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Raising Vegan
My son is vegan.
For this, I get a lot of questions like “Is it his choice to be so?” Duh? Babies can’t make choices.
“What if he craves for meat?” Duh, again! He can’t crave for something he hasn't eaten!
We introduced (and restricted) Philip Angelo "Gelo" to a vegetable diet as soon as he was ready for solid food at 4 or 5 months old. He had baby colic, a condition where the baby cries or screams frequently for extended periods without discernible reason. We figured it was a tummy problem. The aches were caused by the fact that he is lactose intolerant so the doctor told us to give him soy-based formula. Hence the shift to vegetable and soya-based food was easy.
Then more questions. “If he’s not allowed to eat meat, where does he get his protein”? Duh (once more).
Soya is perhaps one of the richest protein sources. Besides he still eats eggs. And how’s that for protein fix?
The questions kept coming.
What will Gelo eat in kiddie parties? What will he think of other meat-munching kids? How will you help him deal with peer pressure associated with his "different" food preferences?
Why-what? Like being Vegan is an affliction?
Gelo has been eating well in kiddie parties. He could still have French fries and sundaes. Besides he enjoys the mascot more than the “trans fatty” food they serve at the 2 leading fast food chains. Peer pressure we’ll deal with later.
Friends even warn us that Gelo will blame us someday for depriving him of meaty pleasures.
But I’d like to believe he’ll thank us instead for not loading him up with cholesterol and carcinogens, derived from a meat or animal fat diet. And we’re under no illusion that he’ll be vegan for life. Gelo will eventually be free to choose his food (or a wife, we won’t meddle promise).
If ever he becomes a meat eater by choice in adult life, we’d be way passed the years when parents struggle with picky eaters, the real issue here.
Picky eaters are a growing legion in this fast food age, when the only food edible to a child is something meaty and fried. My wife and I heard one too many frustrating stories from other parents whose children ONLY eat hotdog or fried chicken everyday and will not touch anything else. Other parents regret the fact that they introduced vegetables too late in a child’s life, when he has already developed a preference for meat (and only meat).
Our meal time was uneventful for about 2 years until Gelo began to wonder why there are 2 sets of meals on the table, one that he can eat, and another he can't even touch. I knew sooner or later, we had to explain.
“Meat… is… BAD!”
That’s the hardest thing to say while daddy and mommy are devouring slab after slab of beef in front of him.
Besides his fascination with Babe, Nemo or any other talking animal on TV whose meat we eat will soon make daddy and mommy no different from sharks or the big bad wolf.
After a series of lengthy discussions, we came to terms with our little dinner table crisis. If we couldn’t beat him, we might as well join him. Besides going vegetarian (just at home) or being an occasional (closet) carnivore has valuable health benefits. I lost 20 pounds in 2 months just by eating differently.
And so, our Vegan conversion (and occasional backsliding) began.