Parents that Feed their Children Vegetarian Diets
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My children have both been vegan since birth. I breastfed one until 3.5 years and one until around a year - both weaned themselves. They drink soy milk currently.
Both kids are incredibly happy and healthy. They are appropriate weights and heights for their age/genetics. Their physician confirms this.
They eat a wide variety of food (lots of fruits and vegetables) and are more willing to try new foods than a lot of their friends. This might not be so much a product of veganism but probably comes from the type of food we make around the house. We try to eat healthy food most of the time, but we do eat vegan junk food from time to time as well.
They have never complained about being vegan. We usually bring along food/treats to birthday parties and things like that. We also don't get too wound up if they happen to eat something that isn't completely vegan when we are at someone else's house. We definitely subscribe to the "do the best that you can with the situation that you are in" philosophy. For us, not being militant about it makes it a part of our life, but not run our life as a family.
This is exactly what I would've wrote. We are also lucky enough to have a vegetarian pediatrician and she said our 4 year old is perfect on a vegan diet.
I also agree with you about the only species that drinks from another species milk.0 -
Plant milks are man made substitutes that don't come close to replicating animal milks.
I would argue that animal milks are just as man made with the insurgence of factory farming and all of the additives and hormones.0 -
...this is why i private messaged you, like i said this types of thread always get nasty. why cant people give advice or opinions without getting nasty or offensive? noone i telling anyone what to eat, just giving an opinion on what they feel is more healthy. i hope you continue to educate yourself and find what i right for you and your child:)
exactly0 -
For us, not being militant about it makes it a part of our life, but not run our life as a family.
I can appreciate that. And I think that's fair.0 -
...this is why i private messaged you, like i said this types of thread always get nasty. why cant people give advice or opinions without getting nasty or offensive? noone i telling anyone what to eat, just giving an opinion on what they feel is more healthy. i hope you continue to educate yourself and find what i right for you and your child:)
This actually is nowhere near as nasty as I was expecting it to turn, which is why I've stayed the course.
I appreciate the PM and plan on getting back to you today. Thanks for taking the time!0 -
I have plenty of friends and colleagues in India who are vegetarians and have been all their lives. These are people with good jobs who could afford meat but are vegetarian for religious reasons. They're not vegans, since many of their sweets are milk-based and they have some fruit drinks (lassi) that are made with yogurt. Still, not eating meat is a way of life. I've spent 2 weeks at a time in India as a happy vegetarian because their food is so hearty and satisfying. Chickpeas, potatoes and paneer (they describe it as "cottage cheese" but it's not) and their wonderful, intense, aromatic sauces are enough. Darn. My breakfast oatmeal is starting to look really boring.
And yes, their kids are adorable and look perfectly healthy to me.0 -
Interesting topic! I'm not vegan and my kids are adults (also not vegan). I think vegans have to put a lot of thought and planning into their food choices and I commend them for that. I don't feel I can make that kind of commitment to planning food and nutrition personally.
As to the "breastfeeding until age 6 in western culture", I've always wondered why those who want to for nutritional reasons but feel pressured to stop don't just continue to pump? Seems like a simple solution, no one would question what kind of milk is in the sippy cup. But you never hear about it. Maybe people do but just don't talk about it.0 -
I raised both of my children vegetarian (but not vegan) until they were old enough to make an informed choice. Now that they are teenagers, one still is, the other isn't. We followed our pediatrician's recommendations about milk, which I think was whole milk until age 1 or 2 (it's been quite awhile, don't remember for sure), then skim. We didn't eliminate milk from anyone's diet at any point. I would be very concerned about doing that with a growing child unless I knew for certain that they were getting all those nutrients from something else in abundance.
ETA: My kids LOVED silken tofu right out of the box, cut up to gobble as a finger food. They ate a lot of that.
One of the things I learned as a La Leche Leader was to never, ever give a child under the age of one cow's milk. They should only have breast milk or formula. Cow's milk can actually cause diabetes and damage an infant's intestinal tract. I may get some flack for saying that, but it's in my manual that I use for teaching.0 -
I raised both of my children vegetarian (but not vegan) until they were old enough to make an informed choice. Now that they are teenagers, one still is, the other isn't. We followed our pediatrician's recommendations about milk, which I think was whole milk until age 1 or 2 (it's been quite awhile, don't remember for sure), then skim. We didn't eliminate milk from anyone's diet at any point. I would be very concerned about doing that with a growing child unless I knew for certain that they were getting all those nutrients from something else in abundance.
ETA: My kids LOVED silken tofu right out of the box, cut up to gobble as a finger food. They ate a lot of that.
One of the things I learned as a La Leche Leader was to never, ever give a child under the age of one cow's milk. They should only have breast milk or formula. Cow's milk can actually cause diabetes and damage an infant's intestinal tract. I may get some flack for saying that, but it's in my manual that I use for teaching.
cow's milk you buy in the supermarket, absolutely. it's all heavily processed and "fortified" and pasteurized. No baby needs that crap. I wonder if there'd be an issue with raw cow's milk. may not be quite so bad... but still... it's a baby human, give it human milk. 0 -
My daughter never liked meat. From the time she was a fetus to now at 5 years old, she just hasn't been a fan. I discussed it with her dr at different age checkups and she said that she wasn't concerned because her diet was otherwise healthy (lots of veggies, esp iron-rich ones) and she got her protein from beans, peanut butter, tofu, and cheese. When I asked, the doctor said even a multivitamin wasn't necessary. I cook basically a vegetarian diet for her except for a hot dog and some bacon every few months. On a side note, there are a few weird meats that she DOES like--for example, canned smoked oysters, goat, and beef liver. Of all meats, those are the ones she loves! My sweet, nutty little girl.
That was me -- my mum couldn't get me to eat baby foods with meat in them, and although I ate turkey, hotdogs, and pepperoni on pizza when I was younger, that stopped when I was 12 (basically when I was old enough to feed myself). Unfortunately, my eating wasn't particularly healthy -- but it was no worse than some of my friends or cousins.0 -
I was brought up eating a little meat and fish. At the age of 9 I made the decision not to eat corpse.0
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Even unpasteurized cow's milk is not designed for the delicate digestive system of an infant. If you can't breastfeed for whatever reason, use formula. Formula, though vastly inferior to breastmilk, is made with the nutritional profile of breastmilk in mind.0
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Even unpasteurized cow's milk is not designed for the delicate digestive system of an infant. If you can't breastfeed for whatever reason, use formula. Formula, though vastly inferior to breastmilk, is made with the nutritional profile of breastmilk in mind.
fair enough. was just wondering. 0 -
Carry on feeding your child a balanced diet that includes meat. Unless they are allergic, then you should wait until they are old enough to make their own decision.
Whatever your reasons for being a vegetarian, it's not natural (have you not watched the lion king, it's all explained in the first 10 minutes
) - and i wouldn't force that on a child.
people "force" their kids to eat/not eat all kinds of things. I was forced to eat meat --- people learned pretty quickly not to force red meat on me because I would throw up, but poultry only gave me a headache and some muscle ache, and since those didn't hit for a couple hours after the meal, the causation wasn't obvious.
This idea the "natural" = "good" is ridiculous. It's not "natural" to have continuous access to unspoiled food year round . . . . should we throw out our refrigerators and risk starving in the winter because it would be more "natural"?0 -
Carry on feeding your child a balanced diet that includes meat. Unless they are allergic, then you should wait until they are old enough to make their own decision.
Whatever your reasons for being a vegetarian, it's not natural (have you not watched the lion king, it's all explained in the first 10 minutes ) - and i wouldn't force that on a child.
People "force" things on their children every day - it's called parenting. The basis of morals and values get passed on to children are the morals and values of their parents. Would you suggest that two parents who keep Halal feed their children a diet that includes pork, because they shouldn't "force" anything on their child?
Meat is absolutely not necessary in a healthy, balanced diet. As long as children are getting adequate macronutrients and calories, it doesn't matter if they come from animal sources or not.0 -
Sorry OP. You can eliminate it if you wish. I just wanted to correct Coach's incorrect statement about evolution since he seems to state things as fact that aren't true.
Out of here.
It seems a lot of people struggle with the concept of evolution. It's too bad.0 -
I am vegetarian but my 5 little ones certainly are not. I'm sure it is possible to give children adequate/good nutrition on a vegetarian diet but I'm not sure that its possible on a vegan diet or by going dairy free. You would need to do a lot of research and get advice from a qualified dietitian in my opinion. I often find myself low on iron and protein and I worry about omega 3 too.
Personally I would never tell my children that they could not try certain foods, actually I encourage them to try everything. Food should be one of lifes pleasures! I just try to educate and guide my children and allow them to make their own choices about commitments such as this.
Good luck in whatever decisions you make0 -
I get so annoyed when people tell others how to raise their kids. It none of your business!
I know of lots of vegetarians who raise their kids that way. FTR, it's better than the diet that a typical American kid eats.0 -
Sorry OP. You can eliminate it if you wish. I just wanted to correct Coach's incorrect statement about evolution since he seems to state things as fact that aren't true.
Out of here.
It seems a lot of people struggle with the concept of evolution. It's too bad.
hah.0 -
One of the things I learned as a La Leche Leader was to never, ever give a child under the age of one cow's milk. They should only have breast milk or formula. Cow's milk can actually cause diabetes and damage an infant's intestinal tract. I may get some flack for saying that, but it's in my manual that I use for teaching.cow's milk you buy in the supermarket, absolutely. it's all heavily processed and "fortified" and pasteurized. No baby needs that crap. I wonder if there'd be an issue with raw cow's milk. may not be quite so bad... but still... it's a baby human, give it human milk.
It's actually quite the opposite. The supermarket milk is actually "safer" because it is pasteurized. The "one year, no milk" thing comes from the WHO. Now, bare in mind the WHO encompasses the WORLD; that is, countries that would be bringing milk from cow to baby without any sort of pasteurization. That's why they say one year - it's not so stringently applied to the Western world because generally, people aren't milking a cow into a bottle that's going directly into baby's mouth.0
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