We’ve been soooo incredibly busy for the past few months.  Took the kiddies to Legoland during the break.  They got to take a picture with President Barack Obama…the lego version.

Legoland was a blast.  It was so worth it, just to see the light in their little faces.  We’ll be back to our [...]]]>

We’ve been soooo incredibly busy for the past few months.  Took the kiddies to Legoland during the break.  They got to take a picture with President Barack Obama…the lego version.

Legoland was a blast.  It was so worth it, just to see the light in their little faces.  We’ll be back to our regularly scheduled programming shortly.

Supplements My children take most or all of the above supplements on a daily basis. They pretty much mirror what my mother fed my sisters and I growing up. This supplement thing is a good habit I maintained from my youth.

I give my children vitamins not because I feel that they [...]]]>

Supplements
My children take most or all of the above supplements on a daily basis. They pretty much mirror what my mother fed my sisters and I growing up. This supplement thing is a good habit I maintained from my youth.

I give my children vitamins not because I feel that they will become ill without them, but because I think a daily supplement in addition to their healthy diet is a good idea.

B12 deficiency in vegans/vegetarians has been debated back and forth for years. My mother did nothing to shore up our B12 reserves when we were vegetarian children and as a vegan mother of four I am certainly not deficient nor have I ever been. The same goes for my children. The B12 myth/debate is explained in great detail on this website.

However, I will add that as children Nutritional Yeast (nooch) was used as a daily seasoning, so I guess my mother did something although not deliberately. Lol!

UPDATE: The B12 issue is still up for debate. However one of my wonderful readers gave me a link to a vegan nutritionist rethinking her stance on the issue. http://www.theveganrd.com/2010/07/vitamin-b12-supplements-how-much-is-enough.html

She recommends visiting this website veganhealth.org for vegan nutritional info and supplemental dosage information. Here is the link for B12 dosages for vegans. http://www.veganhealth.org/b12/rec

The best thing about being vegan is the wealth of information that is available to us all and there are so many of us willing to help each other on this journey!

These Lovites are the same brand and taste from my childhood. My children love to take these every day. These vitamins taste like candy. Vitamin C, check.

Animal Parade, a vegetarian multivitamin. The older children take two of these every day and the toddlers 1 each. The Lovites and the Animal Parade are made by Nature’s Plus.

I put Brewer’s Yeast on top of our salads, sprinkled on the toddlers food (they don’t notice), in peanut butter banana smoothie’s (a favorite around these parts) and I also make a mean gravy with it.

Brewer’s yeast contains all of the essential amino acids, 14 minerals, and 17 vitamins

Read more: http://www.brighthub.com/health/diet-nutrition/articles/28790.aspx#ixzz10Jkza2mg

Nutritional yeast aka “nooch” is another inactive yeast. This yeast is very popular with many vegans because of the cheesy flavor it adds to recipes. We use it in the production of our vegan cheese and in so many of the dishes we create on a daily basis.

Read more: http://www.suite101.com/content/benefits-and-uses-of-nutritional-yeast-a71903

Kelp is sprinkled on our salads as a topping as well. Kelp is high in iron, calcium and potassium.

Vanilla Spirutein is used in my daily milk production. I make sesame seed milk every day for my daughter and Vanilla Spirutein protein powder is an essential ingredient.

EmergenC is a treat for the kids. It’s a fizzy drink mix they mix with water. They consume EmergenC about once a day when I have it on hand. There is no threat of scurvy at my house, lol.

OK, so that was the essential list of supplements. Feel free to ask questions.

As the mother of four healthy vegan children I get asked a lot of questions. The questions are often specific to what my children eat. If you are a vegan and want your children to be too, its actually quite simple. I will let you in on a little secret. Make good food. [...]]]>

As the mother of four healthy vegan children I get asked a lot of questions. The questions are often specific to what my children eat. If you are a vegan and want your children to be too, its actually quite simple. I will let you in on a little secret. Make good food. I have an 11 and 9 year old who will eat almost anything I make. The reason for this is a)they have no choice b)they have been eating this way since infancy.

In my pantry post, I highlighted what I generally have in my pantry on a regular basis. The list is long and varied. The staples are tofu (only buy Organic soy products), Basmati rice, lentils, soy and nut milk (organic), oatmeal, grits (polenta), brown rice (for waffles), coconut and soy yogurt, rice cakes, and agave. Keep a rotating stock of in season fruits and vegetables and you’re good to go.

Infants
As a rule, I breastfeed. My children get introduced to food at about six months. I start with liquids. See the sesame seed milk post. I introduce a small bottle with water and a couple tablespoons of molasses. I make fenugreek cereal. It’s a mush that my 4 year old loved as a baby and my daughter refused to have any part of it. Babies know what they like, even at that age. I would also grind up whole oats (organic, bought in bulk from whole foods) and then make a slurry with the oats and liquid (the liquid can be your breast milk, water, apple juice or the sesame seed milk). I also begin to incorporate fruit, mashed bananas mixed with cereal or alone, apple sauce, stewed prunes, rice with coconut milk (my daughter loved it), also so delicious coconut milk yogurt. It’s not necessary to buy baby food. It is so easy to make baby food. Get a coffee grinder. This cheap one has lasted me about 8 years or so. I use the coffee grinder for grinding up oatmeal, fenugreek, and even rice for baby cereal. When their teeth come in or they are screaming with angst every time you lift a fork to your mouth. Expand their repertoire. Cut up fruit into bite size pieces, apples, grapes, strawberries, bananas, peaches, melons, it’s all good for the baby. Don’t forget about grits. All of my children love grits (polenta).

Toddlers

My daughter will be two in February. She is probably the pickiest of all my children. However, my daughter still eats a large variety of food. I make sesame seed milk for her, every other day. She loves coconut milk yogurt, she will eat rice and lentils,whole grain waffles, strawberries (fresh and dried), sliced apples, pineapple, bananas, mango, raisins and cereal.

My 4 year old would live off of our macaroni and cheese if it was possible to do so. However, he too loves grits, rice and beans, yogurt, all fruit (especially blueberries), soup, cornbread, waffles (without the syrup), nuts, pasta and oatmeal.

This is just a sample of what the toddlers eat.

The Big Kids

My older children are 11 and 9 year old boys. They have never been picky and eat what my husband and I eat. I don’t get requests for fast foods because we rarely if ever go to fast food places. We may have an Asian inspired meal one night and then pizza the next night. We may do soup and cornbread and then do raw the next night. They like to eat and almost every meal they eat is homemade. My 11 year old likes to help out in the kitchen too. Some of his favorites are spaghetti, pizza, rice and beans, lasagna, greens simmered in coconut milk. He absolutely loves tomatoes and raw vegetables. My 9 year old loves pretty much the same foods, he just doesn’t share his brother’s same fondness for vegetables.

Do you guys have any specific questions you want to ask me? I will be talking about supplements and recipes next.

This is just a ploy to get you to ignore the fact that this is not a recipe post. Don’t worry, we didn’t run out of vegan recipes that will make your inner thighs touch (unfortunately I know this as fact). This month went by so quickly. Where does the time go?

Yes, yes he is back to normal. The swelling of his eye went down approximately 48 hours after surgery. Why it took approximately 48 days to share that tidbit of information is all my daughter’s fault. Blame it on the infant. Anyway, I made some spinach pesto the other night and when the [...]]]>

Yes, yes he is back to normal. The swelling of his eye went down approximately 48 hours after surgery. Why it took approximately 48 days to share that tidbit of information is all my daughter’s fault. Blame it on the infant. Anyway, I made some spinach pesto the other night and when the little one awoke from his nap, he was ravenous. Have you ever seen a toddler ignore bread with such gusto?

I’m so proud of the Little Prince.  Yesterday was his surgery to correct his Hydrocoele.  He handled it like a champion…never cried once, very patient, followed all the doctors instructions…very stoic.  Both my wife and I handled everything well also…at least on the outside.  It is very emotional to have your child go [...]]]>

I’m so proud of the Little Prince.  Yesterday was his surgery to correct his Hydrocoele.  He handled it like a champion…never cried once, very patient, followed all the doctors instructions…very stoic.  Both my wife and I handled everything well also…at least on the outside.  It is very emotional to have your child go through any kind of hardship.  The Hydocoele corrective surgery is considered “minor”, but having the Little Prince be put under and cut on is scary none the less.

I am one of those who is wary of hospitals.  It always seems like a patient goes in for one problem and comes out with another.  My mother’s heart valve replacement surgery was followed by nearly 10 days of complications.  They tried one thing, yield a problem; they tried this drug, yield this effect; try another drug, another issue…and the cycle went on for days.  Thankfully, she is home and recovering slowly.  So with this recent drama, I was on edge all day yesterday with the Little Prince…and guess what?  We took the Little Prince in for one issue and left with another.

So we get up at the crack of dawn to take the Little Prince to the hospital.  Good thing Laviyah’s emah (mother) offered to drive us.  She also stayed the day to offer her support.  [Thanks ma, I love you and appreciate you being there for us.] We get to the hospital, get a room assigned, talk to eight billion doctors, answer the same questions eight billion times and wait around for about 3 hours.  Thankfully there was a little TV so the Little Prince could watch PBS Kids and we all had books to keep our minds occupied.  Only if we knew it was going to be 20 degrees inside the hospital we could have dressed for the winter.  But the nurses provided warm blankets for my wife and mother-in-law, so they remained cozy and left the hospital with some nice parting gifts…well, at least the girls thought the blankets were gifts.

It is getting close to surgery time.  The Little Prince puts on his gown and we take the booty hanging out photo for future leverage and impromptu embarrassment in front of his girlfriends.   I asked the Anesthesiologist if I could go with the Little Prince while they put him under.  I was allowed to, however, I was informed of the following.  When a child gets put asleep you may see his eyes roll up to the back of his head, he may gurgle, his limbs may quiver.  Is he going to get surgery or an exorcism? I guess they forewarn parents to be prepared and don’t freak out or I guess I would have gotten sedated as well.  I’m a laid back guy so I wasn’t concerned about seeing the Little Prince’s head turn 360 degrees.

OK, so I’m all ready.  Off to see the Little Prince fall asleep and give him some last minutes of comfort.  We were told the procedure should last no more than 45 minutes.  We were led to the waiting room and wait to hear from the doctor.  Since it was even colder in the waiting room, we decided to go across the street and get a little lunch.  We had some Mediterranean from Nesh!.  It was decent, not the best falafel and hummus I have eaten, but very fresh and light.   The Baba Ganoush, however, was very tasty.  I enjoyed that the best. We’re full and warmed up. Time to head back and get our little boy.
We arrive back to the waiting room about 5 minutes before the surgeon comes to give us the “post-op talk”. Just like the movies – she walked into the waiting room in her surgery gear looking a bit disheveled. She didn’t look like she spent 6 hours in intense surgery, more like she slowly jogged the 100 yards from the operating room.

I wanted to hear – everything went well, you can see your son in a few minutes.

Instead, we heard, the surgery went well, but…………….

But what!!!! Well, there was a complication. The surgery for the Hydrocoele went great, but the adhesive that was placed over the Little Prince’s eyes caused an allergic reaction, so his eyes are swollen. OK, not so bad. Let’s go check on him.

WTF!!! Now I don’t curse, but WTF! This is my little boy. I trust you to solve one issue, not let him get knocked out by Mike Tyson! The doctor tried to prepare us for the allergic reaction, but I was taking aback when I saw my little man. Taking aback is putting it lightly. When we walked into the recovery room, the Little Prince was surrounded by about 5 nurses all looking at him in astonishment. As we approached, everybody disbanded. It was like we caught them whispering behind our backs so they all tried to get out of the way unnoticed. Nice try, but I caught ya’ll. But why that reaction from professionals? It turns, out that they never had this reaction before. Never. The Anesthesiologist apologized with the statement – well, I’ll be honest. I never had this happen before. The eye adhesive is hypoallergenic, so I don’t know what caused this reaction. Everyone else joined suit – the doctor, the other doctor, the resident, the other resident, the nurse, the other nurse. All apologized with the “this is new, never happened before spiel.”

All I heard was – you’re gonna be here a lot longer while we figure out what went wrong. Great, a half a day outing just turned into an all day adventure. Yeah!!! They had to put immobilizers on his arms because he kept trying to rub his eyes. So we get to spend the next few hours in the hospital with the Little Prince looking so pathetic. Now the line up proceeds…the Allergist, the Ophthalmologist, the Chief Anesthesiologist, and endless doctors and nurses.

All the while, The Little Prince got thirsty, then hungry. We saved him some hummus and pita, which he happily devoured. After about 3 hours, it was determined there is no damage to his eyes or internal organs; nobody knows how this occurred; take some prescriptions for extra strength Benydryl and steroids; and if the swelling persists for more than 48 hours, bring him back so we can not figure out what’s wrong some more.

Through all of this, the Little Prince didn’t cry once and kept his composure very well. He was a little irritated with the arm immobilizers, but enjoyed me serving and feeding him. He started getting a little annoyed at the last couple of doctor’s visits and therefore less cooperative. But hey, wouldn’t you be if you went to sleep with a smooth face and woke up looking like Gerry Cooney.

All is better today. The swelling has gone down tremendously. His scar from the surgery is fine. The Little Prince will spend the day watching movies and being waited on and his 8 hour hospital adventure may only remain a glimpse of a memory.

He captured me from the very beginning.

Born so quickly, my midwife wasn’t even in the room. Yes, I had an unattended birth in a hospital. (Entirely separate post, I promise I will tell you later.)

He’s a trooper. My tough little soldier. (My husband is to blame for the Ohio [...]]]>

He captured me from the very beginning.

Born so quickly, my midwife wasn’t even in the room. Yes, I had an unattended birth in a hospital. (Entirely separate post, I promise I will tell you later.)

He’s a trooper. My tough little soldier. (My husband is to blame for the Ohio State excess in this photo.)

And although I believe he is perfect, he still has to get surgery to correct a problem we discovered this week.

His condition is called Hydrocoele.

It’s a simple surgical procedure to correct it. We had several hours where we were really worried until we met with a surgeon and she explained exactly what is going on with our baby boy.

He always surprises and delights us, but this little hiccup was totally unexpected. So, I know we have kind of neglected our duties around here, but we promise we will get back to our regularly scheduled programming.

It’s just that he needed our full attention and some things fell by the wayside.

Not that he needs us to keep him occupied.

He has a doctorate in busybody.

A masters in nosy.

And even to this day. He is quite adept at making my

Heart Stop.