• View ecochildsplay’s profile on Facebook
  • View ecochildsplay’s profile on Twitter
  • View ecochildsplay’s profile on Instagram
  • View ecochildsplay’s profile on Pinterest
  • View Jennifer Lance’s profile on LinkedIn
  • View ecochildsplay’s profile on YouTube
  • View ecochildsplay’s profile on Google+

Eco Child's Play

Live a greener, healthier life!

  • Environment
  • Pregnancy
  • Food & Recipes
  • Health News
  • Parenting
  • Green Toys
  • Beauty & Beauty Products
  • Green Home & Cleaning
  • Contact

5 Tips for Traveling Abroad with Your Vegetarian Child

My almost ten-year-old daughter and I recently traveled to Italy. It was the first time I had traveled internationally with a child, and amongst the normal anxieties of travel, food was an additional stress.

In her kindergarten year, my daughter chose to be a vegetarian. I’m a vegetarian, her best friend was a vegetarian, and her teacher was a vegan. I have always supported her choice, as my parents did when I made the same one at sixteen; however, she is kind of dogmatic about eating organic food.

For her, one lesson of travel I tried to prepare her for was to be flexible in food consumption. I am pleased to report that not once was food an issue. Here are five tips I learned from our adventures in Italy.

  1. Learn the word vegetarian in the native tongue: In Italian, it is “vegetariano”.  Fortunately, it is close enough to the English version that even when mispronounced, we were understood.  Even if I thought something on a menu was vegetarian, I would double check with the server to ease my daughter’s anxiety.  If you fear pronunciation, then simply write on an index card the word to show at each restaurant.
  2. Pack snacks from home: We packed almost a whole daypack full of snacks from home. These were great for in between meals and provided a little comfort.  The [amazon_link id=”B000HVX6NK” target=”_blank” container=”” container_class=”” ]seaweed snacks[/amazon_link] were an especially nice respite from all of the pasta and pizza of Italy.
  3. Share meals when eating out: Every meal, we shared a dish. It was plenty of food, saved money, and took the pressure off of my daughter in choosing a dish all to herself.  We would select together, compromise, and enjoy.  There was group culpability if something was too cheesy and rich, and very little was wasted.
  4. Order dessert! There are very few desserts that are not vegetarian, and as a result of sharing meals, we were never overstuffed without room for a sweet ending.
  5. Hydrate: With jet lag and the excitement of being in a foreign land, it is easy to get very tired.  When children get tired, they get cranky.  One easy way to combat that is to drink lots and lots of water.  My motto the whole trip was “hydrate, hydrate, hydrate!”.

Of course, all of this would have been a lot more challenging had we been vegan but not impossible.  We had some wonderful meals in Italy, but we relieved to be home to an abundant garden and avoiding all those carbohydrates for awhile.

  • Twitter
  • Email
  • Pinterest
  • Print
  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn
  • More
  • WhatsApp
  • Tumblr
  • Reddit
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Subscribe!

« 5 Green Products: Growums, Green Earth Technologies G Oil, Born Free, Bumbleride, SmartKlean
New MU Study: BPA “Demasculinized” Mice Making Them Undesirable »

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating




This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Search Content

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter


About Eco Child’s Play

Our ethos is to provide news, information, and opinions on natural, green parenting to help your family live a greener, healthier life! Additionally, we offer personal consulting services to help you achieve your green living goals.

Jennifer is a vegetarian, yoga teacher, gardener, hiker, teacher, and mother that has been living off-the-grid for over 20 years.

Contact Eco Child’s Play

Plants Over Plastics! Repurpose Compostable Home Products

Convenient Plastic Container Free Dropps Laundry & Dishwashing Pods

More from the archives!

Folk Art Eco-Friendly Lunch Pack: Organic Cotton and Bamboo From Print*Pattern*Paper

Baby Essentials That Aren’t, Part 3: Strollers

Mother's Milk: Boobie Gymnastics

Win a $20 Gift Certificate from Ollie Olio!

Eco-Friendly Products: Healthy Child Healthy World Healthy Home Party Toolkit

cbd salve joy organics

CBD Products that Actually Deliver: Joy Organics

wama hemp underwear

The Most Comfortable Underwear is Made of Hemp: WAMA Review

Information

  • About & Contact
  • Archive
  • Blog
  • Consulting Services
  • Disclaimer, Disclosure, & Sponsored Posts
  • Privacy Policy

Organic, Cotton Clothing for Children From Happy Green Bee

Hank D and the Bee: Hank’s Zero Emission Vehicle

Make It!: A Book Review

Keep A Breast: 90% of Breast Cancer Attributed to Environmental & Lifestyle Choices [video]

Children’s Literature: Cougar Cub Tales: The Sneezy Wheezy Day

Popular Categories

  • Breastfeeding
  • Health News
  • Natural Childbirth
  • Parenting
  • Education
  • Product Review
  • Green Toys

Get our posts via email

Please stay in touch!

You might also like to read…

TED Talks: Annie Murphy Paul: What we learn before we’re born

Where Attachment Parents Lose Ground

Tell the USDA not to approve new GMO, 2,4-D-resistant crops and stop the tide of toxins being dumped on our food.

Don’t Forget the Batteries Grab Fuji’s New EnviroMAX Batteries

Carbon Babies: The Octuplets and 8 Nappy Bottoms

Copyright © 2022 · Divine theme by Restored 316

Copyright © 2022 · Divine Theme On Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

loading Cancel
Post was not sent - check your email addresses!
Email check failed, please try again
Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email.