In re the Marriage of Bonham

── In re the Marriage of Bonham ── Court: Court of Appeals of Iowa Date: April 15, 2026 Category: General IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA _______________ No. 25-1208 Filed April 15, 2026 _______________ In re the Marriage of Kendra Samia Bonham and Colt Robert Bonham Upon the Petition of Kendra Samia Bonham, Petitioner–Appellant, And Concerning Colt Robert Bonham, Respondent–Appellee. _______________ Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Appanoose County, The Honorable Joel D. Yates, Judge. _______________ AFFIRMED _______________ Andrew B. Howie of Shindler, Anderson, Goplerud & Weese, P.C., West Des Moines, attorney for appellant. Jason S. Rieper of Rieper Law, P.C., Des Moines, attorney for appellee. _______________ Considered without oral argument by Ahlers, P.J., and Buller and Sandy, JJ. Opinion by Buller, J. 1 BULLER, Judge. Kendra Bonham appeals from a divorce decree placing physical care of a child with her ex-husband Colt Bonham. She argues the district court should have awarded her physical care instead. Among other claims, Kendra argues the court gave improper weight to each parent’s handling of the child’s alleged food allergy. Considering the record before us and the district court’s credibility findings, we affirm. BACKGROUND FACTS AND PROCEEDINGS Kendra and Colt married and had one child together in 2022. Before the child was born, the couple decided to move from Kansas City to Centerville to be close to Kendra’s family. And they bought a house together in town. The record includes disputed evidence that Kendra could be combative while the couple lived together. The couple separated in late 2023, and Colt moved back to the Kansas City area, where he continues to reside. For the first three months after the separation, the parents alternated who the child stayed with every other weekend. In March 2024, Kendra filed for divorce, asking for joint legal custody and for physical care to be placed with her. Colt requested shared physical care, or alternatively, that the child be placed in his physical care. The parties agreed to a temporary order establishing joint legal custody and shared physical care with alternating weeks until trial. During the fourteen months the temporary order was in place, the parties were mostly amicable; they dispute whether communications between them worsened. Kendra continues to live in the Centerville house. She works regular hours for a fiber optic company in a nearby town. She has friends and family 2 members in the local area. And she has employed the same daycare provider since her maternity leave. Colt lives with his girlfriend in an apartment in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, which he has rented since August 2024. Colt is an elevator mechanic, which occasionally requires him to work extended hours. He has friends and family members throughout the Kansas City metro. And he employs a local daycare provider. Between August and September 2024, Colt grew concerned the child was vomiting and developing rashes, and he started tracking the symptoms in a calendar. In October, he took the child to a pediatrician who, according to Colt, said that the child’s diet may be causing the symptoms. Colt implemented an elimination diet and eventually identified what he believed was the culprit food allergen. Colt told Kendra, who was skeptical; she believed the child’s symptoms weren’t related to a food allergy at all but instead caused by run-of-the-mill diaper rashes and a bacterial infection tha