STARTING OUT HEALTHY — AND HAPPY
Whitney Eves and Dani Rhoades, Happy Healthy Littles
Happy Healthy Littles
Whitney Eves and Dani Rhoades both struggled with their health growing up. Through college, the two women visited what felt like a million doctors, and even had to drop out of school, all without ever getting the answers they needed. Finally, they turned to nutrition.
“I just decided, ‘I need to try something else. This isn’t working’, and I did believe I could get better,” said Ms. Eves.
It completely changed their lives. Chronic issues that had been with them their whole lives finally started to disappear.
“I went on a very restrictive diet for a time, but then I was able to slowly incorporate foods back into the diet as I got better, and today I am totally healthy. I have absolutely none of the issues that I once dealt with and food healed me. I can say that with a lot of confidence,” said Ms. Eves.
“If someone had suggested nutrition earlier to me I probably wouldn’t have had to go through what I went through,” said Ms. Rhoades.
The experience inspired the two to launch Happy Healthy Littles, an online teaching platform for pregnant women and new mothers.
Ms. Rhoades has been in medicine for seven years, working for her own practice, Wholesome Practices, which is now closed, and a pediatric office. While working with children, she realized the importance of preventative care in stopping issues like arthritis, celiac disease, or loose stools.
“All these issues could have been dealt with when they were toddlers. So, then I was like, ‘I got to work with toddlers’, and then from toddlers I was like, ‘I’ve got to work with new-borns’!” Ms. Rhoades told the News-Press.
From there, Ms. Rhoades included pregnant women, trying to start healthy nutrition for babies as early as possible.
“That’s why I went backwards, since prevention is so easy and going backwards is so hard. Whitney and I have both been through being sick and going the hard way to get better, and doing preventative nutrition, like I did in my own practice and in pediatrics, just giving women what they need when they’re pregnant nutritionally, supplementally, probiotics, a diet — bringing babies into the world the right way and raising them well their first three years… they do great!” said Ms. Rhoades.
Ms. Eves own pregnancy experience also convinced the two to launch Happy Healthy Littles. She has two children, with a third on the way. Before creating Happy Healthy Littles, Ms. Eves was constantly asking Ms. Rhoades for nutritional advice. Eventually, the two realized they could work together to share their knowledge and experience.
“We wanted to reach as many moms as possible. Not just Santa Barbara moms. We want Happy Healthy Littles to literally go to the ends of the Earth, and so that’s why we created this online teaching platform together, for all the wisdom that Dani has from her seven years of practice and working with hundreds of moms, and then my personal experience,” said Ms. Eves.
Happy Healthy Littles offers two packages, one for prenatal nutrition and one for postpartum. Both are full of teaching videos, recipes, tips, and guides that customers will have lifetime access to.
“The package is essentially a compilation of information just like you give women in consults, only they’re going to have it forever in one place and it’s probably the information from 10 consults for the price of half of one,” said Ms. Rhoades.
The prenatal package walks moms through from conception until she has the baby, with sections for each trimester. Each trimester has different protocols, information on different issues that may arise, recipes and shopping checklists, and Top 10 tips, lists and videos.
“We make it so that women have the ‘what’ they need, ‘why’ they need it, and ‘how’ they’re going to make it happen. That’s basically what you need to give women, then they can go do it all,” said Ms. Rhoades.
“And trust me, you’re not going to remember everything so you’re going to need to reference back to it, and you’re going to need to remind yourself through your pregnancy as well,” Ms. Eves said.
The postpartum package is broken up into three different sections as well, but rather than trimesters, the first section is healing and nourishing home, the second is all about baby, and the third is about mom getting her health back in shape.
Women can jump into the packages at any time, even in their third trimester.
“That’s the most important time anyways! Your nutrition counts so much,” said Ms. Rhoades.
Ms. Eves and Ms. Rhoades stressed that the packages are not course, which they find to be stressful for new mothers.
“The reason that we named this a package is because it feels like your giving yourself and your baby the best gift ever, and we are there to help guide you and walk beside you and just be with you each step of the way,” said Ms. Eves.
The packages are designed to be a resource, something a mother can reference whenever she needs it. Even the dieting is designed to be as stress-free as possible while making sure the mom and baby get the nutrients they need.
“We do not push calories. We do not push grams. We do not talk about amounts. I think that’s really hard for a woman to have to keep track of, so that’s why our checklist — it’s all in there. If you’re meeting them, you got it. We already did the work behind the scenes,” said Ms. Rhoades.
In the future, the two hope to add a preconception package for couples and offer a bundle option. Currently, the prenatal package is $49.99 and the postpartum package is $99.99. The price difference is due to the difference in content; the prenatal package covers nine months and the postpartum covers two years.
If you want to learn more about Ms. Eves and Ms. Rhoades, they encourage women to check out their Instagram and blog on happyhealthylittles.com, where they post weekly pieces on nutrition and the mommy lifestyle.
Happy Healthy Littles knows that everyone is unique and they don’t guarantee that their packages will help everybody, but they’ve seen enough for themselves to know that it’s something they need to tell mothers about.
“We’re just saying, ‘This is what I’ve experienced, this is what I’ve heard, this is what I’ve learned. Why would I not tell you?’ So we’re sharing it all,” said Ms. Rhoades.
