Vegan Forum

Since I am a father now I am quite interested in this subject.
Is there anybody with grown up children that can share his experience?

Hey Andy, I still don't have any children but it is a subject that interests me also!

I urge you to be careful (I am sure you are ). There have been some cases on the TV of parents feeding their children a dairy-free diet, and getting it wrong the child's growth can be stunted, and they can have problems with their bones and teeth due to lack of calcium.

However, there are some successful vegan parents around too The Vegan Society now have a detailed section on child nutrition, and they publish a book on infant nutrition:
http://www.vegansociety.com/Lifestyle-A ... nting.aspx

'Change 4 Life' is a general parenting site set up by the UK National Health Service, with lots of information on health and nutrition.
http://www.nhs.uk/Change4Life/Pages/Def ... 4wodJjsMog

Finally, 'Vegan Lunch Box' and Schmooed Food' are blogs by a Vegan Mum. She also publishes a book. Her recipes are aimed at school-age children (and I can recommend them for taking to work!). You might be able to contact her for advice via her blog?
http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/
http://shmooedfood.blogspot.com/

Hi Becka, thank you for your advices.
I was more interested in early child development - in the sense of methods of stimulating physical and mental development of newborn children like baby yoga. I have read a book by the founder of Sony corporation about early child development, that's why I started the topic.

I have created a new topic about growing vegan children, where your advices would be more appropriate.

Sorry for the misunderstanding

I have never heard of baby yoga! Most of the exercises I know are aimed at getting the mother back in shape! Has your wife/girlfriend tried Pram Aerobics? It looks like fun

I do know that a lot of people used to take their babies swimming, and some swimming pools run a baby class. Apparently babies like water, and swimming is good to build coordination

Swimming pools that run a baby class.. I doubt we have something like this here.
I am just curious if there are any age restrictions for these classes.

We are bathing Alex in a large bath tube for matures, where he can swim and play like in a swimming pool.
I have also read that it is very good for health and coordination and as I can see it really works. Presently I just keep his head and he swims on his back, he also likes to walk in the water with my support - it's easier for him.
Unfortunately we have missed the first month when his swimming instincts were still fresh, my father gave me an expensive and small plastic bath-tube specially for babies and first month he was just sitting and we were washing him, until my brother opened my eyes that the bath-tube should be large.

We are also dropping the water temperature gradually so he is now bathing in less than 30 degrees C, this way his thermal regulation mechanism is stimulated and he is more resistant to changes in temperature.

Regarding Baby yoga, it is a set of exercises that parents can do together with the baby.

There were quite small babies at the pool when I used to go swimming (in the warm baby pool of course - they feel the cold). I just googled "baby swim" and it seems that babies can go to swimming class from a few weeks old? Of course, it is good for the mother as well as the child: to develop a good support network, exercise her core muscles and get out of the house But it sounds like you are doing OK and Alex is having fun

Aw, your poor father! The advice for families changes so much... My mother is always getting into trouble for giving people advice that is out of date like drinking Guinness Maybe when we are older, all the methods we use now will be strange and out of date too...