The Complete Idiot's Guide to Vegan Eating for Kids - M.s.j., Dana Villamagna [18]
You don’t have to be “That New Vegan Family” (unless you’re a family who likes to be contrarian and your kids enjoy it, too). It may be easier to assimilate if everyone finds out more about you before they find out about what you don’t eat. If you’re confident enough in your vegan cooking skills, be sure to make a casserole or dessert for the family with the new baby on the block or a soup for someone who’s sick. Approach it with a positive, connecting attitude, and veganism and neighborliness can go hand-in-hand.
The Concerned Physician
Your relationship with your child’s physician is one of the most important you have to cultivate outside of your immediate family. The time to build a respectful, open relationship with your pediatrician or family medicine physician is when your child is healthy and everything’s going well. Then, if your child does become ill or has another health or behavioral problem, your physician is more likely to trust your assessments and partner with you on your child’s care. The last thing you want as a parent is to consider your child’s health-care provider an adversary rather than an advocate.
Sometimes vegan parents are cautioned not to tell their child’s physician they feed her a vegan diet. We strongly disagree. Any information about your child’s daily habits is important information for your physician to know to most effectively help her stay healthy. Omissions between parents and physicians create suspicion and, even worse, can lead to medical errors and misdiagnoses.
That’s So Vegan
Only 33 percent of vegan parents in our survey said they have received negative comments from health-care professionals about their child’s vegan diet. Times they are a’changing!
Ideally, you’ll find a physician for your child who is personable, competent, and well educated about vegan diets (see Chapter 5 for tips on how to interview a potential doctor). Unfortunately, many doctors know a lot about nutrient deficiencies, obesity-related disorders, and other negatives related to diet, but not much about the specifics of the healthiest diets.
Be prepared to find a physician who may not know much about veganism but whose medical competency you respect, who listens, and who has good rapport with you and your child. Then, in a spirit of partnership, not preaching, educate them about vegan diets for children.
The following is a script on how to talk to a new physician about your child’s vegan diet:
You should know that our family, including “Janie,” eats a plant-based, vegan diet. We’ve done a lot of reading on the subject and feel it’s the healthiest way for our family to eat. If you would like, I can provide you with copies of the studies and names of the books I’ve read.
We’re aware of the vitamin B12 concern for people who do not eat animal products, so she takes a daily multivitamin. I’ve brought the vitamin bottle with us, if you’d like to see what nutrients this particular vitamin includes. I’d be interested in your assessment of the vitamin.
It’s really important to me to partner with you on my daughter’s health care, so if you have any questions or concerns about her diet, please feel free to ask. Eating vegan works great for us. I’m very happy we’ve chosen a vegan diet for our family and you’re here to help us keep our daughter healthy.
Certainly, don’t be shy about letting the physician know if your child is “mostly vegan.” Be as specific as you can. (“She eats dairy every once in a while,” or “We allow her to make her own food choices whether to eat dairy or eggs when with friends,” etc.) Be prepared