My husband (not vegan or veggie) has just agreed that I can bring our kids up as vegan (my son is 2.5 yrs and my daughter is 11 months old), woo woo! I’m beyond thrilled. However, I am a little daunted by it all. My son is great eater but my daughter is sooooo picky and still relies alot on formula at this point. They’ve both just had a mostly vegetarian diet so far, fortunately so hopefully this will make it easier. But they both love egg and cheese. And they’re the main sources of protein I can get my daughter to eat. I need to decide on a plan of action I think and take it from there. Sorry for rambling on. Btw, on my blog I’ve sign posted people to your blog as a resource for being healthy and vegan as I think your story of failing health as a vegan is a powerful and heartening one. Hope that’s ok.

Nina is almost nine years old now, born and raised vegan; her childhood has been steeped in animal kindness stories, sanctuary visits, frank discussions about the kill farms in our rural neighborhood, philosophy podcasts, NYT and New Yorker articles about the ethics of food/food culture, and conversations that run the gamut of extremely emotional to extremely cerebral and all the grey area in between.

It’s been fascinating observing her grow into her veganism and embrace my ideals on her own terms. Her training wheels are off! She has many success stories behind her, times when she declined an unexpected cupcake in class for someone’s birthday, a milk chocolate peanut butter cup, a non-vegan marshmallow. She reads labels like a champ, and advocates (very loudly) for herself and the animals 99.99% of the time. She has also made a few choices that don’t align with how we eat at home, such as accepting a traditional pastry from grandparents who only keep oreos in their pantry but eat fresh homemade croissants in front of their vegan granddaughter.

If she’s offered a piece of pizza at someone else’s home, sometimes she politely declines, sometimes she not-so-politely declines, and sometimes she just “scrapes that shit off” (her words) and eats the crust, because she knows that the family treating her to dinner could not afford to order an extra pizza without cheese (and did not think to order half without).

This is the world that she operates in, and she’s learning how to navigate it on her own terms. The only rule we have regarding food choices outside the home is that we never, ever misstate our choices as allergies. We discuss things ad nauseum, but we don’t food shame. Does it make a difference that her father isn’t vegan, that she’s been exposed to both sides of this issue from day one? Probably, but I would like to think not so much. Her favorite movie is Chef, but she won’t listen to non-vegan cooking podcasts. She’s figuring it out all on her own.

When my son was young he never had any refined sugar. When he was 3 or 4 someone was passing out vegan cookies at Whole Foods made without refined sugar. We both tried a sample. It was quite possibly the worst cookie ever made. My son ate it and thought it was delcious. At that moment I realized I better get him some delicious vegan cookies with sugar. I knew he would try a non-vegan sugar laden cookie at some point and decide that vegan = not nearly as good as non-vegan. Like you I don’t want vegan to mean deprivation. Now as much as I hate Popsicles filled with dye I’m glad when they are passed out as a class treat since he can have the same treat as everyone else!