SisTot Vegans: Edible Ideas for Discerning Rugrats

My 20 month old is addicted to hemp seeds, kale, raw pumpkin seeds, chlorella, and chia seeds to name few. She screams for the raw kale, ginger, chlorella & pumpkin seed smoothie I make in the morning.

My 3 year old throws a tantrum in the natural grocery store if she can’t get her damn seaweed and Organic tamari almonds.

And my 6 year old likes to constantly remind everyone that he must have mommy’s braised kale nearly every day so he can have a great source of lutein for his developing eye health. I should get upset that he doesn’t use his fork to eat the greens; instead, he shoves them into his pie-hole with his hands, eating it in ecstasy.

When people learn that my children are eating these types of foods that I mentioned above, many tell me that their children would never eat hemp seeds or raw kale. They ask how or why my kids even ‘like’ the taste. For years I have been asked these types of questions and for years I have had a love/hate relationship with the world of food and health monitoring of young children via proper nutrition and eating. I always felt like I was the last person who should be telling anyone some secret I have to getting my children to eat what is supposedly impossible for the standard tot in the USA to like. If you’ve been following my blog for awhile, you know that eating ‘healthful’ and ‘good’ foods is not exactly objective– nor is it easy for all to have access to the resources they need (money, community, nutritional literacy, transportation, culinary appliances) to feed themselves or their families the way your standard Berkeley hippy organic parent would.

So, what I want to do is share my ideas with you without sounding like an obnoxious, hurtful, know-it-all parent who judges people for giving their child potato chips over seaweed chips or allows their child to watch Disney over PBS. I would like to start sharing my ideas via a new blog series that yes, will eventually turn into book. If you sincerely want to know what the hell to do with a chia seed with your 20 month old in mind…if you can’t figure out how to get stinging nettles into your child’s diet to alleviate eczema….and if you can’t figure out how to make Chlorella palatable for your 3 year old then this series (and eventual book) is going to be for you.

And I’m going to be lovingly upfront. Once again, I know not everyone has access to the ingredients and products that I will talk about; furthermore, not everyone knows that many of the super foods they do have access to comes to them via human exploitation embedded in a racist-sexist and capitalist food system. I will try my hardest to suggest ingredients that are least likely to have come to you via suffering, pain, and exploitation. For example, I love me some quinoa but I also want to suggest a source for the seed that is from non-exploited farmers and from a source that does not destroy an entire village’s culture and means to thrive.

I hope to get on board with this project by the Fall of 2015. In the mean time, check out the other projects and work we have done and will be doing:

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Also, download the Vegan Praxis of Black Lives Matters spring 2015 conference recordings by clicking on the image below :