Life has taken us on a new path. A vegan path. Now I have to admit, I am not entirely sure I know the definition or what the distinction is for vegetarians. That is something I need to look up. Our darling little boy, who is now 7 months old, is not gaining weight or pooping. He weighs as much as he did at 3 1/2 months old. He is also very irritable during and after feeding if he doesn't fall asleep while nursing.
Yes, we are still breastfeeding. I refuse to switch to formula for a couple of reasons. One, because formula is not as beneficial health wise for him. Two, because he gags on any type of artificial nipple be it from bottles or pacifiers.
He did have a tongue tie that we had clipped when he was 5 days old. A friend of mine familiar with tongue ties explained that a second clipping might be needed. We have already seen the ENT specialists but the specialist that is a pediatric ENT wasn't there that day and only works one day a week. I couldn't be "squeezed" in for 2 weeks. His appointment is next week.
I've had his blood glucose levels checked and they are fine. I've had the first round of allergy testing done, the blood RAST test. He also checked out in normal ranges there too. I will be asking for a skin test and the ALCAT test next for delayed reactions. If everything still turns up in the normal range, I don't know what else to look for. I suppose xrays and ultrasounds to make sure his digestion tract is formed normal. There is a whole host of possibilities if he isn't having allergic reactions or a tongue tie issue.
Hence why we started the vegan path. It started with the possibility of cutting out dairy out of our diets. The more I started reading, the more I learned the myths that the cattle farmers don't want you to know. It would kill their business. But I won't explain any of that here. You wouldn't believe me anyway unless you were ready to hear it. So when you are ready to hear it, do your own research. You have to be responsible for your own health and well being. You just cannot take someone else's word for it. It might be wrong. Intentional or unintentional.
I feel that this is the most natural next step for us. I won't lie. Making out the menu and the grocery list was hard. What was harder was finding all the ingredients. I shopped 3 stores. Thank you to our local military Commissary, Whole Foods, and Amazon.com!
So far I've made 2 dinners. Last night was Teriyaki Rice Bowl from the book above. Tonight was Loaded Baked Potato. Which for me, needed some tweaking but was good. I borrowed this book from a friend of mine and thought the recipes sounded good. I then ordered the book from Amazon. It arrived today!!
If you are a vegan, lend your thoughts. What was easy for you, what was hard, what is your advice for beginners?
Thanks for stopping by.
1 comment:
Hello. I found your blog through the Down-To-Earth Forum. A few years ago Husband and I tried very low fat vegan/vegetarian eating because of his blood pressure and cholesterol. I was rather unadventurous and the food wasn't always that good. Then we went back onto meat. He had a bypass in Sept 09 and we have always said that when we ate the vegan/vegetarian way that we felt so much better.
Advice for beginners? For me it was that whole new way of cooking and thinking. I tend to get overwhelmed so it was hard for me. This time round I've decided to be more adventurous. As a Christian I have access to free Christian tv via a dish on the roof (I live in Australia). I highly recommend the Seventh Day Adventists cookbooks. If you want healthy they have great books. I have heaps of them as well as copying recipes off their website. There is a book called Ten Talents...great book....most of their books are great. We have a seitan recipe I got out of a Kwong cookbook. We eat it breaded and love it. I made a pizza out of her cookbook as well and it reminded me of real pizza...used homemade sausage and veggies and a fake cheese. I ate the lot because it was delicious. The SDA cookbooks are vegan and rely on non refined ingredients. There are so many great websites to for free vegan recipes like the food.com website, which is the old Recipezaar site.
I made a list of recipes to try and then did them one at a time. I put them into several categories and we have our favourites. One of our favourites I made up and we call it Tofu Noodle Soup. That soup won my husband over to tofu. He will even ask for it. I make patties a lot to. I have a really nice that called Sweet Potato and Chickpea Patties. My patties don't fall apart. Kwong has a facebook page and her and her husband have a heap of recipes from her cookbooks on there.
Was it easy? No. But once you start to cook differently and get used to new foods it becomes like you used to cook when you ate meat and drank dairy. It will become second nature. It is the time to find recipe and have to actually sit and follow them when you are cooking that can make you feel like it's all a big effort. When you are used to doing a recipe off the top of your head and doing it automatically and then having to check your recipe for how to cook it and how long does it take that made me feel like it was such an effort. But it will get easier.
Let me know if I can help in any way.
Baking is harder. But I have a few recipes if you are interested. Happy to pass on a few recipes to try if you would like them.
Sharon
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