Vegan Parenting

My friends put together this short documentary (9 mins) about vegan parenting. its quite interesting....check it out.

http://current.tv/studio/media/2683042

Thank you for sharing the link.

that was great - thanks

thank you for sharing that - answered a lot of questions I had on the topic. Now I dont have to fear 5-6 years from now of dropping this lifestyle. I'm a little emotional today but parts had me almost into tears seeing the happiness in those kids, and realizing its just a myth that you can't raise your children this way. When you really think about it, its sort of silly all of those misconceptions.

im glad you all enjoyed it.

i definetley like the end comment the best (and felt it was emotional for me too haha) about how she really feels like when her kid grows up he'll look back and be like, my mom was awesome for raising me that way. i thoguht it was cute haha.

I know I am coming into this thread a little late. It has probably been abandoned long ago. LoL. I loved this documentary. The only thing I really worry about when it comes to raising vegan kids is that they might be ridiculed by their friends and feel left out at birthday parties etc. I just hope by the time I have kids it will be more common and maybe my kids will be able to have other vegan classmates.

Please, anyone thinking of raising your kids vegan- think about this.

I know that everyone looks down on vegan parenting for health reasons.  Not being an expert myself, I'm not gonna touch that.  I'll assume that everyone here knows the risks and benefits involved, and that everyone here would bring their child for regular check-ups.

That said, I was raised as a meat-eater, and no religions were forced upon me.  I think both of these things were great, because then, later on I was able to decide what I wanted to do or be.  I'm an atheist now (after experimenting with several religions of my choice).  I hardly eat ANY meat now, but I like that I have the option.  If you are raising your child on a meatless, diet, he/she may never have the option to decide for him/herself.  I'm not saying you should go out of your way to provide burgers and chicken for your kids, just that if that's what they want to choose when you go out somewhere to eat, or over at a friend's house, perhaps you should let them eat it.

It's great that you don't want to support cruelty to animals, and danger to factory farmers, but at a certain age, I think a child needs to be able to make a decision on his/her own.  And if you raise them entirely vegan, they may never be able to make the decision to eat even a vegetarian diet, just based on health risks.

  And I could be WAY off base here, but I think that any sort of diet that promotes a lot of food restrictions for a child could lead to negative eating habits later on.

Are there any vegans here considering a vegetarian diet for their children instead?

I don't plan on having kids, but if I did, I would raise them vegan.

There was a comment on the page about how the vegan kids might be missing out on their childhood by not being able to have birthday cake at parties... if I knew my kid was going to a birthday party at a non-vegan house, I would make some cupcakes for him/her to bring to either share or eat himself or herself... there are answers to everything, as far as I'm concerned.

As far as choices, I can see where you're coming from, cosmictuesday, but the habits you are raised with tend to stick with you for a long time unless you consciously put in a great deal of effort to change that. This isn't really just a matter of which set of beliefs to your want to prescribe to as religion really only deals with, but this is also about health. My friend was taught that fruit tastes great and natural foods are delicious from a young age--at 27 now, for a dessert, she will choose a piece of fruit. I was raised thinking cookies and cakes are good desserts, and it took a lot of work for me to change my perspective on that. My mom actually just went vegan about a year ago, and she is still trying to change habits and patterns from being raised in the 50's and eating a lot of crappy food.... how you are brought up can dictate a lot of your future choices.

Great video.

Cosmic Tuesday. I have already decided to raise kids vegan but once they get old enough to make their own food choiced they can eat whatever they want but if meat/dairy/eggs are what they want I won't be the one buying it or cooking it for them!

My son is a junior in high school and he rants about how great  his vegan friend's lunches look. I keep telling him to ask for recipes because I will make him vegan lunches. I am not sure what vegan is but I am sure it is healthier than a lot of other food out there. I am pretty sure it is veggies, no animal products whatsoever.

Jiggles your right, it means no animal products. I think it's great that you are so open minded that you would make your son vegan lunches. What a great mom! I know I throw this site around a lot on here but in case you haven't heard of it www.vegweb.com has tons of great vegan recipes. I have tried some I don't like but there are more good ones than bad ones and they all have ratings and reviews. I always try to make the ones that are highly rated and the reviews usually offer suggestions for improving the recipe.

And I always throw this one around: www.theppk.com but it has amazing recipies too! Most are by Isa Chandra who wrote the cookbook, Vegan with a Vengeance, and has some more on the way..

And another great site, that actually focuses on vegan school lunches is: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
Very cute

That definitely is awesome you're so open to making him vegan food!

Raising a child strictly vegan should be considered child abuse.  The only source for Vitamin D is animal products.  There is a lot of misinformation in the vegan community about vitamin D (ie you get it by being in sunlight and that is enough)  That is flat out wrong.  I am a medical student and have a degree in biochemistry so I feel that I know something about the metabolism of vitamin D.  Sunlight only provides the final step in producing vitamin D but the precursor for the reaction is only found in animal products.  Adults have about 3 years worth of vitamin D stores in their bone so they won't feel the effects right away of switching to a vegan diet.  Another issue is iron deficient anemia.  The iron that is found in plants is in the ferric (3+) state and is not absorbed by the gut.  Animal derived iron is in the ferrous (2+) state and is absorbed by the gut.  Talk to a pediatrician about raising a child this way and they will most certainly advise against it.     

i loved the video! i am definitely going to raise my children vegan when i do have them...in a long time, hopefully.

Warning:  Rant to follow

Dreyer:  Not to get your hackles up, but a lot of that is just plain silly.  D2 is a vitamin D derived from plant sources.  Also, in regard to iron, it takes adequate amounts of vitamin C to convert it into a useable form.  Are you taking nutrition classes?  Are you a nutritionist?  And, also, I think that it's ridiculous that it is thought that all of our minerals and vitamins need to be in an useable form as soon as we eat it.  I mean, what do our bodies do with amino acids that we take in?  Oh, right, our bodies can make our own protiens out of sufficient amino acids.

Also, if you go around telling people that a vegan diet is child abuse, then awful stuff happens, like this family in Utah had their child taken away because:  they had a child that died.  The state said it was because of an inadequate vegan diet, and took away the other child.  Turns out it was carbon monoxide poisoning.  Confirmed by an autopsy.  But the state didn't return the remaining child to his responsible parents. 

Also, are you trying to tell me that a diet that stuffs Happy Meals to children four or more times a week ISN'T abuse?  Which would be better:  to be vegan, or to be so filled with junky animals products that you die from heart disease, cancer, etc?

The documentary was wonderful, thank you for sharing!

In response to Dreyer, I won't speak for everyone, but I will be so bold as to say that many, if not all, of us vegan/vegetarians have done our research as well. There are a mulititude of doctors, nurses, nutritionists and other vegan (and non vegan)professionals that would argue the exact opposite of what you have stated. I would simply say that if you don't agree with the lifestyle choices and values of this thread, let the rest of us continue to stay positive and unjudgemental.

I was going to ask if any of you other vegetarians/vegans are in a relationship or marriage with someone who is an omnivore and if that's a challenge for you. Also, have you talked about how you would raise your children. I have a serious boyfriend of 3 years, I am very much vegan, and he is very much non-vegan. While we have an enormous amount of respect for eachother and are supportive of the others individual choices, our views on how any future children would raised differ. This isn't an immediate concern, as we aren't planning on having children for a long time, however it could very well become problematic in the future...