Reverse the trend.
As we have asserted before, the trend to physical degeneration is reversible, and in this case, even in the same generation! Sally Fallon Morell explains that whether or not your child will have a wide palate is decided largely in the womb, and to a more minor degree as the child is developing during their formative years. See our recommended diet. Also, read about the importance of a wide, round face in our article: How The Teeth Tell the Tale. Lastly, learn about how the Weston A. Price Foundation’s logo itself represents the topic of the testimonial below.
A mother submitted the following testimonial to us about her experience of reversing the trend. The first photograph is of her first son captured as a baby. Notice his relatively narrow face. The photograph below is of her second son, whose face is significantly wider.
“My sons are now 3½ and 4 months. With my first pregnancy, my focus was on making sure I had a natural birth. I put all my energy into planning a home birth and avoiding medical interventions. At the time, I thought that was the very best thing I could do for my child. I knew nutrition was important too, but thought getting my required protein from a fast-food drive through was good enough.
About a year after my first son was born, I discovered Dr. Price’s research. My family started slowly incorporating his principles into our eating habits and by the time my second pregnancy came around I was much more prepared. I’d start off my day with a smoothie made with lots of raw milk, frozen organic berries, a raw, pastured egg and egg yolk, cod liver oil, and coconut oil. I started buying all our meat food locally from farms stocked with pasture-raised animals. Â I made and drank homemade kombucha, cooked our vegetables in broth, and loaded up everything I could with good-quality butter. While looking through baby photos of my first, I’m amazed by the difference in their head shapes.
But it doesn’t take a comparison of the two – everyone notices and comments in general on how wide my second son’s head is! And I just say thank you! We still have a long way to go in our family and so many more habits we need to adopt from Dr. Price’s research. But it’s so great to see such a difference from the small changes we’ve been able to make so far.”
Following are more photographs of the first son as he has developed.
Following are more photographs of the second son.
Read other testimonials in our Nourished Families series.
Have you reversed the trend with nutrient dense foods? Tell us about it!
Nourishing Our Children 
34 Responses to The Tale of Two Brothers
I read an email from a yahoo WAPF member who said that she had a worse than SAD eating protocol during pregnancy. Her daughter’s teeth, both child and adult, were very crooked. Even though she continued to eat poorly, her mom kept giving her FCLO/ vitamin butter blend and sometime in her 12 th year her jaw widened enough to accommodate her teeth. So I’m not so sure that it’s LARGELY determined before birth. Do we really know that for sure? It seems that the major growth spurt children have in adolescence is a huge opportunity to have an impact.
love this post. so true. there is almost a yearning of the body to do what is right. it just needs the chance.
Sally Fallon Morell read this comment and wrote to me, “Interesting that the jaw shape changed … have never heard that one before. Sally”
I remember reading a post on Cheeseslave’s blog where she claims to have widened her daughter’s palate after birth.
Yes, my oldest son’s palate also widened significantly after switching from a vegan to WAPF-based diet at age 2. His adult teeth are now coming in and appear to be straighter than both mine or his father’s were before orthodontic treatment… time will tell. His younger brother who began a WAPF diet around 6-8 months of age has even more room in his palate at age 6.5 than his brother. And their sister, although only 4 months old (and the only one that got a WAPF diet in-utero, has a very very round wide face. We’ll see how her jaw develops over the next few years.
Ronna, Thanks so much for sharing your experience. I also want to apologize to Sandrine and the group for my overly emotional, irrational responses. I think a difficult birth and postpartum brain resulted in some hysteria. It’s reassuring to know as Kim Schuette has pointed out that we can make a difference even post-utero, and thank you Sandrine for your huge contribution to expanding awareness. You’re making such a huge difference in so many lives.
Interesting tidbit. My boys, who are ID twins, have different head shapes. One is more narrow and one is more round. (But neither are what you would call narrow.) According to the literature on twining, this is one of the major differences in ID twins and it is said to be due to womb placement of the head during development. Much of what is learned about ID twins can be applied in general…so, there are other factors besides nutrition at play when it comes to head shape.
there are other factors. there are always multiple factors. it is good to learn them, as you can. do the best you can with what you have and where you are. and keep on the path to learn more and be better. i am a chiropractor, and i have seen miracles with adjusting the spine to remove interferance so that the nervous system can communicate more fully with the whole body. i have seen miracles just as profound as i have seen with dietary healing. and both together are phenomenal. for head issues, look for someone who can also do cranial work, to allow the bones of the skull to move the way they should so they can have optimum growth. the earlier the better, so the body has a chance to do its thing.
where do you even begin finding someone who does cranial work? my son has a strange bony piece……skull???……it is at the base of his skull on only one side. i don’t want to do x-rays as he is only 11 months (and has had this as long as i can remember), and it doesn’t seem to bother him……..but it’s not right. we have a chiro, but he doesn’t do cranial stuff like that. we are in ND.
heidi, I would have it checked out to make sure it is not craniosynostosis….
Thank, Julie. I think your boys are very good looking – healthy, engaging, a pleasure! I would personally consider their heads to be relatively narrow, as I consider my own, and most of us that I see.
What many of us have a choice about is nutrition, and in this case, mother explains that was the intentional change she made between pregnancies. I think that it is worthwhile to start there. We can’t account for head placement in the womb perhaps but, we can account for what we eat while pregnant.
Funny. I see their faces as looking wider than mine and I don’t think mine is narrow. (Of course everyone sees things differently. I probably can not judge my own children objectively.) I did not need braces. But also, interesting…Noah needs extensive orthodonture and Jacob does not and they were in the womb together. The orthodontist told me that the type of underbite Noah has is not common except in people from a certain part of China. When I was googling for info about it, many Hong Kong orthodontists’ websites came up.
Hi Julie,
Take your tongue to the roof of your mouth – is it a flat plane or an oval plane – is there an arch? http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/32-Teeth.pdf Some may not need braces but, still have a relatively narrow face and a narrow dental arch, rather than a more flat plane: a truly, wide oval face is not what most of us exhibit, in my opinion – including you and me. Do you think I have a narrow face? Take a look at how much more narrow my face is than my mothers:
If we were to draw a shape around our faces, yours, mine, your sons, they would likely be more oval than round: http://www.nourishingourchildren.org/Round-Face.jpg
Click to access Facial-Structure.pdf
lovely post here. i found the weston price ways after my 2 boys were born. i grew up eating hunted meats and farm raised lamb, before they went to the big lots, and safeway meats. so i had a little of the good foods in my history. but a decade before my babes were born i ate a semi-s.a.d. diet. still ate fast food after they were born. “addicted” to the j-in-box milk shakes. yikes. now to the point. i am taking my 2 boys, now 12 and 14 to an orthodontist who is impressed with how well their palettes are developing. no braces. not great, but good enuf to allow them to continue to grow with lots of cod liver oil, organ meats (hidden in the ground beef we eat), raw A2 mik and grass fed and free range meat and eggs. they resist the fermented veggies, and veggies in general. but they do love the water kefir. some things i get into them thru radiant life supplements. SO — my 2 boys are an example of what can happen even if you change to this after they are born.
I think it worthwhile to eat nutrient dense foods the moment we become aware of their value – you never know what it will result in!
Sandrine,
Such an interesting story and points the value of food choice during pregnancy.
I have a sensitivity to cow dairy some eggs seem to affect my digestion, so during my first pregnancy I ate ghee, butter oil, and goat dairy. I ate eggs only occasionally, 1 – 2 times a week. Do you think there are any steps that I can take during me next pregnancy make up for the lack of cow dairy and eggs?
A very precious story! I’d always wondered why I, as the eldest of 5, had crooked teeth and asthma (not fair!) while my siblings had lovely broad smiles and not an allergy between them. I was born in 1939, my parents were broke and as I fill in the dots, their diet was not very much better than white bread and dripping! By the time I was 3 (the time my sister was conceived) we has moved to our own farm and home grown-veggies, our own fresh eggs as well as raw Jersey milk, cream and butter were our daily fare!
Here’s chuckle though- As the ‘big’ girl, it was my job to string the beans and shell the peas, which I just loved to munch on raw. I’d be admonished ‘Dont eat those! It will spoil your meal!’ and my dear mother would then proceed to boil the daylights out of all the veggies in the only way she knew how!!!
Sandrine,
Thoroughly enjoying the stories! As much as we would love to believe we can turn these narrow palettes (of those children not given a prenatal WAP diet) around with a nourishing WAP diet alone I think it is almost impossible. Pre-conception and pre-natal nutrition are key, which is why your campaign is so vital. Certainly a Nourishing Traditions diet is going to enhance future bone and jaw development but parents need to understand optimal orthotropic appliances available for ensuring proper palette expansion and avoidance of teeth pulling, which is all to common. Dr. William Hang, who is a big supporter of the principles of Dr. Price, uses his version of the BioBloc to expand underdeveloped palettes. I have seen numerous cases using his BioBloc and a Nourishing Traditions diet where the children were able to forgo braces and teeth pulling. Dr. Nordstrom’s ALF appliance offers similar results although the process is lengthier in most cases.
Keep up the good work! Love your resources…and you.
Kim
Kim Schuette, CN Certified GAPS Practitioner WAPF San Diego Chapter Leader Biodynamic Wellness 107 N. Acacia Avenue Solana Beach, CA 92075 858.259.6000 phone 858.259.6022 fax
Here’s the post from Yahoo that I found and have kept. I’m glad that there are orthodontics, but the anecdotal evidence sure is promising. I really appreciate these moms who jump on the weston price bandwagon and are having results that are not “by the book” – they are defying the book, and i love that!!!! who is to say what is possible!!!!!!!
“I can’t type my whole story on this iPod, but my oldest had horrible teeth after a worse-than-SAD pregnancy diet. Her baby teeth all had multiple cavities and her adult teeth were so very crooked and crowded, one came in on top of another one, even. But she didn’t want braces. She’s 12 now, and sometime in the last year her jaw suddenly widened. Her teeth are almost perfect! She takes 6 FCLO/BO capsules every day, and I really think that is key. Her diet isn’t all that good, so I make sure she gets her FCLO.”
To all those mothers and fathers with children who didn’t get this nutrition before or during birth – i have one more thing to say on this topic because i have across many professionals lately who have deemed that some things can change and some things cannot change. Again, I’m grateful for orthodontics that help massively. That’s great to know. However, I used to take professional advice as set in stone, and the more life I live, the more I see that NOTHING is set in stone. I don’t feel that this comment about our palettes being largely formed at birth serves our vast potential. Reality is complex. The truth is that we don’t know how much of an impact a massively nutrient dense diet can have. There is a field of epigenetics now that has just started taking foot – that means that which influences our genes. Dr Terry Wahls healed her MS with an EXTREMELY, RAMPED up nutrient diet – no anti-nutrients, and exponential amounts of dense ones. Those kids who didn’t get enough may need an intensely nutrient diet. If there’s research on the impact of extremely nutrient dense diets without anti-nutrients, I haven’t seen it. I think all the research is based on children who maybe eating a nutrient dense diet coupled with anti-nutrients. There are so many people out there having experiences of healing and growth that they were not supposed to have, and I’ve seen a couple of them on the WAPF MOM AND BABY YAHOO GROUP. I don’t understand why professionals can’t say, “It hasn’t happened in my experience, I don’t know how to make it happen, but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.” I’m so looking forward to stories of the impossible becoming possible. It’s up to us to do the research, to be open, to help our children experience the awesomeness of who they are – through a nutrient dense diet – and positive belief in our potential – NOW –
our future is determined by NOW – not the past is what I believe!!! I believe that our belief is what makes it possible – !!!! I feel like Robin Williams in Dead Poet’s Society…I love all the members of this group, I just wish we could leave fate open and not put a fence on it because reality is too complex – why not be humble in the face of it and let amazing things that we can’t conceive of – happen. Wasn’t it Einstein who said that Imagination if More Important than Knowledge?
If not, I’m going to find a religion that believes in reincarnation and figure out how I can incarnate into these families next lifetime : )
Westin A Price was able to expand the dental arch of an almost 11 year old girl within just a little less than a year with a nutrient dense diet: “The problem as to whether this growth process is latent and how long it may remain so is a very important one. My clinical studies have accordingly been directed to ascertain to what extent changes may be made by reinforcing the dietaries of the individuals with suitable fat-soluble activators and natural foods rich in minerals, particularly phosphorus. The results have been most gratifying and encouraging. A typical case is shown in Fig. 10. In the view to the left the girl was ten years and nine months of age and in the view to the right she was eleven years and eight months. The lack of development of the middle third of the face was that the upper lateral incisors were occluding inside the lower cuspids at the time the first picture was taken. Under a reinforced diet the middle third of the face has grown forward to the position shown on the right, in which the lateral incisors are one-eighth of an inch outside the lower incisors,” Weston A Price.
http://www.curetoothdecay.com/Orthodontist/facial-structure-diet-orthodontics.htm
Thank you so much for posting this Erica. This accounts for parents who are having results with older children. I went back and read the post. It also accounts for children who may need some palette – widening orthodontics. Fantastic. It’s so great to know that there are dietary and appliance interventions that can make such a profound difference. Wonderful. wonderful!!! very exciting.
Wow, he’s got the head! Well the healthy head, nice and round, glad for you and your son(s)I’m sure with your first son, just good healthy eating habits and he will be just as strong a child, because you were already on the right track with the home birth just now you have taken that next important step to the health and happiness of both your children. Wonderful story!
Great post! I was learning about the WAPF while pregnant but I didn’t really “get it.” I did eat a decent diet but there was no FCLO, only a little raw milk, and quite a bit of processed food. In addition, I dealt with some difficult food allergies due to unresolved underlying health problems from childhood.
I’ll admit I watched my son carefully after birth because I so wanted that wide palate! Both hubby & I have narrow palates & crowded teeth. His face is a little narrow but not nearly what mine was as a child. He’s definitely off to a good start.
One thing that I think has helped – I had breast feeding supply issues so we have supplemented with the WAPF formula for several months now. I was amazed at how quickly he filled out. He has a healthy glow, good disposition, and amazing strength for his age. I believe some of this can be attributed to his diet, and I’m so thankful for the work that Sally & this site do to improve nutrition! I look forward to providing even better nourishment in utero when we decide to have another baby!
Thank you for your testimonial Megan! It warmed my heart to read it!
My first two children I did not eat according to the WAPF diet. The next two children were adopted from the foster care system. After receiving our second foster child (whom we later adopted), I discovered raw milk and the WAPF way. I was able to nurse her for a year and also supplement her with the formula in Nourishing Traditions. From then on our family was hooked and ate nourishing foods.
I became “unexpectedly” pregnant two more times, both times I carried twins – first set 40 weeks and 4 days, the next set 40 weeks. I was very strict in both pregnancies with my diet (eating over 1000 eggs each time!) I had a boy/girl set each time. Luke and Carson, and then Asher and Willow. Luke and Willow have longer faces and a narrow palate, like I do, and Carson and Asher have wide smiles and wider palates.
I say this, because it kind of drives me crazy when health nuts (like myself) claim A plus B always equals C. It does not. Genetics play a very large part in our bone structure and health.
I will add to that, my two foster/adopted children were birthed from a prostitute who literally lived on the streets and was highly addicted to drugs. She barely ate much more than Cheetos and soda, all the while snorting cocaine on a daily basis. They both have beautiful smiles and won’t need braces. At least four of my six bio children will need braces. Go figure…
I also learned about dr price’s work after my first two pregnancies, with my daughters- both who have narrow palates. My third pregnancy with my son I was much more conscious of my diet and my son’s face is wider and his teeth are amazing. I wish I had the information when I was pregnant with my girls. It is truly sad that most women don’t know about the affects of nutrition in pregnancy.
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In response to people saying jaw/face shape and malocclusion cannot change in response to dietary changes as a child, I believe WP features a case of adolescent twin girls where this occurred with one of them in response to changes to her diet in Nutrition and Physical degeneration.
Also I should add, minor changes to jaw shape and size are possible even as a 20 something adult because I have achieved that by learning to keep my jaw shut (rather than permanently open several millimetres) and tongue on roof of mouth (correct oral posture) along with many hours of chewing hard gum to bring lower jaw into a further forward position. Bone is resistant to immediate force but can remodel according to long term forces! Many people’s faces and jaws become slightly thinner over their adult life as bad oral posture habits can be adopted at any age!
Thank you so much for these insights, Tess!!!!!