Friday, April 15, 2011

My Resistant Veggie Kids

It's been eleven days since I started my vegan challenge and I am loving it! As for my children, well not so much.  When I first told them about my decision to go vegetarian, they were not happy but they seemed willing to try. But when I mentioned "vegan", I could feel the resistance.  I know they were thinking that first I took away their meat and now the milk, cheese and OMG...ice cream.  How could I be so mean?   My teenage daughter expressed to me how it was my choice to go vegan and that it's not fair to force her to eat vegan.  I suppose she's right, but as long as I do the food shopping, she's out of luck.  One might think that since her two best friends are vegetarians it would make this process much easier, but sadly it does not. 

My toddler is also having trouble transitioning to vegan.  I have been trying to switch her from cows milk to soy milk for a while now.  But this little girl can tell whenever I put soy milk in her cup.  I have tried putting half regular and half soy and the second she drinks its, she yells out at me "this is not my milk!"  Well, I have stopped buying the cow's milk so I will just keep trying the soy milk until she gives in, or at least until she gets tired of just water and juice.  I also tried to switch her regular yogurt for soy yogurt.  I finally found some this week and in the flavor she likes.  I tried it and it was good.  When I gave it to her I told her that I got a new yummy yogurt just for her.  She tried it and seemed to like it...for about a one minute.  After that, she wanted her Dora yogurt back. 

What is a vegan mother to do?  Can't someone please make non-dairy milk and yogurt with Dora on the box?  Or maybe Spongebob or any other character that will say to my toddler "it is okay to eat this product."  I know that this is a process and one day we will all be there, but it is a bit frustrating.  My teenager called me from school the other day and asked me to bring her something to eat before basketball practice.  So of course when I ask what she will like I just knew what I was going to hear...McDonald's!  This was the last place I wanted to visit, but reluctantly, I went.  I felt so dirty and uncomfortable being there, like a hypocrite. Imagine someone who reads all my vegan postings sees me in line getting a chicken nugget meal!  Why can't they have some veggie value meal that my teenager will like and that I will be happy buying for her?  Why can't all these products and places just cooperate with what I'm trying to do? I guess I'm asking for too much, but sometimes it seems like the rest of the world is against me getting my children to eat a healthier diet.  I suppose all I can do is keep trying...and hope for the best.

3 comments:

  1. We made the switch from soy milk to nonfat dry milk a coupke months ago to save money. I had read a tip from the hillbilly house wifeto use black strap mollasses in reconstitued dry milk to improve the flavor. We had already been using it drizzled on our 2 year old`s yogurt. She loves it and asks for molasses milk all the time. Itis extremely calcium and iron rich. maybe that would help with soy milk too. I also portion out a couple cups and dropa cinnamon stick in it and let itsitib thefridge for a day. She really lives that too.

    We also discuss marketing a lot. When she asks for the yogurt with the lion on it or the cereal with Dora I tell her we don.t buy things just because of the packaging but because of the quality of what is inside it. Which strangly works but she has grown up hearin no a lot.

    I wonder if you could get her special dora dishes just for drinking non-dairy milk and eating non-dairy yogurt. Maybe that would make it extra special.

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  2. Thanks Jeannette! Great advice, I think I will try little bowls for the yogurt. Maybe then she will not realize which one she is eating.

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  3. Try Coconut milk. My 6 year old loves in:)

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