need advise, anyone raise thier kids vegan I have a question?
I am vegan I am not gonna raise my daughter (6 months) as a strict vegan but if I am cooking it will be vegan if my husband cooks which he loves too, he is a meat and seafood eater so she will have a little of that if I think it was cooked healthy enough LOL but my question is that I think its at 1 year of age they say kids should be drinking whole milk. Now diary I really do not want in her diet and I know there are kids that have been raised as vegan since birth and those are the mothers I need answers from. How did u get around the "needs whole milk" talk from your pediatrician? and I know they need the fats in the milk for brain development or something like that, and I am trying to keep in mind that human are the only species that drink milk after infancy so once we are off breast milk we should no longer need milk in our diet, so how or what do I do to make sure she is getting what she need for brain development when it comes to that point with out pumping her full of gross whole milk. I need help and advise before I get to that point...HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!
oh and I dont want to use soy milk either, anything other then milk that I can give her, does it HAVE to be milk?
Wish you were near here (Seattle). We have a group for veg*n families to chat, potluck, etc. Lots of vegan-since-birth kiddos. I have 2 kids, but we did soymilk.
I recommend checking out some of these:
http://www.amazon.com/s?ie=UTF8&tag=mozilla-20&index=blended&link_code=qs&field-keywords=vegan%20children&sourceid=Mozilla-search
Trin
Our ped is fine with them not having dairy, as long as we use a fortified drink of some sort for the healthy fats and vitamins. My kids drink soy milk, we also use hemp milk, which costs more, but is very nutritious. Rice milk, oat and almond are other options. Kids can get lots of healthy fats through olive oil, flax seed, hemp seeds and nuts, though some recommend keeping toddlers off nuts if your family is prone to allergies. My 14 mo old does ok with them.
Kids do NOT need milk from other animals, just their own mother. My daughter is 6 1/2 and has been vegan all her life. She is the picture of health, which is partly because I breastfed her until age 2. But after age 1, she began to eat more solid foods such as whole grains, organic fruits & veggies, etc.
If a doctor tells you a child needs whole milk, he/she is ignorant of true scientific data. Check out Dr. Spock, Dr. McDougall, or the PCRM doctors if you want real nutritional advice. Most doctors do not have much accurate nutritional training--their business is not prevention, but instead treating sickness...speaking of which, we have only been to the doctor like once in the last 5 years--and that was to get an erasor out of my daughter's ear!!
And one last bit of info: In my experience, dairy and meat foods do far more harm than good. I have seen way too many kids with allergies, constipation, weight problems, etc. that could easily be cleared up with a healthy vegan diet.
Hope this helps!
I agree totally w/ quintess. What your doctor is really saying is that at that age kids need a lot of good, healthy fats. Much more than adults do. So no low-fat anything, whatever you decide to give her to drink. My pediatrician recommended nut butters(not peanut), avocado, olive oil, and ground flax, like gfmom said. She'll be fine. Maybe you could switch to a more veg-friendly doctor?
quintess wow only once in 5 yrs that is so great I can only hope to follow in that path :-)
thank u guys so much for your help and i do need a new doctor I wish I could find a homopathic one in the Atlanta area, all other doctors are all about prescription tons of medication for every little thing. I swear my family doctor would give u a medication if u had a hang nail LOL its just crazy. quintess I never really looked at it like that, that doctor don't really do much for prevention but just for treating sickness, now that I think about it u are are right.
Thanks, Jade! You may also find my blog helpful: www.rhiw.blogspot.com
(if you search my blog, you'll find lots of entries, as well as pics of my healthy vegan girl & kiddo tips). Keep up the good work--you're on the right track! :)
I don't have any children. But my ex girlfriend (who is awesome, and I met here thank you very much vegweb) raised her son who is 4 , totally vegan. She does tons of research on anything that's important to her. And she breast fed her son until he stopped wanting it which I think is only now happening fully. She learned that weaning children earlier than they are naturally ready for takes away some significant benefits which don't only include health. The bonding that happens in breast feeding is a huge part of the relationship development. And there's no need to worry about the child becoming too needy as a result. They can, but that's more likely due to how you treat them as a person, not whether or not they breast feed after they learn to talk.
Her son is plenty healthy, smart as hell, and adorable. He only asks for boobie every few days I think. He loves BBQ tofu and hummus. I miss him and her both. And I respect her for her conviction and ability to go against the norms while providing a healthy lifestyle for her son.