New Book: Super Nutrition for Babies - An Interview with the Authors

I have always been concerned about good nutrition and grew up eating a mostly real foods diet although influenced by the low fat dogma of the day. I was not introduced to Nourishing Traditionsand the whole realm of traditional foods until 2006 when my older daughter was 2. When I first read Nourishing TraditionsI was absolutely fascinated by it and couldn’t put it down. When my second child came along two years later I understood the basics of how to approach traditional eating but I still found it confusing to know what to do with my infant. Since my older daughter has a wheat intolerance I was very committed to avoiding all grains with my younger daughter till her 2 year molars came in. Otherwise I really felt unsure of how to feed her and combined information I got from many sources trying to figure out what was best. I felt like most sources of baby feeding advice were tainted by commercial interests and the current health fads.

When I was offered a copy of this new book I said that I would have to read it before I could suggest it to my readers. I was skeptical that any book on feeding babies would be one that I was comfortable with endorsing. Knowing that Dr Natasha Campbell-McBride has endorsed this book gave me hope that I was wrong. I am pleased to say that I was wrong. Dr Katherine Erlich and Kelly Genzlinger have really put together some great information on feeding babies all in one place. They take traditional wisdom and modern science and show how they both support this approach to feeding babies and young children. There is even a chapter on how a nursing mother should be eating to optimize the nutrition in her milk and minimize the drain on her own nutritional stores. This is information I wish that I would have had to guide my care of my first baby. Perhaps then we wouldn’t have needed GAPS.

Super Nutrition for Babies: The Right Way to Feed Your Baby for Optimal Health

Today I have an interview with the authors of Super Nutrition for Babiesto share with you. I’m sure this book with be a valuable resource to Parents, grandparents and other caregivers of babies and young children.

1 Tell us about your new baby feeding book:
Super Nutrition for Babiesis, by far, the best baby feeding resource available to parents today. It not only talks about organic and natural feeding, it explains the importance of whole and real foods. We all “get” that processed foods are not healthy, but this book tells you why. In fact, it is a throw-back to how your great-grandmother would have fed your grandmother … Honestly, it is not like any other baby feeding book that we have seen. That’s one of the reasons we wrote it; we didn’t have a resource we could stand behind and recommend to our patients for what we consider truly healthy baby feeding.

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2 You say it is not like any other baby feeding book out there, what do you mean?
Well, with the extensive research and reviews of other baby feeding books that went into creating Super Nutrition for Babies, we didn’t find one book that did a good job of explaining what is really important in baby feeding. It is a given that texture and timing are important, and organic is great if you can afford it, and homemade is best if you’ve got the time. What was lacking in all the other baby feeding books we found was that they didn’t highlight and explain what we have found to be the really important factors of baby feeding: digestibility, purity, and nutrient-worth. We explain that how a baby’s digestive system develops should dictate what foods are fed, how they are prepared and when they are introduced. We also explain how purity factors into health and feeding, considering today’s toxic world. The concept of “nutrient-worth” that we introduce explains how the food you choose to feed your baby should be worthy of their growing bodies and minds and must meet their greatest needs, considering the accelerated growth and cognitive development seen in infancy through toddlerhood. Using these key criteria, we were able to introduce the concept of “protective nutrition”.

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3 Ok, that “Protective Nutrition” concept sounds interesting. Tell us more about it.
“Protective nutrition” is a way of feeding your child to maximize your child’s health and minimize the chances that your baby will become sick. Unfortunately, having a child with recurrent infections or an illness like asthma, allergies, and even autism isn’t surprising these days. Children are experiencing life threatening asthma and allergies at epidemic rates. More than 1 in 100 children are autistic, with one in 38 children shows autistic signs. 1 in 3 children born after the year 2000 will develop diabetes. What we reveal in Super Nutrition for Babiesis that parents can actually feed their babies in a way that reduces their chances of develop these conditions. For example, did you know the type of milk you feed your child impacts the likelihood that they develop allergies and asthma? Wouldn’t you like to choose the kind that statistically safeguards them from these conditions? And did you know there is a supplement that you can give your child that will significantly reduce likelihood of colds, fevers, coughs, and most chronic diseases? This is the kind of information that parents will find valuable, and the book is loaded with such facts, helpful hints, recipes, and how-tos, in addition to our overall Super “protective” Nutrition program.

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4 It does seem that kids today have more illnesses than we did, and it is scary. Why do you think this is happening?
You are right – it is very scary. And this is exactly why we wrote this book. We are seeing a marked increase in diseases that are not attributable to better diagnostic tools, or to over-reactive parents. These conditions are on an upswing due to environmental factors – and much of that is diet related – due to a combination of deficient nutrients which are lacking in our children’s diets and toxins found in their food and their environment. We want parents to realize that they can take preventive action and can create the strongest foundation of health for their child. By doing so, parents will be maximizing their child’s best chances for long-term health and happiness.

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5 It sounds like the information in your book focuses on creating a foundation for good health. How is this different from what doctors tell parents already?
Good question, glad you asked. In Super Nutrition for Babies, we cover some controversial topics including the need for healthy fats, the detriments of sugar, and the problems with introducing grains too early. We recommend meats be introduced early and soy be avoided. We even discuss raw dairy and provide recipes for making homemade baby formula. We are so proud to be providing this information to parents who are “hungry” for information about how they can naturally help and protect their children’s health. If parents have doubts, we implore them to read why we advocate these things for the proper development and growth of their children. We urge any parent or grandparent to read Super Nutrition for Babies, even if they no longer have babies at home, as we feel the knowledge that can be gained from this book is helpful to people of all ages. All the parents we’ve worked with find a sense of empowerment with this information, as well as relief and joy over the fact that true nutrition and proper diet can protect their children and provide them with the nutrients they need to develop optimally – of sound body and mind.

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6 My subscribers might want to know more about the authors of this interesting and important book; please tell us about yourselves.
I am Kelly Genzlinger, a certified nutritional consultant and mother of three elementary-school aged children. For many years, my children battled health issues that were significantly affecting their quality of life. When I looked to modern medicine to “cure” them, we were sadly disappointed. As someone with an analytical mind who was desperate to help my children, I went to work studying holistic nutrition, biochemical pathways, the endocrine system, anthropology, traditional foods, digestion, and how nutrients are used by the body. With this knowledge, I helped restore my children to ideal health. I wanted to share this life-changing information with other parents. Ultimately, I achieved three professional certifications in holistic health and nutrition. Super Nutrition for Babiesis a culmination of all my research, professional, and personal experience - a decade in the making. In addition to this book, I have also written Sugar … Stop the Addiction, have appeared on local cable television shows, been a featured speaker at wellness events, developed and taught classes, and have worked in several complementary medicine centers – all in an effort to help others understand the healing and preventive powers of natural eating.

My name is Katherine Erlich. I am the mother of two and a board certified pediatrician. For 11 years, I was a regular doctor, working in a big practice, seeing lots of kids each day. I loved my job, but so many days I would see kids for whom I couldn’t help with the conventional medicine that I had learned in school. This was really frustrating and heart breaking - to want to help more but to not know how. It wasn’t until my son started having medical issues for which I couldn’t “fix” that I really pushed myself to learn more and finally leave my big office and start my own holistic practice. With my new knowledge of nutrition and supplements, I saw some quite amazing improvements. Kids stopped catching so many colds, stopped being angry or depressed; their skin improved, and their behavior calmed down. What a pleasure! To see the impact that nutrition can have is really quite powerful. Wouldn’t it be ideal to support children from the very beginning so that they don’t have to go down the road of chronic illness? This is really what I hope Super Nutrition for Babieswill be – a way for parents to gain the knowledge and the power to give their children the best gift ever - the chance to be the best they can be.

I am going to have more from this book later this week including an excerpt and an opportunity to ask the authors questions you may have. Next week I will be giving away a copy of the book! Be sure to subscribe to my e-mail updates so that you don’t miss it!