Post Punk Kitchen Forum

I am not getting 80 to 100 grams of protein called for in the Dr. Brewster's diet. I can't even imagine eating that much and not consuming a ton of soy (which I would rather avoid). I do a green smoothie with extra protein powder and get to about 30 grams on a good day.

How do you do it?

Seitan was my savior! I didn't want to eat a ton of soy either (although I did eat my fair share of tofu), but seitan I ate in pretty copious amounts. I would make a double batch of the Italian Sausages from VB, split it into 10 instead of 8, and each sausage had 29g of protein.

Thanks! I was at my first healthy baby seminar, and I found out I know more than I think I do thanks to the PPK. One of the instructors wasn't very veg-friendly but the other was fab and has another vegan client.

I am a bit intimidated by Seitan (made one very brainy batch) but will try again.

Steamed seitan won't get brainy! Seriously, try the sausages. They are life-altering (and freeze really well!).

I swear you must do some sort of Google image search majicks or something, where do you find this stuff?!

Cafe Press! http://www.cafepress.com/+i-heart-seitan+baby-bodysuits

If I'm going to be hitting the wheatmeat hard, then I want a onesie that says "Body by Seitan."

I had a hard time with protein, and because I'm gluten-free I had to eat a lot of soy. I just tried to make sure there was protein at every meal and snack (seeds, nuts, tofu, tempeh, soy milk, beans, lentils), and I added hemp seeds to my smoothies. I did not count grams because I knew it would stress me out; I just did the best I could.

First, do your own research on the protein stuff; I wasn't convinced that THIS much protein was necessary and the more I eat the worse my heartburn so while I try to make an effort to eat more than I normally would, I think 100 g is a little over the top. I haven't had problems with blood pressure at all, though, so your mileage may vary, talk to your nutritionally-clueless doctor, etc. As another datapoint, my midwives recommended 65g, which I felt was much more achievable/reasonable. To get that much protein I felt like I was pushing a lot of more processed soy foods on myself, and I decided that just eating minimally processed food and getting a little less protein was healthier for myself. Again, your mileage may vary.

To make sure I get a lot of protein, though, here's some of what I did (esp. during the brief time I was doing food logging):

- Breakfast is my easiest to allow to revert into a carb-fest, and as I've been celebrating second breakfast regularly throughout pregnancy, I have a lot of opportunities. Those Optimum cereals are very high protein (like 10g /cup for the banana). Field Roast breakfast sausages have about 18g apiece (VB seitan sausages are probably similar, I just haven't crunched the numbers)! And if you make tofu scramble and eat a plate of it, you'll be getting like 30g of protein there.
- Hummus = your new favorite snack. Nut butters on celery, crackers, etc. are also good.
- Ethiopian veggie food seems to have tons of protein because it's got so many lentil dishes, lots of teff, and at my favorite place, seitan tibs. Lots of good green veggies there too! So we went out for a LOT of Ethiopian.
- When you compare them against prepared soy and seitan foods beans don't seem to have THAT much protein, but they're easy to add to lots of dishes! Esp. pilafs and veg sides and things, if you throw some beans in those you'll hardly notice.
- When I feel like a dessert I make a lot of PB-banana smoothies. A cup or so of nondairy milk, a big gob (like 1/4c) peanut butter, banana, a little maple syrup, and ice blended together. 1 t cocoa powder is good too. Yummy and decadent tasting, but it's got protein, fat, calcium, potassium! I just calculated this online and it has like 600 calories but almost 30g of protein!

yes!the vibrating bouncy seat! godsend.

I don't think I got anywhere near 100g of protein most days, but I don't know because like others said, I felt like tracking it that closely just gave me one more thing to be crazy about.

I had a smoothie almost every day with brown rice protein powder, unsweetened almond milk, and occasionally soy yogurt in. For snacks, I had tofurky a lot, which is obviously not a non-soy choice-- but you could get (or make!) sliced seitan and eat it a similar way. Keep hummus and nuts on hand for snacks too. Snacking gets more important as you get further along, as the available space in your stomach shrinks due to uterine encroachment.

Thank you for all the advice!



My partner and I are going for Ethiopian today! I never even thought about it as high protein, but I consider this carte blanche for eating a ton of miser wat and butitcha!

Speaking of socks and shoes, is there a vegan equivalent of those Robies leather-soled slippers? I notice a lot of kids in the infant/toddler classrooms at my school wearing these (I work with the big preschoolers, so am a little clueless about baby stuff), and they seem like such a nice transition for little ones just starting to walk around.

Holy crepe, those are super cute options! And ethical and made in the USA! Thanks!

Butt balm. Do I need it? Do I use it on a newborn? Is a powder better?

Baby butt balm/powder suggestions?

We didn't use a ton of it at first - some A&D ointment for when he started going a little longer between diaper changes at night, and some Burt's Bees diaper cream for anything rashy looking. I'm embarrassed that I can't vouch for the vegan-ness of that stuff (besides the obvious bees), but it works amazingly and doesn't have that scary fish smell like Desitin.

i really like earth mama angel baby for all their various creams and lotions. we have been using their bum balm for ever and it is miraculous. smells wonderful, vegan, and truly amazing healing powers (we use it on scratches and scrapes too).

Here is everything I know about baby butt cream:

In general, they don't really seem to need it until they get a rash. Some babies will show a pattern of getting rashes in certain situations... like overnight, like Axel said... and then you can apply it defensively. Those sorts of rashes are often chafing rashes, so you want some sort of barrier cream, like a zinc oxide based thing or a petroleum-y based thingy.

I like zinc oxide creams, because they don't smell as bad and you can get them off your hands if you accidentally touch them. The Aveeno one is nice. They aren't as thick and goopy as petroleum based ones, so some people think they don't work as well.

My in-laws believe that A&D ointment (a petroleum based one) is imbued with magical properties and have convinced my husband of this too, so we use that sometimes. Most A&D ointments around here seem to have fish oil in them, so not vegan. I also think they stink to high heaven and are really hard to get off your hands. On the upside, they tend to be really effective for chafing rashes.

Neosporin works really well for some rashes, because some rashes are actually little bacterial infections. If I'm not sure what kinda rash it is, I sometimes do a thin layer of Neosporin (in case it's bacterial) covered by a thick layer of A&D (in case it's chafing).

Some rashes are caused by yeast and you may need a yeast-specific cream for them, like nystantin cream. You can supposedly use OTC yeast infection creams, like miconazole, for this. We got a prescription for nystantin once and they gave us FOUR TUBES of it and we're still working through them a year and a half later. Yeast rashes are easy to identify, because they're raised bumps, they smell kinda yeasty, and they don't respond to other creams.

Talc-based baby powders have fallen out of favor over the past several years, because there's been research indicating that they can cause or exacerbate health issues (respiratory, I think?) in babies. (I've heard baby powder does work really well to get sand off of a wet baby's diaper area though.)

Oh, and if you're cloth diapering, you will probably hear that diaper creams all leave residues on diapers that will decrease absorbency and possibly cause the diapers to repel moisture. (Bad.) This hasn't been my experience, but I was initially very concerned about it.

yeah the butt cream thing depends on your kid I think...some babies just seem very prone to rashes, both of the yeast and non-yeast variety. I think I've read that some babies can have reactions to the high PH levels in their urine. My sis-in-law insisted on giving me Desitin because she was SURE we'd need it, but we also had some A&D, which I actually prefer because it's clear and not creamy. It is kinda gunky though like others have said. To be honest, we've only had a few cases of very minor diaper rash, but when Dahlia was around 3 months old she got the worst rash ever under her chin/on her neck. The only thing that made it go away was keeping the area dry, i.e. having her wear a bib all the time - we later realized the rash was from drool, which was from (early) teething!

There's a lot of information out there about whether or not cloth diapers help prevent diaper rash or not. I know plenty of cloth diapered babies who develop bad rashes but tons that haven't also. So many factors can go into a rash, you know? also, a friend with a very premature baby (born at just over 24 weeks) was strongly advised NOT to use cloth diapers when they finally got to bring their baby home because the drs said cloth was more likely to hold infections, and any infection that baby got was a dangerous situation. I think the doctor's theory was probably bullshiitake,but eh my friends were not taking any chances.

Walter had rashes when he was very small, due to insufficient diaper rinsing (I think). A&D and Desitin did not work for us, but Eucerin Aquaphor cleared it up in less than a day. I still put that on before bedtime, otherwise he gets red in his folds. Our cotton diapers are no worse for the wear.

wow, that is a lot more information about rashes than I thought I might get, but loving the information! I will get some tubes of something just in case, as there is no real, run out and get rash cream places near us. Thank you, I did not even consider yeast as a problem somehow.

My boy has not yet had a rash, so I haven't had to use the rash salve I got on his butt yet. However! Since he has acid reflux, he spits up a lot. And sometimes it gathers in the folds of his cute little neck. Of course I'm always wiping his neck, but the folds are tight, so it gets moist and raw sometimes. The diaper rash salve works GREAT in the neck folds. I use this kind:
http://www.earthmamaangelbaby.com/angel ... -balm.html

I use Avalon organics zinc diaper balm. It is expensive, but really great stuff. We use it preventatively at night, just a little pea sized amount, so it lasts a really long time. Otherwise Kai also gets red in the folds.

He had a couple more serious rashes a few months ago, but that's about it. I think because of teething. He also got the drool rash on his chin then, and for that I used California Baby Calendula Cream. Also really great stuff.

We used Boudreauxs Butt Paste for Reno and will use it again with this next one when needed. It worked really well for her.