Monday, October 13, 2008

VeganMoFo Day 9 - I'm Vegan and I Breastfeed

I'm going out on a limb here tonight, but I'm tired and I haven't uploaded the photos from tonight's dinner and my homemade applesauce...so I just wanted to share the most stupid question I've ever been asked, more than once. People have asked me if my babies are vegan, and then after I say yes are like, "oh, except for breastmilk". It is one of the most irritating conversations I have to have. Breastmilk is made for human babies, while cows milk is made for baby cows. That is the main reason I don't feed my kids "dairy" products. It just makes sense. Plus, as a vegan, I am constantly trying to minimize my impact on the earth, and here again breastfeeding just makes sense. I promise to be back with some regularly scheduled food posts soon, but I just kept thinking about this and needed to vent, and hey, it is how I feed my vegan babies.

8 comments:

Bex said...

I can see how that could be irritating. I think I could only manage an "are you serious?" answer

Jen Treehugger said...

Der! Some people!

Unknown said...

I just started laughing aloud. I have never put breast milk in the dairy category, per se.

I'm still kind of giggling. And lactating.

Laural Out Loud said...

You're right, that is the most idiotic question/comment I've ever heard! Some people are just too dense.

Karene said...

Sometimes ( I am sorry to say..) it takes your children growing up to finally shut up the naysayers... you know.. the ones that say you nurse them too much, or that they are spoilt because you nurse them on demand OR that your own milk may not nourish them as well as a cows can...I have three very tall (6ft 5 inches) sons, who nursed when they wanted, and grew up to be big strong ,healthy young men. SO I can finally say now...twenty years later "see??? how great they are...and see??? how pale and unhealthy your milk fed ones are???" which is of course just a fantasy because I would never dream of saying that to another person ;-)

Binx said...

a LOT of people think like that. i really don't get it! :)

Kary said...

ugh I can imagine..There are lots of people that think that way....but if you're vegan the breast milk is vegan! =) because it doesn't come from another specie of animal (cow, goat, etc.) and that is what vegans avoid...the other animal species products. It comes from the human mom milk and it is vegan! period! =D

half pint pixie said...

Yup, I hear ya! And I've been told that my almost-2-year old needs "real" milk at her age. Coz breastmilk from a cow is more "real"er than human breastmilk? Argh!