Kids who are vegan at home, flexitarian elsewhere

[mamaraby]

Has anyone noticed any issues with digestive upset for kids who are vegan at home, but may not be outside the home? My kids have otherwise seemed to flex and have no issues. I leave it up to them to make the choice, but it seems like the longer they’re mostly vegan, there does some to be some gi distress.

Some of them seem to have fewer issues than others. One has to limit some of the high fat non-vegan options, but only with some things. One of them seems unaffected in general. The third is another story. She had a GI bug in February that took a long time to clear. Since then (once in March and most recently last weekend), she has had a sleepover for the weekend, come home and been sick on Monday morning. It starts with stomach pain, and then she’s ill. 24 hours later, she’s fine.

I suppose coincidentally, she could come down with a 24-hour virus both times she went to a sleepover and been the only person with it. Hoofbeats and zebras and all that. On the other hand? Food allergies? Does your digestive system change the longer you go near vegan so that it’s a shock to her system? That seems like bs/woo nonsense and yet, I thought I’d ask because if it’s something like that, I’d like to help her avoid it because it’s no fun.

[Greta]

No experience with this, but I just wanted to say that I hope your daughter has been doing better.

[moonflower]

I have a similar experience in that we don't ever eat dairy or eggs, and DH doesn't eat farmed animal products of any sort (so no grass-fed beef, even), but I do eat grass-fed beef or bison or lamb maybe once every 2 weeks.  I have recently noticed that almost every time I do this, I have intestinal distress for a few days afterward.  I'm not sure if I'm just not eating meat often enough to keep up the necessary whatevers to digest it, or what the deal is.

Do you have an idea of what non-vegan thing it might be?  I wonder if she's developed a lactose intolerance, or if it's just eggs, or just meat, or something else.

[mamaraby]

Very interesting! Dd is in fact doing better. So far it looks like most of that is behind us now, although I did manage to convince her to try moderating and/or giving up on eating some things that I thought were likely contributing to her issues. It could just be a coincidence, but she’s had a couple of trips/sleepovers with other people and we’ve had no repeats.

Ds has discovered that his lactose tolerance is down after eating quite a bit of ice cream in a 12 hour period so @kand that seems to be similar to your experience.

Thanks everyone!