Is it just me, or does that dropper look humungous?

As followup to our parenting columns on Vitamin D (see Vitamin D for Vegan-Raised Infants and Vegan Infant Formula: Nonexistant?) we finally got around to getting some liquid form vitamin D2 in the house (remember kids, D2 is vegan because R2D2 is cool, and ergocalciferol is the good one because I’m vegan, ergo I know more about weird vitamins than anyone on the street!)

Rather than figure out international shipping (as many of you know, we’re in Canada,) we decided to let the professionals figure it out and headed to the pharmacy to order some of the Drisdol drops that Jodie pointed out in a comment on a previous post.)  We basically just printed out the PDF, brought it to the store (in our case, Shopper’s Drug Mart,) and said “get this for us, mmmK?”

And there were no hassles.  I’ll be honest, I felt a little weird custom ordering something from a pharmacy, but apparently it’s something they do all the time, and no prescription is needed.  We got the drops the next afternoon.

Just in case the PDF goes offline, it’s made by Sanofi-Aventis, and the DIN is 02017598. Ours was made in Canada for an American company, so hopefully it’s widely available.

So what’s it cost?

Jodie said it was $68 for her, but we got it for a little under $50 (Canadian.)  That might seem like a lot, but it’s actually pretty competitive with other forms of D2: the cheapest we’ve been able to find Now brand D2 pills (1000 IU strength) is $8 for 120 vcaps, which is 6.7 cents per 1000 IU.  The Drisdol drops come in a 60 mL bottle and each mL has 8,288 IU (there’s a handy dropper that’ll dose out about 207 IU at a time,) so that’s about 10 cents per 1000.  Sure, it adds up, but maybe there’s a difference between liquids and pills.  Who knows.

The Drisdol is almost a third of the price of the D2 spray we mentioned in a previous post (at the price we were charged,) so at this point it’s the cheapest D2 liquid we’ve been able to find, and liquids are pretty much the only way a newborn’s going to take it in, so we’re calling it a win.

Interestingly, if we were to dose the stuff out at 400 IU a day (that’s Health Canada’s recommendation,) we’d have  about a three and a half year supply from this bottle.  Unfortunately, it expires at the end of next year, so I guess Angela and I will start taking drops too to make sure we use it all up in time.

Speaking of which…

So how does it taste?

With such a small range of options available, there’s not a lot you can do if the drops taste like, say, raw sewage, but that’d kinda suck when you’re trying to convince a small child to take them.  Fortunately, we didn’t feel an urge to scrub our tongues with a steel-bristle brush after our taste test.

Angela and I both tried a drop directly on our tongue (the box says to add it to milk, by which I’m sure they mean soy milk, but we wanted to taste it fully.)  It wasn’t bad, but the closest flavour we could compare it to was burning.  It’s definitely something you’ll want to mix into another liquid; probably a sweet liquid at that.

For us, the D2 problem is fully solved.  If you’ve found another solution, or managed to order Drisdol from another country, let us know in the comments!

(As always, there’s a warning that you should consult with your health care provider before using the product, and we did, so nyah nyah nyah.)

Are vegan parents doomed to a small selection of jars? No way, says our Council!

This week’s parenting column takes a look at baby foods, specifically some of the very first solids your baby might eat, since it’s something that a lot of parents-to-be have written in about, and hey, even though they’re just doing what you tell them to, this is the point where you really start making a new vegan, really.

Do you need to rely on prepared jars of baby food? Are there things to watch out for? Does ingredient scanning for vegans start pretty much from day one?

As it turns out, a vegan-raised baby’s first foods are actually a little easier on a vegan diet, since many of the common allergens like eggs, dairy, and fish are out of the picture. The rest of the tips we got drive home the point that, like so many other things, feeding a baby isn’t a problem for vegans, or more specifically, it isn’t really a vegan problem.

Before we get to what the Council of Vegan Parents had to say, here’s a bit of stuff from Doctor Science and her band of Facts: the World Health Organization has recommended that babies be exclusively breastfed for the first six months of life and then continue with breastfeeding while mixing in some foods for up to two years or more (we’ve got some stories from the Council here if you’re interested in learning more about breastfeeding.) The American Academy of Pediatrics also has some recommendations for getting started with solids that might be worth a quick glance.

So what solids work well with vegan babies? Here’s what some of the Council had to say:

Don’t stress over it

Stephanie gave this introductory advice which is really worth noting: “don’t stress. Particularly with a first child, it’s too easy to worry that you’re missing something, not giving baby the best they need, not creating enough variety or whatever. Stress is time-consuming and doesn’t serve anyone at all, so trick number one: keep it simple and low maintenance. Don’t assume a baby cares what they’re eating; it’s all new and they’re going to ooze it out their mouth in the first few instances anyway. Feeding an infant is giving them an experience, and a largely tactile-over-taste one at that.”

Rice (cereal) is nice

It seems to be a doctor-type recommendation, and lots of Council members had success with it as a first food, so here you go: baby rice cereal is an easy simple way to get started without any pesky chopping. Quinoa flakes were cited as a good second step. And can I just point out once again that this is one of those things that works for vegans and omnivores alike?

Purée, hooray

Mashed bananas, avocados, applesauce, pears, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, zucchini, lentils, rice and couscous all made our Council’s list – this is one part of life where overcooking is actually a good thing since it makes things mushy, so steam away (no, don’t cook the avocados or bananas, unless your child is into it I guess…) What else? A few parents mentioned adding silken tofu to some of the purées, soups were also a hit in some households, and hummous time is, apparently, any time

If you’re looking for recipes, Sarah had these suggestions: “the biggest hit was lentil stew (mashed lentils, cauliflower, and spinach tossed in a food processor). We would steam carrots and process them with peeled tomatoes, a granny smith apple and some silken tofu, and flavour it with a little ginger. Peas and spinach in the blender was also a good one.”

By the way, as an extension to our time management for parents article, Sarah also outlined her baby food preparation technique for us:

“We set aside half an hour each Sunday for food making. What we would do is cook up a bunch of lentils, rice, fruits, and vegetables, and then puree/mush them in different combinations. We would then put them in ice cube trays, label them, and freeze them. We would take out a few cubes at a time and put them in the refrigerator to thaw. We got 2 dozen clean, empty baby food jars off of Craigslist for $3 and found that to be more than enough storage for her food.”

Ice cube trays were mentioned by a few parents (both for this and in the time savers article,) so I’m starting to think of them as some kind of secret weapon…

Milk-a-mole

I’ve seen a few references to adding breast milk to some of baby’s first solids (oh yeah, one of them was in this here article,) but Amy had a fun story around the theme:

“We started out with avocados, just smooshed up, and thinned with a little breast milk, we call it milk-a-mole, rhymes with guacamole. My mom did take a taste of the milk-a-mole, then was upset she had some breast milk.”

Weird how breast milk can upset people, but cow milk is “just what’s done” for the majority of society, isn’t it? Man, don’t get me started about eggs…

Jars are cool too

Don’t get the idea from any of this that everyone’s anti-prepared foods! While the above ideas can all be made from scratch, you shouldn’t feel guilty if you keep some (preferably organic) baby food jars in the cupboard – just like convenience foods for yourself, it’s a form of contingency planning and as Stephanie put it, “bottom line is, how much is your time and sanity worth? Having jars in the cupboard is smart and can be the difference between peace and not.”

Baby-led weaning

A few Council members were either practicing or expressed an interest in baby-led weaning, so it’s worth a mention here as well. In this case, rather than smearing purées acros your baby’s face (and the walls, I’ve heard,) you let the child experiment with food using his or her own hands. Everything you’re about to read is based on Council input, which may or may not be interpretive; if you’d like to learn from the source, there’s a site for that.

Here’s a summary from Julie:

“The first thing to realize there is that “weaning” means something different in other parts of the world than it does here. In the U.S., at least, “weaning” refers to removing breast milk/formula from a baby child’s diet. In the U.K., at least, it refers to adding solid foods into the diet. So “baby-led weaning” is about the process of introducing solids, not the process of taking away the milk.

“It’s actually a pretty cool concept. The idea is that the different parts of a baby’s body develop in unison to some extent; by the time their digestive system is ready to handle solid foods, they should also have the manual dexterity to pick food up and move it into their mouth, and the oral development to not push it back out (“tongue thrust”) Practically speaking, it means that starting at 6 months, we just stuck “chip-sized” (British-ese for “steak fry-sized) chunks of whatever we were eating on M’s tray. He mostly played with it at first, but that’s ok – when they’re that little, solid foods are really more about exploring tastes and textures than about actual nutrition, anyway, and most of what he did eat ended up in his diaper more or less unchanged. Creepy, maybe, but when you see solid chunks of carrot in the diaper, you know that not much is being absorbed, nutritionally-speaking.

“Lightly steamed carrot sticks, broccoli, avocado, etc. were big hits. As he got a little bigger and better with his fingers, he liked black beans, bits of cereal, etc. Soups were ok as long as he had some bread or something to dip in them. He made a huge mess, to be sure, but we only fed him solids once a day, at dinner, and dumped him straight in the bath afterward, so it worked out. I think it did a good job of getting us in the habit early on of only making one meal for the family, and it got him exposed to a wide range of tastes and textures, which I thin can only have helped him to be open to trying and enjoying a wide variety of foods now.

“We were fairly careful to keep things like peanuts out of his food for a while, and I saved the salt for our individual plates, but otherwise there weren’t many things that were off-limits to him. Big pieces are better than small pieces because they’re easier for little fists to pick up and gnaw on, and little pieces aren’t likely to get broken off and swallowed until they’re ready. In fact, one of the BLW things I remember reading suggested that spoon-feeding a baby anything remotely chunky was far more likely to lead to choking, since you were putting things into the baby’s mouth for them and they could then inhale things that they didn’t have the developmental ability to get into their own mouths yet.”

Once again: not a vegan problem

This was a real eye-opening topic for me personally, and I almost feel like I’m gloating when I say that from the looks of things, feeding a baby his or her first solid foods might actually be easier for vegans than omnivores, thanks to a reduced number of allergens to watch for and an overall familiarity with the source ingredients from our own cooking.

What about you? Any favourite first foods from your family? We’ve focused on really early foods here, but feel free to share some later-stage recipes (we’ve gotten a number of risotto mentions, for example) in the comments!

Thanks to Amy, Julie, Elaine, Lisa, Sarah, Stephanie and Jo for their help on this one!

Ever feel like your whole life was ruled by one of these? Photo by wwarby.

This week’s parenting topic is actually not a parenting topic. OK, some of it is, but if you don’t have kids, be sure to skim this article before you decide to ignore it, because five minutes right now could save you days over the course of the year!

As many of you know, we don’t have any children at StayingVegan HQ (we rely on the advice from the Council of Vegan Parents, who are amazing,) but we’ve got one on the way really really soon. As part of our preparations, we attended some classes, and at the last one they went over how much time we’d likely be spending each day on baby care between feedings, diaper changes, etc. The number of hours per day was… well, the room had a certain stunned silence to it at the end.

With that in mind (firmly in mind!), I thought it’d be a good topic to ask the Council for their number one time saving tactic, but to tie it back to veganism, I wanted tricks to save time cooking for the family. Even if you’re breastfeeding, how can you and/or your partner make time to make meals that keep you going, and if you’ve got older kids, how are you keeping everyone fed and still sleeping those essential two point six hours per night?

The range of responses we received was astounding, and once again, most of these things are things you can do right now, even if you don’t have kids, so check it out!

1) Freezer 101

This was the one that I specifically said not to submit, not because it was a bad idea, but because it was too obvious and I wanted deeper answers. Plus I wanted to claim that one

Even so, many parents wrote in with variations on the theme that are worth noting, both here and as part of the other tips below. At the simplest, when you make any meal, make it really big, and freeze the rest. I like this better than having leftovers for two or three days, because it staves off boredom, and also because it’ll “bank” meals for the times when you’re really too tired to make anything.

Lisa pointed out that you can take this beyond leftovers and easily freeze anything that’s about to go bad in your fridge, including ends of tofu and herbs, both of which can later be thrown into stews.

Kim also bakes tons of muffins in advance and freezes what she can’t use right away – you can check out one of her recipes here.

2) Plan out your meals

Kimberly and Amy are both big fans of meal planning. You don’t need to write down every breakfast, lunch, and dinner for the month, but just picking out the dinners for the week can make for one less thing to have to worry about each day, and it will save time both in the kitchen (wondering what to do) and in the grocery store, where you’ll know what you need ahead of time.

Sure, planning takes the spontaneity out of things, but think of it this way: it’ll make time for the other spontaneous stuff that pops up through the week!

3) Wear the baby

OK, fair enough, this one’s for parents only, but Julie found baby carriers, wraps, slings, and what have you a lifesaver for food preparation, keeping the baby close by (and thus calm and happy) while leaving you the use of both hands.

Of course, this only works for most, but not all kitchen activities – if you’re frying with hot oil, for instance, it might not be the best time to innovate with efficiency.

4) Make breakfast smooth

Kimberly has no troubles getting breakfast out of the way for her family – they all drink nutrient-rich smoothies! This is a great time saver, and I’ve used it a lot in the past where I had to go to work and would have skipped breakfast otherwise.

5) Co-sleeping

Kristie and Julie both advocate co-sleeping, which is the fancy word for bringing the baby to bed with you. It’s a great way to reconnect after a hectic day and many parents find it makes nursing easier, which means more sleep for you, and spending time on sleep can often save way more time in the long run!

This is something Angela and I are looking forward to trying. Among the many yet-to-be-assembled items here is an Arm’s Reach Clearvue Co-Sleeper, which will (we hope) act as an extension to the bed to give that extra room and reduce anxiety about any issues with tossing and turning.

6) Make meals in steps

Sarah, Amy, and Kristie all follow a variety of staged meal preparation plans, where the final dish won’t be ready for a few days. Those recipes in Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s cookbooks that have sub-recipes for various parts? Make those a day or two before. Amy makes sauces and spice packets on the weekend when there’s a little more time, so everything can be quickly added to the dishes during the week.

This can extend to pre-washing vegetables when you get home from the store, which we talked about in our How To Eat More Raw Fruits and Vegetables tip.

7) Make food a family event

More people on a task means more overall hours spent, but somehow this seems to work: include your family in the food process, from shopping to cooking. Julie says this turns the trips to the farmer’s market into more of a field trip than a chore, and as a bonus, kids tend to be more interested in eating things that they helped make, which can save time during the “eating” part that most time saving guides overlook.

8 ) Embrace one-pot meals

Sure, it’s fewer dishes to wash, but it’s also fewer precisely-timed steps that various interruptions can, well, interrupt. Not that distractions ever take place in a young family’s household, or so I am assured by my friends with kids who never quite forgave me for buying them that drum set… But I digress. To get you started, Meredith sent a link to a pineapple black bean rice dish that has fruit, vegetable, bean and grain in it and only takes 30 minutes to put together.

9) Redefine “meal”

There’s settling for substandard food, and then there’s recognizing that there’s a fair bit of wiggle room in what constitutes a meal. As Julie’s doula instructor said, “if it covers two food groups, it’s a meal.” That would include cereal and soy milk, even if it’s for dinner, and you can always make a “real” dinner for yourselves once the kids are in bed.

10) Get the Gear

You don’t have to invest in any tools to make your life easier, but be aware that there are gadgets out there that really make a difference – we were talking about this just this weekend when Angela’s mom made coleslaw with the food processor’s shredding disc, for example. Here’s what some Council members recommend:

Amy says that the Magic Bullet is a “lifesaver. Easy to use, easy to clean and purées food well.” We have one up at the cottage where facilities are more limited, and I’d totally agree – it’s one of those infomercial things that actually come close to the promise, from what I’ve seen.

Kristie recommends both a slow cooker and a pressure cooker, which can really help out, but in different ways. The slow cooker can be loaded up the night before or in the morning for a super-easy stew, and the pressure cooker can turn dried beans into meals in no time flat – you can see our video of how to do that here.

Rebecca says that the Oxo Good Grips Apple Corer and Divider is “a surprising time saver when we’ve got to be in the car and driving to preschool five minutes ago and we have to take a snack and are out of bananas.”

Lastly, we’ve used a Vita-Mix for around 12 years now, and it’s a little pricier than the other suggestions, but it’s hands down the best time saver we’ve got in our kitchen, from operation (dump stuff in and turn it on) to cleanup (usually we just rinse it out.) You can use this link to learn more, and it’ll also get you free shipping if you buy through it.

[we believe in everything we just said, but FYI links to the products above may be affiliate links, for which we'll earn commissions to help pay our bills if you purchase through them.]

11) You tell us!

What have you done in your kitchen, whether you have kids or not, that’s shaved off precious minutes? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Kimberly, Julie, Lisa, Amy, Kristie, Sarah, Kim, and Rebecca for their help with this one!

(Photo by wwarby)

No, this isn't Photoshopped: it's an actual Marvel Comics character (that someone in the health field needs to license for a D campaign!)

For this week’s parenting topic, we’re taking a look at vitamin D and your baby – while at a pre-natal class recently we’d heard that supplementation was advised right from birth, which triggered some alarms, since many vitamin D supplements aren’t vegan friendly. With that, we turned to the Council of Vegan Parents and the internet (have you tried that thing? It’s awesome!) for answers!

First, an overall disclaimer – not to weasel out of anything that appears below, but you really shouldn’t get your health and nutrition information from Some Guy On The Internet. Everything that looks like science in this article came via guidance from the National Institutes of Health in the USA and Health Canada, and I encourage you to follow those two links for the current state of vitamin D recommendations. As with all of our parenting columns, I reached out to the Council of Vegan Parents, but for this one I used their input as background on what a decent subset of the vegan parenting population was doing.

Secondly, even if you don’t have kids, this article might be pretty important, since most of it has to do with availability and requirements in everyone, but we’re paying more attention to infants, is all.

Why does any of this matter?

It turns out that vitamin D has been linked with a lot more than rickets, which was the primary concern when it was added to cow’s milk in the USA in the 1930’s. Research is suggesting links between vitamin D deficiency and issues including cancer, multiple sclerosis, diabetes, hypertension, depression, and possibly even autism.

What’s more, there’s been growing concern that current “acceptable” levels of vitamin D in the body are actually significantly lower than some new suggested levels that are going around.

This isn’t just a vegan problem, by the way – while there are some non-vegan foods with vitamin D in them (either naturally or through fortification,) the percentage of the North American population that’s deficient (by current or proposed guidelines) is much higher than the percentage of the population that’s vegan.

Is sunlight enough?

Worldwide, sunlight is the primary source of vitamin D: your skin synthesizes it after absorbing ultraviolet B radiation from the sun. With that said, there are a number of factors that need to be considered before we all start praying to the sun god for all our (and our baby’s) needs:

First and foremost would be the conflict between the “absorb sunlight” and “don’t expose your baby to sunlight” recommendations. The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends keeping babies out of direct sunlight for the first six months. I’ve seen many other (non-medical) sources saying that five or ten minutes a day isn’t a problem, and might be enough to synthesize enough vitamin D, but I haven’t done enough research on the topic to do more than repeat the AAP recommendation.

Even with sunlight, depending on where you live it might not be enough through the entire year. The NIH says that, in the USA, you need to live below 34 degrees North latitude (which stretches from Los Angeles, California through Columbia, South Carolina) to be able to use sunlight as a sole source year round. In other regions, a window from November through February (or larger) is a “dead zone” for sufficient sunlight.

Skin pigmentation is also a factor: paler skin absorbs UV radiation faster than darker skin does, which means that darker skinned people (both adults and infants) need to spend more time in the sun for the same dosage – up to 10 to 20 times as much, according to the Health Canada information.

Cloud cover, smog, shade and other factors can also reduce the radiation levels significantly, and the use of sunscreen above SPF 8 will reduce your ability of vitamin D absorption to pretty near zero (OK,it’s a 97.5% drop, which I’ll call “close enough.”)

Generally, advice seems to be that the hours between 10AM and 3PM are the best times to be soaking it in, as it’s when the sunlight is strongest.

Will breastfeeding supply vitamin D?

Vitamin D does exist in breast milk for mothers with adequate levels themselves, but it’s not considered enough to meet the daily recommended levels. On a semi-related note, your baby may have some vitamin D on backup from what it got through the placenta while in the womb, but this usually is only enough for a few months at most.

What supplements are available?

As we mentioned in our article about vegan infant formula, there doesn’t seem to be any formula out there with vitamin D2 instead of D3. Briefly, there are two forms of D: D2 (ergocalciferol) and D3 (cholecalciferol.) D3 is derived from lanolin (wool) and sometimes fish or egg, so it’s not considered vegan. D2 is made from yeast. I remember the “good” one because I like Star Wars (R2-D2) and “I am vegan, ergo I make up silly mnemonic devices.”

As for supplements, there are many liquid drop supplements of vitamin D that would be easier to administer than a pill or a powder, but the majority are based on D3. As Julie from the Council noted, be careful to read the labels, since most D3 is lanolin-derived, which is wool, so the bottle could say vegetarian but not be vegan.

We live in a disclaimer-filled world, but one more probably won’t fill the internet: check with your health professional to determine suitability of any or all of these – other than “you can buy it,” “it’s liquid,” and “it’s D2″ we’ve done no vetting of these products whatsoever but hope they help speed up your search.

• Meredith pointed out this D2 spray.
• Monica mentioned Dalivit, which looks like it has to be ordered from the UK but doesn’t seem too expensive – here’s one source.
• Jodie left a comment about Drisdol Drops [PDF], which it looks like you can get from any pharmacy.
• Wow, I wish there were more items here! Please let us know what you’ve found in the comments and I’ll update the list!

Once your child has teeth, there are some vegan chewables out there that might be appropriate, including Freeda Vitalets and the VegLife Vegan Kids Multiple [affiliate links].

Depending on what country you live in, you might have access to fortified soy milk (or other plant-based beverages,) but it’s important to note that these aren’t viable nutritional substitutes for breast milk or formula.

Remember – it’s testable

This goes for infants and adults – vitamin D levels in the blood can be measured by your health care people, so if you’re concerned about current levels or your intake plan, it’s pretty straightforward to get a status check (subject to costs for some of you, of course.)

As I mentioned earlier, this isn’t just a vegan problem – the supplement options are just a little more limited, and if there’s nothing available where you are for whatever reason, I think the “do your best” clause we mentioned in the infant formula article would apply. This is also one of those areas where it’d be good to share what you’ve learned with non-vegan parents as well!

What about you? Have you found any products not mentioned here that could bridge the gap? Please share them (along with any other thoughts you might have) in the comments!

Thanks to Amy, Kari, Julie, Meredith, Kim, Monica, Doh, Erin, Elaine, Kelly, Rebecca, Kristie, Sylvia, and Dalyn for their help with this one!

Update May 6/2010: Lisa Tweeted Angela with a reminder about the Toronto Vegetarian Podcast’s interview with Brenda Davis about vitamin D – I haven’t had a listen yet, but they’re good people.

Update Aug 28/2010: The Health Canada link has changed.

For this week’s parenting topic, Linda had a challenge for the Council of Vegan Parents:

“Last summer I did daycare for a 5 year old. I had explained to his mother that we were vegan and wouldn’t be serving animal products. One day, she was running late and sent him in with his fast food chicken nuggets and fries so he could finish his lunch he had been eating in the car.

“I was horrified but didn’t say anything. So here I was, picking up chicken nuggets off of the floor and explaining to my children why they weren’t something they could eat. So how would you handle it if your child’s playmate came toting their own non-veg food over to your house????”

Be clear

As Kari says, “we are always clear with people before they come over. We tell them that we do not eat animal products (and we give them the most common ones) in our house.”

This is one of those things where someone like me says “be clear” and you go “yeah yeah yeah, I’m clear,” and then something happens. Sure, it works out great for me because there’s a column in it but it’s worth repeating again and again and again.

I don’t know the specifics of Linda’s story beyond what you see here, but “we won’t be serving animal products” is different than, say, “we don’t allow animal products in our home,” and then listing off some of the big ones like Kari does – it always amazes me how fish and chicken are mystical non-animals for a lot of people, for example.

If you’re in a mixed household with meat eating and vegan parents but vegan children, you’ve probably already given a lot of thought about what you will and will not tolerate, so while this situation might seem more difficult, it’s probably a bit easier to communicate the rules, since you’ve likely already done so inside the house – you’ll probably want to review how you say them though, since communication within the family uses its own set of shorthand.

Be The Vegan

In a lot of ways, this isn’t much different from some of the other situations we’ve talked about in the past, like dealing with non-vegan family members: if people know that you’re vegan, and what that means (both logistically and what it means to you personally) then you’re likely to avoid a lot of these problems altogether.

Being openly vegan might put you a little bit outside of your comfort zone (not everyone likes to wear their beliefs on their sleeves like that,) so it might help to think of it as acting on behalf of your child, not yourself.

Tell everyone

This is worth its own bullet: if you’re going to be The Vegan and Be Clear for the purposes of avoiding issues, you’re going to need to be The Vegan to as many people as possible. Tell the babysitters, tell your family, tell the neighbours, and anyone else you and/or your child might come in contact with. I realize it sounds like you need to go door to door for a 30 mile radius, but it’s not as big a deal as it sounds. Telling people, I mean. The 30 mile bit was a joke.

Dealing with incidents

If, despite all your precautions, something still happens and animal products breach your protective force field, it might be an emotional time for you, so it’s best to think of a few likely scenarios ahead of time and plan out how you’re going to react. Scripts can be a great help when you’re in a stressful situation, but when you’re rehearsing in your mind, be sure to remember that a lot of these situations, depending on your imagination, will probably never ever happen, especially if you’ve followed the advice above.

How big a deal is it if meat enters your house, even without your child present? Are you channeling the parenting issues into something that’s more personal than that? In a lot of these cases, it’s helpful to ask yourself “what’s the worst that could happen?” – chances are, it’s more of a minor annoyance than a Class 5 Vegan Parenting Failure.

Your child is going to be exposed to meat a whole lot of times in his or her life, just like you are, so try to keep a level head when you’re explaining things.

Help your child understand

You’re going to be explaining animal products, why you don’t eat them, and what motivates the people who do to your child at various phases in his or her growth, and we talked about some strategies in dealing with overlap and answering questions from non-vegan children, but here’s some of what Rebecca had to offer for this particular case:

“We’ve discussed at home with our older child that other people don’t realize how eating animals has bad effects on their health, our environment, and animals, that we believe animal milk is for baby animals and animals have a right to live happy lives too, and that it’s not our place to tell people about any of this, though we could answer any questions they might have about being vegan.”

A big thanks to Linda, Kari, Rebecca and Angela for their help with this one!

Related articles:

Dealing with non-vegan family members
Dealing with overlap
Answering questions from non-vegan children

True fact: I spent a year working at a disposable diaper factory. They weren't this pretty. (Photo by tiffanywasko)

Probably the biggest question we get from expecting vegan moms isn’t really a vegan question at all: everyone’s wondering about diapers: reusable or disposable? To dig deeper into this issue, we turned to the Council of Vegan Parents for stories of their experiences. Here’s what we found.

Your three main options

Many Council members say they’ve tried several different systems of both cloth and disposable diapers, as well as diaper services. Everyone’s situation is unique, and different things are going to work (or not) for each of you, but here’s some of what they had to say about each option – note that this is just what our Council has tried, so if you’ve got other experiences or opinions, please let us know in the comments!

1) Reusables

Bum Genius

The Bum Genius system got a lot of votes from our Council. Dalyn in particular couldn’t say enough good things about them, including “Great. No leaks. Great. Relatively inexpensive. Great.”

Bum Genius diapers are available in several styles and sizes, including a one size fits all version along with organic and bamboo styles. They’re velcro closed, and are manufactured in the USA as well as in Egypt.

Dalyn had some issues with night time leakage, but solved that by doubling up the liners. Amy reckons that about a dozen pocket diapers would be enough.

gDiapers

gDiapers are a hybrid system that uses a reusable cover that can hold either a reusable insert or a biodegradable, disposable one. Pippi notes that the inserts fit inside other cloth systems too.

Sarah found them handy, since her family lived in an apartment without laundry or a sink that they were comfortable washing baby poop in, but stopped using them after a year or so after some issues with night time leaks (plus her child figured out how to remove them.). Kristie opted for the biodegradable option, but didn’t have good luck flushing the inserts without clogging the toilet, so she switched to Seventh Generation disposables (see below.)

Mother Ease

Doh went with Mother Ease cloth diapers, which are available in several fabrics, including organic and bamboo.

She says that their covers were the best of all the ones she tried, and they seldom leaked, were soft, and held up well, but the snap closures got to be a hassle when her toddler wouldn’t hold still during changes.

Homemade

Elaine uses Bum Genius too, but her mom sewed up some custom diapers that her husband likes the best. If you don’t have anyone in the family with sewing skills, Doh suggested Etsy as a way to fill the gap while also being able to support stay at home moms.

2) Disposables

As noted, many Council members either didn’t go with reusable diapers full time or simply couldn’t, often due to water concerns: some were in small apartments without easy access to laundry (and didn’t want to mix poop with what plumbing they had available,) and others were on well systems with limits on how much could be drawn.

While some went with the major consumer brands, Seventh Generation and Earth’s Best both were mentioned a number of times. As Kristie notes, they’re available on Amazon [affiliate link] if you’re not in an area that stocks them, and there’s a 15% discount for subscriptions.

Just like with cloth brands, sizing and styles vary and the first one you try may not work for your baby. Kristie found that Earth’s Best was better at stopping “seriously explosive poops” from shooting up her daughter’s back (they have an elastic in the back that stops it) and she felt that the overnight leakage protection was better, but your baby may be shaped differently.

3) Diaper services

While it costs more, if you’re committed to the idea of reusable diapers but have time/water/space/learning curve issues then a diaper service might be worth a look. The pickup schedule (both the “official” one and what actually happens) seems to be the big thing to watch for when trying a service where you have to store the dirty diapers and wait for someone else to clean them. If possible, it looks like referrals and recommendations would be good things to seek out from other area parents.

You can mix and match

It’s important to point out that you don’t have to commit to 100% on either side of this particular fence; many of our Council members go with a 50/50 mix of cloth and disposables, depending on a number of factors, including travelling, difficulty keeping up with laundry, babysitters, and better night time fit.

Many parents start out with disposables before trying cloth, and it’s advice I’ve heard a lot of times outside of the Council as well – newborns grow fast and there are a lot of other new skills to pick up around that time, so putting the decision off for a little while can make your life a whole lot easier.

On cleaning poop

Amy says cleaning diapers for her twins is “much easier than washing bottles! When the boys are babies and had mustard-y breast milk poops we threw all diapers (poop and all) into a lined trash can, daily we would throw all dirty and wet diapers in the washing machine on cold, then run again on hot. Machine dry on low, or outside on the line.”

Doh thinks she was lucky to be a stay-at-home mom, because otherwise the time needed for cloth diapers would have been difficult, she thinks: “the time-consuming factors with cloth diapers are not just the washing, it’s also the stain-treating (I used the sun to bleach out stains and kill bacteria, but I lived in Florida at the time. Other climes would have to address those steps in other ways), and the folding, as well as having to find where to buy them if they’re not sold locally, and finding a system that doesn’t leak often. I didn’t want to wash them in the same load as our clothing, so then I had to wait until I had a full load’s worth to wash them, which sometimes meant running out of cloth and using disposables. In other words, cloth diapers were a labor of love – important, and the right thing to do, but not easy.”

Dalyn thought that modern systems were amazing compared to stories of the past: “the cloth diapers these days don’t even require dunking in toilets and soaking and other questionably gross practices. If you’re exclusively breastfeeding, you can just throw the whole soiled diaper into the wash. No problem. And, one they start eating solid food, there are these fabulous dryer-sheet looking liners that you can put between baby bottom and diaper. Pee goes through it and poop gets caught. You then just flush the little liner full of poop and wash the diaper as usual. Seriously, today’s cloth diapers don’t even require you to get your hands dirty.”

Other things to watch for

There are a lot of different features that can make each diaper system different, and Steph listed a bunch of them: “having inserts keeps the moisture away from baby’s skin and can help with poop removal later on when it gets more solid (it falls off instead of having to be scraped off – hey, you asked!). Natural fabrics – cotton, bamboo – are better because you can launder them with vinegar or borax or whatever, where as the manufacturer of the diapers with synthetic materials recommend using bleach only (not something I want near my baby’s skin). Bamboo is particularly absorbant and I bought some extra liners for overnight.”

Doh says that all in one diapers “sound like a great idea – cloth diaper and cover in one! but they don’t end up working as well. Covers don’t need to be washed each time, and washing them wears them down pretty quickly, so all in ones don’t have the lifespan of using separate diapers and covers. Having a few on hand for being away from home all day, or for when Grandma babysits and she wants something as fast and easy as disposables, though, might be helpful.”

Lastly, of the major reusable systems out there, there seem to be some that use snaps and some that use velcro to fasten the diapers. Of the Council members that mentioned it, velcro seems to be a lot easier to put on, but requires a bit more care when washing: Dalyn says that “the laundry tabs (that keep the velcro from sticking to everything in the wash, yet allow the diaper to remain open for maximum cleaning) have worn out on every last diaper and I’m now in the process of replacing them all.”

Skipping diapers altogether

While nobody’s tried it, Elimination Communication has been getting some buzz lately. Briefly, it involves timing and communication to reduce or eliminate the need for diapers, and while it’s too big to cover here, you can find more information here.

Are reusable diapers a “vegan thing”?

Dean writes, “Leaving aside the question of whether cloth is more eco-friendly once you’ve factored in the washing water and the soap, there is the issue of how normal vegans should look. Washing diapers looks like a horrific idea to most parents. If we do it because we’re vegan then it just makes the vegan lifestyle appear impossibly self-sacrificing. There’s a value in demonstrating that a vegan lifestyle is easy and normal.”

As we pointed out in the intro, the kind of diapers you use really doesn’t have much to do with veganism, unless they’re made of bacon. And yet, as we saw from the number of questions received, and Dean’s response which was probably based on his interactions with non-vegans, it’s clear that there’s a link in a lot of people’s minds, at least if they know you’re vegan. Personally, I don’t think it’s a vegan connection as much as society’s need to connect what they see as an inconvenience to some other reason that they don’t need to participate in.

We’ve come a long way – for example, lots of people recycle without thinking of themselves as hippies etc., but diapers are still an outlier case. You can make the connection to veganism if you want, but it might make more sense to distance diaper choice from veganism to prevent a “if I were to go vegan I couldn’t use disposable diapers” connection in people’s minds, however illogical it might be.

A simple “we looked at disposable versus cloth, and decided the [cost, environmental impact, fewer trips to the store, delightful odors, whatever] made it worth using [insert your choice here]” would probably be less confusing overall when discussing the decision your family made.

Dump your thoughts

What about you? Was there a tip or viewpoint that you’ve found helpful that our Council didn’t cover? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Dean, Amy, Linda, Elaine, Doh, Steph, Kari, Sarah, Kristie, Pippi, Dalyn and Dilip for their help on this one! Those are just some of the members of the Council of Vegan Parents who help us put our parenting articles together. If you’re a vegan parent, click here to learn more!

Update: lots of great input from other moms in the comment on this Green Mommy Blog post!

(photo by tiffanywashko)

Sadly, "read the manual" usually isn't a good response. Photo by mil8

This week’s question came from Council member Kim, who asked:

“How do other families talk about vegan choices when other children are over and curious. (For example, a little friend asking “Why don’t you eat bacon? It’s yummy!)”

Without further ado, here’s what some other members of the Council of Vegan Parents had to say:

Be assertive, consistent – and prepared

“Think about things beforehand,” says Steph: “I have found myself kicking myself for using wishy-washy rhetoric when people are interested in our veganism and I wish I had said something more positive and assertive at the time.”

This advice holds true in pretty much all scenarios, really, but it’s especially useful with children, where things tend to be more on the black and white side without so many shades of grey. That said the part about being positive is a big deal too: “because we’re not murderers like your parents are” is probably not the best approach

As Steph notes, “thinking through the scenarios will make sure these things don’t happen again,” and there’s a lot to be said for preparation. If you have a few spare moments to go through some imaginary conversations (hey, they’re not just for toddlers!) you’ll find yourself better equipped for simple “why” questions if they come up.

Be honest without being gruesome

Elaine takes an honest yet age-appropriate approach to questions from nonvegan children. For a pre-teen she knows, she’ll offer vegan food when he visits, and if he has questions, she’ll answer them. For very young children, Elaine opts for a simple “I don’t eat that,” and while she’ll still answer questions, she’s quicker to change the subject. And for those in between, here’s a recent example that I think is pretty cool:

“…on a drive to the park on day we saw a truck filled with pigs. I
told the kids that seeing big metal trucks like those, with the holes
in the sides, made me sad. The kids asked why. I explained that the
pigs were probably being hauled off to slaughter to become pork, ham,
or bacon.

“More questions came: How far do they take them? Do they get food along
the way? Do they get hot or cold in the truck? Do they know what’s
happening? What should the driver do instead if everyone stopped
eating pork, ham, and bacon?

“I answered each one as honestly as I could. The pigs travel from all
over the place so some pigs travel short distances and other travel
for days. No, they do not usually have any food or water while they
travel because that would make it too messy in the truck. Yes,
sometimes it gets too hot or too cold and sometimes the pigs will get
sick or die during the trip. They don’t know exactly what’s happening,
but they’re probably scared. Wouldn’t you be scared if you were in
that truck? The driver should haul vegan food or… well what do you
want to do when you grow up? Maybe the driver should do that!”

Focus on things in common

Julie’s family tries to shift the conversation away from “why don’t you eat that” to a discussion of things that they do eat that kids also like, which shifts the emphasis over to things that they have in common. I like this idea a lot, and have you noticed that discussions with children have a lot of good strategies that work well with adults? Funny, that.

Dealing with other parents

What about when a child goes home and tells his or her parents what was said? Are there issues that need to be dealt with there?

Interestingly, none of our Council respondents have had any problems here. I think it has a lot to do with the approaches they’ve taken, as detailed here: be be consistent, be honest, don’t be gruesome, and focus on things that you have in common and you’re a lot less likely to have to deal with the “my kid says you called us Bambi killers!” confrontation.

Of course, that could just be a factor of our sample size. Have you had any incidents explaining veganism to nonvegan children, either with them or their parents? Let us know in the comments!

Thanks to Kim, Steph, Elaine, and Julie for their help with this one!

(Photo by mil8)

Photo by tandemracer

One of the biggest concerns we’re hearing from expectant vegan parents is about finding a supportive pediatrician and family doctor – it seems to be hard enough to find someone for ourselves, so what about small children? We turned this over to the Council of Vegan Parents: how did they find a veg-friendly pediatrician, or what did they do if they found themselves stuck with someone who isn’t supportive?

Here’s the good news: not a single Council member responded with a horror story – at least, not one that they didn’t get out of. Everyone has a doctor and/or pediatrician that they’re happy with, and it didn’t seem like it took any Herculaen efforts to achieve this.

The Council had the following advice, and as always, when I say “advice” I’m referring to the opinions and experiences collected here, and this isn’t official medical counsel, blah blah blah, though saying “consult your health care professional” in a post about finding a health care professional seems confusing. Anyway, here’s what we’ve got for you this week:

Doctor or Pediatrician? Some people in our panel skipped the pediatrician stage altogether and just went for a family practice physician that could be a resource for the whole family. The consensus seems to be that pediatricians can be more critical of parents and tend to schedule in shorter appointments, but that might just be the sampling from our responses.

Know what matters to you. There’s still a bit of “residual awe” around the doctor profession in some parts, and some of you might have a subconscious sense that you’re lucky to even be talking to one. Remember that the doctor isn’t accepting you, you’re accepting the doctor. It’s OK to ask questions, and many of our Council members interviewed three or four doctors before finding one they liked.

Diet really isn’t that big an issue. Most questions our Council members have been getting about diet are the kinds of questions that the doctor asks all parents, not just the vegan ones. As long as your children are hitting their growth targets and seem healthy overall, diet might not come up much in discussions anyway.

Be assertive. If you tell your potential doctor that you’d “like” to raise your children vegan, or that it’d be your “ideal” scenario, then you’re leaving the door open for animal product recommendations. If you’re a vegan family, say so and make it clear that it’s not up for discussion.

Accept that the doctor might not be vegan or vegetarian, and frankly, might not know that much about nutrition in general. A vegan doctor is of course ideal, but they’re pretty rare still. The amount of actual nutrition training in medical school still seems to be fairly low, but if your doctor is open to the idea of veganism and has access to a good nutritionist, you’ll probably do OK.

You can switch doctors later. If things start out simple enough but then you start getting recommendations that don’t sound right, you can always change doctors again. That said, it’s important to listen – if your doctor says that you need to feed your kids milk, that’s one thing, but if every doctor tells you that a diet that’s 95% ketchup is a horrible idea, well, they might not be the ones with a problem…

Don’t hide your veganism. Hiding anything that might be relevant to your family’s health is pretty foolish really, and it’s pretty much guaranteed to come up once your child learns to talk…

So where do you find doctors to interview? Apparently, the phone book was a great start for a lot of our Council members (or Yelp, in this decade.) If you’re lucky enough to get a referral/recommendation from friends, especially vegan friends, then that’s great, but simple phone calls to names in a list can work out fine.

Thanks to Amy, Sarah, Kim, Rebecca, Kristie, Jo, Celeste, Steph and Julie for their help on this one!

Related: Vaccines and your vegan family

(Photo credit: tandemracer)

This week’s question was from the Council, to the Council:

“One of our Council members was wondering about baby formula: it appears that there aren’t any vegan versions out there, at least where she lives, since the vitamin D is derived from lanolin (wool) in all of the otherwise vegan varieties. Is anyone aware of a vegan brand that might have been missed, and if not, or in addition to it, what are some alternatives you’ve used or considered?”

OK, before we get to the Council’s advice, here’s the basics from our research on the internet: as of the time of this writing (March 2010,) there are no fully vegan infant formulas.

The only ones that comes up online at all are a brand called Farley’s and Heinz’s Nurture line’s Soya product, both of which were offered in the UK. Both appear to have been Vegan Society approved, but that’s because they’re the same product: Heinz bought Farley’s.

Before those of you outside the UK start calculating what are sure to be insane shipping fees, we’ve got some more bad news: unfortunately, it appears that as of February 2010, the line has been discontinued.

So what’s a vegan parent to do if breastfeeding isn’t an option?

Do your best

Julie had this to say on the matter: “I’m not aware of any vegan formulas, and I’m pretty sure the conclusion in Raising Vegetarian Children is that there aren’t any (or at least there weren’t at the time that the book was published.)

“We’ve been fortunate to never need formula, since both of our kids seem to be champion nursers, but if we found ourselves in a situation where we needed it, I think this would fall pretty easily in the ‘do the best we can’ category, meaning I’d be more than willing to overlook the non-vegan vitamin D if that’s what it took to be able to feed my kid. They can’t grow up to be world-influencingly awesome vegans themselves if they don’t get the nutrition they need as babies, so one way or another their survival and thriving is my top priority.”

Examine other breastfeeding options

I’m no expert on the subject, but as Linda writes, there are people who are. Consult with a local La Leche League group or the IBCLC to see if there are ways to overcome whatever’s preventing you from breastfeeding.

I’m already well outside my areas of knowledge (thank you Council!) and this takes things even further, but Linda also mentioned the possibility of human milk banks, which wouldn’t necessarily be from a vegan woman, but may be worth considering.

Plan for the future generations

As Elaine put it, “we should probably all be contacting baby formula makers and asking for a vegan version. If we do, it won’t be long before a truly vegan baby formula will be readily available in mainstream US stores. Sometimes, I think, being a good vegan parent isn’t just about what we do for and with our children, it’s about acting like a parent for future generations of children so that other parents won’t have to make the kinds of compromises we have to make now.”

With that in mind, here are the contact addresses for some of the major formula makers. If I missed any (and that’s very likely,) please contact us and I’ll update the post.

If you’re looking for your activism action of the week, getting in touch with these companies and politely asking them to market a vegan-friendly formula (INCLUDING vitamin D2 instead of D3) wouldn’t be a bad way to spend your time. Here are links to the various contact forms:

• Mead Johnson (makers of Enfamil, Pregestimil, Nutramigen)
• Abbott Laboratories (Similac, Isomil, Alimentum, EleCare) (click the email link to get the form)
• Nestlé (Good Start)
• Hain Celestial (Earth’s Best)
• Nature’s One
• Wyeth nutrition

Thanks to Elaine, Steph, Julie, Pippi, and Linda for their help on this one!

Related stories:

• Weaning from breastfeeding – when and how?
• Breastfeeding: is your child what YOU eat?
• Vitamin D for Vegan Raised Infants

For this week’s question to the Council of Vegan Parents, we decided to stir the pot a little and address something we’ve gotten a few questions on but were, frankly, a little hesistant to ask about: what about vaccines?

There are various controversies around them (though one of the largest seems to have been discredited recently,) but perhaps more importantly from a vegan perspective, there are animal products in most vaccines and they’ve all been tested on animals at some point. Where do our Council respondents stand on this one?

A few things before we get started: first and foremost, as with all stories on Spawn Better, these are the collected experiences and opinions of a group of vegan parents, and while we hope they’re helpful for you, nothing on this site should be construed as a substitute for actual medical advice. Secondly, while nobody asked for anonymity, I’ve decided to post the responses to this one mostly verbatim but with the names removed (except for Elaine, whose identity as a foster parent is pretty obvious if you’ve read any other posts here.) Vaccination is a personal decision made on behalf of a child, and I’d like to thank the Council members who were willing to share some of the thoughts they went through.

You may also have some legal or other health regulations (such as from your school board) to consider, depending on where you live. As our foster parenting advisor Elaine says:

“With foster children, we are technically agents of the state. Until or unless we adopt, we don’t have full parental rights. So, unless or until birth parents rights have been terminated, we must go along with whatever medical decisions that the birth parents or the state makes on behalf of the child.

“That means, for example, that if a birth parent wants their newborn baby boy to be circumcised, we cannot stand in the way and prevent that from happening, even if we object. Or vice versa, we cannot get a child’s ears pierced, hair cut, or any other nonemergency medical procedure or body modification.

“So… legally we have no choice but to follow traditional vaccination schedules with our foster baby.”

A balance of risks

“Our son is not vaccinated at all. We chose not to vaccinate for many reasons and ironically the non-vegan aspects were very low on the list of concerns. Many of the reasons we chose not to vaccinate were because we felt the risk of our child getting some of these mostly, non-life threatening diseases were less than the impact of all of the unnatural ingredients going into our little boy’s body and to be honest I had a gut feeling that overloading our son’s system wouldn’t be a good idea. Although I will never know for sure if my gut reaction was spot on I do know that my son has been diagnosed with a minor neurological condition called Childhood Apraxia of Speech which has impacted his ability to speak clearly and he is about 1 year behind in fine and gross motor skills. One of the first questions doctors and neurologists have asked us is “was he vaccinated;” this is part of their list of questions to determine if there was any harm done during pregnancy, birth, or as a baby. It has always made me happy that we chose not to vaccinate our son on the schedule that most babies get shots.

“We knew that I would stay at home with him so he wouldn’t be in daycare, we exclusively breastfed for 12 months, we never planned on traveling out of the country, and we did things to keep us all healthy. There is always the chance too that a child can still get the disease even when vaccinated and in my husband’s case he caught the chicken pox disease from the actual vaccine (he decided to get himself vaccinated last year because he never had the chicken pox as a kid and he is a school teacher.) We have given thought to getting our son vaccinated with the tetanus shot after he turns 6. I would feel better about this now that his body is older and better developed.

“But most of this rambling has nothing to do with them not being vegan. For me the risk of vaccines were more of a concern for me than if they were made with animal ingredients but that still had some impact on my decision.”

Choosing your battles

“This is one of the subjects in which I’m sort of a naughty vegan. My daughter has (and will have) the minimum vaccines required by schools. We made this decision on a two factors: first, the simplicity that comes with not having to fight with every single school, class, sport, and extracurricular activity about it; second, the security of knowing she’ll almost certainly be safe from some awful diseases (we travel to foreign countries often so there is actually a chance she may be exposed at some point). I suppose, as much as this will earn judgment from some people, that we also partially gave into what our parents and doctor wanted us to do. I feel like the chance of us regretting giving her vaccines will probably be small compared to the chance we will regret not getting her vaccinated. That said, we aren’t getting any vaccines that aren’t required by the public school system, and our daughter will never receive a flu or HPV vaccine. To us it’s more a matter of our daughter’s well-being than of being vegan.”

Vaccinations as a gift

“The way I look at it is that my kids are lucky to be vaccinated. Kids die in other countries that kids [here] don’t die from because of vaccinations. That being said we go overboard on some of them – chicken pox and H1N1??? The bare minimum is what my kids got.”

Deciding on a case-by-case basis

“My husband at first assumed that all vaccines were beneficial. He assumed we would vaccinate our children unless there was a specific medical or ethical reason to avoid them. He says he understands a vegan rationale for abstaining from vaccines, but his level of veganism allows for such compromises until there are better alternatives. He says, for example, that if humans had a biological need for animal protein, then he wouldn’t be vegan. He avoids unnecessary animal products and he feels that some medications and vaccines are necessary. In general I agree with him.

“I feel that vaccines are beneficial in general but that their benefits are overstated. For example, I think the risks of most of the diseases that vaccines prevent are very low, particularly when the affected person has clean drinking water, good hygiene, and medical treatment when they’re ill, like antibiotics. For example, the actual risk of dying from measles is slight so long as the person who contracted the disease has plenty of safe things to eat and drink and has access to medical facilities. I see vaccines as a sort of bandaid for larger public health problems. I’m no germaphobe, but it drives me crazy how many people discount the simple act of handwashing and all that it can do to prevent the spread of disease.

“MY MAIN POINT: I think that when it comes to ensuring good health for our children and the public at large, we ought to put more emphasis on healthy eating (vegan obviously), clean air and water, education about good hygiene, and access for all people to medical facilities for emergency care.

“Another area that has influenced my thoughts on vaccines is that they’re required for so much: day care, school, field trips, etc. And I have had to receive certain vaccines in order to obtain employment or to volunteer in certain situations. Getting vaccinated can make life easier. This social benefit weighs in on my decision.

“However, that has to be balanced with the potential risk. I absolutely agree with the Green Our Vaccines campaign and I think vaccines should be free of heavy metals and all other impurities. But I’m currently unconvinced that the potential harm of vaccines outweighs the benefits.

“So… my husband and I have talked about vaccines. He says I’ve changed his mind a bit and he’s less likely to just go with the flow and get all the standard vaccines for our children. We decided that… we’ll investigate each vaccine and decide on a case-by-case basis. But in general, because of the social expectation, the social convenience, and the medical benefits we’ll be vaccinating our children.”

“Veganism is about doing what we can”

“I first had to confront this when I was pregnant and they offered me a flu shot. While I could’ve taken some time to mull it over, I made the decision quickly and went ahead with the shot. Afterward, I had plenty of time to think about whether I’d made the right decision and, for us, I think I did. I remain unconvinced that the dangers of vaccines outweigh the benefits.

“I grew up with a friend whose mother had been paralyzed by polio. I know a number of women who’ve had to deal with HPV. My grandmother’s sister died of scarlet fever (which there was a vaccine though she hadn’t had it) before penicillin was used to treat it. Because there is no vegan vaccine option and I believe that the possible dangers of foregoing vaccines are significant, we are all vaccinated. We all got the swine flu vaccine, our son is being vaccinated on schedule, my daughter got the HPV vaccine as soon as it was available, and – particularly with the new recommendations from the AAP – I plan on making sure my son is vaccinated against HPV as well.

“As responsible, thoughtful vegan parents, sometimes we have to make choices that don’t line up with our lifestyle. For us, though, veganism isn’t about being perfect, it’s about doing what we can. In the absence of a vegan option, I don’t believe that we have compromised or lifestyle of beliefs.”

Staying vigilant

“We don’t vaccinate our kids, but we do keep up-to-date on symptoms, outbreak patterns (seasons, geographies, etc.), treatments, complications, and so on for all the diseases commonly vaccinated against in childhood, such that we might rapidly diagnose and treat our kids if they do catch them. We watched Sherri Tenpenny’s two-hour DVD Vaccines: What CDC Documents and Science Reveal [aff. link] in which she convincingly argues that “herd immunity” and other pro-vaccine concepts do not hold up to scientific data. It seemed to us that good diet and good hygiene are perhaps the safest and most potent disease prevention measures.

“Rejecting vaccines solely because they are made from animals (chicken eggs, monkeys, cows, and others) would seem to lead logically to rejecting most of Western medicine. We reject vaccines because we’re not convinced that they work as advertised or that they have acceptable side effects. For example, many children who contract pertussis or chicken pox have been vaccinated against those diseases – can these vaccines be said to ‘work’? Yes, childhood diseases can kill and maim, but vaccines are not 100% safe either and have serious side effects.”

Researching and Prioritizing

“We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what to do with vaccines when our son was born. I have a particularly distinct memory of the pediatrician who happened to be on call when we went in for his 2 day (yes, 2 DAY) appointment harassing me because I hadn’t figured it out and wanted to wait for our 2 week appointment with our normal nurse practitioner to ask some questions and decide what we were going to do. Luckily, she was a lot less pushy and we were able to work together to find a plan that we were all comfortable with…

“I ended up doing a lot of my own research, talking with the nurse practitioner, and then spreading out the vaccinations that we did, with an eye to balancing how ‘urgent; the different ones seemed. Hep-B didn’t seem like a big risk in our house at birth, so we put that off and bought ourselves more time to do research. Some of the others (HiB, pneumococcal, DTaP) seemed more likely to affect an infant, so we prioritized those.

“Vegan concerns have come into our decisions in the sense that I really, really didn’t want to find out that he was allergic to, say, chicken eggs because they were injected into his body as part of a vaccine. That played into the risk-benefit analysis that I did, and made it easier for me to decide against things like the seasonal flu vaccine since I didn’t know what his risk for an allergic reaction would be.

“We haven’t talked in too much detail about what we’ll do this time around but I imagine it will be pretty similar. Our pediatrician has a pretty similar practical, laid-back approach to things and seems willing to have an open discussion with us and to give us her opinions without making us feel dumb for even asking questions, which is nice.”

Thanks again to all the Council members who shared their thoughts on this one! If you have any opinions of your own to share or any questions, be sure to leave them in the comments!

(Photo credit: stevendepolo)