Transitioning my 3 year old daughter

[Lara]

Hi there. I've just joined the group and have been reading and getting to know all your different "virtual personalities" thru these discussions.
My husband, Johnny and I have been vegan for years. My 3 year old Isabelle is vegan. We have been slowly transitioning to more and more raw living foods over the last 3 weeks. Already I am losing weight and feeling a bit more energy than I have in 3 years!!!! I'd say we're only about 50-60% raw, but we're getting there.
My question is, have any of you found your children "detoxing" during the transition to more raw?? Isabelle is coughing and coughing up alot of mucous, but does not have a cold or flu. Otherwise she is her normal happy healthy self. She naturally gravitates to raw foods anyway, so this is not a difficult transition, except she misses her bagels and occasional tofu dog. But being the very reasonable and wonderful child she is, after I explained to her that these things make her cough and not sleep at night, she cheerfully moves on.

I'm not necessarily worried about her, just interested in your experiences in your journey(s) to raw. Thanks!

[Wendy]

Lara,

I don't have a child, so I can't give any advice on this issue. I wrote you a private message though earlier and if you click on User CP on the top of the screen in the orange area you can get to your email there (I didn't know about this feature for a whle, so I'm figuring you might not know either). Thanks!

[Lara]

I clicked on user cp and it said there were no private messages...maybe I'm doing something wrong??

[lvg4him]

We transitioned very slowly. I never noticed any detox except maybe in the bm. We did have one episode of high fevers and coughing up a lot of mucous, but I think that was an actual virus and not detox (although detox could have been happening at the same time). My kids have all been vegan too. I have a 5yo, 3yo and almost 2yo. The 2yo has been high raw since birth.

That is great that your child is so welcoming of eating this way. Mine are to a degree. And my 3yo is the best of all. She will even tell ME that she can't eat something because it is bad for you. Or she will tell me that she is healthy and strong because of the thing she is eating. It really is too cute.

Wish I could have been more helpful.

[heather]

i am interested to see the replies for this because i have a 3 year old that is hooked on soy nuggets and tofu dogs. he wont touch smoothies. loves salads some days, others he decided he doesnt. fruit is ok.

welcome !!!!
heather

[coffeesquirrel]

hmm as i am fasting this is really hard in fact as i am really just starting to change my life i have not forced my son (he's 4) to really give up anything he likes (which are burger and fries and bacon.. need i say more) when i first talked to him about eating healthier he kinda freaked out about the idea. he kept asking be about all his fav food and if he would still be allowed to eat it lol (mom is potatoes good for me) (is bacon) all night long lol. right now i'm working on me 1st then him but since he goes to daycare and spends a lot of time with his grandmother (who is not raw) i'm afraid i will not be able to do 100% raw with him for quite a while. anyone else had this prob? I'm sorry i've not been any more helpful actually not helpful at all. sorry coffeesquirrel

[lvg4him]

Heather,

My almost 2yo is the same way. Do you think that might be their bodies telling them what they need? ALthough she ALWAYS wants fruit , she has days where she will eat a whole cucumber and then not touch it again for months. Want a salad one day and not the next.

coffee - it is WONDERFUL that your child is asking about foods that are good/bad for him!!! I know that my children ask all the time. Even though they might be eating something that is bad for them. I will answer truthfully "No honey, that is not healthy." Sometimes they will stop eating it and sometimes they continue (I think it depends on how hungry they are at the time and if there is another yummy option available that they can see). Whenver they eat something healthy, they always talk about it for weeks. "I ate carrots and am going to have bright eyes are my eyes bright momma?" Too cute! But I would be honest with your son and work on the foods NOW because the longer you wait, the more difficult it will be on him. Starting out easy on you (just answering his questions) is a great first start! My kids will actuallly refuse food offered to them by grandparents because I have told them it is not good for them!! :) So when you do take the bacon away, he will understand because it is not healthy. fromsadtoraw has a bacon substitute recipe (though I have not tried it yet). Might be worth looking into.

HTH!

[coffeesquirrel]

hey if you ever run into the raw bacon recipie please let me know because that would be a great substitute.. thx cheers coffeesquirrel

[spin_ducky]

hey if you ever run into the raw bacon recipie please let me know because that would be a great substitute.. thx cheers coffeesquirrel

http://www.fromsadtoraw.com/Recipes/BaconWhyNot.htm LOL, I am reading it right now.

As far as detox, all three of my children were off a little last week. Cranky some, one night all three of them went to bed early. The biggest thing I noticed was a change in thier bowel movements...they increased in frequency, became alot looser and alot stinkier.

I am reading an article right now that seemed to mention the possibility of mucous as a way to detox.

[coffeesquirrel]

how close to bacon does it taste? have you tried it yet? thx ducky hope your kids feel better soon

[heather]

i have switched the entire family to soy substitutes. i see it as a step in the right direction........they have a soy bacon that is supposed to be good....anything is better than fried BEAST. lol.

[coffeesquirrel]

my son is really fond of the soy substitues and i tend to feed that to him a lot as they are quick and easy and you don't have to worry about e-coli and stuff however if he's gonna be raw i'm gonna have to find some fast comforting food he can grove with thru the transition

[Mishka]

I don't WANT to put a monkey wrench in what you girls are relying on as substitutes...but at the same time I want to share what I learned here.
A little info about soy:
www.mercola.com
www.soyonlineservice.co.nz
www.coconut-info.com

I went vegan a little over a year ago...so we swung fast and hard to soy when we did that. My entire family was eating some kind of soy every day from soy meats, to soy milk , to soy creamcheese, soy butter etc. On top of soy lecithin being in almost everything that is packaged. Anyways, supposedly I have never eaten healthier...but had severe estrogen headaches, and was STILL overweight. WHY??? I wondered. Do alittle research on the above, and it'll become very clear.

I switched my kids fast to almond milk, seed milk, and rice milk . Right now they are still transitioning to raw. I guess it comes to a point you feel surrounded...by bad food. It's like they get hormones from eating animal foods, and hormones from eating soy...ugh. So the answer for us is eating raw. I'm just glad I found out now before my son developed boy boobs...yikes!

[heatkins]

Thanks for bringing this topic up Lara! I am so glad that we have this new subject area about kids eating raw. I have a four year old daughter who eats fairly well. She has been a vegetarian her whole life (although she does eat fish occasionally, and I do know that fish are not plants! ha ha) She is always willing to try new things and likes things that other kids wouldn't touch. However, she has gotten into a habit of eating too much sugar and dairy.

I am trying to transition her to at least 50% raw. She loves banana ice cream, smoothies, apples, strawberries, and melon. I find that if you let them help prepare the food, they are more likely to eat it. My plan is to eliminate cooked wheat, refined sugar, soy, and dairy from her diet (at least for what she is eating at home). She goes to daycare M-F, so that will be harder to control what she is eating there. This isn't going to be easy!

Hopefully we can help each other with ideas!

[tracyinfo]

Mishka, there are always different sides to this. I would personally like to know who funds those groups that are so anti-soy. The Japanese and Chinese people have been eating soy for eons. They have historically lived longer, healthier lives. That is slowly changing as good old American food has come to their countries.

-Tracy