Veggie baby!

La Buka

Hi all!!! Ok I've already posted this in another thread, just now realised I might get more info here!

My boyfriend & I have decided to raise our baby vegetarian like ourselves. I genuinely believe a vegetarian diet is a healthier & more natural way to live. The little man is 10 months old now with an ever increasing appetite.

He already has plenty of iron & protein in his diet, but I'm wondering what's a good way to boost his B12 intake. I'd prefer not to give him supplements since I believe it's possible for him to get all the nutrition he needs from what he eats. Let your food be your medicine and your medicine be your food and all that jazz.

He was breastfed for 6 months & is currently getting all his B12 needs from formula. But over the next few months he'll be having less of that. So I'm wondering if anybody has advice on what foods are best. He has no allergies to anything.

Any comments/advice are welcome! Thanks!

pwurple

Eggs have b12. Can he take eggs?

Fish are good for it too... Are you pesco? where will you source his fishie nutrients from. Fish oils etc.

La Buka

He does indeed have eggs, every 2/3 days. I'm a bit reluctant to give him any more for the moment.

For fishie nutrients he already has flax seeds & hemp seeds ground into his porridge every morning, along with some puréed fruit. I'm think I'm gonna give him flax seed oil in the future too. Just haven't researched it properly yet.

And he will be getting nuts too in a few months. Even though he hadn't shown any allergies to anything, I'd still prefer to hold off on the nuts until he's at least one year.

For what it's worth he eats LOADS of green veggies & every fruit. The only thing he won't eat so far is avocado, but that's ok because avocado is pretty horrible :-)

Weyhey

La Buka, we are in a similar boat with our 10 month old. I worry about iron absorption. I haven't started to worry about B12 yet.

I worry because her lips seem very pale and she seems to be eating the same foods all the time. This is partly because she still gets a bad nappy rash from a lot of foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, oranges and possibly garlic and onion etc which the family meals would mostly be made of. She has gone off cereals lately too.

I know I need to try give dairy as a snack inbetween meals rather than with meals as calcium can inhibit the absorption of iron. I know phytates also inhibit iron. But they seem to be in everything. My head is melted!!!!!

Her lips are very pale but I have no idea if her iron levels are good or not. I have a funny feeling if i bring her to my normal GP he won't understand vegetarianism and refuse to do a blood test or will moan about how good meat is.

I find the pressure to get it right is terrible.

blatantrereg

WHO advises breast feeding until 2 years old as a matter of course. Even though the actual iron content of breast milk is not massive, it is an excellent source of iron for a baby because of the superb bioavailability of the iron that is present. Unless there is some specific factor that rules it out, babies should be breast-fed until they are two. With this approach, you just need to make sure you are getting enough iron yourself really.

The iron-inhibition of phytates can be mitigated by consuming vitamin C at the same time as the iron.

I wouldn't be put off talking to a doctor about your baby's health just because he might have a different ideology, or might be annoying. He can do a blood test to check if the baby is deficient in anything. It's the simplest way of identifying whether there is a problem or not. Be aware that a baby is usually born with about six month's worth of iron supplies already in their system, afaik. Likewise they will probably have a good level of iron intake while they are breast fed. Therefore a deficiency in their intake might not manifest for several months while they use up the iron they have stored.

Weyhey

Thanks for that info Blantantrereg I stopped breastfeeding at 3 months due to 3 months of hell from an undiagnosed tongue and lip tie. So nutrients from breastmilk are unfortunately out for me.

spiralbound

Weyhey wrote: »

La Buka, we are in a similar boat with our 10 month old. I worry about iron absorption. I haven't started to worry about B12 yet.

I worry because her lips seem very pale and she seems to be eating the same foods all the time. This is partly because she still gets a bad nappy rash from a lot of foods like tomatoes, mushrooms, peppers, oranges and possibly garlic and onion etc which the family meals would mostly be made of. She has gone off cereals lately too.

I know I need to try give dairy as a snack inbetween meals rather than with meals as calcium can inhibit the absorption of iron. I know phytates also inhibit iron. But they seem to be in everything. My head is melted!!!!!

Her lips are very pale but I have no idea if her iron levels are good or not. I have a funny feeling if i bring her to my normal GP he won't understand vegetarianism and refuse to do a blood test or will moan about how good meat is.

I find the pressure to get it right is terrible.

Bring her to the GP if you're worried. Vegetarian diets are pretty mainstream now, it shouldn't be an issue.

Is she still on formula? That should cover a lot of her nutrition at 10 months, I'd say.

seamus

My nephew is 3 now and has been brought up exclusively veggie and he's a monster. So a veggie child/baby is not an issue and not that much effort to get right.

They used this book, and we've also bought it as we plan on doing the same with our daughter:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091853001/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Weyhey

seamus wrote: »

My nephew is 3 now and has been brought up exclusively veggie and he's a monster. So a veggie child/baby is not an issue and not that much effort to get right.

They used this book, and we've also bought it as we plan on doing the same with our daughter:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/0091853001/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Looks like a good book Seamus. Thanks for the recommendation.

annamcmahon

That's a lovely book. My first baby didn't eat meat and I got some great recipes from it