It's been a while since I shared a detailed post about what Arlo eats.
In fact, my last post was when he was around nine months, and eating
mostly puffs and purées! Things have changed a lot since then. As
mentioned in his 15 month update, shortly after his one year birthday,
we switched him to a fully plant based diet. I did a lot of research on
toddler nutrition before we made this change, especially in the
non-dairy milk department. It is also worth mentioning for any new
readers that I have been vegan for eight years now, and have formal
training both as a nurse and a cooking and nutrition instructor for The
Cancer Project, a non-profit organization that focuses on educating the public about a
plant-based diet. So this wasn't something that I just made up as went
along, and not something that I take lightly either. That being said -
if you are thinking of starting your child on a plant based diet I
highly encourage you to do a lot of research on your child's nutritional
needs, as well as consult with your pediatrician. Ok, disclaimer out of
the way - onto the good stuff!
Our
mornings usually begin around 6:45am when Arlo wakes up, and by 7:00am
or so we are downstairs in the kitchen to get breakfast started. This
is the one meal that doesn't tend to vary too much, and he usually eats
the same thing every morning without complaint. He always gets fruit -
usually 1/2 banana, mixed organic berries (whatever looks good that week
at the store), and 1/2 a kiwi or clementine. In addition to that, I
make a special dish of oatmeal just for him, which consists of quick
oats (from the bulk bin at Whole Foods), cinnamon, nut butter (usually sunflower or
almond), flax oil (about a teaspoon), and just a touch of maple syrup to
give it a little sweetness. Sometimes I also add in raisins or
blueberries. Up until recently, I was spoon and fork feeding him
everything, although he has been practicing with utensils at school
since he started there. Recently, he got a hold of the fork I was using
to feed him his dinner, and started using it all on his own! I didn't
think he was ready quite yet, and suspected we would end up with quite the mess, but he actually does a decent job at stabbing his
food with the fork and bringing it to his mouth. The spoon is a little
more challenging but he is starting to get the hang of it.
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| Arlo's
oats - I just put everything in a small glass bowl, add some hot water
from the kettle, mix and let sit for 3-4 minutes, and it's ready to
eat! If it is too hot, I add in a few frozen blueberries which makes it
the perfect temp. |
I have
tried offering Arlo milk with his meals, but he actually much prefers
water. So he gets a bottle or sippy cup of milk mid-morning between
breakfast and lunch, a smoothie with his mid-afternoon snack, and a
bottle before bed. Overall he typically takes in 16-18 ounces of milk
per day.
Depending
on the day and how hungry he is, Arlo will sometimes get a mid-morning
snack around the time of his milk. Today I gave him Organic O's (Whole
Foods version of Cheerios) in his snack catcher while we were out for
our morning walk. I should also mention that 95% of what Arlo eats is
organic. The pesticides in our food supply are not good for
any of us, but are especially important to avoid in growing children.
We always choose organic whenever possible, and depending on the food
will sometimes not even buy unless an organic version is available.
We
usually eat lunch between 11:30am and noon, and Arlo goes down for his
nap shortly after. This is the schedule they follow at school, and it
works great for us at home as well. Arlo's lunches, as are mine, are
typically leftovers from the previous nights dinner. Today Arlo had
green peas and baked tofu, raw carrot sticks, and seed crackers with hummus. He
will usually also get fruit or raisins for dessert. I always wait until he is done with his main meal before giving him dessert, otherwise he will fill up on fruit and leave the other stuff on his plate. He is a fruit monster, it is definitely his favorite food right now.
After
his nap, sometime between 2 and 3pm, it's snack time. When it is not a
school day and we are at home, I always make him a smoothie. I make it a little
differently each day, but the basics are usually his milk mixture, banana,
frozen berries, hemp or flax oil, and nuts or a nut butter. Today I
used banana, milk, blueberries, hemp oil, and walnuts. I also gave him a
few graham crackers. Other afternoon snacks might include cereal,
raisins, carrot sticks, non-dairy yogurt, fig bars, pretzels, or fresh
fruit like orange wedges, apple slices, or quartered grapes.
Oh,
and a word on his non-dairy milk mixture. Arlo drinks a blend of hemp,
oat, soy, and flax milks, combined in equal portions. Together, they
provide good amounts of fat, calcium, protein, and calories. Every few
days I mix up a big glass pitcher of his milks so it's ready to go when I
need to make a smoothie or bottle and I don't have to get out all four
milk cartons.
 |
| all of his
milks are "unsweetened" as Arlo gets plenty of natural sugars from all
the fruits he eats. the oat milk is naturally very sweet without any
added sugar which adds a slight sweetness to the milk mixture. |
Evenings are when things tend to get a
little challenging in our house from a food perspective. Arlo usually
gets hungry around 5pm, which to feed him at that time would require me to start dinner around
4pm if he was going to eat what I was cooking for Erik and I. The problem is, Erik doesn't get home
until 6pm or after, so I usually end up serving dinner twice. Today, as I often have been recently, I opted to make Arlo his own dish,
and fed him his meal around 5:15. Erik and I ate together when he
got home from work, and I gave Arlo a few bites of my food while we
were eating, even though he had already finished his and been cleaned up long before we sat down to eat. Today, Arlo had mashed avocado on whole grain flax bread, corn,
berries, and a bowl of leftover lentils I made the previous day. I
often make a super simple pot of red lentils, spinach, and some Earth
Balance or olive oil for healthy fats. I also add a tiny pinch of salt
for flavor. Arlo loves this dish and it will keep in the fridge for
several days. I am hoping that after we move closer to Erik's new job we can return to eating together as a family, but for now this is my temporary solution to keep everyone fed and happy.
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| lentil dish. this one also had quinoa, millet, and butternut squash. |
And just in case you were curious as to what Erik and I had...
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| Cuban black beans with onion, bell peppers, corn and tomato. side of brown rice with avocado, cilantro, radish, and lime. yum! |
And
to answer a question that I am prepared to do many times in the coming
years when people learn that Arlo is being raised on a plant-based diet:
"Your kid is a vegan?! But where does he get his..."
Protein:
nut butters, beans, lentils, quinoa, tofu and tempeh (eaten a few
times per month), soy milk, non-dairy yogurts, flax milk which is
fortified with pea protein, and the oat milk and hemp milk that he
drinks have small amounts as well (4g and 2g respectively per serving.)
iron: leafy greens, beans, tofu, lentils, and quinoa.
calcium: calcium-fortified non-dairy milks, broccoli and leafy greens, beans, and tahini.
fat: avocado, hemp oil, flax oil, nut butters, flax seed, tahini, tofu, and tempeh.
vitamin B12: nutritional yeast and fortified non-dairy milks.
*
please note that lots and lots of foods have small amounts of protein,
fat, and iron. Take broccoli and sunflower seeds for example. You
might not think of them necessarily as a good source of iron or protein,
but broccoli has 4 grams of protein and 1.1 mg of iron per cup!
Sunflower seeds have 3.3 grams of protein and 1.2 mg of iron per 1/4
cup. These foods might not get you to your recommended daily allowance
on their own, but those little bits here and there add up throughout the
day.
And lastly, some of our favorite food-related products, many are seen in the photos above:
Pura Kiki stainless steel cups: In my quest to eliminate all plastic from Arlo's life, I bought
these sippy cups a few months ago. These were the only 100% plastic-free cups I could find, as the vessel is stainless steel and the spout is pure silicone. Overall, I do like these cups. They come with regular bottle nipples for a younger baby, and you can also purchase a silicone straw top instead of the sippy spouts. Arlo took to these right away, and we often use them in place of his bottles. The downsides - they are not the easiest to clean, they are insanely expensive (the three bottles, silicone sleeves, and sippy spouts and shipping cost somewhere between $60-70. ouch.) As well if they sustain a fall from a high chair or table, they dent pretty easily. Probably not something I would buy more of, but we do get a lot of use out of the few that we have. I eventually realized that a completely plastic-free existence is not only expensive but stressful as well, so I relaxed my no-plastic rules and bought these:
Re-Play Plates: Another mom blogger I follow recommended
these, and my local evil big box store carries them (for less than $5 a pack) so I decided to give them a try. We love them. Easy to clean, super durable, and fun colors too. I like that the food can sit in divided compartments, and I think Arlo likes that too.
OXO roll-up bib: Love, love, love
this bib. We have another pocket-style bib that we used for many months before I discovered these. The problem with it is that the whole thing is rigid rubber, which seems uncomfortable for Arlo and has even pinched his neck a couple of times. These OXO bibs are awesome - soft up top but have a sturdy pocket to catch dropped food. Easy to clean, waterproof, and they roll up compactly for travel. I bought two and haven't used another bib since.
snack catcher:
nothing too fancy here, just a little non-spill snack
container that
Arlo can use to feed himself his Organic O's, raisins, pretzels, and
other small snacky foods. We started using this when he was around 10
months old, but it took him a while to realize it wasn't some game I was
providing him with, and that the goal wasn't to pull out giant fistfuls
of food to then feed to the dog.
silicone placement:
I don't know the brand, but I recently found an inexpensive 100%
silicone placemat at Target for around $4. It is perfect for eating
out at restaurants, folds up small, and is easy to clean. I love that it keeps his food off the restaurant table, as well as makes cleaning up the mess easier for us.
So there you have it, everything our little foodie baby is up to at 16 months old! And a couple more of my favorite meal time photos...
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| cheese-ball face |
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| the face of a little guy who just drank his smoothie out of a regular cup. |
