To be fed up with 'vegan' kids?

[bakingmads]

We live in an area where it's become fashionable to be vegan gluten free. We know a few kids who are allowed to eat whatever outside the house. I've noticed these kids have an unhealthy relationship with food. They seem obsessed! They never stop eating and if they see meat, it's insane to watch. I've even witnessed a child stealing food from other's plates!

I think if they follow such a strict diet at home because they believe that it's healthier, then why let the kids eat meat outside the house?

It's got a to point where we don't invite them for play dates because they don't seem to want to play just eat.

Not sure if I should mention something to the parents. Is it normal for a child to eat non stop?

😏

Same. I remember the craving for sweets and junk so well - similar to what op is describing from the visiting children. I remember I was allowed one biscuit at a childminders and sneaking more every time although I had one to food provided I can't explain the hunger/craving. It was so strong. As soon as I had money of my own spending it on sweets and things like pot noodles. All things I now have in the house and can go months unlooked at by my dc

i knew an adult vegan like this at work - he was vegan at home and at work and was super preachy about it -i would go out of my way not not have lunches with him. However, when we all went out with work and work was paying - he would order steak and meat like nobody's business, it was super fucking odd. And no - he was not hard up - he was a senior manager.

So it is just one particular family not “several”?

No body would be roaming in my kitchen digging for food! The only person who tries it is exh whenever he gets inside my house for whatever reason and he gets roundly kicked out of the kitchen!

I think you need to talk to the children about their manners (or if they are too young then the parents).

There is a difference between allowing a child a biscuit and handing them the packet.

Surely that is the problem, their manners. If they don't get eg biscuits at home then how do you expect them to know to just have one?

What they eat or do not eat at home has no relevance here then, what you are describing is rude behaviour, the fact they are (part time?) vegans doesn't come into it. Either stop asking them round (which you have done) or tell the parents about their behaviour. I often have my son's friends round and absolutely none of them go ferreting about in my kitchen.

🙄🙄🙄🤣

This has NOTHING to do with their diet! They’re just really badly behaved! Do you allow your own children to behave like this? Probably not, so just tell these kids to behave otherwise you’re sending them home immediately. And tell their parents they’re badly behaved! Repeat, this has nothing to do with a certain diet.

Of course it has EVERYTHING to do with their diet! If they had these foods at home, they wouldn't be so desperate to eat them at other people's homes. Yeah, they're badly behaved, but if they were fed properly and sated they wouldn't feel the need to do this. It has absolutely everything to do with their diet.

I second the replies recommending to address the manners by politely explaining that in your house children ask for food and/or wait for mealtime/snack time and depending on age I wold explain the consequence of failing to do so (no more invites). I wold talk to the parents about the fact that they seem to eat in excess the foods they are not allowed at home, if only to warm of potential upset stomach later in the day. I have seen it a few times with children who are not allowed sweets at home and gorge at birthday parties. I'm very glad of the decision I made early on with my 2 that all food has its place.... Very often my 2 don't even want a dessert because "they're not hungry anymore" 😊. As someone with a complicated relationship with food it was important to not pass that on.... Job done!

I notice that very few of these children's parents feed them the expensive stuff, like meat and chocolate, at home before sending them to the homes of others to gorge themselves on cheap carrots, toast and porridge. Funny how they are okay with their kids eating expensive meat or chocolate and £1 cans of fizzy pop at other peoples houses. Yeah, funny that.

He wasn't a vegan. Hope this helps.

It's getting completely out of hand. If I contacted my school telling them that my child only eats Foie gras, Smoked Salmon and Avocados they would rightly tell me to fuck off.

All the lifestyle choices you have mentioned should be given equal contempt and the parents pointed in the direction of packed lunches. In a really nice alternative reality there must be schools that only adjust catering for allergies. Oh what a wonderful place that must be.

The children aren't vegan. It sounds like the parents probably are, or at least want to run a strict vegan household. It also sounds like a strictly limited one in other ways if the children are craving fizzy drinks and sweets because they never have them; there are plenty of options there that a vegan household COULD include.

A lot depends on the age of the children; if they're not old enough to exercise much choice (like ordering meat when out with their parents, or buying sweets themselves) then there may be out of control behaviour around unfamiliar food when visiting friends as that's their one "chance". However, this can also happen in other cases, like the parents underestimating the food a growing child needs and/or not being able to afford it. They may be gobbling what's available at home too, and just hungry all the time.

As you sometimes have the whole family over to eat, do the parents see their children's rude behaviour (like taking food off of others' plates or devouring a pack of biscuits before it's offered) and say nothing? You probably need to exercise more control over what's out and available - for example, if you allow your own children one fizzy drink a day, that's the max a visiting child is allowed, too. And hide the biscuits or take them away, remind the child to eat from their own plate. And yes, talk to the parents but I'd avoid blaming the veganism or theorising about how they're deprived at home, maybe just give examples of the specific issues that are causing a problem.

Vegans can be extremely tedious.

And you think that can’t be achieved on a vegan diet?

I bet 95% of vegans eat a better diet than you (and me!).

So this is not at all about your extensive experience of “ vegan kids” but based on unusual behaviour from children who were visiting your house?! I also stopped a visit from a carnivore child many years ago as she literally ate us out of house and home ( think whole punnet of tomatoes, four tofu servings , 6 satsumas etc) every time she visited. She was definitely very well fed at home ( and not overweight) but just utterly ravenous!! However I didn’t dream of assuming this was representative of “ carnivore kids” !!

To the posters commenting about a vegan diet being ‘nutrient deficient’… I’ve been a vegan for 10+ years and somehow haven’t died yet. I most certainly DO get full as a vegan, I don’t have to eat vast amounts, I ensure I eat protein, probably more than your average omnivore. I resistance train regularly, breastfeed sufficiently and still manage to put on plenty of muscle. The whole ‘but protein tho’ argument is really old now.

I have children and we eat vegan at home. When they’re out and about they will sometimes have dairy/egg products for two reasons 1) I don’t want to be a nuisance to other people and vegetarianism is far more accessible and 2) I don’t want my kids to feel left out of lovely things like birthday cake. Veganism doesn’t have to be completely all or nothing in my opinion, though there would definitely be other vegans who would disagree. I expect these parents are trying to ensure they’re not placing huge expectations on other parents to produce vegan food for their kids. Is it vegan children in general that you’re talking about or is this anecdotal evidence of maybe a handful of kids that you’ve come into contact with?

It’s not difficult to “police” what they eat if you’re actually looking after the child you’re responsible for! Would you say the same if they had food allergies? 🙄
and no people are not more likely to go wild on the type of food they don’t have at home, my children aren’t deprived of sweets and still go wild if they’re at a party. I wasn’t fed sweets at home, loved them when I was a child, I’m not bothered about them as an adult.

I have a child with coeliac

we were veggie and gf for a few years, but I gave up when we started travelling on holiday, particularly to other countries. There’s no way I would have coped with being vegan as well as gf and I wouldn’t have put that expectation on anyone else. Just being gf is tiring to ensure the risk is kept to a minimum while giving the required nutrition.

what gets me about going gf is that to diagnose someone as coeliac they have to continue to eat gluten for several weeks (knowing it’s making them ill) prior to having blood tests and then have a biopsy. For my 2 year old that meant a general anaesthetic. It just gave me the overwhelming impression that removing gluten from someone’s diet was not something to take lightly.

Christopher Gardner, professor of nutrition at Stanford, says that if you’re vegan and eating enough calories you’ll be getting enough protein. There’s loads of research now that shows that a good vegan diet beats others for health benefits. Crap food is crap food whatever the diet.

Are you saying vegan food is lacking in protein and nutrients? Because there is overwhelming evidence that plant based diets with a range of pulses, nuts, tofu, etc. and no UHP foods are far healthier than most meat based diets. And if you're a halfway decent cook your food should be just as flavoursome.

I can’t see an issue with eating a healthy and balanced diet at home, whether it is vegan/gf/etc. I unfortunately have to eat gf and it’s easier if I can do gf meals for all of us as saves time/energy/costs. I’m happy for them to eat whatever when out, especially a party, all kids go mad for party food. A lot of it is copying what other children do. Ours would never nap at home, but did it consistently at nursery - we don’t sleep deprive them at home, they just copied.

As I said before, children who eat meat, dairy, gluten, processed food don’t magically eat all the vegetables on offer at a party because they are deprived! It doesn’t seem like it’s affecting your life too much, so just let it go!!

Vegan ? Fine , I’ve catered to that for daughter’s friends .
Thats easy enough for me to do .
However why would someone insist on gluten free if they’re not coeliac?
I went to extra trouble to make sure I not only had gluten free options, I also made sure not to accidentally gluten the girls friend by using same utensils etc .
I said to her and her mum “ oh that’s tough for you must be such a worry
eating out “
Mum “ oh no , we aren’t coeliac “ ☹️

Yes ! Exactly !
I had blood tests and then an endoscopy with a nice dose of Midazolam.
I know it happened but my brain has blocked it out .
A 2 year old wouldn’t be compliant so very much a major procedure for them 😔