Sharing Food

[turtlepace]

I need some advice about "sharing" food. We are a vegan family. My 2-year old son is, of course, very interested in other people's food. Today, to my horror, he chowed down another kid's Annies Cheddar Cheese snacks!

I'm wondering what others do in these situations. Do you let your child explore different foods that other people have? Or do you tell them that you have a special diet, and that you can't always share other people's food?

Sharing food is such a beautiful act of community. I really don't like the idea of telling him not to do it. However, I'd rather know that what he's putting in his body is healthy, vegan and organic.

Any thoughts would be appreciated!

[vegma]

I taught my son very early that different families eat differently ... and this is what we eat. I'm lucky that he was very accepting of that before he was old enough to really understand. Now, at not quite six, he is very adamant about not eating animals or dairy. In fact, he even tells me he wouldn't eat it if it wasn't organic!

[Erin Pavlina]

I've told my daughter, currently 5.5 years old, that it's not a good idea to share food with the other kids at school since she doesn't know if one of them has an allergy to something in her lunch.

In preschool the kids were not allowed to share food at all. Now, in Kindergarten, there is less supervision during lunch so I've been reinforcing the idea since she sees kids sharing food from their lunches a lot.