A Little Intro and some ???'s

[Raw-velution]

So just wanted to say hi first off, and that I and my family have just started to investigate and incorporate a raw food diet into our lives. After much reading on the subject of meat/wheat/dairy/sugar we've decided that we need a change and that raw food is the way to go for our family. In making this change I have some questions for those of you with young children (under 5yrs). If you have a toddler who is a picky veggie eater, what creative ideas have you done to incorporate greens into his/her diet so that enough protein is being eaten? What are your favorite kid friendly recipes? Fav recipe books and/or websites. Any advice from been there/done that parents who have made the switch from a SAD diet to Raw with young children would be great. Also, any resources/recipes for little ones under 1 to start on solids? My youngest is almost 8 mo. and has been introduced to some cooked foods, but since our goal is to be a mostly raw family, want to limit that as much as possible but not sure what to feed him other than soft fruits. Hope I haven't asked too many questions! Looking forward to reading your responses~Candace

[Geigerin]

We're just starting raw, and we have a 7 month old. Right now, I share my green smoothies. She loves them! There are a million great recipes out there. My fave is spinach, banana, and orange.

[Sayward]

I'm on vacation right now so I don't have a lot of time - I'll revisit this thread next week. In the meantime I urge you to PLEASE read Evie's Kitchen by Shazzie (available on Amazon) before attempting a raw diet for a small child. Shazzie is a longtime raw vegan and did *tons* of research when her daughter was born. She knows what she's talking about and is a lot more honest than most of the the raw 'guru's' regarding the success and appropriateness of a raw diet for growing bodies (which have vastly differing nutritional needs than adults).

[Naturopath Mom]

Hi Candace, welcome

I had a big kick of doing raw several years back. I did it with my kids for awhile. There were some issues, like the pervious poster is getting to (I think!). But there are always lots of fun things to do with kids and raw foods!

I think one of the most important foods to get in them is greens. Barley juice, wheatgrass, kamut, chlorophyll, etc. The best way for kids to get it is in powdered form and then mixed with water or juice. Learning to cut up foods with special knifes, making fun shapes with cookie cutters, making things really colorful....all benefical to kids!

Help them to be a part of creating the food, with dehydrating, juicing, mixing. Having a garden they can grow (my kids all liked haveing their own patch to take care of) always makes kids more interested in eating what comes out of the ground.

Let them help pick out recipes. I haven't been on this site in a while but www.living-foods.com use to have lots of them. Living in the Raw is a good cookbook by Bragg.

Protein....sprouts and seeds. Get them interested in sprouting and growing them. Make them try some on their own, different mixes and have them guess which sprouts will grow the longest, which one will have the biggest leaves, etc. Stuff to get them involved. Seeds are good for protein too, if you can soak them first great, then you can dehydrate them afterwards and they are super nutritious and full of high-grade protein. My fav are sesame, flax, sunflower and pumpkin. Almonds are good but watch out for the fumigated ones!!!

Smoothies are great! I like hiding foods that the kids might not like in them. Green smoothies (putting fresh leafy greens in them) are my favorite.

Fruits and seed or nut butters are good for little ones, easy on digestion. Milks as well.

Hope that helps some, good luck!

[crunchy_mommy]

I will second that you may want to carefully research having a baby/toddler on a completely raw diet. Most of the research I've read seems to point to a raw diet being dangerous for such young children. We are vegan & gluten-free and do eat quite a bit of raw foods but DS eats more cooked foods than anything else (aside from raw fruits & nuts)... I could be totally off-base & maybe you've already found research to the contrary but I believe the raw diet tends to be too high in fiber, low in fat & calories, etc. for little ones.

[maryeb]

Feel free to pm me. We went from vegan to raw vegan when my first was 17 mo. and had a great year and a half run...until I became pregnant with my second. Ended the pregnancy raw and my littlest was raw until about a year or so. (As raw as could be on breastmilk and not too many solids )They had fantastic health and now we are not nearly as raw nor are the kids vegan but it did not have anything to do with big issues. Mary