Any Vegans who do NOT do artificial ingredients either?? Questions...

[organicmom3]

So while I'm not thinking we are going to go 100% vegan, I am really wanting to cut a LOT of the meat/dairy , etc out of our diets...at least limit it to only a couple meals per week.  My  biggest questions involve protein and calcium and B12 for children.  I have a 1 year old that I am still breastfeeding but will be beginning the weaning stages in a month or two so that I am done with breastfeeding within about 6 months ....allowing me at least 2 months before the next baby is due.

We do not use artificial ingredients.  So in looking for foods my baby should be getting, I'm wondering what will be his protein, fat, and calcium foods if we don't do dairy ( he can't do cows milk right now anyway....excema issues) and I don't want to give him a store bought fortified beverage as they are full of artificial additives.  So I'm wondering what you do?  Do they really get enough at that age from greens and beans, etc.???  And do you take B12 supplements if you don't eat meat?

[crunchy_mommy]

We do lots of nuts, beans, coconut milk, homemade nut milks, seeds... DS loves the roasted salted sunflower seeds a friend gave him so I bought some & mix it in with raw/unsalted sunflower seeds so he gets a better balance but still wants to eat them (sometimes he's hesitant with nuts/seeds if it's not ground into a butter).... We use B12-fortified nutritional yeast to make 'cheeze' sauces... Obviously he eats tons of veggies, some of his favorites are avocados, broccoli, mushrooms, cooked carrots, etc. DS really likes tofu but we try to keep soy to a minimum so that's a 'treat'...

We don't do artificial colors/flavors/etc. or anything overly processed (very rarely do I buy things with more than 1 - 4 ingredients). I think it is totally doable, but it might help you to read up on it more so you can have more confidence in what you're doing. We don't give daily supplements but occasionally vitamin D in the winter or a multivitamin once or twice a week (due to my own health issues, won't get all into that & how it affects him here...)

It sounds like you are pregnant now & that's why you're weaning? If that's not something you feel strongly about, I would consider tandem nursing or pumping a cup or two a day for the 1yo... I guess I feel that extended breastfeeding is especially important for vegan toddlers, but obviously this is a personal decision & you could meet nutritional needs another way!

[organicmom3]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy 

 but it might help you to read up on it more so you can have more confidence in what you're doing.

 

Very helpful, thank you....do you have any resources to recommend for reading?
 

[Sayward]

Originally Posted by organicmom3 

Becoming Vegan is a *really* great book, it covers everything including pregnancy, feeding babies, feeding children, athletes, etc. Highly recommended and you'll get a lot of ideas (and gain a lot of confidence!)

[crunchy_mommy]

This is a pretty good article:
http://www.llli.org/nb/nbjulaug00p131.html

And here's a list of a bunch of articles, I have only read a few of them but it might be a place to start so you can narrow down what you want to research further...
http://www.vegfamily.com/babies-and-toddlers/index.htm

[ShadowMoon]

My favorite book for vegan children/nutrition is Raising Vegetarian Children: http://www.amazon.com/Raising-Vegetarian-Children-Health-Harmony/dp/0658021559

It's a great resource.

[organicmom3]

Thank you.  I'll check out these sources!

[SundayCrepes]

What do you think about raising chickens for eggs? Chickens are easy to care for.

I recently read that most nutritional yeast is essentially MSG. It depends on what it is grown on. I read this late at night and was falling asleep so I didn't get all the points. I should read this more.

I agree about tandem nursing. I did it--except my daughter was adopted so it was a lot more work than after giving birth. It was very rewarding. My son is weaned now so it's just my daughter. For awhile when he was still nursing and she was old enough to be aware they used to love to nurse at the same time when we woke up in the morning.

[crunchy_mommy]

Originally Posted by SundayCrepes 

I recently read that most nutritional yeast is essentially MSG. It depends on what it is grown on. I read this late at night and was falling asleep so I didn't get all the points. I should read this more.

Oh man... had to google this right away.... way to give me a headache at 8am!!! I can't believe I never heard that before... definitely need to look into that further....

[organicmom3]

We are EXTREMELY sensitive to msg and have never had an issue with nutritional yeast.  Yeast Extract and Autolyzed yeast are definite issues, but not nutritional yeast....different processing there.

[ambereva]

fresh organic greens at every meal, seriously.

If you're not going completely vegan, you can get those three things (calcium, B12 and protein, plus D and iron) from wild salmon and sardines.

[organicmom3]

We are doing better at doing the greens....we are already a green smoothie family....usually one for breakfast...in fact this is the only way ds has had greens thus far...

Ick to the sardines....but as for the salmon....well...that's still meat, but....    like I said. I don't think we'll go completely vegan....I don't think I can get dh, dd or ds#1 to go on board with that....BUT....I can at least limit the meat to maybe 2-3 at the most meals per week....and that's a big step...though we only do 5 a week now and that's limited to our non fasting periods..(we fast a lot for religious reasons) so I'm thinking going to 2-3 times per week won't really be hard...it's avoiding the milk, eggs and cheese for dd and ds#1 that will be the hardest.... we'll see. I'm not in the mood to worry about this today.  But I"m sure I'll be buying those books people recommended and at least making a shift soon.