Hi, my husband and I have been looking into raw food. We did almost completely raw for 2 weeks and I did not want to stop, however, we ran into a few problems. I was already experiencing benefits, but at the same time I began losing a lot of hair (not noticeable on my head but on my pillow and in the shower) which only happened to me in the past when I was pregnant. Also, I struggled with feeding my children. I found eat hard to prepare separate things for them or to make the raw food edible for my 17 month old who can't chew a lot of raw vegetables or nuts. Also, it was hard to prepare food they would enjoy. My six year old was not extremely excited about eating so much salad even though she generally likes it, but even more she disliked the fun pates and blended soups I tried making for variety. I feel worse now that I have gone back to eating cooked, but the challenges along with keeping up with sprouting are hard. Does anyone have any advice?

Eat more fruit. Children love fruit, and for a 17 month old you can blend or puree the fruit in a blender or food processor.

Myself, I eat mostly fruits and lots of salad, but most of the calories come fruit fruit, as lettuce, cucumbers, celery, and tomatoes don't have that many calories.

I agree. Fruit should be your primary source of calories/fuel and eat plenty of greens.

You don't need to eat sprouts if you don't want to. I don't.

Thank you everybody for answering. I'm still confused about what constitutes a well balanced diet for a child. I laughed to my husband about your responses because it sounds so funny "just feed them fruit". I'm still struggling with the idea that the main part of each meal is fruits and vegetables. I'm doing better though, and I made a great all raw breakfast and lunch today that everybody loved. The family really enjoyed having breakfast revolve around the fruit, and i've been learning how to change the form of the salads to make variety for everybody, like lettuce wraps and cauliflower mash. I also made a great sprouted hummus. It's good to think the sprouts are not necessary but I also like them for variety.

Hi Annie,

I'm reasonably new to this way of eating as well. I have eaten mainly raw for the past two years but for me heading toward the goal slowly is so much less stressful than trying to embark overnight.

I have three kids, four step kids, a husband who is only home on weekend and I work fulltime and study. So....for me the key has been keeping it simple, particularly where the children are concerned. I did two things that I think made a big difference with the kids. I increased their fruit/vege intake while keeping to the same meals. Ie if we were having chicken/fish, spaghetti bolognaise for example I would still serve that meal but make sure there is a huge salad on the table as well. I increased fruit for morning and afternoon tea as well. This enabled the kids to eat as much salad as they wanted but still have their old favourites too. Then gradually, over the past two years, I've been decreasing what I don't want them to eat. For example they hardly ever have meat now, or if they do it's a good cut of meat and organic and not something like mince or sausages. I've made the transition for them quite slow so they've barely noticed.

The other thing I did which has made a huge difference is cut the amount of junk that I buy. Then there is no choice but fruit, vege sticks, cheese etc for morning or afternoon tea because there isn't chips and biscuits. I think with two small kids in the house you really need to make sure you don't increase your stress levels too much in terms of everyone's diet. Don't forget that your six year old will get invited to parties etc and you want her to be able to go reasonbly stress free. Natalia Rosa's book The Raw Detox Diet has some really good information for feeding kids raw. She says how her kids eat raw most of the time but if they go to a party or something like that she basically lets them eat what they want, and then overtime her kids have started to recognise for themselves that if they eat badly they usually feel sick afterward. A much more powerful lesson for them to learn than us restricting everything they can get their hands on!

My suggestion as a mum of many kids is to take a breather, make a nice cuppa and sit somewhere quiet and work out a plan that works for YOU. I think if you make your goal 100% raw from TODAY it is bound to fail. Just slowly increase fruit and vegies while decreasing chips, biscuits etc. Try to get to a place where life is enjoyable and you don't freak out if Grandma wants to give the kids a chocolate biscuit! It's the journey........not the destination!

My family is very diverse I have a real junk food eater adult, a pescatarian teen a vicious meat eating 11 year old and my older daughter and grand baby who are somewhat flexable. I have every kind of food sitting around my house. I have notices the younger the child is the more open they are to eating uncooked foods. For example the babies screem for more when I feed them one of my green smoothies, The smoothies are usually very simply blended fruits and greens however when I ask the 11 year old meat eater if she wants a green smoothie she refuses the same with my pescatarian teen. They refuse to expand their taste buds beyond. The older people in the house have been trying the green smoothies and juices and because it makes them feel good they want more. I still have to prepare cooked foods for the family and sometimes it is tempting to take a taste and when I do I usually spiral down in my eating goal.
Another thing about going raw is undoing the information we have been told all our lives that we need certain foods to servive. We have been told the milk is for bones yet later in life we have to take a calcium pill because of osteoperous. We are told we need to eat meat for our protien and can't get proper protien from vegi sources. We are told to eat grains because they give un energy. All this is lies but it takes time to realize the extent of the lie and that we do not need these foods to servive.
As for your hair loss, I am not sure why you would have that, I had a time I lost my hair but I was eating cooked foods at the time. I know I feel so much better when I clean up my diet and eat raw foods.
Good luck to you
Pam