Paleo Diet and Paleolithic Diet Questions & Answers

Question

0

My kid is pretty paleo and before that was pretty WAPF. However, I had an ironically imperfect pregnancy that resulted in 1. my inability to walk for the last 4 prenatal months, and 2. my relying on lots of carby cruddy foods (such as cheese and crackers) because those are the foods that were brought to me as I lay there wanting to tear my hair out.

Now my 3 year old is showing signs of having a crowded jaw. His teeth grow inward, if that makes sense. Is there anything I can do nutritionally to reverse this? I understand that it's an issue of formation in the womb. But I also feel hellbent (having been a big WAPF adherent before I became immoble, and that great big jaw is a WAPF health benchmark ) to reverse it if I can.

He's a healthy kid, I think. Great diet, still nursing, very limited vaccination and a cold only a couple times in his life. Beautiful skin, no eczema or athsma (as I have). Fit and strong and only sometimes a hyper-active little freakazoid.

I know whatever I would do do improve his dental health would improve his overall health, and we are mostly doing it. I just want to know how high to set my expectations. So,

Can my child's crowded jaw be improved by diet?

Thank you! Koko

flag	asked Sep 6 2011 at 2:22 Koko 698●4●9

	I did eat a lot of sardines on salads, once I could sort-of walk again at the end. But the bone broths and good fats, etc. went out the window at around month 5. – Koko Sep 6 2011 at 2:26
	did he ever use a bottle? – cliff Sep 6 2011 at 3:30
	Cliff, he used a bottle beginning at 4 months old, two days a week for maybe 4 hours a day while I ramped up to going back to work. He is still nursing (at sleeping and waking, naps and bedtime) at 3 years, 4 months. He never was a big bottle kid and never used a pacifier. – Koko Sep 6 2011 at 4:15

Suz - Paleo Oz · Answer 1 · 2011-09-06 03:39:20Z UTC

I can't recommend highly enough that you listen to the AHS lecture by Michael Mew. He's an orthodontist and his lecture (the second half of the dentist lecture) was one of the highlights of the whole AHS for me.

Listen for yourself, but my take-aways were how allergies force babies to breathe through their mouth instead of their nose, changing the shape of their jaw from wide to narrow. This leaves a lot less room for teeth and overcrowding. The motion of feeding through a bottle also changes the shape of a babies jaw, leading to the same issues. I think he mentioned weening on soft foods and also causing problems.

He was talking about how he treats young children and completely changes the shape of their jaw, meaning they never need conventional orthodontics - and always have straight teeth.

Harfatum · Answer 2 · 2011-09-06 02:26:30Z UTC

3

In short, get him his Vitamin K (preferably from animal sources), make sure his nutrition is good, and give him chewy food. Stephan Guyenet has a whole series on this!

http://wholehealthsource.blogspot.com/2009/12/malocclusion-disease-of-civilization.html

answered Sep 6 2011 at 2:26

Harfatum
1,374●4●11

Thank you, Harfatum. Great blog, and very inspiring. More chewy food it will be. – Koko Sep 6 2011 at 4:17

kris · Answer 3 · 2011-09-06 09:42:22Z UTC

just my two cents -- if there is any Nordic/Scandinavian in your lineage, narrow jaws sometimes can be present. I have one son who favor my Norwegian heritage and very much needed ortho treatmeant....no diet was going to realign his jaws or teeth...I am 42 and use Invisalign to realign things better. My younger son favors my wife's German background...much more broader chin and jaw and good teeth. Usually the only thing an orthodontist will do for a yonger kid is use a palate expander to help create space in the jaw for the teeth. Braces come a bit later around 13+ yrs old.

Orthotropics · Answer 4 · 2012-08-03 13:43:41Z UTC

Wow, I've just seen my self mentioned above. I am coming to speak at the AHF in Harvard and wanted to tune up my presentation, there is no point going over the last stuff but I don't want to go too fast and lose everyone. Could a few of you possibly do me a really big favor and read through some of the posts that I have just put here and give me some feedback on the questions that I have asked. It would be really helpful in making some final touches to the presentation and presenting something ground breaking.

Thanks

Mike Mew

omatic · Answer 5 · 2012-08-03 14:29:33Z UTC

0

Follow a paleo life for him with good food, sleep, exercise, sunlight, and fun. Relax and let him grow. Things will change and if needed when he is much older you can look into orthodontics.

answered Aug 3 at 14:29

omatic
85●5

Orthotropics · Answer 6 · 2012-08-04 10:41:21Z UTC

But a real paleo life would not have involved a period of blocked nasal passages as a child- lowering tongue posture (them not being "snuffy one" does not exclude a lowered tongue posture) and would have involved a large volume (without carbs and eating lots of low quality foods) of VERY hard food, for all of their development.

The facial structure of our ancestors and modern children are very different, Western Price touched on this but I feel missed the points above. They had less than 5% orthodontic problems and we have 95%, this is a major change and waiting till the symptoms develop is not good medicine and does not fit with the paleo ideology.

While the contents of the diet have received so much attention from this community its consistency (hardness) has received almost non. While we comment frequently of the effects of less exercise in the body, which is 30% of its original, we make no comment about the 95% reduction in the exercise of the face.

I am presenting at the AHS in a week today and have posted several requests for some feedback but have so far had little. This is an important subject affecting us all and it would be very nice to have some feedback as I am not from the Paleo community and would like some direction to hone my presentation.

Thanks you very much,

Mike Mew

Dragonfly · Answer 7 · 2012-08-04 15:59:09Z UTC

0

D deficiency in my mom during pregnancy caused my too small jaw & hence crowded teeth.

Prevention is key here, though I know there are some therapies that can help after the fact.

answered Aug 4 at 15:59

Dragonfly
31.2k●1●8●41

	Drangonfly, thank you very much for your response. Small jaws and crowded teeth are my area of special interest and I am very interested in your thoughts and how you came to them. Could you please help me and direct me to the original source information behind your suggestion that D deficiency is related to this. I have read "Nutrition and Physical Degeneration" by WAP, so what other material are you aware of apart from this to support this hypothesis. I believe that it is very important to understand other peoples ideas and the basis for these to gain a balance view point, thanks. – Orthotropics Aug 5 at 13:57
	I first read about D deficiency &cavities in the Vitamin D Council newsletter devoted to D3 & Pregnancy. Here's the link to my blog post that incorporates the newsletter: sondrarose.com/vitamin-d-deficiency-pregnancy – Dragonfly Aug 5 at 15:22
	I admit that I am drawing a conclusion, based on anecdotal evidence. My 4 younger sisters do not have small jaws, nor as many cavities as me & the single biggest difference is that mom moved from London, England to rural Ohio after her pregnancy with me. She spent lots of time outside gardening during her pregnancies with my younger sisters. Her diet included more vegetables, but she continued the whole animal/whole foods diet she ate during her pregnancy with me. – Dragonfly Aug 5 at 15:27
	I suspect D deficiency during pregnancy is the main cause of classic bad British teeth. Would be an interesting study for someone so inclined! – Dragonfly Aug 5 at 15:33

Please Hack My Toddler’s Crowded Jaw

7 Answers