Friday, May 20, 2011

Becoming Vegetarians: A Month In.

It was roughly a month ago that we switched our family diet to being mostly vegetarian- allowing fish, eggs, and dairy.  So far, I have to say it's been a great choice and a lot easier than we thought it was going to be.  We had only a small amount of meat left in our freezer to use up and then we made the total switch.  We eat fish about twice a week, but otherwise, our meals are rich in vegetables proteins from legumes or soy.

We had a minor set back a couple weeks ago.  Eva woke up with this blazing, huge, purple rash with chicken pox like markings too.  She was all swollen up and running a fever.  Thinking chicken pox had finally hit, off to the doctor we went, where he could neither confirm nor deny that it 'could be' chicken pox- the only way we'd know is if it followed the pattern of a typical chicken pox outbreak.

It didn't.  With oral steroids (aka the equivalent of sugar running through her veins), benadryl (she is the ONLY CHILD I KNOW who gets hyper, not zonked from benadryl), and some ibuprofen, it started to disappear, but I was REALLY not happy with the side effects we were dealing with.  Thus, oatmeal and baking soda baths, oatmeal based lotions, lots of water and lots of hanging out with Strawberry Shortcake on Netflix.

I took pictures, watched her diet carefully, and looked around online because this rash kept reappearing but not following a pattern.  Thoroughly confused, we went to our regular doctor, I showed her the pictures I took, the diet log I made (trying to see if there was a food causing this), and we were ALL baffled and our doctor was just as confused, sadly.  Blood tests, referred to the dermatologist AND the allergist, and two days later we find out that every single one of us in this family is slightly allergic to milk. AWESOME.

So we all get to cut back on dairy, and that's not too big of a deal, to be honest.  We've always been of the belief that everybody except kids has too much dairy.  We got okay-ed that we could all eat or drink dairy as long as we kept it under 12 ounces a day.  Nolan and I cut back almost completely, the kids still have dairy but more soy and almond milk now too.  The rash has seemed to lessen in frequency on Eva, but I can't honestly say whether it's due to our diet, the things we've tried to treat it, or WHAT.  It's going to be up to the allergist, I suppose.

The kids have been surprisingly receptive to our diet/lifestyle change.  We've made cooking an adventure, especially because there seems to be this huge amount of people who feel like being vegetarian means you eat 'boring foods'.  The kids have tried more curries, soups, dishes from different cuisines in the last month than all our previous months together.

There are other pros too.  Knowing you are getting your daily fruit/vegetable/whole grain intake from your diet and not just a multi vitamin has been awesome.  I would certainly say our energy levels have gone up.  I love seeing us all make more conscientious food choices.  Our daughter is excited to try new things (which she wasn't before), help us cook, and next year- help plan her own school lunch box.  I really want our kids to feel like they are intrinsic to this lifestyle- that they actively take part in helping shape it.

I totally respect people who keep meat in theirs and their kids' diets.  I definitely get that it's not always a bad choice.  But, here at Elegant Mommy, we stress that you should aways make the choices that are best and most natural for your own family.  We've enjoyed doing just that and continuing our adventure.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

Good for you guys! Way to go! :)