New here, with many...many questions!

[Kay]

Hi everyone ~ I just came upon your site this morning & it looks really great! Here's a brief intro ~ I'm Kay, 28, and proud mama to a 9 month old girl. I've been vegan for 4 years. I have exclusively breastfed our daughter, and she is now beginning to eat solids with gusto!

My question is about those tricky little areas like EFA's, VitB12, etc. I take flaxseed oil daily, but only recently came upon an article that spoke of DHA & it's importance for neurological development in infants. To tell you the plain truth, I feel AWFUL!!! I feel like I've stunted my poor little girl, as I have taken no supplemental DHA at all... ever. We're having a bit of trouble locating a veg. source of DHA, and I'm wondering if anyone has a good recommendation.

Also, B12... I use nutritional yeast in my diet, as well as eating tempeh & tofu occasionally. Mostly we tend to eat TVP, and I don't think that has any B12. Am I doing enough? I guess I've never tended to take a whole load of vitamins, preferring to try to get all I can through diet instead. I have also begun to add 1/2 tsp of nutritional yeast per day to Tessa's diet. I'm not really sure if this is enough, but I don't want to overdo it either.

I have also begun to add 1 tsp flaxseed meal to her food daily. I have it ground & stored in the freezer.

Obviously I feel like I missed the boat on the DHA thing, and now I'm questioning everything that I'm doing. DH (who is Lacto-Ovo) is now starting to talk about the benefits of eating FISH...aaaaaaaaaaccckkk!

I'd really appreciate any feedback you can give.

Thanks for taking the time to read this ~ Kay

[Erin Pavlina]

I pretty much detest nutritional yeast, so I rely on fortified beverages for my B12. We drink rice milk around here and we get the enriched kind. My daughter, Emily, loves rice milk so I know she is getting plenty of B12 (plus D and calcium too).

We also take Kid Bear Vitamins upon occasion, when I feel that I may not be getting enough from food. You can get a free sample of these vitamins by going to:
http://www.vegfamily.com/product-reviews/index.htm

DHA... you're in luck! I know of a vegan DHA source. Read my review of this product.
http://www.vegfamily.com/product-reviews/omega-zen-dha-vitamins.htm

Besides flaxseeds, other foods provide Omega-3s, such as walnuts, canola oil, hempseed oil, and avocado. We give Emily soy flax waffles from Van's. They have 1200 mg of flax (or is it Omega-3s?) per serving. I think it's a more palatable way of getting flax into Emily. We also put flax oil in her smoothies sometimes.

Also, I too was worried that I stunted Emily's growth as an infant because I didn't know about DHA and Omega-3s back then. But she's fine. :)

[frenchie]

Try veganstore.com......Pangea has a vegan B12 supplement and vegan multi-vitamins as well. I get my B12 from enriched foods like cereal, soy milk, bread and other soy products. I put flax oil in my smoothies and eat hemp and granola cereal. The flax waffles that Erin mentioned are great as well.

[Kay]

I appreciate your replies... sorry it took me awhile to respond. I've looked into ordering some vegan DHA, and have also added a b12 supplement to my diet. Thanks again!

Kay