Best Action Plan if Your Baby Needs to Do Some Catch Up Growth
Noah’s Weight Struggles
When Noah was 6 months old, I wanted to use food to help him catch up in weight and growth due to our nursing issues that took awhile to diagnose and treat. I didn’t want to just have him gain weight. I wanted to nourish his body to provide him with optimal health. I think the pictures and his growth chart tell the tale.
You can see how his weight and facial structure changed. His face became wider, which showed the strong bone structure created by proper nutrition. He can be seen at a year climbing up the stairs. In his early months, his weight fell off the chart, but at his one year appointment, he was 56% for weight, 72% for height, and 95% for head. Here is his growth chart: growthchart1year
For any person or baby, nutrition is about quality not quantity. However, especially in a situation where a child needs to perform catch-up growth, The first year (and second year) is critical for growth and development. So, this become
s even more of a priority. They will need high quantities of animal fats that contain the fat soluble activators. All the solid baby food you make for them should also come from natural, organic, pasture-raised, and grass-fed sources if possible.
These are my top priorities:
- NUTRIENT DENSITY
- collagen (from bone broth or a grass-fed collagen powder)
- foods with fat soluble activators A, D, K2
Vitamin A’s Roles:
- proper growth
- protein assimilation
- calcium assimilation
- endocrine system function
- immune function
Noah at 1 year - proper emotional development
Vitamin D’s Roles:
- strong bones
- muscle development
- reproductive function
- proper growth
- immune function
- insulin production
- nervous system function
Vitamin K2’s Roles:
- proper face formation and dental structure
- strength of bones
- proper utilization and storage of calcium
- prevents heart disease
- reproduction
- synthesizes myelin for learning capacity
Here are some examples of foods that you should focus on with your child:
| Key Nutrients for Brain Development | |
| Vitamin A | cod liver oil, liver, butter, egg yolks |
| Vitamin D | cod liver oil, lard, butter, egg yolks |
| Vitamin K2 | butter, egg yolks, organ meats |
| Choline | liver, egg yolks |
| DHA | cod liver oil, liver, butter, egg yolks |
| Zinc | red meat, shellfish |