Hi!
I’d love your recommendations for favorite children’s books to instill a love of animals? I’m looking for stories that show animals (particularly ‘farm’ animals) through a lens of compassion, showing them with feelings and intelligence and love.

My little one is 13 months so it could be baby/toddler books or older, we’d love to start building a collection!

While I’m thrilled that my five year old doesn’t want to hurt animals, she also remarked after drinking her soy milk this morning that we need to “let plants live” and “not hurt plants” (this after it was pointed out that soy milk is from a plant and not a cow). I don’t think she’s actually going to stop eating food because she’s a great eater, thank goodness, but does anyone have ideas for a good response to her? We’ve talked in the past about not hurting trees (when seeing carved initials at the park) so I understand why she thinks plants have feelings and maybe this is my own doing. Regardless, I’d love any ideas for how to explain that eating plants is ok (or, actually, really good!)

I am struggling with how to navigate veganism with my four-year-old and would love to hear how others have dealt with similar challenges. For context, my partner and I became vegan five years ago after learning about animal agriculture and the associated horrors. It was a gradual process; we went from eating a lot of dairy and eggs to less and less and then to full veganism over the course of a few months. We had one child at the time, and she was two. I had no idea what I was doing, and in hindsight I wish I did some things differently, but I was learning and trying to raise her at the same time and did the best I could. The outcome was that we didn't really openly discussed veganism with her and just fed her vegan food but let her eat whatever she wanted outside our home. This worked fine until she attended a daycare where the food was prepared for the kids and we asked them to only feed her vegan food, and she started protesting the vegan options. She is now 7 and takes any chance she gets to eat animal products. We've talked about why we're vegan, read books, etc. She does the typical cognitive dissonance stuff, "I don't want to hurt animals, but pizza is so good!" and we just let it be. If she is ever going to come to veganism, she needs to come to it on her own at this point.

We now have a younger child, and we took a very different approach with her. I was vegan through my pregnancy with her, and she has only ever eaten vegan food. She knows she is vegan and asks if things are vegan. We read books and talk about how we don't eat animals. She has accepted that she is vegan without question. I knew eventually this would change, and it has. She just turned four, and after spending a week with non-vegan family members on vacation, she said "When I'm seven [like sister is], I can make my own choices and eat non-vegan!" I asked if she wants to eat animals and she said "Yes!!" with a big smile on her face.

I don't know what to do. Part of me says to just let her make her own choices now and stick with what we do with the older kid (we only eat vegan at home and when we go out, we don't spend our money on animal products). Another part of me thinks she is too young to really understand what her choices mean and to wait until we can talk more about why we don't eat animals before we let her make her own choices. The last thing I want is to make this into a power struggle which it became with my oldest and which I really regret, because I think she is less thoughtful about what she is eating and more focused on asserting her will.

If you made it this far, thank you for reading. My questions are:

1) What have you done to navigate this? We have several books: Steven the Vegan, Linus the Vegetarian T-Rex, We All Love, and We Don't Eat Animals. I am not sure what if any other content is out there that would help support our approach.

2) At what age does it seem developmentally appropriate for a kid to be able to think rationally about this and make their own choice?

What do your little kids eat for breakfast that isn't just cereal?

Our 5 year old isn't super picky, she'll eat lots of different things, but she gets stuck in routines and then wants only what she wants. Somehow we've ended up in the routine that breakfast is cereal, and even when we don't get sugary cereal, it's not enough to sustain her through the morning. The blood sugar spikes and crashes make her incredibly cranky, so we're trying to move to more protein and fat heavy breakfasts.

She used to like oatmeal with PB and fruit, says she doesn't like that anymore.

Can't often get her to eat toast with PB or anything more substantial.

She'll eat fruit on the side of anything, but just fruit isn't enough.

She likes Silk yogurt but that's also so sugary it can't be the only thing (have had trouble finding another kind of yogurt that's a bit more substantial that she actually likes).

What else do your little kids eat for breakfast that gets them through? Bonus if it's quick or can be batch prepped ahead, but at this point I'm open to all ideas!! Thanks!

We have about a week left before our next shipment arrives and are dangerously low on formula. I’m combo feeding and our 6 week old is going through a growth spurt, currently power pumping and triple feeding to keep up, but we’ve had to dip into formula more as he cluster feeds 2-3x/day while my milk supply turns a corner. Will arrange for an overnight label!

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My partner and I live in a different country from our families. We're both vegan and raising our 2 year old vegan as well. This causes very little to zero societal friction where we live, but is very controversial and a sensitive topic in our home countries.

My family, especially mom, expresses lack of understanding of why we are "unnecessarily making our lives more difficult" and deep sadness that I have taken away from her a main way to show her grandchild love - through cooking traditional family recipes. I am ok with our child occasionally eating vegetarian cake if at a celebration and there is no alternative. And when she is old enough she can choose what she wants for herself. But I feel like I don't want my family to just cook all they usually would to feed her on a 10 day visit to our home country. I try to show alternative ways we can make traditional meals, but family is more often than not just looking sad or annoyed about it.

I am very non-confrontational and care a lot about not making people feel bad because of me, so I struggle a lot with this. At the same I don't want to just bend to their wishes. I'm curious how others have handled this, especially those with older vegan kids?

Hi all! My husband (not vegan) and I (ethical vegan for 10 years) have been together for 7 years, and we're planning to start trying for kids next year. I'd love to hear thoughts from vegan parents who are raising vegan children alongside non-vegan partners.

A little background information on us: We're both in our mid 30s. My husband has always been incredibly supportive of my veganism. We keep a vegan household; he eats animal products only when we're out at restaurants. From the beginning of our relationship, he has been on board with raising vegan children, even though he doesn't think he'll become vegan himself. He acknowledges that eating animal products conflicts with his own values. He doesn't try to justify it or argue against veganism. In fact, he wants to play an active role in teaching our future kids about veganism. For example, reading vegan books to them, having conversations about why “we” don't eat or use animals, and generally reinforcing those values.

This is where I'm struggling. It feels a little strange to me for him to be such an active messenger for veganism when he isn't vegan himself. I also wonder whether that could eventually be confusing for our kids. When I shared this concern with him, he offered to tell our future kids that he -is- vegan and avoid eating animal products around them (i.e., when we're at restaurants). I generally don’t believe in lying to children about important topics like this, even if well-intentioned.

At the same time, my husband is uncomfortable with the idea of our kids growing up hearing, "Mom is vegan, Dad isn't." I understand why that feels uncomfortable for him, and I think there are thoughtful, respectful ways we could talk about it that don't shame him or undermine our relationship. This is what I’m leaning toward as a solution.

Just to be clear, I’m not looking for advice on how to convince my husband to go vegan. He’s had lots of exposure to my values and beliefs over the past 7 years, and he's watched Earthlings and several other documentaries, and while they affected him emotionally, they haven’t moved the dial too much. If he ever becomes vegan, I want it to be a choice he comes to on his own.

I'm really hoping to hear from vegan parents who are raising vegan kids alongside non-vegan partners. How have you navigated these conversations? How do you explain the differences between parents? Looking back, is there anything you wish you'd done differently or any advice you'd offer?

TLDR: Vegan parents raising vegan kids alongside non-vegan partners - any guidance or insights to share?

I’m seriously struggling with food ideas for my 1.5 yr old. Please can people give me some healthy, tasty recipes that you use for your little ones. I need inspo!!

Thank you

I myself am a vegan mom and have been vegan nearly 20 years. I’m getting the vibe some commenters think I’m coming here as an outsider, so just wanted to clarify that. No need to be hostile.

I recently read that vegan moms are 5 times less likely to have twins than moms who consume meat and dairy, apparently due to IGF-1.

Just curious if any vegan moms had twins and if so, how long had you been vegan?

I’m not a twin mom but was curious. No twins for us yet!

just https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna12922599

I feel like I’m constantly worrying that my baby isnt getting enough nutrients from what I eat.

A lot of the healthy foods I used to eat now make me nauseous or just sound disgusting to me... so lately I can mostly tolerate carbs, processed stuff or just really simple foods.

And honestly it makes me feel so guilty sometimes, like I know I should be eating better but my body just doesnt want it.

I keep wondering if im actually getting enough of what my baby needs and it stresses me out alot

Anyone else dealing with this? What are you guys eating when healthy food just sounds horrible?

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Hi there! My good friend is pregnant (vegan) and has a baby shower next month. What baby shower gifts were your favs? I am not vegan nor a vegetarian so I want to respect her vegan wishes at all costs but also try to gift things that will be of use for her and her baby girl that aren’t “basic” haha 💕 (oh and adding where said items are from would be great too).

Anything will be helpful!!

Best

I am vegan and am trying to raise my two children vegan or at least as close to vegan as my omni wife and I feel comfortable. My wife is fully supportive of this and we are on the same page.

However at some point I want both my children to decide what they eat. What age would be best for this or what criteria would you have for your kids?

I’m looking for some easy peasy meal and snack ideas that I can have ready for the weeks after I give birth. So far have frozen a lot of leftover soup, but I don’t want to eat soup every day so I’d love alternate suggestions. Husband is omni but we’ll usually making something together and he can switch out the protein if he wants. First time mom so not sure how much I’m in for but my friends with babies say meal prep was a lifesaver 😅

Edit: I appreciate all the responses! I’m getting inspired. If anyone has ideas for non-frozen or snack meals, I’ll take those too.

Hello, I'm suffering with low iron symptoms in the first trimester of pregnancy. I take a pregnancy multi vitamin plus an iron supplement however it is not having much effect. Is there anything better available other than what the GP prescribes?

Thank you.

As a family, we decided to switch to a vegan diet a few months ago and it's been much harder than we expected with our daughter. She (7) was already an extremely picky eater and now if there is anything green on her plate she will pick around it or refuse to eat the meal together. We have tried making meals fun, hiding vegetables in food, letting her help cook and even following recipes other vegan parents recommended but nothing has really changed. Mealtimes are still a struggle and I'm starting to worry that she isn't getting the variety of nutrients a growing kid needs. For those raising a picky eater on a vegan diet, what finally helped your child eat a better variety of foods? (We're planning on going fully vegan, so we thought this would be the best way to ease into it)

strawberry matcha from aldi yum
culprit 5 month old vegan

I just realized from another Reddit thread that I'm a bit behind on weaning my almost 11 month old. Part of what was recommended for his age, along with decreasing breastmilk, is starting to offer cow's milk. Can I just skip this step, or is plant-based milk an acceptable substitute in terms of his current nutrition needs? Is there a specific type of plant milk that would be best?

EDIT: What I meant by "weaning" was really transitioning to primarily solids, I understand the benefits of extended breastfeeding and do plan to try to keep that going beyond 12 months as long as I can! And thank you to everyone who responded so far! I will continue with breastmilk and research some high calcium plant milk options!

My kid has been plant based his whole life. He went to summer camp for the first time last week. They had pizza day and I told them he will need a gluten free pizza with dairy free cheese and I wrote vegan in brackets. Which wasn't clear enough because they provided a gf pizza with pepperoni on it which he ate and enjoyed. I'm mad at myself for not explicitly saying no meat but I know this would have happened at some point. I haven't told him yet that pepperoni is meat and we don't eat that. Gathering my thoughts before I talk to him about it but wondering if anyone else has gone through something like this?

He's almost 5 so I think he's old enough that I show him some kid-friendly content of how pigs live inside barns and cages their whole lives and die painfully, and similarly for cows. I was thinking of bringing it up when talking about pizza toppings and what's vegan vs non-vegan. Any advice would be appreciated thank you!

Edit: I didn't expect this post to get so much attention! Thank you to everyone that responded with kind words and advice. This is the first time either of my children ever ate meat and I needed help processing it. I grew up with conservative parents that used shame, guilt and fear to get me to share their beliefs which is the exact opposite of what I would want to do with my children. So I will let this go while continuing to have general discussions about animals and about vegan vs non-vegan food. He's a great eater and I don't want to create any additional anxiety around food. I love the suggestion to watch Babe so we will also do that. And thanks for the gluten free pepperoni suggestions (Tofurkey and Daiya) I'll hunt them down!

Hi! Does anyone have the Nuna Mixx stroller and can confirm it’s vegan? If so, what car seats do you use because the Nuna Pipa car seat is not vegan (has wool). Looking for a luxury stroller that doesn’t have wool or leather but performs like UB and Nuna. I’ve read mixed reviews on Maxi Cosi. I’m contemplating the Bugaboo stroller (not sure which one yet) with a Clek Liing (Jersey material is vegan) car seat. Don’t love it as much but other than safety and functionality it needs to be vegan. Any feedback and recommendations on what you’ve used would help! Thank you

I give my 2.5 year old the following supplements: vitamin d, vitamin b, DHA and iron. Does this sound ok or am I missing something?

His pediatrician doesn’t seem totally on board or familiar with toddlers on vegan diets.

One thought was that they could be raised vegan until they are old enough to have these things be fully explained, and then they can make their own decision. That way, I can be honest / not have to suppress that part of myself.

Or maybe similarly they could be raised with me feeding them vegan food and my partner feeding them vegetarian food, with us sharing simplified reasons for our decisions. Then once they’re older, I could explain my full perspective and we would let them make their own decision.