teen has decided to be vegan

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Our pediatrician advised against vegan diets for our tween daughter. Not necessarily because it's a bad diet, but that it is *practically* speaking, very hard for a busy kid with existing food allergies (allergic to nuts) to consume enough iron and certain B vitamins to eat well. I'm also concerned psychologically about associating stressful decisions with eating. When a girl is vegan, every meal out with friends, in the dining hall, at social functions becomes a potentially stressful eating situation where certain foods become "taboo" and DD might choose to go without a meal than to eat something with egg, butter, honey, etc.
Those who are dismissive of vegan diets among girls and their correlation with eating disorders are either unaware or willfully ignorant of the research out there.

Someone with nut allergies would definately have a difficult time on a vegan diet. Vegetarian diets are obviously very healthy if you cook real food and not processed/packaged substitutes. But you must ensure you are getting enough nutrients and iron and B vitamins are difficult to get on a normal vegan diet. I'd encourage my kid to do vegetarian and if they really wanted to go vegan we would meet with a nutritionist and do blood draws every 2 months to check on iron and B vitamin levels. Basically have a discussion that they can only be vegan if they are healthy, which means tracking food choices and making sure you get enough iron and b vitamins, if not, then you need to add back in some items to keep your body healthy and growing

Do you have any freaking idea how UNHEALTHY the Standard American Diet is?! But I am willing to bet you don’t get blood draws to check vitamin levels for your chicken nugget, pizza, and french fry eating children.

Oh, but you give them goldfish and veggie straws so I’m sure they’re just the pinnacle of health.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My 13-year-old announced that she wanted to be vegan and I asked her to start as a pescatarian. I know her eating habits and she does not have an expansive palate nor is she an adventurous eater.

It ended up that she was great at eating beans and carbs but it was a struggle to get a variety of vegetables into her. I also never felt like she was getting enough calories. She gave up on a trip about a year later and life is much easier.

This actually seems like a good place to start - compromise initially without being completely dismissive or taking the vegan option completely off the table.

[Anonymous]

Every week I cook:

1-2 meats
Roast season veggies
1 bean
1-2 pastas
Chop fresh veggies for salads

Everyone in our house has something they don’t eat or can’t eat. This method allows everyone to select what they want and eat happy. There are sauces condiments available to everyone to use.

So far everyone has liked it and puts in requests weekly for new items within those parameters.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't mean to offend the vegans out there, but this is really inconvenient for our household. I cook a lot and I like to eat dinner as a family. I have no problem cooking vegetarian, but I feel like she just took a bunch of family favorite dishes off the menu. Sorry, just needed to vent.

Hugs, OP.

I am so sorry this is happening your daughter.

I would just tell her you still love her, despite this ill-advised decision, and you hope she grows out of this phase soon.