I'm planning to transition my 10 year old daughter to 100% raw (or as close to that as possible). Does anyone have their children all (or mostly) raw? Any suggestions? Any reading materials or websites that might help? She's actually very open to the idea, I just need to learn to make things she'll like and can take w/her for school lunch. I'm a very simple eater...don't need the gourmet raw foods to be happy. Have the good blender, excalibur, juicer, etc., but haven't really been using any of them lately.

She realizes she'll miss some things, but I don't think she realizes just how MUCH she will miss them. I also worry about her feeling 'deprived'. I don't want her to go to friends' homes and pig-out on crappy foods b/c she doesn't get it at home. A little help?

~Amelia
"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what
you're going to do now and do it."
– William C. Durant

These two books are supposed to be very good: One and Two

Also Storm and Jinjee's site has a lot of good tips: The Garden Diet

Oh and the Boutenko family (they have two teenagers) [www.rawfamily.com]



My website: The Coconut Chronicles



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/09/2008 01:01AM by TheCoconutChronicles.

THANK YOU for the quick response :-) I actually had JUST found thegardendiet site after I sent this post. (I love google!) I had found one of the books you suggested too/ I also found one called "Eating Without Heating" by the Boutenko kids-which I already had but couldn't find until tonight when I realized it was called something other than I thought,so I didn't notice it the 100 times I looked on the bookshelves :-p

Anyway, I'm sure I'll let you know how it goes. We'll probably wait until the summer to fully transition her; that gives us plenty of time to experiment and she can 'say goodbye' to her current favorite foods. (I said goodbye to A LOT of chocolate over the xmas holidays before going raw the first of the year! Funny, now, I don't even miss it!!!)

Thanks again!

~Amelia
"Forget past mistakes. Forget failures. Forget everything except what
you're going to do now and do it."
– William C. Durant

Kids need more fat and protein than adults and they don't need as much fiber. I'd give them lots of avocado and nuts and probably supplement with rice protein powder also. And it goes without saying, as much fruit and vegetables as they want. I'd give them juices, too.

On YouTube, there's a video at Juliano's restaurant and he introduces a young woman whose parents were raw since before she was born. She was raised on raw and now worked at the restaurant. Raw is all she's ever known and she's never had a shot of any kind in her life - no inoculations. I thought that was very interesting.

Keith do you have a link for that? I'd love to watch it...



My website: The Coconut Chronicles

Quote

Posted by: TheCoconutChronicles (IP Logged)
Date: March 08, 2008 09:09PM

Keith do you have a link for that? I'd love to watch it...

For you, anything! I found it quickly. The young lady has never been to a doctor or a dentist! Here's the link for you...

[www.youtube.com]

Hi Ahlam,

I transitioned my three kids to a high raw diet last year. They were 1, 5 and 11. The 5 year old was the biggest challenge. Homeschooling was a huge help in doing this. We all five transitioned together. We ate whatever we wanted for one or two meals on the weekend, or whatever day or two we happened to choose. We transitioned very slowly. Our diet had already excluded meat and we had been limiting artificial colors and flavors for years so my kids were used to not being able to eat everything other people eat. Mac-n-cheese was our biggest enemy for the 5 year old and now we can't remember the last time she has brought it up. It has literally been months and months. I think finding new foods and combinations of foods to replace old ones is key. The more raw you are the more you crave raw. For example my kids used to eat a very small amount of salad with their meal and about two months into raw they were gobbling huge bowls of it. My Two year old ate abbout 7 bowls of spiralized zucchini with flax oil one day. You will be shocked at the things they begin to eat. One thing I do now is take some healthy raw snacks or buy non-raw snacks at the health food store for social occasions like parties. We will get wheat and gluten free crackers to have with hummus while other people are eating chips and dip. We also get totally full on raw before we go to a party. I like to get so full that I can't be tempted to eat junk and then I stay away from the food, I won't look at it.

If you have any specific questions I would be glad to answer them if I can. I feel like our diet change has been and is hugely successful. I think our diet is an evolution and we will just keep getting better and better as we go.

i have found the forum on allysa cohens rawfoodtalk.com site about raising raw kids to be helpful. i think you suggested that to me pakd4fun but maybe it was another parent, now i forget!

Thanks for your insight, pakd4fun. I know it is possible, and I also know it isn't going to be easy. Sara was raised to try EVERYTHING, and she does so with a (normally) open mind, so I'm lucky. She even likes the green smoothies and green juices! She's also at an age that she understands when I explain things to her about WHY we should eat this and shouldn't eat that.
I will definitely be calling on you for support and recipes (that's my biggest challenge so far...finding things she'll like enough to replace every day foods.)
We live in AL, near Pensacola, FL-not many raw foodists here. I would love to hear from you; my email address is aleikness@yahoo.com. I tried to send you a private message, but your inbox was full 8-(

ahlam,

Sorry about that, My messages are empty now. You are not far from me, I am in Southwest Louisiana. My oldest was the easiest to transition. She understands the importance of health and is at an age where she is concerned with her skin and appearance. We have friends in Pensacola who just had a baby and we are planning on visiting them this summer. Maybe we can meet up on the way.

You can pm me if you have any questions.

I'm trying to move my daughter onto a high raw diet. She is 2. Previously a meat and potato eater, it has been, and still is, a challenge.
She is a great fruit eater, but won't eat most vegetables. I used to disguise her veggies in quiche and rissoles etc
Now I juice veggies and fruit for her bottle when she has her afternoon sleep (so I can clean her teeth when she wakes!) and she has been having some of my green smoothie - I've made that a bit like a game. We sit outside and we share a glass with 2 straws and it's total focus-on-her time.

My biggest successes so far have been:
1. She has stopped asking for meat for dinner & stopped asking for junk food (last week she ate some of her friend's birthday cake, then put it down and ate a peach instead! I couldn't believe it)
2. She ate steamed cabbage a couple of nights ago!! A lot of it! This is major progress!
3. She ASKED for a green smoothie today and drank half the glass herself.

So we are getting there slowly. The hardest thing is when we are out and she sees what other people are eating. She smelt the sausages at a barbecue last night and there was no way she was going to eat her avocado and tomatoes!

i've been following this thread with interest.

Grayzie