Telling my side of the story

WARNING: I'm not that deep.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My Vegan Baby

So Blu doesn’t eat any animal products. And now that the laughter has died down, let me explain. I am not comfortable feeding my baby any animal products. I have been advised to feed him eggs, chicken, meat, etc. No can do. At least not before he turns one. And now the obvious question – am I a vegan? I wish I were but while I am gradually, painstakingly trying to reduce my own animal product consumption, I am trying to delay his consumption of said products for as long as possible. Seriously speaking, I am afraid, very afraid of what we’re eating in this country. I haven’t seen any of the scary stuff that I’ve heard people talk about. However, from what I understand about how poultry and beef are processed, I wish I had been raised vegetarian. Vegan, in fact. It really is scary.

How did this go from Blu to me? Typical. Anyway, so please for the next few months, don’t nobody try to feed my son any animal products. For real, I'm afraid someone is going to try to sneak behind my back and give him something on my contraband list. Let’s give him at least one year of ‘safe’ foods, okay? After that one year, we’ll see if we can go two, then three, then four. Maybe at four, he’ll decide he doesn’t want to eat meat and then he can convince his mom and dad to leave it alone. I know a little boy that did. Blu, please help us.

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7 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

um i don't know if that's a good idea but no be me get child. for someone who is just starting out in life, id say he needs all the help he can get and you can get your meat and dairy stuff from certified and local organic kind of ppl. when u are vegetarian talkless of vegan, its really hard to get some of the nutrients you need, so all the work you put into making nice tasting vegan ish can be put into finding nice meat stuff. as for Peta type mistreatment if thats what ur worried about, theres farms that kill their cows humanely lol.

but in all honesty, i know ppl who do it, but i dont think its the best. did you talk to your doctor?

2:27 PM  
Blogger KemiMamaLopes said...

As long as Blu is getting a balanced diet with the protein he needs. Check with the Medics though, just to be on the safe side. Lopes has probably eaten 5 eggs in her 4 years. She can't stand the stuff.

4:59 PM  
Blogger SOLOMONSYDELLE said...

lol! Hey, I don't blame you. I kept all my kids organic for a year. It was hard but I did it. And my first daughter prompty got an ear infection a few days after we switched her to normal food.

Anyway, it is easy to keep a child vegan//vegetarian as there are options. It just takes a lot of time and money. But, I am sure your baby will be better off for it. However, if the child grows up, comes home from a birthday party and promptly curses you out for never introducing him to barbecue and burgers - you will be in trouble.

=)

8:45 PM  
Blogger Gbemi's Piece said...

To all who commented: I responded but apparently blogger didn't save it. Let's try again, shall we?

@ Anonymous - I shared the same concerns until I found out that there were many veggie options for protein that he already liked. Another one of my concerns about animal products is the fact that very soon (if we haven't already) we'll be buying cloned animal products without even realizing it.

@ Kemimamalopes - He's getting the balanced diet he needs, met with a doctor and we're okay. How is Lopes???

@ Solomonsydelle - How ridiculously expensive is it to eat organic? It's too bad, really. I am hoping that the more people demand it, the less expensive it'll get. Your comment about him cursing me out is too funny! Unfortunately, I don't think he'll stay veggie for too long. His daddy is not really feeling me on this :-(

12:56 PM  
OpenID goodnaijagirl said...

I think as more people really get turned on to the organic thing, more farmers will be motivated to do what they have to do to get their farms certified as organic and then prices will go down.

(I hope)

I never used to worry about the genetically engineered or modified animals becoming the meat of the future but now I don't feel so comfortable with the idea...

Does this mean you have to prepare two different meals? My lazy self would have a hard time with this!

11:26 AM  
Blogger Gbemi's Piece said...

Hi goodnaijagirl - I'm intrigued by your name and have to check out your blog! Em no, I won't be preparing two different meals. There'll just be lots of options. Besides, when you think about it, a lot of our Naija food is veggie already so it shouldn't be a difficult transition.

10:26 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i just started reading your blog so i dont know how old your child is? having said that,, if you are still breast feeding him and you yourself eat animal products-meat, eggs and the rest...then you child is really not a vegan because he gets his nutrients from what you take in....however,if he is a toddler, how are you sure nobody has given him animal products to eat???
just wondering sha...

7:32 PM  

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