Veggie Tales: Feeding Your Vegan or Vegetarian Child

7/2/2008

You’re doing your kids a favor if your grocery cart is full of fruits and vegetables every week. A diet based mostly on foods from plants is good for them now and in the future. While many folks supplement with meat and other animal products as well, some find a vegetarian diet better suited to their tastes, health goals, finances, environmental concerns or ethical or religious beliefs.

Children can thrive on a vegetarian diet. But it can be a challenge for parents , who must make sure that kids who don’t eat meat, dairy, eggs, or other animal products meet their nutritional, caloric, and developmental needs through plant-based foods. Of course, it all depends on just what kind of vegetarian your child is.

• Some “vegetarians” just avoid red meat, but still eat poultry and fish. Pescetarians avoid red meat and poultry, but still eat fish. These folks aren’t strictly vegetarians, and have fewer nutritional challenges.
• Lacto-ovo-vegetarians eat no meat at all but do eat dairy foods and eggs in addition to vegetables, fruits, grains, and nuts.
• Vegans are the strictest vegetarians, and eat no animal foods or products, including dairy, eggs, and honey. Their diet is generally comprised of vegetables, fruits, grains, seeds, nuts, and soy foods. They need to be most careful to avoid nutritional deficiencies and developmental problems.

Any vegetarian child (or adult) is going to have to make-up the nutrients and calories she misses by skipping animal products . You’ll need to find nutritionally sound substitutes for those foods, or depend on supplements. Kids who opt for a vegetarian diet need to be educated extensively about nutrition so they don’t just eat rice cakes, French fries, and salad. The best vegetarian diet is one that is varied, flavorful, and provides all the necessary nutrients.

Among the most important nutrients for vegetarians are:

• Calcium . Everyone needs calcium for strong bones and teeth. Most kids get the calcium they need through four daily servings of dairy products. Cow’s milk also contains phosphorus in the ideal ratio to calcium for bone building. Vegan sources of calcium such as fortified cereal, juice, or soymilk don’t contain phosphorus in quite the same ratio, so I advise kids who don’t drink cow’s milk to take a calcium/vitamin D supplement daily since calcium helps boost their ability to build strong bones now and later in life.
• Vitamin D . The “sunshine vitamin” is necessary for the proper absorption of calcium in the gut, and for general good health. Most kids get what they need in fortified cow’s milk, or through sunlight if they’re lucky enough to live in a place with enough sun year-round. Young vegans may need to take a calcium/vitamin D supplement if they cannot get enough of these essential nutrients in fortified cereal and soymilk.
• Vitamin B-12 . This B vitamin is not found in plants, so vegetarian and vegan children will need to take special care to get the B-12 they need from nutritional yeast, or fortified cereals and soymilk. Lack of vitamin B-12 in childhood can lead to impaired learning abilities.
• Iron . Meat is an important source of iron, but the blood-building mineral is also found in fortified cereals, meat substitutes, raisins, watermelon, leafy greens, and molasses. Foods high in vitamin C—like orange juice—increase the absorption of iron, making breakfast an opportunity to build good iron stores.
• Zinc . Another mineral important for cognitive development, zinc is found in nuts, tofu, whole grains, legumes, and wheat germ.

You’ll also need to make sure that kids on a vegetarian diet get enough protein and healthy fats.

• Protein can be found in soy foods, dried beans and other legumes, veggie burgers, nuts and nut butters, whole grains and whole-grain cereals, soy and oat milks, corn, avocados, peas, and potatoes. Few plant foods contain complete protein, but if you eat a wide variety of them, you’ll get the full complement of necessary amino acids over time.
• Healthy fats can be found in plant-based oils such as olive oil, nut and nut butters, ground flaxseeds, and avocados.

   

  You’ll need to make sure vegetarian kids and teens get enough calories as well, perhaps by making concentrated sources of calories such as nuts, seeds, soy foods, avocados and dried fruits readily available. One thing to remember: Adolescents, especially girls, often change or restrict their diets as a way of exerting control, so you do have to be cautious that they do not lapse into an eating disorder.

  I often recommend that parents give vegan and vegetarian kids and teens a multivitamin and mineralsupplement as insurance that they will get the essential micronutrients they need to grow into their full potential. Vegan kids and toddlers raised strictly on goat’s milk and goat cheese rather than cow’s milk should take supplemental B-12 and folate as well.

  Resources:

  Vegetarian Resource Group www.vrg.org