Raw Pregnancy and Raising Raw Children

Now, don't get excited - I'm not pregnant or having a child anytime soon ;) I just watched a wonderful little YouTube video today of Summer Kolesar speaking with Paul Nison about raising raw children and got inspired... You can see that video HERE. Summer is a beautiful soul si*star* who I had the pleasure to meet when I spoke in Asheville in 2007. If I recall correctly, she was raised ‘semi–wild’ in Canada, foraging the bounties of nature and she is still a wonderful wild–food gatherer to this day, plus all–round gorgeous raw goddess and mother ;)

As you may recall, the current RawReform Giveaway Contest is also about raising children raw (you can see the details for the giveaway HERE to win a signed copy of Shazzie’s latest book, Evie’s Kitchen). We have wonderful suggestions flowing in daily by email about how to best help children eat healthier food...
SO, with all this wonderful info buzzing around, I felt inspired to compile a list of useful resources for those interested in raising children raw. This is actually smthg people ask me about often, although I am not (yet ;) a mother, so I thought it would be helpful to collect all these fabulous resources together in one place, for all to enjoy ;)
(FYI - I also just posted this info to the main RawReform site in the articles section HERE, in case you'd like to refer to it without the food logs etc in the middle ;)

Here we go:

Websites

*http://www.thegardendiet.com – beautiful Jinjee is raw mum ext–raw–dinaire to at least five little ones – she has masses of info, pics, ebooks, magazines, audios, videos and more to share on pregnancy, ecstatic birth, child–raising and more...

*http://www.rawmom.com – fabulous site that is home (among other things) to a blog where different raw mums from around the world write weekly, sharing guidance.

*http://rawtoddleralex.blogspot.com – blog from yummy–mummy Melissa Gilbert who has been raising her son Alex raw and tracking his progress online since birth. She has two wonderful raw recipe books for baby/toddler foods. Melissa also has her own blog at http://rawmom.blogspot.com.

*http://pullingdaisies.blogspot.com – sweet Annelise’s blog following a raw pregnancy, birth and child raising.

*http://www.karenranzi.com – Karen has been teaching about raising ‘Super Healthy Children’ for a decade. She has classes, a book and a great list of links at her site.

*http://www.brigittemars.com – Brigitte Mars is a herbalist, mother, raw foodie and all round shining light ;) She is mother to the gorgeous Rainbeau Mars, who is also a raw yogini mama – see http://www.rainbeaumars.com.


on Jan the 10th I had:

1 quart water
little mug of spicy tea
1.5 cups veggie juice: celery, turnip, kale, local greeeeeeens, Jerusalem artichoke, purple cabbage, fennel, endive, ginger, lime
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by three little yumpots of durian ice cream = YUMMM :)
3 cups water
double shot of wheatgrass
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by a little bowl of blended sweet yum: carob powder, lucuma powder, maca, cinnamon, vanilla powders, with gojis and water
little cup rooibus tea
3 cups water



Articles/Videos/Magazines

*‘Raw Vegan Children’ article by Shazzie

*‘Raising Raw Children’ article by Matt Monarch

*‘Raw Parenting’ interview with Shazzie on Natural News

*Revvel interviews Jinjee Talifero

*Revell interviews Shazzie

*Summer Kolesar on YouTube

*Juno Magazine – all about natural parenting, raw foodie Kate Magic has contributed a great deal to this magazine.

*Pear Magazine – this an online raw food magazine, which often has articles about raw children or written by raw parents.


Books/DVDs

*Evie’s Kitchen by Shazzie

*Birth As We Know It (one of the best DVDs I’ve ever seen)

*The ‘Anastasia’ Books by Vladimir Megre (these books have influenced me more than any others)

*Baby Greens by Michaela Lynn

*Fresh by Sergei and Valya Boutenko – has info on how to transition kids to raw.

*Eating without Heating by Sergei and Valya Boutenko – raw recipe book from the Boutenko ‘kids’.

*Raising Children Raises Us book & DVD by Shannon Leone – Shannon’s gorgeous, loving spirit flows through her work.

*The Children's Health Food Book by Ron Seaborn

*Breakthrough DVD – from Jinjee and Storm

*Raw Living and Eat Smart, Eat Raw – both by Kate Magic, these raw recipe books are packed with practical recipes Kate used to raise her three boys.

*The Continuum Concept by Jean Liedloff

*Primal Mothering in A Modern World by Hygeia Halfmoon

*What Mothers Do Especially When It Looks Like Nothing by Naomi Stadlen (If I was only able to read one non–raw–orientated book on being a mother, I would choose this – AMAZING info ;)

*Sun–Sational Raw Baby Food and Sun–Sational Smoothies by Melissa Gilbert – 2 ebooks from this lovely raw mum.

*Wise Woman's Herbal for the Childbearing Year by Susun Weed

*Pregnancy and Oral Health by Mama Gums


on Jan the 11th I had:

1 quart water
little mug of spicy tea
1.5 cups veggie juice: celery, turnip, kale, local greeeeeeens, Jerusalem artichoke, purple cabbage, fennel, endive, ginger, lime
3 cups water
double shot of wheatgrass
2 cups energy soup with flax crackers and tahini on the side, followed by a little bowl of blended sweet yum: carob powder, lucuma powder, maca, cinnamon, vanilla powders, with gojis and water
little cup rooibus tea
3 cups water


Foods that children seem to LOVE :)
As previously mentioned, I am not yet a mother – from what I’ve observed of raw children however, these seem to be some of their favourite foods:

*fresh fruits
*smoothies – greeeeen or nut–milk based
*nut/seed milks
*raw cakes, pies, cookies, yumballs – anything sweet ;)
*bee pollen
*chia puddings
*raw food snack bars
*grawnolas/cereals
*dried fruits like mulberries, goji berries, incan berries
*freeze–dried fruit – mangosteen, jackfruit, durian

The biggest struggle most raw parents seem to have is getting greeeeens into the little loves...well, here’s sending you all great gushing green smoothie love... ;)

Ok, I listed everything that came to mind here about raising children raw...I hope this is useful to at least some of you ;)
I’m sure there are other wonderful resources out there too – feel free to leave a comment below HERE if there are other links/books etc you’d love to see added to this list :) Also remember that you can see this article HERE for reference without the food logs etc...

ENJOY :)
One love,
Angela. xxx