Tiny Teeth

A little glimmer of hope for us this week... A little glimmer of hope for those we know with children who have severe tooth decay too, perhaps? Our Tiny has long had a rather alarming amount of dental decay and has been living with a painless abscess on her gum for about 9 months now. We've fretted, researched and thought so much about what to do... We've been monitoring it, cleaning and nursing it and talking with her about it this whole time. We've improved her diet as well as we could (we could possibly do better), and in turn, the decay seems to have halted, but still, the abscess was there. It grew when her immune system was working on protecting her from other things and went down when she was robust and healthy (she's always robust...).

This week it disappeared completely.

We're quietly celebrating (just a little bit). Looking hopefully at one another and doing little happy dances inside. We're holding out on the big GA just that little bit longer and watching still. Watching and hoping and waiting. And trusting that the gut instinct we've had will lead us the right way as it usually does...

Happy Friday, peeps. xx

The Tooth Faerie :: marketing and magic

There's been a bit of excitement in our house... Wobbly teeth all over and Little Owlet has finally been visited for the first time. The owlets have decided that instead of just one universal tooth faerie, each of them has their own dedicated personal tooth faerie, who happens to be a millionaire (or at least have enough money for a gold coin for each tooth - gosh!). You'll be pleased to know that Little Owlet's tooth faerie is named Marigold and she wears a dress spun from spider's silk. There's much talk of silvery moons, dew drops and faerie magic!

Just as we're watching Little Owlet's teeth with anticipation, we're watching Tiny's with a degree of trepidation and making sure the products we use for her and for her teeth are of the purest and gentlest, most nurturing form. Regular fluoride toothpaste bit the dust long ago. We look for products that support and truly clean her teeth with their antibacterial qualities, and we don't mind that we are ingesting them because they are so pure.

With little changes have come some occasional resistance from the owlets. Switching to homemade toothpaste brought doubts from all of us, but I decided it was all in the magic and the marketing...

So I whipped this up:

2 x heaped tablespoons organic coconut oil
1 teaspoon bi-carb soda
10 drops peppermint oil

Mix it around in a small bowl, then pop in a jar and label appropriately. Use as you would regular toothpaste...

They loved it. At first the saltiness of the bi-carb shone through. You could tweak that if you fancied, adding as much coconut oil and peppermint as suits, and I believe you could add a natural sweetener like stevia, if sweetness was your thing. It doesn't bother us now.

Our teeth are cleaner than they've ever been before. And we're quietly surprised and pleased that we're saving money on expensive fluoride-free toothpastes that owlets eat like lollies.

There's also a buzz about having super shiny teeth ready for the tooth faerie's next visit. Yep. It's all in the marketing and in the magic. xx

milk teeth

Can you believe it? This tooth-remineralizing lark... it's working! *touch wood*

If you've not followed Tiny Owlet's journey with her teeth so far, here's a quick re-cap...

Her teeth were decaying and crumbling away as they erupted from the gum. She was in occasional, but increasingly frequent pain. The dentist took one look at them and announced that a GA would be needed to pull the worst and fill the others and there's nothing we could do about it... but it wasn't urgent until her pain was constant. So there was time...

So we looked at Ramiel Nagel's book Cure Tooth Decay with a renewed sense of urgency and removed all grains, sugars and most fruits from her diet, while upping good fats, meat, seafood and green leafy veggies. Our daily use of fermented cod liver oil and butter oil blend stepped up a notch to include skate liver oil. And we drank lots more water. And broth. Our house smells like soup.

A couple of months down the track and Tiny's teeth are completely pain-free. But better still, the decay is starting to go. On close inspection, her chipped front tooth, with brown at the back, has an increasing line of white dots appearing as the enamel grows and hardens. The skeptic in me is completely surprised. But the evidence is there before our eyes.

So it looks like this primal/WAPF/tooth decay diet thing really works. And it is here to stay... at least until those brown-turning-white milk teeth fall out on their own, in their own time. And the tooth fairy will most definitely celebrate.

Wish us luck. xx

primal nest

We seem to be finding some kind of rhythm in our nest with our meals most days. We're eating a smaller range of foods than ever, but we're feeling happier about our choices and healthier and stronger for them. Most days we are finding abundance within our smaller range of options. Nowadays, a visit to a supermarket means a quick tour around the perimeter and then home. The majority of aisles hold almost nothing for us... Smaller local shops and the farmers market are where we shop now and we're happy for the time saved, although our food bill has almost doubled. Our morning tea platters are looking a bit different...



Earlier in the month we woke daily with Tiny pointing to her chipped front tooth and saying "teeth hurting" with a pained expression. Big gulp and off to the dentist we went... where our suspicions and worst fears were confirmed. The dentist recommended a general anaesthetic to remove Tiny's tooth and fillings in 6 of her 8 top teeth. However, she did give us a glimmer of hope that as Tiny's pain wasn't constant, we could work on reducing its sensitivity and managing pain for as long as possible. Because Tiny is only 2yo, we're much more comfortable holding off any intervention for as long as we can... So we do this. Right now, thanks to our current diet, her pain has stopped and we are getting on with things as they are.

I'll save going into our regular meals and what we actually eat for another time, but I can tell you we are not eating any grains, sugars (refined or otherwise), legumes, nuts and most fruit. Dairy, meat/fish, vegetables, the occasional berry, eggs and fats are where it's at, for us. Most days are great! Some days are hard. Today was hard. We woke with extra hungry bellies and not much in the fridge. The owlets were missing comfort foods and baking them with me. So we made crackers. They lasted 10 minutes.



Primal Cheddar & Herb Crackers

3 heaped tbsp coconut flour
1 large egg
1 - 2 cups grated cheddar cheese - organic and not ultra-pasteurised, if possible.
2tbsp butter - organic, grass fed if possible. Softened, unless you are using a food processor.
1/2 tsp baking powder
1tbsp sized bunch of fresh herbs
generous pinch of salt

Preheat the oven to 180 deg.
Mix together in food processor or by hand, with a fork, until it comes together in a nice ball. Add more cheese if the dough feels too sticky.
Roll to about 2mm, between two sheets of baking paper, remove top sheet, and place on baking tray.
Score rolled dough into squares & mark all over with a fork.
Bake for about 12 mins until slightly golden and the house smells yummy.
Cool on a rack before devouring.