Advertisement
Greeting everyone!
My name is Jeanie. I live in Redding Ca. with my husband and 2 sons.
I want to ask you all for advice on raising my 5 year old and my 14 year old (who has a better understanding and can comprehend better then my 5 yr old) to understand why we no longer eat meat or animal products.
I led a vegan lifestyle 15 years ago up until the pregnancy of my first child. While I was pregnant, I had strong cravings for meat which my doctor told me to heed in order to give my growing baby proper nutrition...looking back, I can see what my issue and lack of knowledge was, youth and ignorance, but then, let's just say that I didn't have the proper education or know how and when the doctors told me to eat what my body was craving, I listened and started down the path of 15 years of eating meat and dairy products.
Also, I thought it was just a grand fluctuation in my hormones that caused me to developed psoriasis which started to over take my body during my pregnancy. I went to several dermatologists and not once did anyone suggest my diet being an issue...I was told by one to shave my head in order to receive more Vitamin D on my scalp. I took pills that were developed for liver transplant patients for over a year, granted, it cleared up my psoriasis, but the moment I stopped taking these heavy duty drugs, the psoriasis flourished once more. Ointment only held it at bay.
So, when my husband begged off meat from his diet as a choice for his health, I was steeped in the conscious numbing of a typical American diet ....milk and dairy/ good for strong bones, meat/ good for protein...etc... I told him that I would still make the meals with meat, but that I would be aware of his wants and nutritional needs.
I started noticing how he was only getting a side of rice and veggies while we had meat to 'complete' our plates. I wanted to make better meals so that he was getting more nutrition. I started looking for vegetarian cookbooks online and came across 'skinny bitch' and thought, oh my, a book written by models about eating carrots and celery...but when I started reading some of the preview pages, it was like lifting the blinders instantly. The ones that I placed on my own view for 15 years. It all came rushing back to me and I quickly converted back to a vegan lifestyle. It was like waking up from a long mindless dream and I am pissed for duping myself into thinking all this time that my family and I needed the protein and vitamins and minerals found only in dairy and meats products to be healthy. I am sorrowful that I have, since in utero, poisoned my children with foods that are not only unnecessary to their growth, but damaging as well. My 5 year old has had a 3 year long love affair with Dairy. He could eat it all day long...cheese, yogurt, ice cream, shakes, smoothies, you name it, he loves it. He begs for it. He hates veggie cheese.
I have easily made the transition with my husband, but my kids are up in arms at the severe change in our lifestyle. My older son is angry at me for making this decision without his consent and my younger son is continually asking for dairy on a regular basis. I try to tell them that I have researched information that made me aware of how meat and animal products are poison to our bodies and how animals are being hurt, abused, and killed for the food that our society has deemed the 'normal diet'. But it seems to bounce off of them and not make sense to them. They have been eating it their whole lives, why should they change now?
So, I am writing this forum in hopes of gaining insight on how to educate children without overwhelming them or turning them off with my lectures, or frightening/scaring them with the horrors and brutalities of our societie's abuses. I don't think my 5 yr old would be able to watch the videos I have seen of the horrors of the factory farms at his age.
I want my children to embrace their new lifestyle though. I want them to feel how I feel about this new chance for a healthier life. Does anyone have any keys to making this transition easier for them?
Please let me know what you think...
By the way, my psoriasis is gone....15 years of horrible skin problems and meds that poisoned and never worked...gone!
My name is Jeanie. I live in Redding Ca. with my husband and 2 sons.
I want to ask you all for advice on raising my 5 year old and my 14 year old (who has a better understanding and can comprehend better then my 5 yr old) to understand why we no longer eat meat or animal products.
I led a vegan lifestyle 15 years ago up until the pregnancy of my first child. While I was pregnant, I had strong cravings for meat which my doctor told me to heed in order to give my growing baby proper nutrition...looking back, I can see what my issue and lack of knowledge was, youth and ignorance, but then, let's just say that I didn't have the proper education or know how and when the doctors told me to eat what my body was craving, I listened and started down the path of 15 years of eating meat and dairy products.
Also, I thought it was just a grand fluctuation in my hormones that caused me to developed psoriasis which started to over take my body during my pregnancy. I went to several dermatologists and not once did anyone suggest my diet being an issue...I was told by one to shave my head in order to receive more Vitamin D on my scalp. I took pills that were developed for liver transplant patients for over a year, granted, it cleared up my psoriasis, but the moment I stopped taking these heavy duty drugs, the psoriasis flourished once more. Ointment only held it at bay.
So, when my husband begged off meat from his diet as a choice for his health, I was steeped in the conscious numbing of a typical American diet ....milk and dairy/ good for strong bones, meat/ good for protein...etc... I told him that I would still make the meals with meat, but that I would be aware of his wants and nutritional needs.
I started noticing how he was only getting a side of rice and veggies while we had meat to 'complete' our plates. I wanted to make better meals so that he was getting more nutrition. I started looking for vegetarian cookbooks online and came across 'skinny bitch' and thought, oh my, a book written by models about eating carrots and celery...but when I started reading some of the preview pages, it was like lifting the blinders instantly. The ones that I placed on my own view for 15 years. It all came rushing back to me and I quickly converted back to a vegan lifestyle. It was like waking up from a long mindless dream and I am pissed for duping myself into thinking all this time that my family and I needed the protein and vitamins and minerals found only in dairy and meats products to be healthy. I am sorrowful that I have, since in utero, poisoned my children with foods that are not only unnecessary to their growth, but damaging as well. My 5 year old has had a 3 year long love affair with Dairy. He could eat it all day long...cheese, yogurt, ice cream, shakes, smoothies, you name it, he loves it. He begs for it. He hates veggie cheese.
I have easily made the transition with my husband, but my kids are up in arms at the severe change in our lifestyle. My older son is angry at me for making this decision without his consent and my younger son is continually asking for dairy on a regular basis. I try to tell them that I have researched information that made me aware of how meat and animal products are poison to our bodies and how animals are being hurt, abused, and killed for the food that our society has deemed the 'normal diet'. But it seems to bounce off of them and not make sense to them. They have been eating it their whole lives, why should they change now?
So, I am writing this forum in hopes of gaining insight on how to educate children without overwhelming them or turning them off with my lectures, or frightening/scaring them with the horrors and brutalities of our societie's abuses. I don't think my 5 yr old would be able to watch the videos I have seen of the horrors of the factory farms at his age.
I want my children to embrace their new lifestyle though. I want them to feel how I feel about this new chance for a healthier life. Does anyone have any keys to making this transition easier for them?
Please let me know what you think...
By the way, my psoriasis is gone....15 years of horrible skin problems and meds that poisoned and never worked...gone!
posted by:
|
California
|
Advertisement
Advertisement
-
Re: Raising a Vegan Child
Sun, August 17, 2008 - 6:48 PMI really like your story, Jeanie. It just goes to show one should not be so quick to believe it when a doctor urges vegans or vegetarians to eat meat for their health. That's fantastic that your stubborn psoriasis is gone now.
You raise an excellent question and I'll be interested to see how parents respond to it. Myself, I have no experience with raising children so I don't know the answer of what to tell them. When I have cooked for young children I find making things with fake meats, like pieces of veggie hot dogs in a recipe goes over well and they will eat it. It could be harder to ween your younger one from dairy, though. But there are good non-dairy yogurts and ice creams now and you could make plenty of smoothies using almond or rice milk.
Are you telling your older son to avoid meat when eating outside the home, too? -
-
Re: Raising a Vegan Child
Mon, August 18, 2008 - 2:04 PMI see you live in CA, you could take your kids to Farm Sanctuary, that might help them to make the connection.
www.farmsanctuary.org/farm/ca/ -
-
Re: Raising a Vegan Child
Tue, August 19, 2008 - 10:19 AMThis is wonderful!
I am home schooling my 5 yr old and this is going to be a field trip. I have invited everyone I know to join us for a trip to the Farm. Thanks for the link.
I have been experimenting with different substitute foods for the most part. Malcolm (my 5 yr old) really loves Coconut Bliss ice cream and hasn't requested going down to Rite Aid for a cone like our old tradition once consisted of. We have tried cheeses here and there but to no avail (because he used to eat string cheese and chunks of Cheddar as snack foods on a regular basis, everything else, at face value, made him say 'yuck') until one day when he wanted pizza so badly that he even drew me a picture of all the ingredients he wanted to create it... he drew an olive, a mushroom, a piece of bread, a block of cheese, and a slice of pepperoni. It was darling, I was dumbfounded. So, my husband and I took him to Orchard, our local organic health store to look for healthy substitutes for cheese and pepperoni. We found a shredded soy cheese ( that is wonderful but expensive) and a 'not-so-tastes-like-it- meatless pepperoni' (we were hoping that the colour and shape would dupe him into believing that it was what he wanted). We took it home and made mini vegan pepperoni, mushroom, and olive pizzas....he ate everything but the 'pepperoni'. Not bad,I felt that this battle was won, at least his cheese fix was satisfied. I have been trying soy yogurts and smoothies (the smoothie was two thumbs down but next time I will try it with your suggested almond or rice milk instead and see if he likes it) without much luck.
As it turns out, my 5 yr old is more willing to try new things then my 14 yr. old. My eldest is more rebellious at this stage.
Not only at the lines of food but in every direction. So much so, that he is currently 'visiting my mom' because of anger issues in the house and around the 5 yr old (that is another story better to be on a teen parenting forum). When he was here though, he and I talked about the things that had made me switch our lifestyles and (mainly) it was the brutality to animals that caught his attention. He has a deep compassionate side for animals. Unbeknownst to me, he recently debated veganism with my in-laws and seemed to be embracing the ideals of a vegan...but issues between himself and me cloud his thought process (otherwise, if I am for something, it is the kiss of death in his eyes) and when we last argued, it was about my husband's and my choice to go vegan without his consent and how he has to have milk and meat in his life,period... and how unfair it was for us to stop buying the things that he has long been accustomed to in his diet. I ended up telling him that even though I do not condone it, he has the right to make his own choices as to what he puts in his body. I made it clear, though, that we would not be providing meat or dairy in our household and that if he were to be at his friend's house or grandparents house that he was free to make that choice for himself. But, under no circumstances were we ever going to give him money to get burgers at burger king or other fast foods, meat, or dairy. We told him that we had plenty of food here that was tasty, nutritious, as well as healthy and he was welcomed to it anytime... he called it all crap.
To make a long story a bit shorter... we are having to step back and away from the anger of our teen and focus on the innocence of the 5 yr. old who is more malleable at the moment and interested in our guidance.
-
-
