Tag: plantbased

Homemade Infant and Toddler Formula

Post author By abundantpeaceandhealth
Post date November 19, 2020
20 Comments on Homemade Infant and Toddler Formula

Every new mom has high hopes of breastfeeding their infant. We know that breast milk is best for our little ones and as moms we desire to provide what is best. I personally breastfed my boy for three years on a restrictive diet due to all of his food allergies. However, supplementing with this homemade infant formula when he had trouble eating solids was a turning point for our son to gain much needed weight.

Before you try an alterative infant formula, I encourage you to check all breastfeeding resources available to you. It is possible to breastfeed a baby with multiple food allergies when the mom eliminates all allergens from her diet. There are also natural methods you can use to increase milk supply. Two helpful resources are KellyMom.com and Ellen Fisher’s e-book “Breastfeeding”.

Who is this Homemade Infant Formula for?

There are multiple infant formulas on the market, but your baby may not tolerate any of them or you may wish to find a healthier alternative. This homemade infant formula may be just what you’re looking for. It is especially designed for:

Infants whose moms cannot produce enough breast milk or need to abruptly stop breastfeeding due to a medical procedure.
Infants with multiple food allergies and mom has a hard time adjusting her diet to continue breastfeeding.
Infants who struggle to gain weight with breast milk alone.
Toddlers who, due to health conditions, struggle to eat solid food and depend on formula for nutrition.

I can say with confidence that this formula will be adequate for babies starting at 6 months of age. However, I know of mothers with babies as young as four months old who have exclusively used this formula successfully. Use your own judgment when considering your child’s condition to establish if this formula is a good option for you. My son was two-and-a-half years old when we began supplementing with this formula. He barely ate solid food and this was his main source of nutrition for a year. At one point, he drank 28 oz of this homemade formula a day. Read more about his story here.

The Issues with Store-Bought Formula

Why go through the struggle of making a homemade formula? Why not simplify life and use regular, store-bought formula? After all, it has gone through extensive testing and approval to be certified as baby formula. Let’s take a closer look:

Dairy-based formula

The most commonly prescribed infant formula is dairy-based. There’s a good reason for this. Dairy is high in lactose, a good source of sugar and calories. Dairy also has plenty of fat that babies need to develop. The problem? Many babies, if not most, cannot tolerate dairy. It causes reflux, diarrhea, constipation, eczema, and asthma. Even if an infant may appear to tolerate dairy at first, they may be at a higher risk of developing these symptoms and diseases later.

Standard dairy-based formula is also filled with unhealthy oils such as palm oil, soy oil, and high oleic sunflower oil. Most of these formulas use nonfat milk, which is more processed and requires these refined oils be added. A health-conscious adult would not eat these oils on a regular basis, so why feed them to an infant?

Lastly, dairy formulas lack healthy, living bacteria and nutrients to feed the healthy bacteria. It is well established that a healthy microbiome is vital to health. Good, balanced microbiota live in living plant organisms. Additionally, it is essential to create a gut environment that will grow good bacteria. Some formulas may add probiotics. However, it is important to note that there are many different types of bacteria in our natural environment, but only a few are used in high amount in probiotics. This in itself can cause dysbiosis – an imbalance of the gut microbiota. It is best to trust the microbiome naturally occurring in food and nature.

Soy-based formula

The first alternative formulas prescribed to babies with a dairy allergy or sensitivity are soy-based formulas.

I am a strict vegetarian; I believe in a plant-based diet from infancy. However, I would rather give my child a dairy-based formula than a store-bought, soy formula.

The first ingredient in soy formula is either corn-syrup or brown rice syrup. According to their labels, 54% of the ingredients in soy formula come from these unhealthy sugars. I don’t think I need to go into detail about why this is horrifying. Again, no health-conscious adult would ever eat a diet based on 54% corn-syrup or brown rice syrup. How are we feeding this to infants?

Yes, breastmilk is around 50% sugar, but we cannot compare natural breastmilk sugars to processed corn-syrup or brown-rice syrup.

The ingredients that follow are refined vegetable oils (26%): palm oil, soy oil, coconut oil, and high oleic sunflower oils. So far, 80% of the ingredients don’t sound healthy or nutritious. Then we have the soy protein isolate and added vitamins and minerals.

And as with dairy-based formulas, soy formulas also do not provide healthy bacteria for a strong gut microbiome.

Elemental formula

When a child is allergic to dairy and soy, an elemental formula is prescribed. It is thought that the protein in foods is what causes an allergic response. For this reason, elemental formulas contain broken-down proteins, amino-acids, to make them easier to digest and not cause an allergic reaction.

EleCare and Neocate are the most commonly used formulas for infants with multiple food allergies. Similar to soy formula, elemental formulas contain as the main ingredients: corn-syrup (55%) and refined vegetable oil (24%: comprising palm oil, coconut oil, high oleic sunflower oil, and canola oil or soy oil).

For older children, Neocate Splash is available. The main ingredient here is actually water (85%), followed by maltodextrin (6%), sugar (5%), and refined vegetable oil (high oleic sunflower oil, palm oil, coconut oil, and canola oil). At first sight this looks like a better option, and I think it is. However, maltodextrin is associated with worsening irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), Crohn’s disease, and increasing bad gut bacteria.

Sugars increase bad gut bacteria and these formulas don’t provide any healthy, living bacteria. Most infants and toddlers who have multiple food allergies already have an unhealthy microbiome, autoimmune conditions, and digestive issues. These formulas make the root cause of their disease even worse, making it harder to heal.

My son reacted to all these formulas with vomiting or diarrhea. He did best with Neocate Splash, but at the end it caused him diarrhea as well. Read about how we made the switch to this homemade infant formula here.

Allergy-Friendly Alternative Infant Formula

The homemade infant formula I want to share is plant-based, meaning it has no animal products. It is soy-free, nut-free, corn-free, and gluten-free. Yet, it is very nutritious. (Read the notes at the end for alternative ingredients.)

Fats
Infants and toddlers need more fat than adults to help develop their fast-growing brains. This homemade infant formula provides most of its calories from fats through coconut milk and flax seed oil.

Carbohydrates
Sprouted quinoa and buckwheat are the main source of sugars and carbohydrates in this formula. Coconut also provides a good amount of it.

Protein
For protein, this formula uses one of the most easily digestible legumes – sprouted mung beans.

Importance of Sprouting

Infants have a sensitive digestive track that has not been fully developed yet. Breastmilk provides easy-to-digest nutrition that is hard to find in solid foods. Toddlers with health conditions also have a sensitive digestive system which requires special consideration.

Sprouting the quinoa, buckwheat, and mung beans greatly increases their nutritional content and makes these foods easier to digest. Do not skip this step!

Especially if you are dealing with a baby or a chronically-ill toddler, you want to make sure these foods are sprouted. However, do not use sprouts raw! They can be filled with bad bacteria and hard to digest.

Soak the quinoa, buckwheat, and mung beans overnight and let them sprout in a strainer for two days (wash twice a day). Cook the quinoa and buckwheat in water for about 20 to 30 minutes and cook mung beans for 1 hour.

Important Nutritional Notes

Omega 3 is crucial for the development of healthy babies. For this reason, the formula includes 1 tablespoon of flax seed oil. However, flax seed oil can go rancid very fast and it can not be heated. A better option is ground flax seed. When your child is around seven-month- old, you can start mixing ground flax seed with baby food. Our favorite way is in smoothies or with avocado. Start with ½ teaspoon and increase the amount slowly as they grow. At around two-years-old, use 2 teaspoons.

Vitamin B12 is a bacteria needed for healthy brain development and it is not available in plant-based food. You will need to find a good, healthy supplement. We use Global Healing Center B-12. Just a few drops under the tongue once a week will be enough for infants and toddlers. Another great way to get vitamin B12 and other healthy bacteria is to play in the dirt! Take your children to nature or garden with them. Let them get dirty playing in the soil. This is not a reliable method of getting B12, but it has multiple health benefits.

Vitamin D is a hormone essential for the immune system and our overall health. Although Vitamin D is not found in plant foods, we can get it from the sun! Take your infant or toddler out into the sunshine daily, without sunscreen. Let their skin soak in as much sunrays as possible without getting burnt. In the winter, however, you may want to consider supplementing with vitamin D. We use this vitamin D supplement.

Homemade Infant Formula Recipe

Finally, onto the homemade infant formula recipe. Our son LOVES this formula. It tastes very good—in my opinion, much better tasting than any store-bought formula.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups coconut water (12 oz)
1 cup full fat canned coconut milk (8 oz)
½ cup mung beans (sprouted and cooked)
¼ cup quinoa (sprouted and cooked)
¼ cup buckwheat (sprouted and cooked)
1 tbsp flax seed oil (optional if child eats ground flax seeds)
2 dates (optional to sweeten)

Instructions:

Put all ingredients in a high-speed blender. Blend until smooth (about 3 minutes). Strain using a fine mesh strainer. Refrigerate in a glass container for up to 3 days. This recipe will make 26 oz.

Notes

You can substitute the coconut water and milk with 1-2 fresh young coconuts (water and meat depending on size). This will avoid the possible toxins found in the can lining. However, we have always used canned coconut milk.
Make sure the coconut water and coconut milk you buy don’t have any other added ingredients like sugar or preservatives (Guar Gum is ok). It may be hard to find pure coconut milk, but get the best you can. We buy ours at Trader Joe’s.
Substitutes in case of allergy:
- if your child reacts to mung beans, try sprouted red lentils or sprouted split peas
- if your child reacts to quinoa, try using a pseudo grain called Kaniwa or double the portion of buckwheat
- if your child reacts to buckwheat, try using Kaniwa or double the portion of quinoa
The dates are really not needed in the recipe but we did use them when we transitioned from regular formula that is very sweet. While our son adjusted to a sugar-free formula, we used 6 dates. Then, we slowly reduced the amount of dates. Now, we don’t use any dates.
Pro tip: sprout and cook the quinoa, buckwheat, and mung beans in bulk. Then, freeze them in bags to always have at hand. I made this milk daily for over a year. It can get tiring at times but having the ingredients ready to use in the freezer was of huge help.

Tags failure to thrive, food allergies, formula, infant, plantbased

Our Story

Part 7 – The Autoimmune Plant-Based Protocol

Post author By abundantpeaceandhealth
Post date October 15, 2020
1 Comment on Part 7 – The Autoimmune Plant-Based Protocol

To read our story from the beginning click here.

At the end of 2017, I was filled with hope again when God reassured His promise of healing. I was starting 2018 with faith that God was still leading us, and we were on the right path. Seeking help one more time, I reached out to another medical missionary worker who was recommended as being very experienced with autoimmune diseases and gut issues. Mercy Ballard at Years Restored was willing to work with us hand-in-hand to guide us. She warned me that it would take much effort and training, but she was confident that by the grace of God, He would show us the way to bring healing to Lucas. Mercy proposed the Autoimmune Plant-based Protocol that she has used multiple times to help individuals heal. In her experience, it takes two to four months to heal the gut. Due to Lucas’ severity, we were looking at 4 months of the strictest and most disciplined lifestyle before we would see clear improvements. Mercy prayed with me and asked God to guide us as we started this new protocol.

The Autoimmune Plant-Based Protocol

The Autoimmune Plant-Based Protocol recognizes that the root cause of autoimmune diseases is found in the gut. Therefore, the focus is on healing the digestive system. This is achieved through a very strict, predominantly raw, plant-based diet. In addition, natural remedies are catered to each individual to restore the microbiome and heal the gut. The principle is to remove inflammatory foods, replace harmful foods with healing foods, and repair the digestive system with natural remedies. This healing process incorporates a wholistic look at the person. Consequently, all-around healthy lifestyle habits are essential. You can read about these lifestyle principles here.

The Autoimmune Plant-Based Diet

The Autoimmune Plant-Based Diet is rich in raw vegetables, legumes, pseudo grains (quinoa, buckwheat, amaranth), seeds, and low-sugar fruits. It avoids all animal products, gluten, grains, soy, nuts, oils, and high-sugar fruits such as bananas, oranges, grapes, etc. Additionally, the legumes, pseudo grains, and seeds must be soaked and sprouted to decrease antinutrients such as Lectins. The sprouting process makes these foods easier to digest and gives the body the ability to absorb more nutrients—something critical for those suffering with malabsorption or gut issues.

Natural Remedies

One unique aspect of this protocol is that no supplements are used. All-natural remedies come from foods. My husband and I had spent a fortune on multiple supplements with no results. This protocol was certainly a different approach. Natural Remedies are based on powerful foods such as onion, garlic, herbs, aloe vera, turmeric, and ginger. In addition, charcoal, hydrotherapy, and enemas are used in specific cases.

Adopting the New Protocol

Mercy was right when she told me that it would take a lot of training and effort to adopt every aspect of the Autoimmune Plant-Based Protocol. It was a whole new way of eating and cooking. Lucas was still mostly nursing. Because my breast milk was his main source of nutrition, I also had to implement these changes in my own diet. I was already plant-based. Additionally, we had eliminated what seemed like a lot of foods: gluten, soy, rice, oats, peas, most nuts, squashes, and nightshades (potato, tomato, eggplant, bell pepper). Now, we also had to eliminate corn, almonds, millet (all grains), and most fruits. I had to learn to cook with buckwheat, quinoa, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seed, chia, flax seed, legumes and as many raw vegetables as possible.

Another challenge we faced was feeding Lucas. In the two years of unstoppable allergic reactions, our son had learned to associate food with pain and illness. Because of this, he often refused to eat. Furthermore, he had developed sensory problems that led him to not eat certain food textures. One of the few foods he loved was homemade corn chips with avocado. But now we had to find a way to replace the corn chips and add more raw vegetables in his diet.

We immediately implemented these changes into our diet. I bought foods I had never heard of such as buckwheat and mung beans. We purchased a food dehydrator which helped us add raw foods in our diet. The foods we had to eliminate we replaced with other, more healing foods and began experimenting in the kitchen. Mercy guided us and we thought of recipes that could work for Lucas. My mom and I created raw crackers from sunflower seeds and veggies. I started blending avocado with cilantro, parsley, basil, spinach, green onion, garlic, and lemon into a pesto of sorts, which helped us add more raw vegetables into Lucas’ diet. We made raw buckwheat granola with fruit for breakfast and lentil/quinoa crackers with the pesto for lunch.

It was not easy to convince Lucas to try these new foods but with lots of prayer and persistence, Lucas started accepting these changes.

Natural Remedies Implemented

We knew that Lucas’ health struggles all started in the gut. He had a severe case of leaky gut and dysbiosis (imbalance of the gut microbiota). It was crucial to heal the lining of the digestive track, remove the bad gut bacteria, and add good gut bacteria. The diet would certainly help in this process, but more work was needed to help his body heal. There were three remedies we implemented with success:

Onion/Garlic Broth
The purpose of this broth was to reduce inflammation of the digestive track and kill the bad gut bacteria. Lucas was to drink it three times a day before meals.
Aloe Vera Juice
We blended fresh aloe vera gel with water and stevia leaf—a drink which coats the digestive system and promotes healing of the gut lining. Lucas was to drink this before each meal and at nighttime.
Enemas
There are a number of purposes for enemas. In our case, enemas helped to stop Lucas’ diarrhea and restore his microbiome. We used garlic broth enemas to kill the bad gut bacteria and vegetable juice enemas to introduce good bacteria.

It was not easy giving Lucas these natural remedies. There was a lot of trial and error. We started with the onion/garlic broth and aloe vera juice. We were not always able to give it to him three times daily but we did our best. Juicing would have been beneficial but Lucas refused to drink it. I tried giving him charcoal to drink with water to also help his digestive system. However, because of his sensory problems, he could not tolerate the sandy texture and always threw up.

We quickly realized that drinking the broth and aloe vera would not be enough to balance his gut bacteria. Although Lucas’ vomiting was improving, he still had severe diarrhea. He needed something that addressed the gut more directly. This is where the enemas came in. The thought of doing enemas on my child was not pleasant, but we tried it and Lucas did amazing! It caused him no pain or discomfort. He realized that the enemas brought him relief and never fought us.

We tried onion broth enemas first to stop the diarrhea but that did not work. We moved on to something stronger—garlic broth enemas. Garlic is powerful and can burn. Therefore, we had to be careful to have the right strength. I cooked three garlic cloves in 1 cup of water and strained it to use the broth for the enema. We performed the enema, and, for the first time in two years, his diarrhea stopped! However, 24 hours later his diarrhea returned. We had to do garlic broth enemas daily to keep the diarrhea away. We were excited to find something that worked to stop the diarrhea, but we had no way of knowing how long we would have to keep up with the daily enemas. Furthermore, although Lucas was now having only 2-3 bowel movements a day, it was evident from his stools that he was still not digesting food well.

Faith Required

In April 2018, we were entering the third month of strictly following the Autoimmune Plant-based Protocol. We finally felt we had figured out all of Lucas’ food allergies and had a list of safe foods. His vomiting had gotten much better and it was no longer a daily struggle. However, we knew we were still dealing with malabsorption. Lucas was still not gaining weight, his skin was still covered in eczema, and he still had no strength.

The protocol required the most diligent discipline, which took time and effort. It was draining. It was not easy. We were uncertain of the future. We had tried so many medicines by now that we questioned whether this would be another fail. However, God was teaching me an important lesson. Any medicine that comes from God will required discipline, obedience, and faith.

God had promised healing in 2018. He was moving quickly although we could not fully see it yet. There was one more therapy that God had prepared for us – the Avène Hydrotherapy Center.

Tags autoimmune disease, eczema, eoe, failure to thrive, natural healing, plantbased, protocol

Recipes

Simple 6 Ingredient Quinoa Bread

Post author By abundantpeaceandhealth
Post date September 2, 2020
12 Comments on Simple 6 Ingredient Quinoa Bread

Simple 6 Ingredient Quinoa Bread

One of the hardest foods to replace when making lifestyle changes is bread. We are accustomed to eating bread every day or at every meal in certain cultures. However, bread, as we know it today, does not provide much nutrition. In many cases bread has become empty calories, filling our stomach but not nourishing our mind and body. For many people wheat is also inflammatory, making it even more crucial to find a replacement. The problem with gluten-free breads is that many use corn flour or white rice flour which are not much better and can also cause inflammation. Whatever your reason for wanting to reduce or eliminate bread consumption, I have a great recipe for you.

This recipe is very forgiving in the sense that it is easy to test out and still get a great bread. I have made several different varieties of this bread, so feel free to play around. Your essentials are the quinoa, salt, and flaxseed. This recipe does require a good food processor although it may also be done in a Vitamix blender with some effort.

Ingredients:

3.5 cups quinoa
1/3 cup water
1 cup sunflower seed
1 cup ground flaxseed
1.5 tbsp honey or 3 Tbsp coconut sugar
1 tsp salt

Instructions:

Soak quinoa and sunflower seeds, separately, for at least 8 hours or overnight.
After soaking, rinse quinoa and sunflower seeds very well using a strainer. You may leave the quinoa covered in the strainer during the day to give it a chance to sprout or you may use it right away. Sprouting is recommended for those with sensitive digestion, but the recipe will work either way.

Put the quinoa and water in a food processor and process between 5 to 10 minutes until the quinoa is fully grinded and pasty.
Add the sunflower seeds, honey or coconut sugar, and salt, and process for another 3 minutes.
Add the ground flaxseed and process for a few minutes. The dough should become thick at this point.
Add water or more flaxseed meal as needed until you have the desired consistency as shown below.

Place parchment paper on a cooking tray. Take a large spoon of dough, place it on the parchment paper, and mold the dough into a biscuit using a wet spatula.

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 ºF or until golden brown.

After the quinoa bread has cooled, store it in an air tight container or bag for up to 2 weeks in the refrigerator. You may also store the bread in the freezer to preserve for longer time.

Enjoy!

Tags bread, gluten free, healthy, plantbased, quinoa, vegan