I’ve always considered myself to be eating healthy, but the problem was that I didn’t know what healthy was. I thought store bought fruit leather and unsweetened applesauce were healthy choices for my children. I believed that it was enough to eat plenty of fruits and vegetables… I thought words like organic and natural meant that they were safe. I bought whole grain bread and tried to convince others to do the same. Boy, did I find out how wrong I was when my daughter at age one began to develop pits in her front teeth; cavities at such a young age! It was very disturbing and shook me to the core as I questioned my healthy choices. She had never had juice, especially in a bottle and candy was a big no-no. So why was this happening? Wasn’t brushing with a “healthy” diet and no bottle or sweets enough to have healthy teeth? It turns out that it’s not.
I took Nova to the dentist and they accessed her. The only preventative treatment offered was a flouride paint. I did it reluctantly as I imagined that if I didn’t, my beautiful girl would soon be cursed with brown stumps. Two months passed and it only got worse. Much worse. I took her back to the dentist. She needed fillings and she was only two. They did the fillings with no anesthesia or pain medication. I held her on my lap as they did the procedure. Tears ran down her cheeks and she shook. A month later, more cavities and deep pits had appeared. I really didn’t want to keep taking her to the dentist, which seemed to only be an expensive, painful and temporary band-aid. And so I started to read. My MIL had gifted me ” Nourishing Traditions” by Sally Fallon. The book spoke to me. It didn’t make sense that the human body could suffer so much at such a young age. I was led to stories from a dentist named Dr. Weston A. Price who traveled the world studying and recording dental health in various cultures. He found people with immaculate teeth and facial structure despite age or gender. Yet the same people but now on a modern diet had terrible teeth with many cavities. All this info can be found in his book “Nutrition and Physical degeneration.”. From that I discovered The book “Cure Tooth Decay” by Ramiel Nagel and I began to follow many of the suggestions. We stopped brushing. Yes, we stopped brushing their teeth and started using a waterpic. I started giving my kids bone broth, organic tomato Juice and fermented cod liver oil. I cut out most grains, except for sprouted or fermented grains. The best thing I did was add in powerful probiotic/cultured foods like kefir, yogurt, kombucha, water kefir, sauerkraut, traditional fermented pickles and kimchi. Even though I didn’t stick to the diet 100%, we have had amazing results. Not only are we all much happier with increased energy, Nova’s pits in her teeth have filled in. Filled in with what? I have no idea! Did I cure my daughter’s tooth decay!?!? I am hopeful. I have a few theories on what happened to her teeth and I’m thinking it’s probably due to a few factors and not just one. One theory is that with moving towards a less traditional diet, babies get depleted throughout the generations and more so with each child. My mom is of Native ancestry which had always eaten things like wild meats, wild berries, fish and they drank lake water (probiotic). That way of eating is quickly diminishing, my brother and I were not raised on such foods, yet we still have fairly good teeth. My Mother’s teeth are amazing. This theory works to explain why my first two boys teeth are fine and we were eating even better by the time Nova came around. Each child takes something from the mother, leaving less for future children if she is not eating nutrient dense foods.
The other thing I have been wondering is if my daughter’s teeth problems are due to an imbalance in her intestinal gut flora. I had antibiotics hours before she was born and babies are suppose to receive their flora from their mothers. Did I have any for her to receive?
There are people who claim that all diseases begin and end in the gut and I am leaning towards believing that as I become witness, not just in our family but others too.
*update January 6, 2013* Her teeth are still looking good, with no more pits*
Emmett, who is two, loves kimchi:
Nadine LeBean and The Life Humblings 
Thats awesome !
How long has it been since your little one has been on the diet? Where do you get bone broth? With the grains, is there still a bread that can be used for sandwiches? I want to try this for my little ones too! Thanks for the post – so informative!!
They’ve been on a stricter diet (following Weston Price) since Christmas time.
I make the bone broth by boiling them with sautéed onions and veggies and a few spoons of vinegar (draws minerals out of bones). I SIMMER it for 24 hrs. We avoid grains that are not sprouted or fermented and that has been enough. Others report needing to avoid grains completely. We eat sprouted grains bread. I like the recipes on this website:
http://kellythekitchenkop.com/2012/03/the-best-no-knead-sourdough-bread-and-why-sourdough-is-the-best-bread-choice.html