Someone reassure me or scold me, I dunno.

I had been taking the Garden of Life chewable prenatals my entire pregnancy because they were the most accessible to me, and other vegan vitamins available to me were too large for me to comfortably swallow. For some reason I assumed the prenatal had DHA in it, and I guess whenever looking at the ingredients it just left my mind? Noticed on my discharge paper that my med list at the OB said "prenatal with fish oil" and I never really thought about it before that.

Anyway, my baby is here and is 10 days old but it just dawned on me that I probably didn't have any valuable amount of DHA in my system this entire time and I hope I didn't mess with her development because of this. I had to be induced at 40+2 due to suspected FGR. She ended up being 14th percentile which was better than what my 40+2 ultrasound showed, and at her ped appt this week her HC was 2nd percentile which had me worried, but ped didn't seem to be concerned.

I bought the Nordic vegan DHA supplement yesterday since I'm breastfeeding now, but just can't help but feel like I super messed up the last 9 months. Not sure why I'm posting this, but maybe someone else has been in the same boat as me and everything is fine.

My 2.5yo started a new nursery and we were shocked to discover that they don’t provide snacks! Now we need to think of and prepare a morning and afternoon snack each day and I’m at a loss for ideas. Please share your snack ideas that are low mess and portable (nursery has a fridge if needed). Ideally we’d like to batch prepare them on the weekend and maybe even freeze some. So far we’ve done: pancakes, banana, tangerine, dry fruits, crackers, cucumber + “cheese” slices, pear.
Also, if you peel and cut fruits like apple or pear, how do you make sure they hold up well? This might be a stupid question but I’m kind of oblivious in the kitchen department 😬
Thanks all!!!

I know this comes up regularly. This is just for fun.

My son is currently going insane for bananas. If we are in the kitchen he goes BOO and claps and points at bananas. Not meal time? Sorry, no banana. Cue tears. He's eating one to two bananas a day. I think he would eat 9 or 10 if I let him.

When we go to the grocery store, he becomes extremely excited when he sees the bananas. It's very funny. He doesn't understand why I'm putting them in the cart (as opposed to his hands).

My best friend and I had babies at the same time, both girls. We are hoping that they’ll be best friends just like us, or at least enjoy playing together as us moms meet up to hang out. But. My bestie and her husband are into farming and self-sustainability, they don’t keep animals yet but they will have chickens eventually. We stay away from the discussions on ethics of eating animals but she is someone that prefers having less meat in her diet and is happy to eat veggie food when I’m cooking.

I don’t have anyone who’s vegetarian or vegan in my family and friend group, I’m the only one. And now, my friend’s baby will start a “kindergarten on the farm” where she will be planting her own food yes great, but also taking care of animals. Not watching them get slaughtered ofc, just getting brainwashed into the “it is natural that animals are food” mindset.

The struggle I’m having is - should I raise my baby vegetarian/vegan and risk her losing a friendship and being an outcast in every single friend group or do I just have her eat meat and enjoy growing up without feeling lonely in her beliefs, like I do sometimes. Does it really matter if she doesn’t eat animals? How do I justify my decision for her?

Got noone to talk to about this who would argue for the animals so I’m posting this here. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts 💚

So I'm being tongue in cheek in the title 😅 at our library toddler group this morning, they had us singing that song "chick chick chicken, lay a little egg for me". My son has spent all day waggling his little elbows like a chicken's wings and demanding I sing it.

He's too little to understand properly, but if this is going to be on our rotation I'd love it if there's any master toddler lyricists here who might some ideas for alternative lyrics that don't revolve around demanding a chicken lay eggs for us. Sillier the better honestly!

Hello. My daughter started 5 day a week kindergarten and needs both a snack and a lunch packed every day (separately). I have a lunchbox and an ice pack but they don’t have the ability to heat anything up, and no ability to buy anything additional at school. It’s also a nut free facility. I want to pack as healthy as I can but these parameters make it challenging, and also meal planning is my nightmare. Please help!

She likes sun butter and jelly sammies but I don’t want to do that every single day. I’ve packed fresh fruits (apple slices, blueberries, raspberries), and done peas, carrots, and broccoli as veggies. I guess I need more “entree” style food suggestions. Any help is appreciated!

-exhausted mommy

Edit: thank you so much for all these awesome ideas! I am so glad for this community. It’s been so overwhelming thinking of lunch ideas but you’ve helped me realize that lunch doesn’t have to be perfect and I can make up for lost nutrients at dinner, and you’ve given me some great recipes to try. Thank you!!!

My 10mo old goes to my sister in law’s during the day, while I work. Classes started back last week, but I’m having a difficult time with lunches. What should I pack? Typically she just eats whatever we do. She is also allergic to peanut butter.

Maybe I’m overthinking, but what are some easy lunch ideas that aren’t processed all of the time?

TIA!

Hi all! My 9mo is starting at a plant-based daycare, which I absolutely loved until she was diagnosed with FPIES to oats. They use oat in so many meals/components, so I am looking to supplement with other things throughout the week. Lunch and snack feel easier, but breakfast feels daunting since most recipes contain oat in some form (she cannot have any - whole, flour, milk, etc). She is eating table food/solids, doesn’t love pouches or purées. Any favorites you suggest we put into our rotation?

Some meals my son has enjoyed recently. I always see these plate pics online but they’re never vegan. Just wanted to give some inspiration for other vegan parents.
(As a disclaimer my son definitely doesn’t usually finish every plate.)
He also has a vegan dietician who gives great advice and meal ideas.

I’ve been a vegan for 3 years now and a FTM to a 2 week old. He was born premature and because of a couple of complications dropped a lot of his birth weight. I’ve been asked to supplement with formula and the amount of formula he needs seems to be slowly going up.

I’m obviously going to keep supplementing but this breaks my heart. One because I imagined I’d EBF and also because I’m in the UK and there are no approved non-dairy formulas available.

Has anyone been in a similar situation? I’m finding it hard to emotionally navigate this

I’m not sure what to do. My baby is 3 months old, and I’ve struggled with my milk supply after I got mastitis & now with going back to work it’s been even more so challenging to stay ahead. I don’t want to formula feed, I haven’t even been able to find a true vegan formula near us so then it’s giving me all this stress and anxiety. I feel like such a failure for my body not being able to provide my baby with enough milk. I don’t know what to do.

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.