Vegan diet for kids

KevinCavan

Is it safe to bring up kids with a vegan diet, or will it stunt their development?

DancingFlames

I was raised on a vegan diet from a young age and I'm fine. I'm of average height and weight. I've had bloods done multiple times and was told that I'm not deficient in anything. Some tips:

- Most soy milks and cereals have fortified B12, calcium and vitamin D. You can also get B12 from nutritional yeast and fermented foods (kimchi, tempeh, tofu...). B12 is something that non-vegans are also usually deficient in too.

- Calcium comes from leafy green veg (broccoli, kale, spinach...). Vitamin D helps with the absorption of calcium so make sure to check labels for it.

- Omega 3 can be found in nuts and seaweed. It's really important for brain development so if you can find a supplement to add to food in the health shop, that would be great. Seaweed also contains Iodine which is very important.

- Iron can come from many different sources (nuts, greens, beans and lentils), make sure to also add Vitamin C to the diet to help absorb that (most fruit/veg contains Vitamin C).

- Protein isn't really as much of a problem for vegans as people make it out to be. Tofu, other soy products, seitan, lentils, beans... all contain protein. Combine this with foods that contain zinc to help absorption.

- If you're still worried, you can find vegan supplements for all of these things at the heath store. Check labels to make sure your plant milk, cereal, orange juice and yoghurt are fortified. These are things non-vegans should be checking for too but they generally don't.

Amantine

I would tread very carefully, you have to know exactly what you are doing! It's easy to cause deficiencies which can have life long effects. You WILL need to supplement B12, most likely D3 and maybe calcium too. If you have your heart set on this (I don't recommend it) I know a few hard core vegans and they raise their kids on a veggan diet = vegan + egg.