struggling with 1 kid here...

[Zaphirah]

5 yo dd does NOT want to be raw. She's barely eaten this week. I means she REALLY REALLY does NOT want to do this. Our compromise, this 1st week, is to eat whatever raw food she wants at home, and she can have her "cooked" snack that the teacher offers at school. (Usu yogurt smoothies, or juice and graham crackers or a cheese stick and apple slices and they always serve 100% juice or water.) But my gosh, I think the girl lost 5 lbs this week. She is as stubborn as a mule. She's been eating apple cider, celery, bananas, and a few nuts (like 5 pecans a day).

Now, next weekend my mom has asked to take her to my aunts and visit her cousins-her FAVORITE thing to do in the whole wide world. I can't imagine supplying her with food because frankly-she won't eat it. I can't imagine denying her time with her cousins over a food issue, AND I don't think it's in her best interest to go 3 days SAD while in the midst of stuggling against raw.

I did read Jinjee and Storm's ebook re: raw vegan kiddos. They said that at age 9 Raven decided to go cooked vegan and they respected her decision-and that she quickly came back to raw.

The difference is Addie was raised on cooked food and seems to have food addiction already. She salvates at the very idea of going to school and having milk items for snack. :( She spends a good portion of the 20 min car ride talking all about what (SAD food) she hopes she eats today.

Dh and I are just totally torn on the issue. I don't want to make food MORE of an issue for her, by denying her visits etc. Food should be in the background, ya know?

ugh. I'm confused.

[carolg]

Perhaps it may be too drastic a change from cooked to raw for a child. Regardless, perhaps introducing things that are more familiar to her like raw pizza and have her put her own toppings on it, tacos, ice cream I can't imagine her but loving, don't buy any more dairy products, maybe breads--she may not be excited about raw ones, but maybe Essene or similar, she surely won't embrace collard roll ups, so just trying to introduce her to more fresh stuff--salads, let her make her own dressings...let her play with the spiralizer for pasta....if she loves lasagna...have her help make a raw one...maybe forget the word "raw."

When at relatives hard to control that environment and she will probably feel she is in heaven with them too.

I suppose just introducing slow. The best you can do is introduce her to a better lifestyle and maybe now the seeds may not sprout quickly, but later on they could doing your best to offer her wisdom.

Don't let food be the culprit to deny the relationship or her feeling deprived. Do your best.

Oh, burgers...maybe she can make her own burgers with your help...raw...how about having her make ketchup, mustard, pickles, kraut...if she loves them.....I can help with the pickles/kraut talk. I know we have recipes here for other condiments.

Oh, the Raw Birthday Cake, Garcie Gordon's posted by me, is absolutely rich and fabulous. Maybe an Alissa rich chocolate fudge Grezzo cake which recipe was posted.

Hope this helps bunches.

My grandbaby lives far away in TX and loves fresh fruits/veggies, but her father is a junky and will slip her bad things when they go to the store. She knows its bad and tells my daughter so daddy can get in trouble after she has eaten it. He is a rebellious dad. I sent her fruit rollups and she loved it. Yesterday she almost finished all that arrived yesterday.

carolg

[MiahTay]

Well, this is what has worked for me.

Phase 1 - Eliminate cooked breakfast. I make my kiddos (9&11) smoothies, or fruit salad with nuts and chocolate sauce, apple chopped up with ground up walnuts drizzled with honey and coconut oil, etc. AND they have to have a SALAD with a small cooked portion of food for dinner. Snacks are RAW ONLY.

Phase 2 - Get them involved in the process. Making food in the kitchen, picking out recipes out of my raw food cookbooks. And I make wonderful raw things for MY lunch and let them choose the things they want for lunch ... however, what I have noticed recently is they are tasting almost everything I'M eating for lunch, sometimes I have to make myself another lunch because they've eaten it all - but I am thrilled! And the most recent thing I am doing in this phase of transition is educating my children as to WHY raw foods and what cooked/processed/sad food does in our bodies.

This is about where I'm at in the process, but I have to trust that we will land where we are supposed to. Also, I homeschool ... to be honest I totally can't imagine dealing with these food issues in a school setting. It's hard enough for my family and friends to wrap their brains around. But I know this isn't for everyone.

Blessings,
Heather

[Zaphirah]

I feel like preschool is a tough spot-she is considered selectivly mute-so it's super super imprtant for her to be there right now-and she's showing AMAZING results in that area. PreK prevides the snack and I have asker her if she would like to take a lunch box with her favorite (raw) foods with her to school and she flatly refused. I think next year in kindergarten will be easier because 1. she will have had a whole year of exposure to raw AND they don't provide foods. My other 3 have gluten/dairy allergies so we've been thru PS with food issues-like no candy or cupcakes, etc and once the dc are fine with it, then the kids around them get fine with it.

I certainly don't want to FORCE it on her and have it blow up in my face.

I think I will do the reverse of what you are doing-a cooked breakfast of oats and blueberries, school snack, and then raw the rest of the day. I can't do a cooked supper because the other 5 of us are 100%, ya know?

[MiahTay]

Sounds GREAT. I'm sure the more she is exposed to Wonderful raw foods the more she will want to try. One last thought I find that if I need to add calories to their day - put it in a nice THICK ice cream like smoothie and it works every time.

Blessings,
Heather

[ReneeH]

Hi!!!

O.k....Here's what's been working for me:

BREAKFAST BAR: 1 Cup Strawberries, 1 Cup BlueBerries, 1 Banana, 1/2 cup Sunflower Seeds, and 1 Cup Almonds 1/4 cup Flax Seeds. Process the nuts first in the Food Processer... Then Blend the berries in a blender, add the Flax seeds to mix... Mix blended part and processed part by hand with a wooden spoon... I like to add in chunks of berries at the end. Shape into "bar-like" shapes 1 inch thick on teflex sheet and Dehydrate at 105 degrees for 12 hours flip and dehydrate another 6-12 hours.... YUMMY!!! My kids LOVE these!!!

Alissa's Banana Leather!!! Trust me, make these if you haven't!!!

Alissa's Banana Flax Crackers!!! My kids love these with Agave Nectar!!!

Alissa's Recipe for Stuffed Portabella Mushroom Caps on Page 389 in her book!!! I made these TWICE this week for dinner!!! BY REQUEST!!!!! My kids LOVE these!!! I marinate the mushroom BEFORE adding the GUAC mixture to it, though...

Make some RAW burgers and Freeze them! They're GREAT in a Pinch!!!

Make some RAW Cookies and Freeze them! They keep for a LONG while!!!

Get a relative to keep the kids for a day and just "UN-COOK" your PANTS off and freeze a whole bunch of stuff in prep for the week ahead if you can! Sometimes what I'll do is when the kids go to sleep I'll stay up an extra hour or two and put some stuff in the dehydrator for the next day and when the next day comes I'm SOOOO glad I did that!!! :) I know that some people say get the kids to help, but I'm sorry that just doesn't work for ***ME***...now, granted that may work for YOU though... But, they just seem to get in in my way and I never get anything done!!! :eek: So, I'll have to cross that bridge when they get a bit older and I develop a bit more patience!!!! In the meantime, if this RAW lifestyle is gonna work for ***ME***, I've GOT to work alone right now, so I UN-COOK when they go to bed a lot of time...

Sorry to take up so much time writing guys!!! Hope this helps you!!!!

RAW HUGS!!!

Nee'

[MiahTay]

Just wondering how it is going with your little one? Any update?

Blessings,
Heather

[Zaphirah]

It is going AWESOME. We are only 1 week in and she's doing great! She's 75-100% raw each day. They *only* cooked food has been a bowl of oats. I took the dc to the HFS last night and gave each of them $10 and told them that they could buy ANYTHING in the store, as long as it was raw. She chose pineapple, raspberries, and dried papaya. She only bought $1 worth of papaya, but she's been treating it like a royal treasure. She still has 1/2 of it left! LOL! Her current fav is cashews with EVOO, sea salt, and nut yeast. It reminds her of her fav food (popcorn with tamari and yeast). She's also been more open to at least trying my creations and she really loves the carrot cake I made too. She'll probably have the carrot cake for dinner since she isn't a big falafel fan.

[MiahTay]

It is going AWESOME. We are only 1 week in and she's doing great! She's 75-100% raw each day. They *only* cooked food has been a bowl of oats. I took the dc to the HFS last night and gave each of them $10 and told them that they could buy ANYTHING in the store, as long as it was raw. She chose pineapple, raspberries, and dried papaya. She only bought $1 worth of papaya, but she's been treating it like a royal treasure. She still has 1/2 of it left! LOL! Her current fav is cashews with EVOO, sea salt, and nut yeast. It reminds her of her fav food (popcorn with tamari and yeast). She's also been more open to at least trying my creations and she really loves the carrot cake I made too. She'll probably have the carrot cake for dinner since she isn't a big falafel fan.

FANTASTIC! I'm so happy for you that it is going so well! And I LOVE the HFS idea.

Blessings,
Heather