Going raw while breastfeeding, and raising raw children

You are breastfeeding a baby or toddler, and want to transition to a raw diet? Wondering, it this is possible, and safe for your child? Will your breastmilk become somehow contaminated, oder will it become less? Would it be better to wait until your child will be weaned?
What is the way to transition to raw while breastfeeding? Is it possible, and safe, to feed your child with raw food only, right from the beginning?

As people keep asking questions like these, i decided to share my experiences with all this in this article today.

Me, i transitioned during the breastfeeding period with my daughter, my second child, about 12.5 years ago. She was aged 18 months at that time, but still 100% breastfed … although offered other food, she was not interested in eating anything else except of sucking small pieces of fruit every now and then. If you are breastfeeding on your child’s demand – as it should be -, and are happy to go on doing this, you should know that this can take several years! My daughter only finally weaned herself around her 7th birthday. For the first 2.5 years of her life, breastmilk was the essential part of her diet, later other food got more and more important.
So, waiting for your child to be weaned, especially if you plan to have more children, can take a while. Do you really want to wait for years with what you decided to be the best for you, your body, your health?!?

For us, the reason for me transitioning my diet actually was the illness of my daughter. She was suffering from really bad eczemas, starting when she was 4 or 5 months old and getting worse until she had eczemas all over her body before she even was one year old. Itchy, sore, aching … she never was able to sleep more than one hour (me neither, consequently).
I was pretty sure this kind of illness was connected to diet, and so it must have been my diet – cooked vegetarian until this all started, than trying vegan to cut out milk and eggs due to their allergic potential (which did not help at all). So i transitioned to raw vegan – which was the solution! Her skin healed, she could sleep again, and above all, she finally learned to laugh again.

So in our situation, the question was not, if i should transition. But only, how to do it best. Having learned so much from this situation, i really feel like recommending to transition if you feel it is best for you, even while breastfeeding. It was so good for both of us, nothing but benefits. Both, that time, and the years to follow.

So how is the best way to transition to raw while breastfeeding?

As i, too, was worrying about detoxification of my body and the possibility to do even more harm to my daughter’s body, this is what i did:

– First, i transitioned over a period of three or four weeks. Breakfast first, and only fruit or dried fruit as snacks. Then lunch, and finally dinner.
– During the first months i ate healing clay. Stirred with water until creamy, i took a teaspoon of it every morning and evening. Healing clay absorbs toxics and helps the body to eliminate via bowels. I went on eating the clay as long as it tasted well. My daughter too liked the clay and loved to eat it.

Side effects of all this for me:
– the more i ate raw, the less i wanted to have cooked food. I had no problem at all to finally stop eating it, and i never again craved anything cooked during the last 12.5 years.
– i felt that amazing – i knew, this diet was for me, and i would stick with it. Luckily, it also brought healing for my daughter.

Detoxification of my body and my daughter’s

Me, i lost about 10kg weight during the first three months (which was not intended, i was quite thin before and got very skinny) – that was it. (Their came more periods of detox later, but not in the beginning).
My daughter lost 1kg in the same time – which, of course, is quite a lot for a small person with a weight of only 10kg or so. But at the same time, she was so much better – healthier, happier, learning and laughing, that i did not worry about that. And very soon, she started to gain weight again.
Btw: now, that we finally had TRUE FOOD she slowly started to eat 🙂

Losing weight when transitioning to raw is a kind of detoxification, too. Your body is getting rid of what is not build optimally, and then building up itself again. I don’t believe that you would lose that much weight that you’d get any problems, or having less milk. But if you should worry about this: the weight loss does not happen in one day. In case you want to stop it, you can always eat some cooked vegetables or rice in between or so to slow down the detox.

I strongly recommend to not eat only sweet fruit when starting a raw diet, especially when breastfeeding. Always eat enough greens (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, kale, herbs, wild herbs, seaweed). Non-sweet fruit like zucchini and cucumber, and vegetables, too. Make sure you get enough fatty fruit, and some nuts and seeds – but don’t combine them with sweet fruit in one meal.
Always eat enough to be satisfied. Follow your body’s demands, not any conventions about mealtimes.
Listen to your body, and provide a wide variety of different fruit and vegetables to find out what you like and what makes you feel good.

Following a natural diet, you don’t need to feed your child, to teach them to eat solid food. They will see what you eat and they will let you know if and what they want to try. Provided with a variety of natural, unprocessed food, a child will choose what it needs. Our body knows perfectly well what it needs … and small children, as long as you don’t train it away, are perfectly capable of listening to their body’s signs and needs.

Furthermore, no matter how your diet, your child will always learn from you! Getting used to cooked food from the beginning, it will be difficult for them to go back (cooked food really is addictive!). It’s much easier to start with a healthy raw vegan diet.
You will probably see that your child will not be permanently ill (like so many other children). And if getting ill, it will be well again in only one or two days.

Of course, they will want to try out what they will see in the world later. Taste other things. But knowing this feeling of being healthy will give them the chance to experience the effects of cooked food on their body, and they can make their own choices based on this.

If you have any further questions, please leave a comment, or send me a message. Same, if you need personal coaching for your transition or your raw life with children.