Any vegan / veggie parents or mums to be here?

[LexiLexi]

Hi

We are expecting our first baby in June and are both vegan. It would be great to hear from any other vegan / veggie parents out there, both for support and general chit chat.

My dd decided to be vegetarian from the age of about 3 even though my husband and I both eat meat. She is now 20 and is still vegetarian and eats very healthily. When she was at school she went through a very faddy phase and I wish I'd been stricter about the foods she ate. In her teenage years she refused to take marmite sandwiches to school because she said they made her breath smell! She is now much more adventurous in trying new foods and has become a great cook. I wonder if she'd eaten those marmite sandwiches whether she'd be taller now as she is only 5 ft 2 inches tall. That is my only regret and who knows whether she'd still have been short even if she'd eaten meat. (My mum was only 5ft). But being vegetarian caused her no problems whatsoever (although other mums sometimes worried when inviting her round for meals/sleepovers/parties etc but most were kind enough to ask ahead what she would eat and provided veggie sausages, pizza, pasta, jacket potatoes etc). Good luck and I wish you lots of love and happiness with your new baby.

Suepermum - I don't think being vegetarian is likely to have stunted your DD's growth unless she was seriously malnourished. I've been vegetarian since 16, had two healthy vegetarian pregnancies, both babies over 9lbs.

DCs have been brought up vegetarian/pescetarian (I don't eat fish, but DH was omnivorous and we lived in Japan for years so giving them occasional fish was a kind of compromise) and both have gone through very fussy eating stages. Also DS never drank milk of any kind after being weaned off breastmilk; DD hates cheese and eggs.

But both have been consistently on the 98th-99th centile for height and weight. DS is now 14, nearly 6ft, and taller than all the other men in the family (DH was not quite 5'9), and DD at age 10 is about 5ft, and the tallest girl in her year at school. I think it's more to do with genes.

thank you suepermum for the good wishes :)

exexpat as a child i also would not touch milk or cream and decided to be veggie aged 10, even though no one else in our home was! good to know that both your DS and DD are doing so well. it's a bit of a lottery in our home whether baby will end up tall or short -we are both fairly small but there are a lot of tall people on both sides of the family. Japan sounds amazing, somewhere I've always wanted to visit, hope you all had a wonderful time out there.

Hi LexiLexi
I've been a veggie since the 1980s when I was 12, at the time I stuck at it mostly to annoy my mother! But after that initial phase it was incredibly easy and I cant imagine any other way now - just from an ethical point let alone food safety, heath etc.
My two children are also veggies, always have been and its incredibly easy. The Organix and Hipp ranges of baby food and follow on baby milk (some milk has fish oils in it) are fantastic, so many choices.
Its so easy these days with the different dietary choices around, school always has one veggie hot meal, plus sandwiches or jacket potato, I dont think they've ever suffered or felt different. As well as a few other veggie children there is a Muslim girl and a Hindu and they choose the veggie options most of the time too.
And yes, they're taller than average too suepermum, so dont fret about DD!
Anyway, hope the rest of your pregnancy goes well, rest while you can....

Hi lexilexi,
I am raising my dc vegan. At first i was totally scared to make the change in diet as people can be less than supportive. But i did masses of research and my dc is literally the happiest, chubbiest baby! She loves lentils, beans, quinoa, and a whole range of veggies! She even was munching on Kale the other day :) x

Hi
We are a vegan family, all of us. DH and I have been vegan for over 13 years, DS has been vegan his whole life (he is 2.5).
Congratulations on your pregnancy. Any questions, just ask! Good luck!

Hi! I'm vegan and expecting my first baby in June too. I'd also love to make contact with other vegan mums / mums-to-be :-)

Hi, HeyBongo! :)

Hello LentilAsAnything!

Nice to know there are voices of greater experience than myself on here who I can vent to the next time a family member / friend / complete stranger decides to make clear their highly insightful opinions on veganism & my decision to raise my child vegan...

Anyway, I look forward to sharing advice & stories!

Congrats!!

I've been veggie since I was very young (nearly life long) and my nearly 2 year old twins are also vegetarian.

I have failed at turning vegan though, although I should really try again as I feel it is ethically right.

Hi Sunnyshores thanks so much for the good wishes and good to hear that your two children are doing so well!

yogamomma, LentilAsAnything and HeyBongo thanks for getting in touch, it would be great to share advice and stories. We love cooking and do a lot at home, though some toddler friendly recipes and ideas would be appreciated when the time comes! As an aside, has anyone here tried Baby Led Weaning?

Personally what I'm most apprehensive about is how to approach the subject with other parents and nursery, I wouldn't want our little one to feel like the odd one out or for other parents to feel too daunted at the prospect of catering for us. So any advice would be much appreciated.

BornInA, if you would like any ideas and support, then please do ask. I would imagine that with 2 year old twins, you are a very busy mum! The good news is in the last year or so there seems to be a much better choice of dairy alternatives on the market than there used to be. We have found some decent coconut milk, almond and nut alternatives including a vegan cheese called Vegusto, which is thankfully much better than the soya alternatives, which just taste chemically and artificial to us.

Born, anything we can help with re helping you try veganism again? Like Lexi said, there are more alternatives now, if that was your downfall before, and Vegusto is indeed superb. Mmm, that cheese sauce. Divine.

Lexi, DS (2.5) is not in nursery, we have planned to homeschool (not because of the veganism!) him since he was born so worrying about nursery or school is not a consideration for us. I think you have to find a nursery you trust to stick with his dietary choices, or lie and tell them he is allergic.
Re friends/parents, I've rarely had any issues, only one I can think of, when the nanny of a friend offered my son some biscuits with milk powder in, despite knowing he didn't eat milk products, and when I said no thanks, she said 'what, so strict!? How extreme!', but really, in two and a half years, that's the only comment I've had. Everyone else has been really accommodating. Of course, he does get offered random things by strangers (why do people do this!!!!! A real bugbear of mine. So many children have dietary restrictions.) but a simple no thanks has always been taken well (it's usually them offering him sweets and chocolate, they just think I don't want him eating sweet stuff, I guess!). I used to take a small packet of sweets out with me in case he got upset when he was offered something and I'd said no, but he never has.

We did BLW, it really was super easy, he just ate what we ate, no extra cooking, and a happy eater, adventurous boy. No choking or scary incidents either.

I'm pregnant and expecting a baby in June too. Both me and my partner are vegans and we're really not sure about raising our child vegan. My partner has been vegetarian all his life, but I'm worried that I won't be as good as his mother at providing nutritious food for my child (as I'm only now really learning to cook). I guess I have a lot to learn.

Hi, Laura,
Keep on researching, and I'm sure you will realise that raising a child vegan is a wonderful thing. www.facebook.com/RaisingAVeganChild?ref=ts&fref=ts is a useful group if you are on Facebook. www.veganparent.com/ is a site I started putting together when we were first pregnant, I collected lots of information, you might find it helpful. I need to update it, but I am lazy. :)

Hi Laura and congratulations

Appreciate your concerns about getting your diet right, as you'll see from the thread, we have had worries about what others might think or say, so what you are feeling is understandable. My fiancee is learning to cook too. He tries out a new recipe every week, so hopefully he'll have 50 or so by the end of the year! At the moment, he is focussing on easy recipes like soups and pasta sauces.

I've been cooking for years and confess I still can't get the spices quite right in a curry so would suggest starting simple and slowly adding to your repertoire is a good way to build your confidence. A friend of mine, Cherry has written a great website, www.parsleysoup.co.uk that's worth taking a look at for ideas as it's packed full of simple vegan recipes and I can vouch that she is a very good cook! Lentil's website looks really good too. I'm lucky to work from home now but have in the past worked away and very long hours, so if you would like some quick and easy ideas or suggestions of things that you can pick up in the supermarket, then please do ask.

Lentil thanks for your advice and good to know that you have received such a positive response. Funny what you say about being offered random things by strangers, I had never given that a thought!

oops I didn't do the link properly, Cherry's website is www.parsleysoup.co.uk

I know Cherry! :)

Hi Lentil have sent you a PM :)

Hi I'm vegetarian with a milk allergic child, also worried a bit about weaning (she's 5mo and breast fed now), I've switched to soya (thank goodness she's not allergic to that too)!! Planning to do BLW just worried about getting enough protein into her..luckily it's an allergy so I think people are more understanding but her Easter my MIL in give her an Easter egg.... (Yes she's only 5mo and milk allergic) Oh and my nan thinks I'm making it up and expressed this view to the rest of the family. NM. would love to go vegan properly (tried it briefly as a teenager) and maybe this is my opportunity, just feels like too much to think about at the moment now I'm sleep deprived, off the google vegusto ( I've got to say all the vegan cheese I've tried is revolting, so revolting in fact the dog even refused to eat it!!)

Congratulations with your pregnancies, being a mummy really is the best thing ever xxxxx

Hi, Doris.
Well, there is protein in every plant cell. I believe it is quite hard to be protein-deficient eating a varied vegan diet, our sources are direct! If your child is fussy, and mine did go through stages (still does!) I wasn't too worried as he had loads of breastmilk.
Sorry to hear about the Easter egg. At least she is still too young to be annoyed abut not getting to eat it. And hopefully your family will understand better in due course.
Hope you like the vegan cheese. My frame of mind with vegan cheese is not to expect it to taste like dairy cheese, exactly, and to just consider it a new food/extra pizza topping, or whatever. I don't really like the cheese eaten on its own, but on pizza, or in other dishes, I think it's nice. And always improving!

And yes, being a mummy is definitely the best thing ever! :) And, it just gets better and better! Every stage, you think wow, they are so adorable and awesome, how can it possibly get better, yet it does! Enjoy enjoy enjoy! :) x

Thanks so much Doris, only 9ish weeks to go til little one is here, can hardly believe it!

With regard to weaning, a couple of books that have been recommended to me are 'Feeding Your Vegan Infant With Confidence' by Sandra Hood, which covers diet, weaning, etc. and 'Raising Vegan Kids in a Non-Vegan World' by Erin Pavlina (I think this is more about dilemmas you may come across like dealing with trips to the zoo and non-vegan grandparents). There's a VegParents Facebook support group, which I've found helpful. Anyone interested in joining, please feel free to PM me (the group is invite only). What Lentil says too, besides the usual chick peas, lentils, tofu, whole grains, such as wholemeal pasta are high in protein too

Finally, hope you like the vegusto, it's the only one we eat! Agree with you that all others we have tried are blurgh and inedible xxx

I have purchased the vegusto :-) giving it a whirl tonight! I hope it's better than tofutti and cheezly...
We'll see, I think I've forgotten what normal cheese tastes like anyway and Ive imposed a household dairy ban (lol at poor hubby) to remove all temptation :-) similar to the meat situation really, I do the cooking and he's usually happy with anything! Just using up my remaining quorn freezer stash on him now...
Thanks for the book suggestions, ill check it out!
Thanks a million x

I do actually like Cheezly. But Vegusto is ace! Hope you like it. Let us know! It had been years since I had dairy cheese, when I discovered vegan cheese, maybe seven years, so I reckon I have forgotten what the dairy stuff tastes like.

Lexi, is the vegparents Fb group vegan only?

Doris, do hope you like the vegusto! A few other recommendations for you if you are missing dairy are Bessant and Drury ice-cream, made from coconut milk, on offer in Tesco at the moment and Waitrose sell it too. Also we prefer Koko coconut based as a milk replacement to soya and it never curdles like soya can sometimes in coffee and finally Sojade soya yoghurts (creamier than the standard Alpro soya ones). Very best of luck and do let us know how you get on!

Lentil I'm fairly sure Vegparents is all-vegan but it doesn't say! I have added you so you can take a look around x

Vegusto was pretty good, bit like goats cheese with no goat involvement awesome :-) you guys are fab! That's for the tips!! X