Is there a pregnant vegans thread? If not, let's start one - Page 9

[cinnamongrl]

Originally Posted by sky_and_lavender

Hello fellow pregnant vegans and vegetarians!

It's really nice to see this thread. My husband is vegetarian and I'm vegan. I'm 7.5 weeks pregnant.

Anyway, I was at my first appointment with the midwife yesterday and she told me "vegetarians make big babies." She instructed that I should be careful not to eat too many carbohydrates (grains and beans) because a disproportionate number of the large babies she's delivered have been to vegetarian and vegan moms.

This freaked me out a little. I'm lucky to have very good, err, birthing hips, but still.

Have any of you had previous vegan (or mostly vegan) pregnancies? Has that held true for you?

I'm a pre-pregnancy weight of 110, totally vegan and homebirthed an 8.5 pounder with no complications. My midwife was fairly clueless on how to advise nutritionally. I did the research and read the books and kept my self in check with my midwife appointments & her pee tests. At one point she said that she would typically advise a mama to eat 2-3 eggs per day to raise her protein intake, but didn't know what to tell me to do except to get as much protein as possible. This was probably around 34 weeks. As with dr.s, I think it's normal for them to have very little nutritional education. [NOT BASHING!! Just saying] I think that some midwives (as with dr.s) have done their own research and extra education nutritionally.

A great resource is the book called Becoming Vegan, by Brenda Davis, Vesanto Melina -in there is very specific information on what you "need" through stages of life, including pregnancy, breastfeeding and infant, toddler, teens, adults.

[veganfox]

I would like to say hello! Hubby and I are vegans for 5 years now. I'm pregnant with my first baby (boy) and 24 weeks along. Really excited to see a thread for vegan mamas! As mentioned before it is hard to find doctors/midwives that know what to advise for vegan pregnancies but thanks to lots of info and books out there, we can know what we are doing lol

A book I found really helpful is the following :
Feeding Your Vegan Infant with Confidence: a Practical Guide from Pre-conception Through to Pre-school

I don't have any weird cravings (meat smell makes me sick and I don't really care about cheese, especially knowing where it comes from). For cheese cravings though, I know avocado helps as well as nutritional yeast sprinkled on your food

Hope everyone is enjoying the first weeks of 2009.

:

[Ianthe]

Hi VeganFox!!! Welcome!

Cravings... I totally don't crave meat, at all, ever. But last night I was having a massive craving for NACHO CHEESE.. haha.. I know there is a company that makes vegan nacho cheese sauce, but I couldn't find it at WF last night.

[veganfox]

Thanks for the welcome.
I don't know about nacho vegan cheese either...
Usually I buy fake cheese for my sandwiches but I try to avoid it.
For example, on my pizza, fried eggplant in the place of cheese works wonders.

[Ianthe]

DH had the idea of making nut.yeast cheesy sauce and adding nacho spices to it. I might try that.

[veganfox]

Sounds like a great idea Lizzy!

[veganmama719]

Does anyone have the Uncheese Cookbook? I have heard some of her vegan cheese recipes are good........

Welcome veganfox. I am 13w PG with #3 but this is my first vegan PG so we are newbies together.

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by veganmama719

Does anyone have the Uncheese Cookbook? I have heard some of her vegan cheese recipes are good........

I have it.. I didn't even think to look in there.. preggo brain

[SandyBeachBums]

I'm at 17 weeks now. This is our fourth child. I've been very sick until recently and eating anything I can keep down. I hope I can get back to eating Vegan though. My dh has been doing everything in our house and we homeschool our boys, so I've been happy with keeping anything down that he was willing to cook. He's been awesome.

My midwife didn't even asked about what I'm eating. She just tried to help me find things that I could keep down and ways to get more liquids in me, so I could avoid an IV. I'm super happy with her.

I wanted to do freezer meals this time, but I'm due in the summer. I've been working on a menu instead with directions and a shopping list for each store we like to shop at. I'll get what I can ahead of time and freeze things like flatbreads and such. I'm going to include a few crockpot meals like lasagna, burrito beans, and enchilada casserole for ease and they won't heat the kitchen. No use freezing those meals.

My boys especially my 9 year old have been really helpful in the kitchen. So, I thought I could teach them how to mostly prepare the meals except for things like frying falafel. I figure I can make a little cookbook for us.

[SandyBeachBums]

I just read through all the posts. There is an old one for a craving for arby's sandwiches, too. I like to take some type of slices like tofurkey or even and a riblet and top it with some cheeze sauce. Use a crappy store bun and it should do the trick. Seems to work pretty well. Although, I wish I could find something like Arby's sauce.

[juliaaaah]

hey mamas! I'm Julia, newly pregnant with #2, due in september. I've been vegan almost 5 years now, with the exception last fall of some eggs a friend "grew" in her backyard from totally vegan, cageless, organic, happy hens. I might try to hit her up for some more during pregnancy, and, whenever Ollie weens, I am planning on feeding about an egg a week. I'll probably only eat one or two a week. I just can't support poultry or dairy farming, so it has to be from someone's backyard. Also, the idea of 75% of your cholesterol in one tiny egg? no way.

Anyway, that is my confession.

We're also a relatively low soy family (the kid absolutely adores tempeh and tofu, though, so we do eat some of that), and definitely low on the processed soy (none for the kid). My husband is big on fake sausages, though , so he and I have those occasionally. We stick to hemp/almond milks instead of soy, too.

I ate a LOT of processed "analog" type foods with my last pregnancy, so I'm hoping to make a huge change this time around. Except I'm not sure I can resist our vegan drive-thru (!!) chicken nuggets...

ramble ramble ramble. It's lovely to find you all!!

[juliaaaah]

Originally Posted by veganfox

Thanks for the welcome.
I don't know about nacho vegan cheese either...
Usually I buy fake cheese for my sandwiches but I try to avoid it.
For example, on my pizza, fried eggplant in the place of cheese works wonders.

For pizzas, my favorite recipe for cheese is roughly:

2 tablespoons chickpea miso (or any miso, I suppose)
3 tablespoons tahini
1 tablespoon lemon juice (though i usually use lime)
5-6 tablespoons water
lots of nutritional yeast, usually 3 tablespoons
sometimes also a teaspoon or so of kelp powder
sometimes 1/4 cup of finely ground cashews

I whisk it up, and spread on the pizza. mmm. lots of stealthy nutririon! it's also great as a cooking sauce or for macaroni.

[Talula Fairie]

Hi all! I'm not 100% vegan, but pretty close. I'm sure some of you remember me form the TTC threads. *waves*

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

Hi all! I'm not 100% vegan, but pretty close. I'm sure some of you remember me form the TTC threads. *waves*

Hi Talula!!! You are PG??? : Congrats!!!

[Talula Fairie]

Originally Posted by LizzyQ

Hi Talula!!! You are PG??? : Congrats!!!

Yes! I got pregnant when we took a break from TTC. It was sort of an accident.

I'm now vomiting all the time. Boo. But it's a nice healthy pregnancy.

[Ianthe]

Originally Posted by Talula Fairie

Yes! I got pregnant when we took a break from TTC. It was sort of an accident.

.

Me too

[Vegan Princess]

Juliaaaaah: I saw you mention a vegan drive through and it's funny bc what popped into my head immediately was Kung Food on 5th in Hillcrest - but I didn't notice you lived in SD yet. I know it's closed though so you must be talking about veg-n-out? I grew up in San Diego and dragged everyone to Kung Food for their bacon cheeseburger everytime I went home. My poor dad hated that place. I was so sad when they closed. I still have yet to try Veg-N-Out. Awww I'm nostalgic for home now!

Cindy

[Talula Fairie]

Can anyone give me ideas on healthy vegan food I can keep down? I know everyone is different but what worked best for you? What's the best way to get a little protien in my system that will stay down? I seem to do ohkay with seitan, tofu not as much.

I find that simple starchy carbs stay down best, but I feel like I am not getting enough nutrition that way. And forget about prenatals, I'll just vomit them up.

Any ideas?

[Talula Fairie]

Originally Posted by LizzyQ

Hi VeganFox!!! Welcome!

Cravings... I totally don't crave meat, at all, ever. But last night I was having a massive craving for NACHO CHEESE.. haha.. I know there is a company that makes vegan nacho cheese sauce, but I couldn't find it at WF last night.

Never fear! I have a recipe for that. It's really good actually. I mean, you know, it's not going to taste exactly like the dairy kind, but if you like nooch sauces, you'll love this.

From Yellow Rose Recipes by Joanna Vaught

1 3/4 cups water
4 or 5 slices from small can of pickled jalapeno slices (I personally hate pickled jalapenos, so I just use 1 jalapeno or serrano chile when I make this)
1 cup nutritional yeast flakes
2 Tbs cornstarch
1 Tbs lime juice
3/4 to 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp tumeric

Mix everything in a food processor or blender until it's completely blended. Transfer to a saucepan and whisk regularly (15 seconds out of every minute) over medium high heat until thickened. Add 1/2 cup salsa if you want to use it as a dip.

[Vegan Princess]

I wish I had advice for you talulah fairie but when I was nauseous all I could manage was carbs. Bagels for me. I think a bagel actually does have something like 8 grams of protein. My advice would be to try to stick to healthy, whole grain breads. And not to worry too much - the baby doesn't need much from you at this point so it will still take what it needs from your body even if you are eating less than optimally.

Only 3.5 weeks left for me until my due date! :-) Met my pedatrician on Friday and he is fine with me raising baby veggie or vegan. I haven't decided yet how strict I'm going to be on the vegan issue (aside from my milk). I figure I don't have to think about that for a while.

Cindy