped foods are great for them to practice with. This allows your baby to firmly hold the food in the palm of their hand and bite off little pieces (with or without teeth). If using baby-led weaning, the stick shape is fantastic for babies who have not yet developed their pincer grasp. Stick shape is still recommended even if your baby was fed purees first and their pincer grasp has already developed by the time they begin finger foods. It helps them to bite, chew, and learn how much food they can safely manage in their mouths.
Garlic Cumin Yam Fries - Great For Baby
This is a great recipe for the whole family. Baby food doesn't have to be bland! After you've introduced your little one to simple and unseasoned foods, you can try adding different herbs and spices to broaden their palate and encourage them to be more adventurous eaters. This recipe for yam fries is a great example of this because it includes garlic & cumin.
Homemade Almond Milk
Guest post by Eve from www.underthebigfirtree.com
I recently met with Carley for a nutrition consultation. I’ve been feeling like I need to switch things up. As a new mama I’ve not been feeling like myself very much lately. She was wonderful and so incredibly knowledgeable. After everything she said, I responded with “That’s interesting.” “That’s really interesting.” “Hmm interesting.” Nutrition is so cool!
The Birth Story Of Clementine
Written by mama, Melissa
I knew before I ever got pregnant that I wanted to have an unmedicated birth. After all, my mom had seven, yes SEVEN, natural births. My husband and I had completed Bradley Method childbirth classes and were both onboard for a healthy, active pregnancy and birth.
I had switched over from an OB doctor to a group of midwives at a natural birthing center at around week 26 of my pregnancy. I had a friendly, capable doctor, however she was not completely onboard with my idea of an intervention-free birth, so we made the switch even though I was well along in my pregnancy. The experience and care I received there was night and day with my experience in the OB office. I was finally ready and excited to continue with the pregnancy under their care and birth at the birthing center.
Foods To Support The Post Weaning Blues
Many breastfeeding mothers find the process of weaning to be emotional. Breastfeeding is a sacred act of bonding and it can be difficult to give up on those quiet moments shared together. Besides the emotional aspect, when breastfeeding becomes less frequent or stops completely you can experience a significant hormonal shift as well.
Delayed postpartum depression, also referred to as post-weaning depression, can surface in varying degrees as a direct result of weaning. It’s more than the general wistful feeling of your baby “growing up entirely too fast”. In some women it can make the everyday tasks of life and motherhood feel completely overwhelming and exhausting.
Labor-Aid: An Energizing Lemon-Lime Electrolyte Drink
During early labor it’s beneficial to continue eating light and nourishing foods to keep energy up, but as sensations start to intensify food often becomes the last thing on a laboring woman’s mind.
Just like any other intense physical activity, staying hydrated throughout labor is also crucial. It’s especially important to ensure that the liquid you consume contains electrolytes. Electrolytes are required for muscle contractions and without them muscles become weak and contractions of the uterus can be less effective.
The Birth Story of Leo: A Vaginal Breech
Written by mama, Alexis
Oh birth… you are such an interesting beast.
I had no idea what to really expect when it came time to give birth. My husband squirms at the site of blood, or any bodily fluids, so the thought of catching a baby made him a little green. When we told my mother that we were planning a home birth I think she wondered if I had paid my taxes and my father kept asking, “What’s a Doooula?” - assuming we were incorporating voodoo into the birth. Then there was the neighbor who felt the need to warn us against a home birth because her friend ended up being rushed to the hospital. Oh, and when we mentioned we had enrolled in a hypnobabies class they all really thought we’d lost our nut. Every birth is different, every woman is different, and every baby is different. We all have our own beliefs and expectations going into birth, and I am so glad that I went into mine informed and on the one side of the spectrum and not the other.