Guest guest Posted July 19, 2008 Report Share Posted July 19, 2008 Hi, Im vegan with an 18 month old vegetarian son. We had to stop breastfeeding at 12 months, so i feel like it is a bit impossible for me to change him to a vegan diet. I know there are a lot of issues with soy and boys, but what does everyone else do and how have you found health issues and sucessfully supplementing the diet of a toddler to vegan? Ange Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 why do you think transitioning would be impossible because you've stopped breastfeeding? i wasn't able to nurse my children at all and they've both been just fine as vegans. there are no authentic concerns about soy and boys; as usual, the media has overblown the issue and people don't actually look at the studies themselves. there are many threads here about the concerns of soy and the best way to consume soy if you choose to do so - namely, no processed soy, and in moderation, like anything else. both of my children have been vegan since birth and they are both very healthy and strong, normal to advanced in development. they both eat pretty well, for toddlers; my son's favorite foods are collard greens and brussels sprouts. in my experience the only health concern we had was making sure our son got enough fat around a year old; once we added some nut butters at that point his weight gain took off again after stalling for a while. with our second child we were much more aware of the issue and there have been no problems whatsoever. it's like any diet - it requires planning and a lot of conscious thought and real study, but in my opinion it's definitely worth the efforts. chandelle On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 5:26 PM, angel.nail <angel.nail wrote: > Hi, > Im vegan with an 18 month old vegetarian son. We had to stop > breastfeeding at 12 months, so i feel like it is a bit impossible for > me to change him to a vegan diet. I know there are a lot of issues > with soy and boys, but what does everyone else do and how have you > found health issues and sucessfully supplementing the diet of a > toddler to vegan? > > Ange > > > -- " if voting changed anything, they'd make it illegal. " ~emma goldman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 Hi, We were vegetarian when our son was a toddler, but we didn't have eggs very often anyway (I never have liked them in general), we didn't/couldn't do dairy so we just never had milk/cheeses or anything made with milk derivatives because of a food allergy. Mostly my son loved (and still does) Tofu cubes- plain, just cut up in squares or other fun shapes (I have tiny cookie cutters so I can make fancier things for him to bring to school) he also is/was a fan of Kidney beans and garbanzos. There is a lot of mis-information on soy (you can find a lot on here in the archives). We never worried about it with our son, just vary the kinds of proteins and milks (or do another kind instead) and there shouldn't be an issue. We did soymilk, and tofu. We only recently switched because several of our favorite brands now cause dairy reactions in our son (they are now also labeled that they are on shared equipment, and we always have issues with certain brands and stopped getting them, now, we have changed to rice milk that seems to be ok, for now). There is not a soy sensitivity, as he can have other brands/kinds of soymilk/soyflour/edamame and so on with no problem. Not sure if this helps you or not - oh, we also found a vegan cheese we really liked, and now have that. Our son has no memory of what actual dairy is like, so he likes them all equally. We had issues with things not melting 'right' and texture, but we found one we really liked (my husband and I) so we get that now. I guess for us, it was sort of a transition - taking dairy out and then about a year and a half ago, I decided that I'd stop buying eggs -to see if we could do it (and I was intrigued by vegan baking, as I love to cook/bake whenever I can). I've not looked back, but my husband and my son have gone back to having some eggs on rare occasions, but since I do most of the cooking and all of the shopping, our house tends to be vegan, with an occasional egg in the house (but I still don't use/eat/cook them). Maybe something like that would work for switching your son to a vegan diet? We found we had to just avoid dairy substitutes for a long time before introducing them (for us, not our son) - though we did make a lot of our own soy yogurt for a while, but I've not made any in a long time, nor have we bought any, so I guess we're not that attached to it anymore? I know it disappears when we have it in th ehouse, so maybe I'll start up the old yogurt maker again sometime... Just thought this might help, since we all made the switch, albeit slowly, but we did it. Missie On Fri, Jul 18, 2008 at 6:26 PM, angel.nail <angel.nail wrote: > Hi, > Im vegan with an 18 month old vegetarian son. We had to stop > breastfeeding at 12 months, so i feel like it is a bit impossible for > me to change him to a vegan diet. I know there are a lot of issues > with soy and boys, but what does everyone else do and how have you > found health issues and sucessfully supplementing the diet of a > toddler to vegan? > > Ange > > -- http://mszzzi.zoomshare.com http://www.flickr.com/photos/mszzzi/ ~~~~~(m-.-)m Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted July 20, 2008 Report Share Posted July 20, 2008 We had to stop breastfeeding at 12 months, so i feel like it is a bit impossible for me to change him to a vegan diet. Ange--I'm not quite sure what you meant by that. Could you please explain? Not sure what not breastfeeding has to do with what you are feeding him now. My 21 month old daughter weaned herself at 16-1/2 months. I started out giving her soy milk, but our Chinese medicine doc told us to stop giving it to her (no time to explain right now). She turned out to be allergic to cashews, peanuts, and almonds, and I will NOT do dairy, so she now drinks organic vanilla rice milk. Due to not being allowed nuts, dairy, or soy, I still give her a bit of chicken (daddy is not vegan) and eggs, for variety--no more than once a week or so. Otherwise, she's vegan. She will eat almost any fresh or cooked fruit, grain, or veggie. Her favorite thing in the morning right now is organic raisin bread, a banana, and her rice milk. Then when daddy gets up, they have breakfast together. He usually gives her a variety of fresh berries, and maybe some cold cereal or oatmeal, depending on what he's having. A couple of times a week, she'll have things like pancakes, french toast, waffles, or an egg. She can't have nut butter, so I give her hummus. I will try sunflower butter on her this coming week. Lunch and dinner are usually a grain/starch of some sort, and fresh or cooked fruits and veggies. Chicken or turkey maybe once or at most twice a month. I am REALLY beginning to wean my family off the last meat items they eat here, because it's really starting to get to me. She'll eat pasta, and she likes soup--for example squash soup (Imagine brand--I love those soups for my " lazy days " ). For dessert, we have fruit smoothies, and when we have something Abby can't have, she gets one of her granola bars (I give her a brand that's allergen free). Hope this helps you a bit. While we're not totally " there " yet, I seriously discourage meat eating, so this gives you an idea of what at least one nearly vegan toddler eats. Marilyn **************Get fantasy football with free live scoring. Sign up for FanHouse Fantasy Football today. (http://www.fanhouse.com/fantasyaffair?ncid=aolspr00050000000020) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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