My vegan baby and me
Hello! My name is Sarah, my 19 month old baby is Sonny and we're both vegan. My husband Steve is vegetarian but I'm working on him to give up cheese! We were both vegetarians when we met, bonding over our shared love for animals at a very 'meat orientated' barbeque. I became vegan in 2016 but had a love / hate relationship with cheese over the next 3 years, mostly craving it when I was pregnant and breastfeeding. Every time I had a 'cheese lapse' I felt so incredibly guilty and SUCH a hypocrite. You see, in my eyes, all animals are of equal importance in terms of the ability to feel love, pain, fear and trust. I obviously 'like' some animals more than others (I prefer monkeys over rats for example) but it doesn't mean I don't feel any sadness for a rat that is being tested on; raped, abused and tortured - like dairy cows are. To me, the problem is that most people value their own taste buds over the torture of animals. It really is as simple as that. I valued my taste buds over the suffering of cows every time I ate cheese and I feel so ashamed for that.
I've had a few people, including friends and family, criticise me for raising a vegan child. That it should be ‘his choice’, but those same people didn't give their children the ‘choice’ to eat meat or not, they just decided that their child was eating meat, like my parents chose for me to eat meat. I didn't get a choice. My mum is now vegetarian and I don't hold resentment towards my parents for feeding me meat, I just wish I had been educated as to where the meat came from. I honestly believe that children have the right to know where their food really comes from and how it ended up on their plate. There is no proper education on food. It's just glossed over, therefore people have a disconnect from reality.
Most children's books and TV shows centre around animal characters. Children LOVE animals. They have teddy bears, cuddly tigers and bunny rabbits, most kids love going to a petting zoo or seeing a dog run around in a park. And most children wouldn't go out and kill the cow that ends up on their plate. Most teenagers and adults wouldn't do that either…
Sonny absolutely LOVES animals - he is best friends with our dog Buddy and every time he sees a picture of an animal or a dog at the park he squeels with delight.
My own vegan/vegetarian start was spread out over a few years. I first gave up meat when I was teenager, but as I was very busy travelling and performing as a recording artist, I didn't put any time into researching nutrition and I ended up getting very anemic and fainting so my doctor advised me to start eating red meat again. Now I know that I must have a healthy diet of protein, iron, good fats and complex carbohydrates. I do take iron supplements as I am naturally low in iron and I also take B12 and DHA (omegas 3 & 6) but I don't have to take these, I just choose to as I don't always feel like eating lots of flax seeds and seaweed (high in omegas) and cereals (fortified with B12). There's plenty of iron, calcium and protein in vegan foods, so there's absolutely no need to supplement if you don't want to!
My husband and I probably eat better than most meat eaters. We love cooking and our meals range from Mexican Tacos to Mushroom Pie to Pesto Gnocchi to Vegan Burgers to Pad see ew, to Mushroom Stroganoff… that's just to name a few!
And my baby Sonny definitely eats better than any other baby I know! His favourite meals are Sweet potato and broccoli with hummus and avocado, Quinoa with peanut butter and vegetables, Chickpea pasta with homemade Italian tomato sauce and mushrooms, garlic and brocolli. He also absolutely loves fruit and coconut yogurt.
Some great vegan websites that I get a lot of our recipes from are Lazy Cat Kitchen and The Happy Pear
And I'm always on Pinterest finding new recipes - I have hundreds on my 'Food Board'.
My favourite vegan documentaries are ‘Cowspiracy’, ‘What the health’, ‘Land of hope and glory’ and ‘The game Changers.’
I started watching 'Dominion' but could only make it to 12 minutes before I was crying so much that I had to stop. I haven't attempted to watch 'Earthlings' as the trailers are just too devastating. I do think that people who need an extra push to go vegan should watch these though as they show the real pain and torture that these animals endure.
Vegan activists who I think are really powerful and moving are Earthling Ed And James Wildman.
And the celebrity vegans such as Joaquin Phoenix, Moby, Miley Cyrus and Billy Eilish are doing amazing things for the cause too! And let's not forget about the wonderful Greta Thunberg!
Websites I'm subscribed to on Instagram and Facebook are 'Live Kindly' and 'Plant based news' - they post both factual stories and positive changes that are happening in the world of veganism!
One last thought -
We have a gorgeous dog, Buddy, and I cannot comprehend anyone ever getting pleasure out of eating him - some people eat dogs in parts of Asia and some people eat dolphins and whales and then there are people who 'trophy hunt' lions and rhinoceroses in Africa who are widely criticized by meat eaters….. and yet 'fishing' is considered a relaxing hobby. Why is it ok in different parts of the world to contribute to the torture and killing of one animal but not another? I feel like it's similar to people in the Middle East stoning gay men, or Nazis eradicating Jewish people or slavery in America. In London and in many parts of the western world, we think these things are hideous and unimaginable but then we think it's ok to eat a tortured cow or pig. Specism, racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia… it is all in the same category - hate. If people genuinely loved animals, they would not have the heart to eat them and contribute to the torture these animals suffer.
AND if people really cared about climate change, giving up meat is one of the best ways of reducing your carbon footprint, freeing up land space and saving water… but that's a whole other blog post!
