‘Shall I raise my daughter (1) vegan?’

Sometimes you can’t figure it out on your own and you could use some advice. Every Tuesday a reader therefore tells about her dilemma.

Josefien (29) lives with Rens (28) and is mother of Elfi (1).

“After ten years of eating vegetarian, I decided three years ago to switch to a vegan lifestyle. My friend Rens had already started it a year earlier, and when I saw that it is easier than it looks with him, the last animal products were quickly gone.

Also read – Keep every child (and parent) sweet with these vegan American cookies in 3 variants >

vegan

Our daughter Elfi eats with our pot in addition to breastfeeding. The health clinic is a bit skeptical about that, isn’t she allowed a slice of cheese or a bowl of full-fat yogurt? Well, rather not. Everyone should do what they or he feels good about, but when I see a child of 1 eating meat, I literally get sick. So that’s a hard no.

Still, I doubt whether Elfi will not need some extras when she is off the breast soon. Nature offers plenty of alternatives to animal food products, but I don’t want to get too carried away with it. I myself have only been experiencing what vegan food does to my body for three years; my toddler body was still old-fashioned with the Wheel of Five. And how will her body react if she does ingest dairy from friends or at school? I don’t want to avoid that too much.

All vitamins

The district nurse suggested a pediatric dietitian to at least make sure that Elfi is getting all the necessary vitamins. An extra check is always a good idea, but don’t I just avoid a lot of hassle if I first feed my daughter only vegetarian, even if that conflicts with our views?”

More episodes of the dilemma? Every Tuesday there is a new story on KekMama.nl. Read the previous dilemmas here.