Interview with Pediatrician Carla

“The family is made at the table”

1. Carla you’re a well known and followed pediatrician on social networks with an impressive following and you have a front line role in diffusing the topic of vegetable based diets for children in Italy. How did this passion which then became such an important work start?
   
   Passion for the moment of weaning (complementary alimentation) started when I saw that this was a topic which created a lot of doubt in parents and on which there was still a lot of confusion. Fortunately there have been figures such as Lucio Piermarini and other pediatricians from the Uppa periodic popularizing and clearing up the injust “appropriation” of weaning by the alimentary industry of baby food, throwing light on the physiological mode in which it should happen, known as auto weaning.

2. The majority of people still today are afraid of the idea of rearing children on a plant-based diet. I still remember the protest articles where school canteens had brought in changes to the menu in favour of a protein intake more largely based on vegetable foods: what do you imagine this priori refusal is based on?
   
   Definitely on a prejudice coming from an ignorance on this topic given that scientific literature has already clearly expressed in unambiguous terms on this theme, stating that a well planned plant-based diet is suitable to all periods of life, even for pregnant women and babies in the weaning period, with health advantages for the single individual and the planet. This ostracism is a real shame, we all lose out!

3. You’re not only a good and famous pediatrician, but also a mother: telling often with photos and posts how you face your childrens diet, giving a useful example of every day life and practical advice for those searching for information on the topic: following your indications everything seems quite easy, but is it really so?

It’s never easy but we try to make it simpler. The most difficult job in the world is that of a parent: 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, no paid holidays and no one slapping you on the back for: “A job well done”. But it’s also rewarding to see new individuals grow, they come to us but are different from us with their innate temperament and their own personality revealing itself day by day. This is what pays and enriches us.

4. You have recently published your book “Lo svezzamento è vostro! (Weaning is yours!)” (ed. Sonda) on a topic which needed to be faced and which many parents face in a problematic manner: how did the idea of the book come about? To which public is it addressed? And why weaning is “yours” and not only of the child?
   
   The idea of the book came about to offer parents the possibility to take back what is theirs, the moment of weaning, without external influence from industries and false myths, also health workers who are not up to date and paternalistic, obviously offering adequate and indispensible information to do it in safety and serenity. It was a promise I made to myself after ingenuously explaining, in my first years as a pediatrician, baby food and “vintage” schemes as if they were the bible. It was my duty to restore weaning to the real protagonists: parents and children.

5. Amongst your followers you have a lot of mothers, but I would like to know from you if also fathers have started to have a more involved and active role in the rearing of children and also in the preparation of their food.
   
   Yes, fortunately there is a new generation of fathers: equally dividing domestic work and the efforts of educating children, they concern themselves with the health of their children and come to the clinic with or without their partners. In short… it was about time. Unfortunately I still see situations in which the woman is relegated to the conditions of worker, housewife, devote mother and perfect wife, all at the same time and without equal condivision, but the “troglodytes” are continuously less and these new fathers are commendable parents.

6. Working with your patients and followers do you have the perception that something is changing towards a sort of opening (mental, cultural or other) with regards to a diet more imprinted on vegetables and sustainable?
   
   Absolutely yes! The next generation of parents, those younger, are very open and informed, after all they are the ones most interested in the topic of sustainability. It’s a topic that touches everyone, but I get the impression that above a certain age many don’t care, after all they won’t be the ones to pay the price.

7. What benefits can a vegetable based diet bring to children?
   
   Reduction of overweight and obesity, reduction of the risk of cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, some types of cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. In short: a lot of stuff!

8. What is the first advice you’d give to a couple who are about to have their first child?
   
   Arrive at childbirth ready, you should enjoy every moment of this unrepeatable occasion. Don’t buy a mountain of useless stuff, better to be informed on the real necessities of the child, treat yourselves to a preparation course with a good midwife, read books on childcare and discover that the child needs almost nothing except yourselves.

9. Do you think it’s important for a young child to enter into the kitchen beside their parents helping in the preparation of simple food?
   
   It’s fundamental, you don’t nourish just with food, but also with gestures and words. Presence at the table is fundamental.

10. Looking to the future: what do you wish for your children?
    
    I would wish my children to find their path, to fly high never forgetting that their roots are firm and there for them any time they need.

11. To conclude I would ask you to leave us with a message or a slogan which is of help to families with small children:
    
    “The family is made at the table”

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www.pediatracarla.com