Mom with twin babies is introducing solid foods into their vegetarian diet. She is looking for advice on where to find baby food recipes and baby food mills.

Question for Savvy Vegetarian:

Hello, I have a set of six month old twin babies and have just started introducing solid foods.

They have been on soy milk formula and breast milk to date and I would like to raise them on a vegetarian diet.

Do you have any advice, articles, recipes, or good web sites I can check out? It seems like there is mostly junk out there which tells you to still give them dairy. I would appreciate it! – J.K.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Congratulations on becoming the mother of twins! Double the joy – and double the work. Hope you’re managing to get some sleep!

It boggles my mind that medical people still tell Moms to give their babies dairy milk, and I also get pretty exercised about the low level of support for breastfeeding! But that’s a whole ‘nother topic!

As far as baby food recipes go, Homemade Baby Food Recipes has some good ones, and they also sell baby food mills. Those are Mom’s best friend, because then your babies can eat what you eat. For older babies, just mash things up with a fork, or give them finger foods.

Generally, bland food, non-acidic, is best for babies – you could start them off with potato, sweet potato or butternut squash, for example. Avocado or banana is usually a hit, or cream of rice cereal with breast milk or non-dairy milk.

Babies are pretty decided in what they like to eat, actually. I recommend Cathe Olson’s website, Simply Natural Books, about feeding your vegetarian kids. She has a baby food recipe book, and there are two of her articles in the list below.

I also highly recommend the vegetarian nutrition bibles, ‘Becoming Vegan’, or ‘Becoming Vegetarian’, by Vesanto Melina and Brenda Davis. They cover the topic of child vegetarian nutrition pretty thoroughly. As an intro to vegetarian nutrition, download the Savvy Vegetarian nutrition report.

Savvy Veg Articles and advice, related to your question:

How to Get Enough Protein in Your Vegetarian Diet
Vegetarian Protein Sample Menus
Feeding a Lactose Intolerant Child
Eight Ways to Get Your Family to Eat Vegetables
Feeding Your Independent Toddler
Going Veg With a 4 Year Old

All the best, Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian

Message for Savvy Vegetarian:

Hello, I discovered this website researching about veganism, since I have recently decided to go vegan;  formerly being an ovo-lacto-vegetarian for about a year, when I was 16.  I’m now 17.

I have a huge problem, and wanted to ask for advice: When I told my mother of my meaning to not eat meat, she reacted very badly (which of course grieved me).  As weeks or months passed,  I suppose she grew accustomed,  for she stopped telling me stuff about meat was unhealthy and religious matters (my family and I are catholic), as well.

The point is that, now that I have decided to keep a strict vegetarian diet, my family is ignorant of this. So, I am very, very much scared of my mother’s reaction if I tell her, and I don’t really want to tell her, for the same reason. But I am feeling depressed, because I feel as if I’m deceiving my family and concealing such an important matter as this. I know their reaction will be awful.

I hope that you’ ll help me! I send my thanks beforehand. P. Z.

Savvy Vegetarian Advice:

Hi P. Z., What a miserable situation for you! Becoming vegan isn’t really the hard part. You can get a good book on vegan nutrition, ‘Becoming Vegan’ by Melina & Davis, and share the info with your mother. But hearing information and accepting it are two different things! She may not easily let go of her fears.

What is it exactly about your going vegan that would be so awful to your family? And why do you dread their reaction so much? Knowing the answers to those questions would take you a long way toward solving your problem.

It says a lot about your good heart and character that you don’t want to hurt your mother, and disrupt your family life. At the same time, I don’t think that you owe your family complete conformity to their world view at the expense of your own development.

It might be a good idea for you to meet with a counselor, maybe someone in your faith, to talk this through and help you figure out how to approach your family and gain their support or at least their co-operation, or mediate between you and your family. A neutral 3rd party can be extremely helpful in family conflicts – if everybody involved is willing to talk.

A possible compromise would be to delay going vegan until you leave home for university or work, and have more control over your life (including what you eat). I strongly recommend that you plan on taking that step - living on your own or with roommates for a while – and not jump straight into a relationship or other situation where you have the same problem.

These are just my opinions, and may be foreign to you, or don’t fit with your culture. But I hope this helps.

Remember, you’re not alone! Here are a few letters from people in similar situations:
14 Year Old New Vegetarian Has Parental Obstacles
Teen Vegan Suspected of Being Anorexic and Superior
Miss Vegetarian Asks for Help
Mom Is An Obstacle To Going Vegetarian

All the best, Judith Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian