In Gut and Physiology Syndrome, Dr. Natasha Campbell-McBride connects crowded teeth and narrow jaws with the nutrition available while the baby’s facial bones are forming during pregnancy. She names fat-soluble vitamins, animal fats, and animal protein as the building materials and contrasts them with a diet heavy in bread and processed carbohydrates.[1]
The practical point is not that every crooked tooth has one cause. It is that the dental arch begins forming long before a child sits in an orthodontist’s chair. The GAPS source asks parents to look back to prenatal nutrition when the jaw is too small for the teeth that need to fit inside it.[1]
How the Jaw and Teeth Fit Together
Crowding is a space problem. When the jaw develops wide enough, the growing teeth have room to come in. When the jaw is small, the same teeth compete for less space, overlap, twist, or erupt out of line.[1]
Campbell-McBride’s 2020 book says a growing percentage of children in industrialized countries have crowded teeth because of nutritional deficiencies during pregnancy. It specifically names vitamins A, D, K1, K2, and E, along with animal fats and animal protein from meat, liver, fish, eggs, and dairy.[1]
The Prenatal Nutrients the Book Names
| Source-Named Category | Exact Detail in the Passage | Connection to Jaw Development |
|---|---|---|
| Fat-soluble vitamins | A, D, K1, K2, and E are named as one group.[1] | Part of the prenatal material the book connects with facial-bone formation |
| Animal fats | Named separately from the vitamins and protein.[1] | Included in the book’s stated foundation for bone development |
| Animal protein | Meat, liver, fish, eggs, and dairy.[1] | Supplies structural building material during pregnancy |
| Processed-carbohydrate contrast | Bread and other processed carbohydrates.[1] | The diet pattern the source contrasts with nutrient-dense prenatal food |
These are the exact categories the passage names. For the wider food pattern, use how pregnancy nutrition shapes the jaw, pelvis, and spine. For the book’s complete vitamin A and liver discussion, use Vitamin A, liver, and pregnancy in the GAPS books.
Weston A. Price and the Dental Arch
Campbell-McBride credits dentist Weston A. Price with demonstrating the relationship between maternal diet, narrow faces, small jaws, and crowded teeth. Price compared communities eating traditional nutrient-dense diets with nearby groups that had adopted sugar, refined grains, canned foods, condensed or pasteurized milk, and industrial fats.[1][2]
The Weston A. Price tradition records that children born after parents adopted those modern foods had more crowded teeth, crooked teeth, narrowed faces, and other bone-structure changes. Its baby-and-child-care text also places facial and jaw development across the period from preconception through childhood rather than assigning the whole problem to heredity or food texture.[2]
Why the Nasal Passages Are Part of the Story
The jaw does not develop in isolation from the rest of the face. Campbell-McBride writes that some children with small jaws also finish up with narrow or even closed nasal passages. She connects that structure with mouth breathing and chronic sinus infections.[1]
That is why the subject is larger than straight teeth. A narrow dental arch can sit inside a generally narrow facial structure. The visible crowding may be the first clue a family notices, while breathing and sinus problems show how the available space affects more than appearance.[1]
What the Source Says About Extraction and Braces
The 2020 book criticizes the standard pattern of removing teeth and then using braces to compress an already small jaw. Campbell-McBride’s argument is that removing teeth solves the shortage of room by fitting fewer teeth into the narrow structure rather than correcting the width of the structure itself.[1]
This comparison does not mean every orthodontic plan uses extraction or every child has the same anatomy. The question to carry into an orthodontic appointment is concrete: does this plan create room by widening the dental arch, or create room by removing teeth and drawing the arch inward?[1]
The Jaw-Widening Approach
Campbell-McBride contrasts extraction and compression with holistic dentists who work to widen the jaw so the growing teeth have room. She describes surgical widening and also notes that it is not possible for every child.[1]
The Weston A. Price baby-and-child-care text likewise favors orthodontic approaches that widen the palate over removing teeth when a child already has a narrow palate and crowding. It places timing and method with the orthodontic professional rather than giving parents a do-it-yourself correction.[2]
What Prenatal Nutrition Can and Cannot Change Now
The sources place nutrition in the period when the face and dental arch are developing. When a child already has a narrow arch, they discuss orthodontic widening as structural treatment. Taken together, food and mechanical widening are two different jobs.[1][2]
Food can still support the living tissues of the mouth and bones. The 2020 book emphasizes that bones and teeth renew themselves and need building materials from food throughout life. The existing jaw shape, however, needs to be assessed as structure rather than treated as though one food can move it.[1]
What This Looked Like in Our Family
I am a mother of six. I carried our sixth pregnancy on Full GAPS and ate whatever I cooked for the family. After our fifth birth, I had tried Intro and found it too restrictive for postpartum and breastfeeding. After our sixth birth, I used a mix of Full GAPS and Weston A. Price principles, plus some eating out.[3]
I have not documented a child’s jaw measurement, crowded-teeth diagnosis, palate-widening treatment, extraction, braces, or dental outcome as part of our family story. I am not borrowing the book’s clinical examples and presenting them as ours.[3]
Build the Pregnancy Food Rhythm
Full GAPS Pregnancy: Week-by-Week Meals and Routines organizes the source’s Full GAPS pregnancy guidance into a week-by-week food and kitchen routine.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does GAPS Say a Small Jaw Is Only Genetic?
No. The 2020 book points directly to prenatal nutritional deficiencies and credits Price’s work on maternal diet and facial development. It does not reduce the child’s jaw shape to genetics alone.[1]
Can Braces Make a Small Jaw Narrower?
Campbell-McBride criticizes extraction followed by braces that compress the jaw. Her objection is to making an already small structure smaller rather than widening it to create room.[1]
Does the Book Describe an Alternative?
Yes. It describes holistic dentists working to widen the jaw so growing teeth have room, while noting that its surgical widening approach is not possible for every child.[1]
Are Crowded Teeth the Only Possible Result?
No. The same passage names narrow nasal passages, mouth breathing, and chronic sinus infections. Read the separate jaw, pelvis, and spine guide for the broader bone-development material.[1]
References
- Campbell-McBride, Natasha. Gut and Physiology Syndrome (2020), “Bones and Teeth,” prenatal nutrition, small jaws, crowded teeth, nasal passages, braces, and jaw-widening passage.
- Fallon Morell, Sally, and Thomas S. Cowan. The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby & Child Care, traditional-diet, prenatal facial-development, crowded-teeth, dental-arch, and palate-widening passages.
- Garnica, E. WFLI Family Story Source, mother-of-six, fifth-birth postpartum Intro, sixth-pregnancy food, and no-documented-dental-outcome boundaries, current through October 2026.
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