Jaramillo Soup
Hi Mamas - some of you have been inquiring about the “soup” or formula substitute I’ve been making for the baby. To include some of the details I figured doing a post about it was the best idea. I’ve also, at the request of some of you, setup a consulting program if you need further assistance. I know I had many questions when I first started and want to help any that choose to embark on this journey!
So here goes. One of my integrative doctors first started telling me about Jaramillo Soup years ago when I told him it was my plan to have a family once my health started to improve. Initially, I wasn’t open to the idea. It was very different from current communicated standards or direction on how to feed your child, especially in the early months. But I started inquiring more and more as time went on and found that some of my other doctors had been using it for their children, successfully, as well. My original doctor offered intros to patients who had used it for their children and encountered great results.
I ended up speaking to as many of these individuals as possible in detail about their experience. In-line with what I was reading online, it seemed these children were thriving both mentally and physically beyond the expectation of their respective ages.
Jaramillo soup was created when Dr Jaramillo, who lived in Colombia, and was dealing with malnutrition in a large number of children. Jaramillo started feeding many of them the soup, that includes real foods, and quickly saw the malnutrition and number of children in hospitals plummet. He also saw a swing in cognitive development and even saw improvement with children suffering from mental retardation. Other parents have used this method if their child has adverse reactions to formula or dairy.
Of course, what you feed your child is a very personal decision. I have thought many many hours about what the plan is for Hale throughout his first year. In addition, I had a baby nurse from Jamaica and nanny from Poland - both grew up with a similar eating experience to that of Jaramillo and were unaccustomed to the amount of formula that is used stateside. This made me feel even more comfortable that other cultures are using a similar method.
I began giving him the soup as supplementation to breast milk at 4 months. I believe it helped him out of his 4 month sleep regression, with his sleep in general, and he’s been hitting all of his milestones early (“mama” at 5 months, crawling right at 7 months etc.), so I don’t see any evidence of it hindering his growth and development, only a possible benefit. My pediatrician also agrees he appears to be doing better than expectations in all areas.
In addition, I recently decided to stop breastfeeding (7.5 months) at the direction of my doctors regarding the need to replenish my body in preparation for having my next child. I am currently only feeding him soup and solids and he seems to be doing great with it and still gets very excited every time he’s sees his soup bottle. I will use this method until he decides to wean himself off of it.
Here are some resources and recipes I’ve used, if you’d like to refer to them.
Again this is a personal decision and I am not a doctor, so please consult a doctor and educate yourself when making these decisions.
A few important notes and resources:
the one thing that I heard and was concern about babies being born with a leaky gut and therefore, would not be able to handle the soup at an early age. I quickly found this post with linked studies confirming there was not in fact a dangerous leaky gut risk after a week of life. I will most likely start the soup earlier than 4 months with my future children.
I have read that honey can cause botulism in babies. So, although it is listed in some of these documents, I did not use. I also don't like the soup being extremely sweet because I don’t want my son conditioned to sweet foods if I can help it so I don’t go heavy on the fruits in our batches.
I started with more mild ingredients when he was young and started adding one or two ingredients each time I made the soup. He has not experienced any side effects from anything I’ve added.
1 - The general directions that I use from my doctor can be found here:
2 – The Jaramillo Soup website
3- Another post written by Mainly Montessori on their reasoning and success with the soup, here
a) She includes her method of making the soup here
4) Youtube of a father making the soup who’s daughter was getting sick/having sensitivities to milk and the Soup got her back to baseline health
Sample Recipes:
My first recipe I tried with him around 3-4 months: Celery, Carrot, Sweet Potato, Green Bean, Bone Broth, Pumpkin, Avocado
My current recipe at 10 months:
Rice, Oats, Quinoa, Chicken, Beef, Celery, Sweet Potatoes, Swiss Chard, Brocolli, Squash, Carrots, Zucchini, Green Beans, Beets, Spinach, Chayote, Kale, Romaine, Cilantro, Seaweed, Blueberries, Avocado, Prunes, Papaya, olive oil, coco oil
Basic supplies I use:
Glass bottles (cut small X in the nipple)
Large glass storage containers
High quality large blender less expensive option here
My Consultation Program:
A scheduled 1 hour personal consultation by phone addressing any questions and laying out plan to start cooking
Unlimited texting/emails with questions for the following 1 week for questions or concerns- (will respond within 24 hours)
Sample topics: Recipes, supplies, best practices, transitioning, sourcing of ingredients
Sending love to my freethinkers,
Liz