We’ve had a rough time with our son the past few weeks; we learned that in addition to being allergic to eggs, peanuts, and tree nuts, he’s also allergic to dairy. Since he was getting pretty much all his protein and at least 50% of his calories from dairy products, and we are vegetarians, it makes it pretty hard to ensure he’s getting a balanced diet. Plus, like most toddlers he’s strongly opposed to eating anything that looks weird, smells weird, feels weird, or doesn’t contain sugar.

We’re pleased to say that we’ve been barf-free since we took him off of milk (8 days and counting!), but we had a heartbreaking few days where he subsisted on only apple juice and rice krispies, while begging me constantly for cheese. But I have since discovered that, thanks to the vegans of the world, there is a shocking number of fake products out there that he can eat. He can have phoney baloney, ground soy “beef”, and fake bacon (known to insiders as “facon”). He can have “cheese” slices with no dairy in them, cream “cheese” with no dairy in it, soy milk and rice milk. He can have cake baked with egg-replacers and rice krispie squares prepared with whey-free margarine. And all of this stuff is available at my local grocery store, which is quite small by Canadian city Superstore standards.

Vegans of the world unite!