Transitioning my 3 year old daughter

[Sharon in Colorado]

Heather we used to eat the breakfast strips and links by morningstar farms in the freezer section. They are actually really tasty once you get used to them.

They are a step in the right direction. Thing about the strips (we call Fakin') is they taste much better baked. They are crispy that way and you can do them in a toaster oven too.

[Rawkinlocs]

Heather we used to eat the breakfast strips and links by morningstar farms in the freezer section. They are actually really tasty once you get used to them.

They are a step in the right direction. Thing about the strips (we call Fakin') is they taste much better baked. They are crispy that way and you can do them in a toaster oven too.

LOL! We call the strips "Fakin' too! My girls LOVE those strips, my 13-year old son hates them...says they remind him too much of the fake bacon strip treats we used to get for our dog we used to have! But they all love the 'fausage' patties, not the links too much. They also do the nuggets and chikn patties by Morning Star Farms. I realize that they may not be the best and I DO try and get my kids to eat more and more raw foods (I rarely buy the fakin and fausage) and the only time they eat the others is at dinner. Most of the day they're eating fruit or other things besides soy products.

Thing is, the longer we're raw, the more we'll realize that even the "raw" things we eat are merely for transitional purposes (speaking of all the dehydrator goodies). It's all about transitioning from one plateau to another and for some of us, soy is just one of those plateaus even if it's not the best and most optimal thing to eat.

[twinyoga]

I have 11 month twins. I do not feed them anything processed which includes all of this soy "fake" products. Let me correct myself, once in a while we will have a soy burger or soy meat balls. But only once in a great while. My twins do eat a little fish and a little chicken or turkey...but only about once a week.

I chose to raise them as healthy eaters with a raw food at each meal and everything is fresh. They've never had white bread...only sprouted bread!

To help answer the original question in this thread...I understand that dairy causes mucous. Could that be the problem (or did you say you're vegan...I can't recall).

[coffeesquirrel]

heather i'm with you on the whole day care thing.... it seems like there is so much of the day that we are not really in control of what our kids eat. I.e. daycare, friends house, grandparents ... the list is endless. I think in a perfect world we would all be able to get our kids on 100% raw but at his point i'm ok with simply upping the raw in his diet and teaching him the difference between junk food and healthy food that will make him grow. Hopefully this combined with an activly raw parent will help lead them in the right direction. cheer's jen

[Lara]

No we're vegan, no dairy whatsoever. I have to say though her cough has diminished greatly over the last 3-4 as we've been doing 80-90% raw days!
Now she's sleeping so much better! Her cough was waking her up (and consequently, ME) 2-3 times per night. Whew!
I am so lucky though- Isabelle LOVES the raw food! No problem really with her, I'm the one who's struggling to keep the variety going for the family and for me, I get bored very easily.

[Ariella]

Lara

I have a almost 3 year old son - he is very high raw. We started off with a good pregnancy with him and then when he started solids a lot of homemade baby foods (from raw foods) but then I got lazy or something and then for about a year some processed foods slipped in there - like tofu dogs, cereal bars, etc. Anyway, I just took one item a time out of his diet and just had other options available. Once he got used to the idea of not having that item than I removed another one until gradually they were all gone. He does still eat some cooked occasionally but it is like a baked potato or baked potato fries. Their tastebuds gradually change just like ours and they start to prefer that stuff. My son begs for his nut milk every day. He prefers that to a lot of things. If you want to read about what we eat - I journal at www.eco-centric.it you click on the UK flag and then on blog. Then you will find us. If you just want to read what he is eating go to the bottom of each days blog as that is where his is located.

Anyway, I hope that helps and good luck! It has been fun to see that he has not gotten sick all winter (with the exception of a mild cold for 2 to 3 days) while everyone else around us has had the flu and bad colds that they just keep passing back and forth and back and forth. I mean everybody. But I think everybody is too scared to ask what I am doing because they know that we eat high raw and it definitely is not easy to transition out of a SAD diet if you are not ready for it yet.

Ariella in CO


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[SouthpawShelly]

Oh this is just what I want to learn more about. Our 20 mon. old daughter is vegan but I want to get her back to high raw and eventually 100% raw. Am really interested in learning what others have done. My husband thinks we should just do it "cold turkey" so to speak. I waiver on that idea. I mean I want her to be raw, but not sure that at this age that is the best way. We have been feeding her processed, cooked & sugary foods. To take it all away at once, seems risky???!!! I don't want to traumatize her or make food an issue. But I also don't want to wait so long that it gets harder to transition.

[lvg4him]

Do it all at once (IMHO). My younger one was much easier to tranistion than my older (5yr) one. I did make some sweet raw treats to help with the transition. Green smoothies are a great way to get greens in (as fruit is sweet and what child refuses sweet fruit?). 60% fruit 40% greens. There is an article on this board called ODE TO GREEN SMOOTHIE by VVictoria Boutenko. WONDERFUL! My children have always loved fruit smoothies (which was first). I made it fruit till noon. Then lunch was next to be raw. Alison included raw veggies with lunch then made lunch all raw. We just went all raw. This is usually a green smoothie now (but before it was veggies with nut dips). raw snacks inbetween of course - cookies and candies and dried fruits and nuts etc. Dinner is a huge salad (usually a blended salad for the younger ones). Although my 21mo now likes to eat salad just like mommy. Then a bit of cooked (although I am very quickly making dinner all raw too - my kids LOVE Alissa's recipes).

HTH!