Every carton of soy milk I've ever bought has had a "Not to be used as infant formula" notice on it.

I don't think this really has to do with being vegan, more with just being stupid. There are PLENTY of vegan babies. Usually breastfed. There aren't any vegan formulas, but generally, the only problem ingredient is Vitamin D, and I would assume that if, for some reason, the mother couldn't breast feed, she'd either figure the almost-vegan formula was good enough, or find some way to get breast milk from a milk bank. (Also, the Vitamin D is derived from wool, so it's not even like the animal has to be killed to get it.)

As for the "is cheese vegetarian?" question, it's a little complicated. Rennet, which is the stuff that makes the milk congeal into cheese, is often derived from animal sources -- an enzyme from inside the cow's stomach. There are some cheeses that are made with a vegetable rennet. (I've been trying, not too successfully, to only use vegetable rennet cheeses. Cheddar is easy -- Tillamook and Cabot are both vegetarian, and their packages say so. Other kinds of cheese, there are lists available of which are vegetarian, but I have yet to find a mozzerella that actually lists it on the package, and I can never remember which are OK when I'm at the store.)

The vegetarian parents I knew fed their kids meat. They figured it was a decision the kids could make for themselves later on. I dunno if they were health-reasons vegetarians or animal-rights-reasons vegetarians, though.

Unless the father of my future kids has serious objections, I'm probably going to raise my kids vegetarian. (Maybe vegan, depending on where my own diet is at that point.)

The vegetarian parents I knew fed their kids meat. They figured it was a decision the kids could make for themselves later on.

One of the instructors at krav has only eaten meat once, and it was because someone (knowingly, the bastards) fed her some bacon, I think. Even though she thinks, for instance, that pork smells great, she's hesitant about going through the uncomfortable process of acclimating. Her parents went vegetarian before all their kids were born.

She's off to university in a few months. That will put different stresses on her diet.

Obviously people can live their whole lives vegetarian -- Hindus aren't supposed to eat meat, right? That's a lot of people, even given the range of adherence to religious dietary laws in the real world.

I actually had a great mixed-group dining experience out of town with friends recently. At least one person in the group is vegetarian, and our meals were a mix of no-meat and two options -- most of us omnivores ate at least some of the veggie options, because they were delish!

Did dcp break the board, or was that me?

'Twas I.

What I meant to post was:

I thought a dog already went to space.

Laika

Oh, and my real point in my earlier post was that I don't see any real reason for parents to feed their kids meat if they're vegetarians.

So what does a 4 year old ask when he finds out I met astronauts? Do astronauts FART? cue screaming giggles.

Farts are purple, by the way.

Child nutrition: the nephew is a human garbage disposal. The boy loves drinking the juice from canned green beans and carrots. Blearg. Well, at least he didn't inherit his mother's lack of adventure when it comes to food. She's strict meat and potatoes (and won't try anything different.) He had alligator and frog legs at his insistence last week. He'd probably love to go to ita's scary seafood place.

I get vegetarianism. I get veganism. I even get trying to raise your kid with the dieatary restrictions you'd prefer. I don't get the urge to forego all cooking or application of heat to your food.

Some foods are good raw. But an entire diet of raw food is strange and alien to me.

Also, would sushi count as raw food? I mean, it's raw, right?