Do your raw kids in daycare get sick?

[VeroP]

My older daughter and I are raw, but not the rest of my family. My son then, who is cooked vegan, is 4 and in a Montessori School - he is sick constantly and has been throughout his daycare years.

Since I have been raw for 9 months now, I have had 1 very slight cold - he's had dozens it seems. When it is not a cold, it is a stomach issue. Should I be converting him to raw - would he stay healthier if he were raw?

Please let me know your experiences with your young ones!

Thanks!

VeroP

[catscharm74]

My son is partial raw- when he is home. But in daycare, the give them food and it is a healthier SAD meal, but still...:o

He does seem to be handling illness better. It doesn't seem to last as long and he bounces back faster. I may be able to control it better once I he gets older and brings a lunch. I wish I didn't need daycare, but we need the money right now so...I am doing my best. :)

Cheers,
Heather

[Ginger]

I never did daycare, but I had my baby around plenty sick people and other kids. I was never one of those parents who worried about germs or anything. I let her play with sick kids, even one that was so sick she was bleeding out her ears! My daughter never had so much as a sniffle her entire life, she just turned 5 on christmas, until I let her eat some SAD foods for a little while. I let her have them two different occasions and both times she got a very mild 'cold' and even coughed a few times the last time. And she wasn't around anyone who was sick either. Getting sick is just not possible on raw.

[VeroP]

Those are helpful answers Heather and RawVeganMom. What a wonderful experience of not having a sick day once in your life. My poor little one seems to be sick all the time. The rest of us in the household take turns taking time off to take care of him (today its my husband's turn). He even fell victim to the salmonella issues in peanut butter last winter - every time he would get over the stomach virus, it would be back. We didn't know until later that we were feeding him salmonella every time he felt like eating peanut butter!

I'll start working with him to go raw. I'll probably have more success during the summer when I can be home with him and perhaps make some recipes that will call his attention. Unfortunately he is a picky eater and has a limited number of foods that he wants to eat.

Thanks again! I'd love to hear more of those testimonies!

[ElephanTigeR]

Can't you send food with your children to daycare? I would thrink most places would be accomodating. If they aren't just say he has severe food allergies, and has a strict diet ?

[Ginger]

After mine got a taste of SAD foods, now she is picky and would only eat rye toast with vegan butter and orange marmalade all day every day if it's in the house. Funny thing is though, when it's not in the house she fusses about it for a day then forgets because I make such great raw stuff that she really likes. But if given the choice she'd be eating toast all day now. :rolleyes:

[VeroP]

He started his life as vegan and thus has had cooked foods all of his life. I do pack his lunch and they very much respect his veganism at school.

Switching him to raw would be difficult without offering him tempting alternatives. My daughter and I are mainly fruit, nuts and veggies and we don't do a lot of recipes. Even the recipes that we have done, not many of them call out to him - the textures are so different from his cooked foods.

This summer I can work with him more when I am home with him and I will have time to make more recipe type items that I can get him to like. At this point I feel he needs to be convinced and not just forced to make the decision for raw. I would feel differently about that if we had been raw from the time he was born.

He does eat more fruits and some nuts now, but not enough to keep him filled.

[Ginger]

I am a big fan of convincing, not force! They have to understand at the level they are at. I also like trickery to an extent hahaha meaning don't tell him there is anything different about his food! It's just more of the same, just food. Don't say here this is so different etc. Make a raw ice cream and say here is ice cream, not here is this raw ice cream. When you run out of his fav vegan cooked foods, don't buy them and say oh we don't have that right now, what else can I get you? An apple? A smoothie? Ice cream? Ya know? :D Then once he's eatimg raw and he goes back to school and trys something not raw, he will feel the difference for himself and you can explain and educate.

[GlimR]

I run a family child care program in my home so from a day care providers standpoint I would welcome the food from home if the parent chose to send it and the child would eat it. I use mostly organics with the children I care for and feed them lots of raw foods, nothing premade. They love it...especially almond mylk. They help me make it almost every morning.
In any group situation children are exposed to so much. I can't imagine their immune systems wouldn't be so much stronger on a raw diet.

[GypsiAnsara]

I have found that making sure my daughter is taking really good probiotics (we special order ours, HCL Pharmax brand) really keeps the colds at bay, and when she does get one, it doesn't bother her very much. She doesn't seem to be getting any stomach viruses either, which were a problem when she would be in a group situation before.
She eats about 60% of her food raw, and is a lacto-vegetarian (no eggs). The co-op she goes to doesn't allow you to send a pack lunch, as a mom is in charge of making the vegetarian meal each day.
Since I am somewhat new to raw (almost 3 months) I am still working out the kinks in the food prep department and trying to make things she will enjoy and can just work into her diet without a fuss.

[RawFamily]

Hi ,

This question has been bugging me for some time. My two year old is high raw and does not like cooked food. Yet he comes home from his montessori daycare every other week with a cold! He drinks smoothies with greens nut mylks and spirulina and super food puddings ( all freshly prepared) yet i do not understand why he gets sick. On the other hand his immune system is still developing and it is better to get a few detox symptoms and build his immune strength. It will be interesting to see what happens when he starts to attend a raw day care nursery.

we ive in hope x x x x:)

[Suz58]

Does he have a cold or could it be an allergy to something at daycare?
If it is a cold then maybe he is not as ill as other kids from the same daycare.
My kids aren't all raw and pick up the same bugs as other kids but never as severly and never for as long.