The Vegetarian Mother and Baby

Weaning

It's amazing how people who wouldn't dream of telling you how to conduct your marriage or your finances are quite happy to wade in with advice (or instructions) on child rearing. Nothing excites people's minds more than hearing that you are going to raise your child as a vegetarian. I've heard comments on my decision to bring up my son vegetarian, ranging from 'that's child abuse' to 'that's sinful'! At the time of writing he's two years and nine months old and is bursting with health and vitality.

Having said that, you won't be surprised if we tell you that it's perfectly okay to raise a child on a vegetarian diet. There have been many studies undertaken, and they have all proven that vegetarian children end up just as tall, just as intelligent, just as healthy as their meat-eating peers. In fact, just as for adults, a vegetarian diet is much healthier for children, helping to protect them against later heart disease, cancers, etc.

Even though this section is about weaning, the first thing we would say to you is not to be in a hurry about offering solids. After years of putting babies on solids at maybe only weeks old, it is now realised that the best time is 'towards the middle of the first year' (World Health Organisation). La Leche League recommends not worrying about solids until the baby is about six months old.

However, as in so many things, the best expert on when your baby needs solids is your baby himself! You will know that he is ready when he starts showing curiosity in the business of food - maybe trying to grab food off a plate. Another sign is an increase in nursing that lasts longer than two to three days. An increase in nursing that only lasts two to three days would probably be because he is going through a growth spurt and is working to increase your milk supply, or because he is fighting off an illness. He may not even show symptoms of this illness, so you mightn't even know that the battle has been fought!

There will probably come a time at around three months of age when you might think the baby is ready for solids, because he is nursing more often, particularly at night. But what is happening here is that the baby has suddenly realised that the world exists and he develops a fascination for it, and this distracts from nursing during the day, so he has to make up for it at night. Or, say the baby is nursing and someone comes into the room. Before, the baby would have carried on, now he might well turn around in curiosity to see the newcomer and then want to interact with them. Because the feed was interrupted, he will need another feed sooner rather than later. This stage doesn't last too long because experience quickly teaches the baby that the world will still be there after the feed. So don't panic and think you are back forever to frequent feeds. Neither is this a sign of readiness for solids - four months is really the earliest you can expect a baby to want solids.

On the other hand, there are some babies who show no interest in solids until seven or eight months old. If this is the case, don't worry, although it can be difficult as you will get lots of 'advice' from people around you, so be warned. As long as the baby is nursing regularly and has plenty of energy and a good skin tone, he or she is getting enough food.

There are many advantages to later weaning - the baby will be able to sit up by herself, which will make feeding her easier. Moreover, because she has indicated she wants to try this new skill, there is no battle involved. Later weaning also decreases the risk of allergies and reactions.

So what do you feed your baby? The first foods are really only for practice of this new skill, so don't worry about the lost nutrition if the food goes everywhere except into the baby! Half a teaspoonful of fruit or vegetable purée is a good start. I mashed potato with breast-milk as my baby's first taste. As breast-milk is naturally sweet, it's good to use foods that are also naturally sweet, such as carrots and fruit. If you don't find the idea off-putting, try mixing breast-milk with any one, or a mixture of, carrot, potato, apple, pear, and banana. Avocado makes a very good first food - don't quote me on this but I understand that Mexican babies are practically reared on it!

Do not give any foods containing gluten (i.e. wheat, oats, barley or rye), until the baby is at least six months old, and possibly for a time after that if you have allergies in your family. Lentils and beans can be introduced at about seven months of age. Tofu, mashed with some vegetable, is excellent food.

You can cook the baby's food ahead and freeze it in ice-cube trays. I had about three different ones on the go each time so I wasn't always giving the same meals. My recollection is that I only had to cook ahead about three times - my son decided very early that if it didn't come off Mammy or Daddy's plate he wasn't eating it! And so he was on 'family food', mind you, we were eating fairly bland foods for a while. The taste of breast-milk varies depending on what the mother has eaten, so breast-fed babies are already used to a variety of tastes. Babies shouldn't be given any food containing either salt or sugar - although this can be quite hard to achieve given outside influences and baby's own desires. I found that it was a standard to aim for rather than an absolute!

Jars of food are very good if you are travelling. These jars, which carry a small vegetarian range (and some brands use organic ingredients), are simply real food, cooked and puréed, and so are preferable to the powdered packet stuff. I have heard an opinion expressed that the powdered foods are better because they have all the vitamins and minerals added. However I would point out that the manufacturers are only using their best knowledge, which is still far behind the wisdom of Mother Nature. Also, an excess of some vitamins and minerals can be toxic, so I'd much rather give a good range of unprocessed food. My own son has thrived on this, as have many other children.

It has been well documented that children have a natural sense of what their body needs, both in terms of food choices and amounts. One rarely-realised advantage of breast-feeding is that you don't get hung up on how much they've had. There's no coaxing them to take the last ounce. My husband and I determined to carry this into our son's weaning. Obviously, if you cook your own meals there are no quantities for you to judge by. When my baby was an infant, rather than insist he finish everything, I was only happy if he didn't! My logic was that since he couldn't ask for more, if he finished his meal I didn't know if he'd had all he wanted, whereas if he left some, I knew he had eaten his fill.

I know of no studies that have looked into this, but I am convinced that one very effective way of helping to avoid anorexia nervosa in later years is to refuse to make food a power issue. So we have never ever tried to make our son eat one bite more than he wanted. It has been tough sometimes as he might go two or three days without eating much, but we hung in there, and every time he more than made up for it after that. This also saves time and your nerves, as there's no sitting for ages at the table enticing just one more bite into your offspring. We also have never made an issue of eating vegetables, and whether we're lucky or not, he loves fruit and vegetables.

Another very important thing to remember when feeding babies and children is that their stomachs are tiny, so they need to eat little and often. Snacks are the order of the day: brown bread and nut butter (peanut butter is of course the classic, but almond and cashew butters are also lovely, and are available from health food shops. Or make your own by very finely grinding nuts with some vegetable oil. Don't worry about the fat content - as explained below, your vegetarian child needs a high-fat diet). Other snacks include apple or pear cubes, banana, pieces of cooked broccoli or peas, soya or dairy yoghurt. Be wary of raw carrot for a young child, as it can flake and cause choking, but lightly cooked carrot sticks are great. When your child is old enough, then you can provide some raw carrot sticks, cashews or dried fruit, but take care that the dried fruit is not too laxative.

All the following recipe suggestions simply require mixing - puréeing to a thick sludge for a very young baby, and gradually increasing the texture as the baby is more able for it. You can buy special small food processors for babies, but I found the standard food processor to be fine, especially if you are batch-cooking. Although the quantities given in these recipes are small, you can, as suggested above, batch-cook and freeze. Don't get hung up on the quantities - in practice you'll find that you don't really need to measure, just throw it all in until you have the right consistency.

N.B. Where milk is referred to in the recipes you can use cows' milk, soya milk or breast-milk. You will probably have heard that dairy or soya milk is not suitable for babies under a year. This is true as far as drinking large quantities is concerned, but using them in cooking is fine. The only exception being if there are dairy allergies in your family, in which case definitely don't use dairy products until a year, and then try it but be prepared to withdraw it from the diet if the baby shows a reaction.

CARROT 'N' CHEESE

You can use some of the carrot cooking water to thin this dish down if you wish.

2 tbsp cooked carrot
2 tbsp vegetarian cottage or cheddar cheese, grated

CREAMED CORN

2 tbsp corn kernels, cooked
1 tbsp milk

PEAS PLEASE

2 tbsp cooked peas
2 tbsp milk
1 tbsp vegetarian cottage cheese

TAPIOCANANA

1/2 small banana
3 tbsp cooked tapioca
1 tbsp milk

LENTIL MASH

50 gm / 2 oz cooked red lentils
50 gm / 2 oz cooked potato
1-2 tbsp milk

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