Raising Vegan Children

If you were raised on a standard British diet you know how brilliant you felt when you decided to change your eating habits and go vegan. It was the best feeling knowing that you were avoiding cholesterol-filled cow’s milk and hormone-filled animal meat. Remember how you felt a few weeks into your new vegan diet – light, energised, happy. Imagine raising your child on a vegan diet from birth and beyond. From the start your baby would be immersed with vital vitamins, minerals and antioxidants through your abundant human breast milk, the right molecular structure and a complete food for your baby. You can continue until at least 6 months though many mothers have continued until the baby is naturally weaned, usually around 2 years. If breastfeeding is not an option there are suitable dairy-free formula milks available on the market that is soya-based.

A well-planned and balanced vegan diet can meet the nutritional requirements of both babies and children. Storage of iron at birth is depleted by 6 months of age however healthy vegan diets followed by breastfeeding mothers are abundant in iron-rich green leafy vegetables, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pulses and spinach. Vitamin C helps with the absorption of iron so giving children fresh fruit with iron-rich foods will increase their intake of this mineral. The weaning diet can also contain iron-fortified foods or supplementation. All babies and children should be given a daily 10 microgram vitami
D supplement as this vitamin helps with the utilisation of calcium and is not available on a vegan diet alone. Unlike other B vitamins, vitami
B12 is only found in foods of animal origin (eggs, fish) so deficiency may develop in breastfed infants if the breast milk has a low concentration which can be the case with vegan mothers. They can include foods rich in vitami
B12 in their diet or take the appropriate supplements.

From the age of one, soya-based infant milk can be consumed until 2 years at which time they can change to fortified soya milk. Currently there are also many fortified nut, oat and rice milks on the market that can be used after 2 years of age. Studies have shown that children raised on a vegan diet have normal growth and development in comparison to meat eaters up to 5 years old.

Young children are very inquisitive, they will ask you why they cannot eat meat or have dairy, explain your reasons for being vegan with your child clearly. Carry a selection of vegan snacks and fruit with you when you go out just in case they get peckish. If you send your child to school explain their vegan diet to the teachers and provide them with plenty of food and snacks.

Raising a vegan child is the best experience and your child will reap the benefits. What you feed your child today will determine their health in the future, so why not start now.