Many parents think that introducing fermented foods to their children will cause a revolt. Maybe for some picky eaters, it does. That’s why we have covered that topic in Five Ways to Introduce Fermented Foods to Kids and gave you some ideas for child-friendly snacks in Healthy Fermented Lunchbox Treats. If you have the option of starting at infancy, you are a step ahead of the game. And that is just what The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care will do for you. Continue reading Ashley’s review for more information.
Time and time again when I ask people what first interested them in fermenting, they cite the book Nourishing Traditions. From my own family members to one of my favorite bloggers, Nourishing days, Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon, inspired a generation to look into the foods their grandparents ate to rediscover their health naturally. More than a decade later, Sally Fallon partnered with Dr. Thomas Cowan to expand upon the wisdom shared in Nourishing Traditions to write a book specifically dedicated to the care of babies and children through the use of traditional diets—The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care.
Written almost as a natural version of What to Expect When You’re Expecting, the book covers health and nutrition from pre-conception, through newborn interventions, vaccines, formula, breastfeeding, child spacing and birth control, as well as allergies and illnesses all the way through the teenage years.
As to be expected, the book is awash with recipes, and states that its own goal is to make Dr. Weston A. Price’s dietary guidelines for ensuring health and vitality “available to modern parents, with primary emphasis on a nutrient-dense diet starting before conception and continuing through pregnancy, breastfeeding and the period of growth.”
The authors stress the importance of creating a good probiotic environment for both baby and mother.
“Good bacteria in mom’s gut will also flourish in her birth canal and even in her milk ducts. Baby’s environment in the womb is thought to be sterile, but the bacterial the baby encounters during birth are the bacteria that will populate his own intestinal tract….The vehicle for inoculating the intestinal tract with good bacteria, and for keeping them there, is lacto-fermented foods.”—(Fallon Morell & Cowan, pg. 26)
This book of baby and child care encourages you to look outside of the commonly known lacto-fermented foods, such as sauerkraut, and to expand your fermented repertoire to include foods that few people realize are actually lacto-fermented probiotic powerhouses:
- raw milk buttermilk
- yogurt
- kefir
- traditionally made salami and gravlax
- traditional sodas
- kombucha
- kvass
Recipes include a wide selection of whole foods cuisine, as well as over a dozen different lacto-ferments, to encourage mothers to try to incorporate ferments into their family’s diet as often as possible. For instance, milk and cream in baked goods are replaced with buttermilk, cultured cream or kefir. Salt or vinegar are often replaced by sauerkraut juice for an extra probiotic dose.
If you loved the original Nourishing Traditions, you’ll love how The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Child Care takes the topic of whole foods to a new level by explaining the importance of whole foods and ferments in human development.
***********************************
Fermentools wants to be there for you as you begin your fermenting journey. To get off on the right foot, please continue reading with other posts. And to get the best tools on the market for fermenting, visit our online store.
****************************************