Hi dear friends! I am happy to be back today with a new post and this time a personal one. π
In my first post I didn't really introduce myself so I felt I want to to it now. This is me. Niina. A Swedish, Dutch, Finnish girl living with an Afghan and our baby in Austria. π
I'm a vegan mom and my baby is now 19 months old. He has been a vegan since he started to eat.
(Just one question, is mother milk vegan?π).
How Vegan?
You may wonder how is it possible to live as a vegan family. So I will tell you how we do it.
Actually there are no secrets or great tips or something like that. Just skip the dairy products. And meat. And fish. And eggs. Not very complicated if you are familiar with a healthy lifestyle.
We have had a very natural way of introducing our child to food, we have used a method called baby led weaning, that means the baby can decide for it self what to put in his/her mouth.
We didn't start with puree or juice or anything like that.
We waited until he started to show some interest in food and than placed a few pieces of cooked or raw vegetables or fruits in front of him, which he could try out if he wanted to. We didn't expect him to EAT.
I did this along with breastfeeding. My son was about 12 months when he started to eat and swallow some of the food he was interesting in. Mainly avocado and sauerkraut. Some weeks later he started to eat more and on this way it went.
I have always felt it is very natural to continue with breastfeeding as long as I feel comfortably with it and my baby shows that he needs it. That's why I am still breastfeeding now with 19 months and I am sure we will continue for a quite while.
**WHAT we eat as a vegan family **
fruits
vegetables and greens
berries
legumes
nuts
seeds
virgin oils
99% organic
WHAT we don't eat
meat
fish
dairy products
eggs
almost no soy products
refined sugar
almost no gluten
industry processed food
GMO products
I spend a lot of time with preparing food, cooking, baking and eating. This has become one of my biggest passions in life and I am so excited where it will lead. This is what I aim for and I want to make my passion to a full time job.
I can officially say I am a food blogger!π
I have always been very interested in healthy food, in raw food, superfood, the nutritions facts and what impact food has to our body.
This has been my biggest interest since I was a teenie and it has grown tremendously since I become pregnant and I went vegan.
Vegan
The first time I went vegan was when I was 15 years old, without any knowledge at all about what my body needed. But I had (and have still) a great willpower.
I can't say I had a healthy lifestyle back then because I was mainly eating to much, a lot of bread, refined sugar and way to little greens and nuts. My body didn't get the nutritions it needed.
If you want to start a vegan lifestyle, be sure to inform yourself about what your body needs and what you need to eat each day to get all the nutritions including vitamins that your body asks for.
I have learned a lot since then and now I am a very happy vegan with (almost) endlessly energy. I am sleeping way to little but I rarely feel tired. Of course there are more reasons for that than only healthy energizing food intake. But food is one important reason.
Some more reasons for my high energy level
- I am happy with the choices I make
- I do what I love
- my way of thinking is based of the belive that I live in a friendly loving world.
- I have found my passion
- I eat when I am hungry and so don't overeat
- I learn out of curiosity and not out of pressure
The end
I hope you have enjoyed reading my article. Now you know me a little more. And there is more to come!
If you have some questions or want to correct my English, feel free to do so!ππ I happily read and answer your feedback!π
Love you allπ
Your Niina
I'm so happy that you are here and you are such an inspiration for me <3. I love you and your family. You actually gave me some energy now on a bad day and inspired me to look forward to a new tomorrow. Keep on going love. I see a bright future for you here <3
I am happy I could light up your day a little my dear friend. Love you so much and I am looking forward to see you soon again in Sweden. I hope you can sleep good tonight and that tomorrow will be a better day for you Nicole.πHugs and kisses!
Hi, great to have some more vegan foodies over here! Welcome! :)
Thanks a lot Emily my dear! Happy to be here!
Beautiful. Such a lovely post, as a Vegan dad of 3 hearing these storys warms my heart. Your story is similar to a girl I know here in Ireland called Vegan mammy.
Continued success to you @vegan.niinja keep up the great work.
Thank you so much my dear friend. This means so much to me!πYou are awesome!
Ah, you'll make me blush now!
ππππ
One thing that inspires me most about Niina is that with all her success, her intelligence, her tenacity she is still a student. I love and admire her soul and energy immensely.
Wow thanks my dear! This is just so sweet and I feel very grateful knowing you and sharing everything with you.π
Hey Niina πββοΈ Welcome to Steemit, so nice to have another awesome vegan food blogger here!
I had a look at your blog and I love it, I immediately subscribed, I am excited to see which recipes you will share next! I started my food blog a few months ago and it has been great so far. π
Have a great day! βοΈ
Thanks a million for your sweet welcome! I am happy to find likeminded people here like you!ππ
I really like the way you wrote & organized this introduce yourself article! I think its one of the best I've read here so far! :) This method of raising a child seems very natural for me. I would love to try that when I'll have my own children one day. Thanks for sharing it!
Oh thanks a lot my dear Ken! That is so great we think in a similar way on this topic. I am sure you will be a very cool and great father one day!π
Welcome to Steemit vegan.niinja. Let me know if you got any questions about Steem/Steemit. The official FAQ can be found here and is quite extensive https://steemit.com/faq.html - Also, Steemit is just one of the sites using Steem the blockchain. We also have Dtube, Dsound and Steepshot if you prefer videos,music or pictures instead of blogging content. And many more of course!
Thank you so much Janne! Happy to be here on steemit!
Welcome to Steemit @vegan.niinja. Looks like you are giving your baby a great start in life.
I have been vegan over 18 months now. Possibly the best decision of my life.
Happy you made the decision to go vegan! For me it was also the best decision I have made. Feeling so good and balanced since I changed my diet to a plantbased one. Thank you for your feedback my dear. Happy getting to know you here!
so happy i got to know you better niina!! iβll introduce myself too in my next few post π
I am looking forward to read more about you darling!! Happy you are on steemit dear Emily!
Thanks for sharing and welcome to the platform, nice to ready more about you and your family. yay for vegan baby !
Haha thank you my dear vegan fellow ! Hapoy you likes it!πHappy weekend dear!
Hi! I know you from Instagram :) I am also vegan mom and we eat like you. And I'm still breastfeeding π
Wow great to hear! Happy that you also joined steemit my dear ππ
Great to have you here on steemit @vegan.niinja, really happy to hear you are following your heart when it comes to breastfeeding, it's the best start you can give your son. following you now x
Thanks a lot for your kind words my dear. I am happy to share my experience and how I do breastfeeding. Will check your page now darling! Thanks a million ππ
Amazing post! So nice to read such nice examples of other vegan moms :)
I have a post on the top of my wall about how I introduce first foods to my baby. I'm a little confused and would really appreciate your advice!
And some more additional questions I got today
Oh thank you sweetheart for reading! I hope I can answer you questions, I can only speak from my own experience, so I hope that will help!
So, you are hungry all the time since your baby's birth I suppose? Yea that is totally normal, and you should really eat a lot! When your body is hungry, feed it. Eat many meals during the day, you can eat as much as you like/need. Try to avoid all refined sugar, processed oils, gluten and snacks as chips and candy.
I was hungry all the time until my baby started to eat a little and I didn't need to breastfeed him every hour.
When you include much carbs from wholefoods you will feel satisfied for a bit longer. Oatmeal, legumes, potatoes, nature rice (not white rice!), pasta from legumes, nuts, and so on.
How old is you baby?
If your baby is older than 6 months you can place some veggie sticks (cooked or raw), avocado, fruits, berries or cooked potatoes in front of him when you all are eating, and he can pick something he likes. He wants to try everything so you can offer him healthy options.
He gets enough from your milk, don't worry. He just want to try and that's fine. He will perhaps eat some of the food, and others not. It's totally ok. If he eats some days and others day not, that's also ok.
My son started to put all kind of food in his mouth when he started to show interest with 6-7 months, but he didn't really start to eat before he was about 14 months. He is now 22 months and I am still breastfeeding him. He eats sometimes a lot and sometimes nothing or just a bite. I trust that he gets what he needs, I have never tried to feed him. He has always choosen the food he likes (from the healthy options we offer him).
I will read your post about this topic too! Thank you!π
You can ask me anything sweetheart, I am just happy when I can share my experiences!π
thank you, that's so sweet of you!
actually my appetite increased drastically in the last 1-2 months only, probably as the breastmilk started to get fatter.
My baby is 6 months and 1-week old now!
So you put holdable pieces of different fruits and veggies in front of him. How many types at once? Should he have a big choice or a small choice? Or is it maybe better to give him 1 at a time, then let finish, then give the next?
And what about porridges? He cannot really grab porridge with his hand, or can he? Or is it better to maybe make exception and feed with spoon (with him showing intrest in eating that, of course)?
What about legumes and tofu? Is it better to start from 7 months with it (like I've read in many places)? So how do you present legumes to him in a form that he can feed himself on?
Do I need to add some source of vitamin C like lemon juice into porridges or legumes to boost iron absorption (I hear a lot that iron stores of any 6-month-old breastfed baby are low).
Thank you again for finding time to answer my questions, I really need some kind of vegan mommy mentor! :))
It's amazing that you're still breasfeeding, I'm also going to do that for as long as baby wants, hopefully till about 2 years and more!
What if my baby wants to eat a lot of solids thus reducing breasfeeding a lot? Shoud I not restrict the amout of real food he wants to eat at all?
Hi dear! Sorry for my late answer! I have been busy;)
So if you are breastfeeding and want to continue with it, you actually dont need to give your baby porridge. You can always offer him a spoon when you are eating and soon he will try to take the food with the spoon (or a fork). When you see that he is ready, you can offer him a little porridge. We started giving our baby porridge (for him to eat alone with his own spoon) after he was 1 year, because before that he would just try to put food on his spoon, but was not very interested in eating it. Your baby tells you what he wants, so just look what he is doing.
Your baby really gets everything he needs from your milk, so dont worry that he gets to little from the food. Right now he just wants to try out by him self and eat what he likes.
Let your baby decide how much he wants to eat and breastfeed. Perhaps he is more interested in food that in your milk, thats totally fine as well. You dont need to limit his food for him to continue breastfeeding. Not all babies are that interested in mommys milk, while other babys only want milk and no food until they reach 2 years. ;)
If he really wants to eat much,that you can offer him for example 2 different pieces of fruits/streamed veggies, or some from the food you eat. Cooked nature rice to pick with the fingers, legume pasta, avocado pieces, mashed chickpeas, crossed nuts.
I am use you both will find a way thats works!
Make it easy for you, no pressure, life with a baby is tough enough!;)
Give him rather a small choice of food, not to much, but also not only one thing, because the point is that he can choose what he wants from the valible options.
Much love!!!