lately, ollie has been feeding himself little bits of food. it's hilarious, as you can see, and he's quite into it. until recently, ollie's been eating fruit, vegetables and some grains. at our 9 month appointment the doctor noted that it was time to introduce protein into ollie's diet and this raised some questions for us.
right now, logan eats a vegan diet and i eat about 95% vegan. i eat milk chocolate and occasionally cheese or yogurt or some meat. but mostly, i eat grains and fruit and vegetables. so the question is what should we feed ollie.
logan raised the question months ago, early in his vegan days. at that time, i suggested that he should eat like me (70% vegan, 20% vegetarian, 10% carnivore). since then though, my eating has shifted closer and closer to veganism. so eating like me isn't the same thing. it's almost vegan.
i asked our doctor about it. she didn't seem judgemental: she admitted she didn't know enough to advise us and she suggested we talk to a nutritionist. she did ask some questions, but they were pragmatic: what kind of milk would we switch to when he stopped breastfeeding? what kinds of snacks would we offer? she noted that her kids ate lots and lots of dairy. she suggested that he could continue drinking breastmilk instead of transitioning to cow's milk.
there isn't a lot of info out there about a vegan diet for little kids, which makes me uncomfortable. it isn't helped by the results of googling baby and vegan diet. apparently there were some kooks killed their newborn by feeding the teeny one soymilk and applesauce. who does that? anyway, PETA needs to do some work on that google search because it's pretty awful.
but over the past few years, veganism has gotten a lot of great press: lots of public figures are eating vegan (Alec Baldwin & Bill Clinton, Mac Danzig & Carl Lewis), and the documentary & book Forks over Knives (streaming on Netflix) have gotten great reviews. even the USDA has agreed it's a healthy way to eat! i saw the documentary and read some of the books & studies and they are compelling. so compelling that i'm eating 95% vegan. but making a decision for myself is different than making it for my child. i've heard folks argue that people shouldn't choose for their child whether he/she eats meat or not; they should allow the child to make that decision. of course, i find that ridiculous. i'm going to make LOTS of decisions about my son's nutrition (no soda, no fast food, we're staying away from canned food, we prefer organic, et al.) and i'm comfortable with that. it's just that babies can be finicky and selective and i want to make sure that we can provide appropriate nutrition for him and his tastes.
for now, we're doing a little dairy (we found that ollie loves yogurt) and we're looking for a nutritionist to consult. more on to vegan or not to vegan as we continue to learn.
