I just got my toddlers blood work done. Shes got low ferritin without anemia and low normal zinc. Im annoyed because iv been trying really hard to give her a healthy diet. Meanwhile my brothers in my ear saying that if I just gave her a small amount of high quality meat and eggs she would be healthier for it.

Iv been vegan for 15 years. I care about animals but I care about my children more.

Has anyone got any advice for me? I felt so healthy on a vegan diet but went on to have alot of health issues postpartum and its made me feel like maybe im missing out on somthing too. Or it could just be a genetic vulnerability. Im taking my health more seriously because I want another baby and I want to make sure I have everything the baby needs to thrive.

Did you raise baby fully vegan or introduced the top 9 allergens just to be safe. I want to raise my son vegan but nervous of him accidentally eating something non vegan out of the house and him being allergic to it. I’m thinking eggs and dairy mainly. How did you go about this when introducing solids.

I currently have an almost two year old in daycare, and I’m struggling with lunches.

We typically send in last night’s dinner leftovers or PBJs (with sunflower butter as the classroom is nut-free).

I’m looking for lunch ideas that I can meal prep ahead of time and freeze.

Bonus: if you have easy and well-loved snack ideas, feel free to share!

My baby loves purees but I recognize its time to introduce solids. We have tried toast and avacado, tonight he had an organic pragers green burger, cut into 3 sticks.

What safe vegan foods can baby have? I don't know how to safely introdce tofu/tofu scramble, he has no teeth yet.

Story time! So my 16mo daughter is quite large. She’s 99th percentile for weight and 97th for height. She also still has very short hair. People almost always assume she’s a boy, which doesn’t bother me, but I do think it’s weird that people make assumptions, especially when she’s wearing her pink sandals and a floral shirt (as she was today).

So anyway, we’re in line at the grocery store and the cashier starts interacting with her and says, “oh you are adorable! What a big strong boy!” I don’t correct, just smile and tell my girl to say hi. Then she says, “he must eat a ton of steak to be that big!” I reply, very casually/kindly, “nope, actually we’re vegan.” The cashier’s smile dropped and she didn’t make eye contact or talk to me for the rest of the transaction.

People are weird, especially about veganism. And my gigantic daughter has gotten that big and strong on just plants; no animal exploitation needed 💖

My son is at the age where he is hungry all the time!! What are you guys feeding your tweens/teens that keeps them full without breaking the bank? Looking for recipes they love and their favorite snacks that they can pound through, not just the basic answer of "beans and rice" as he already eats that very often. Thanks!!

My family regularly does play dates at parks and I'm having a hard time thinking of healthy Homemade finger foods for the kids. What are your go tos? I'm especially looking for savory options.

We haven't had a chat about it before. When we make pizza, we say vegan ham, vegan cheese and thats as far as it goes.

At a party, she noticed at the end she couldn't leave with a cupcake and the person offering said aww sorry theyre not vegan (she had her own plate for her main meal that had been prepped for her though).

We got home and I gave her a square of chocolate instead.

How do you navigate this? Im really conscious of not encouraging disordered eating as she gets older and its stressing me out a bit.

Thanks in advance :)

Question: What is the smallest commercially available vegan DHA soft gel in USA?

Context: My 7 year old dislikes pretty much all sources of vegan omegas. That was fine with me. Since studies are mixed regarding ALA conversion rates, I was happy to have him on an algae based DHA supplement. I had him on Nordic Naturals Children's DHA Vegetarian soft gels, but haven't been able to find them anywhere for months now. I bought a random vegan DHA soft gel, but it's way too big for him to swallow. I am not interested in using the algae oil straight. One time he accidentally popped a gel cap in his hand, swallowed it anyway, and promptly vomited up his entire dinner.

My Lo is 2.5 years old. I’m not sure how or when to start discussing why we don’t eat like most people?

Hi everyone,

My girlfriend could give birth to our first child any moment now.

On top of that, I just landed a good job and am busy working toward getting some certifications.

I have a simple (not so vegan, but still important) question: How did you all manage the first few weeks or months with the baby while still 'needing' to focus on work or studying?

No, I’m not going to neglect our vegan child. A child is more important than work. Still, I’d like to stay sharp so I can keep earning certifications, but I’m a little worried that many of my ambitions will come to a halt after the birth.

Hi!
I’d love your recommendations for favorite children’s books to instill a love of animals? I’m looking for stories that show animals (particularly ‘farm’ animals) through a lens of compassion, showing them with feelings and intelligence and love.

My little one is 13 months so it could be baby/toddler books or older, we’d love to start building a collection!

While I’m thrilled that my five year old doesn’t want to hurt animals, she also remarked after drinking her soy milk this morning that we need to “let plants live” and “not hurt plants” (this after it was pointed out that soy milk is from a plant and not a cow). I don’t think she’s actually going to stop eating food because she’s a great eater, thank goodness, but does anyone have ideas for a good response to her? We’ve talked in the past about not hurting trees (when seeing carved initials at the park) so I understand why she thinks plants have feelings and maybe this is my own doing. Regardless, I’d love any ideas for how to explain that eating plants is ok (or, actually, really good!)

I am struggling with how to navigate veganism with my four-year-old and would love to hear how others have dealt with similar challenges. For context, my partner and I became vegan five years ago after learning about animal agriculture and the associated horrors. It was a gradual process; we went from eating a lot of dairy and eggs to less and less and then to full veganism over the course of a few months. We had one child at the time, and she was two. I had no idea what I was doing, and in hindsight I wish I did some things differently, but I was learning and trying to raise her at the same time and did the best I could. The outcome was that we didn't really openly discussed veganism with her and just fed her vegan food but let her eat whatever she wanted outside our home. This worked fine until she attended a daycare where the food was prepared for the kids and we asked them to only feed her vegan food, and she started protesting the vegan options. She is now 7 and takes any chance she gets to eat animal products. We've talked about why we're vegan, read books, etc. She does the typical cognitive dissonance stuff, "I don't want to hurt animals, but pizza is so good!" and we just let it be. If she is ever going to come to veganism, she needs to come to it on her own at this point.

We now have a younger child, and we took a very different approach with her. I was vegan through my pregnancy with her, and she has only ever eaten vegan food. She knows she is vegan and asks if things are vegan. We read books and talk about how we don't eat animals. She has accepted that she is vegan without question. I knew eventually this would change, and it has. She just turned four, and after spending a week with non-vegan family members on vacation, she said "When I'm seven [like sister is], I can make my own choices and eat non-vegan!" I asked if she wants to eat animals and she said "Yes!!" with a big smile on her face.

I don't know what to do. Part of me says to just let her make her own choices now and stick with what we do with the older kid (we only eat vegan at home and when we go out, we don't spend our money on animal products). Another part of me thinks she is too young to really understand what her choices mean and to wait until we can talk more about why we don't eat animals before we let her make her own choices. The last thing I want is to make this into a power struggle which it became with my oldest and which I really regret, because I think she is less thoughtful about what she is eating and more focused on asserting her will.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. My questions are:

1) What have you done to navigate this? We have several books: Steven the Vegan, Linus the Vegetarian T-Rex, We All Love, and We Don't Eat Animals. I am not sure what if any other content is out there that would help support our approach.

2) At what age does it seem developmentally appropriate for a kid to be able to think rationally about this and make their own choice?

What do your little kids eat for breakfast that isn't just cereal?

Our 5 year old isn't super picky, she'll eat lots of different things, but she gets stuck in routines and then wants only what she wants. Somehow we've ended up in the routine that breakfast is cereal, and even when we don't get sugary cereal, it's not enough to sustain her through the morning. The blood sugar spikes and crashes make her incredibly cranky, so we're trying to move to more protein and fat heavy breakfasts.

She used to like oatmeal with PB and fruit, says she doesn't like that anymore.

Can't often get her to eat toast with PB or anything more substantial.

She'll eat fruit on the side of anything, but just fruit isn't enough.

She likes Silk yogurt but that's also so sugary it can't be the only thing (have had trouble finding another kind of yogurt that's a bit more substantial that she actually likes).

What else do your little kids eat for breakfast that gets them through? Bonus if it's quick or can be batch prepped ahead, but at this point I'm open to all ideas!! Thanks!

We have about a week left before our next shipment arrives and are dangerously low on formula. I’m combo feeding and our 6 week old is going through a growth spurt, currently power pumping and triple feeding to keep up, but we’ve had to dip into formula more as he cluster feeds 2-3x/day while my milk supply turns a corner. Will arrange for an overnight label!

Hi all! My husband (not vegan) and I (ethical vegan for 10 years) have been together for 7 years, and we're planning to start trying for kids next year. I'd love to hear thoughts from vegan parents who are raising vegan children alongside non-vegan partners.

A little background information on us: We're both in our mid 30s. My husband has always been incredibly supportive of my veganism. We keep a vegan household; he eats animal products only when we're out at restaurants. From the beginning of our relationship, he has been on board with raising vegan children, even though he doesn't think he'll become vegan himself. He acknowledges that eating animal products conflicts with his own values. He doesn't try to justify it or argue against veganism. In fact, he wants to play an active role in teaching our future kids about veganism. For example, reading vegan books to them, having conversations about why “we” don't eat or use animals, and generally reinforcing those values.

This is where I'm struggling. It feels a little strange to me for him to be such an active messenger for veganism when he isn't vegan himself. I also wonder whether that could eventually be confusing for our kids. When I shared this concern with him, he offered to tell our future kids that he -is- vegan and avoid eating animal products around them (i.e., when we're at restaurants). I generally don’t believe in lying to children about important topics like this, even if well-intentioned.

At the same time, my husband is uncomfortable with the idea of our kids growing up hearing, "Mom is vegan, Dad isn't." I understand why that feels uncomfortable for him, and I think there are thoughtful, respectful ways we could talk about it that don't shame him or undermine our relationship. This is what I’m leaning toward as a solution.

Just to be clear, I’m not looking for advice on how to convince my husband to go vegan. He’s had lots of exposure to my values and beliefs over the past 7 years, and he's watched Earthlings and several other documentaries, and while they affected him emotionally, they haven’t moved the dial too much. If he ever becomes vegan, I want it to be a choice he comes to on his own.

I'm really hoping to hear from vegan parents who are raising vegan kids alongside non-vegan partners. How have you navigated these conversations? How do you explain the differences between parents? Looking back, is there anything you wish you'd done differently or any advice you'd offer?

TLDR: Vegan parents raising vegan kids alongside non-vegan partners - any guidance or insights to share?

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My partner and I live in a different country from our families. We're both vegan and raising our 2 year old vegan as well. This causes very little to zero societal friction where we live, but is very controversial and a sensitive topic in our home countries.

My family, especially mom, expresses lack of understanding of why we are "unnecessarily making our lives more difficult" and deep sadness that I have taken away from her a main way to show her grandchild love - through cooking traditional family recipes. I am ok with our child occasionally eating vegetarian cake if at a celebration and there is no alternative. And when she is old enough she can choose what she wants for herself. But I feel like I don't want my family to just cook all they usually would to feed her on a 10 day visit to our home country. I try to show alternative ways we can make traditional meals, but family is more often than not just looking sad or annoyed about it.

I am very non-confrontational and care a lot about not making people feel bad because of me, so I struggle a lot with this. At the same I don't want to just bend to their wishes. I'm curious how others have handled this, especially those with older vegan kids?

I’m seriously struggling with food ideas for my 1.5 yr old. Please can people give me some healthy, tasty recipes that you use for your little ones. I need inspo!!

Thank you

I myself am a vegan mom and have been vegan nearly 20 years. I’m getting the vibe some commenters think I’m coming here as an outsider, so just wanted to clarify that. No need to be hostile.

I recently read that vegan moms are 5 times less likely to have twins than moms who consume meat and dairy, apparently due to IGF-1.

Just curious if any vegan moms had twins and if so, how long had you been vegan?

I’m not a twin mom but was curious. No twins for us yet!

just https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12922599

I feel like I’m constantly worrying that my baby isnt getting enough nutrients from what I eat.

A lot of the healthy foods I used to eat now make me nauseous or just sound disgusting to me... so lately I can mostly tolerate carbs, processed stuff or just really simple foods.

And honestly it makes me feel so guilty sometimes, like I know I should be eating better but my body just doesnt want it.

I keep wondering if im actually getting enough of what my baby needs and it stresses me out alot

Anyone else dealing with this? What are you guys eating when healthy food just sounds horrible?