In terms of sustainability in dietary practices, there is a lot of ground to cover - however, the advent of those who lead a vegan lifestyle has attempted to bridge this gap towards cruelty-free dietary and environmental practices. Most individuals who consider themselves vegans usually do so after a long period of pre-meditated choices - however, is it possible to instill the values of sustaining a vegan lifestyle from a young age?
Are the implications of doing so unethical? While your baby’s diet might be a challenge all on its own, introducing vegan food choices into the equation might prove to be even more challenging - however, in the end, the pros outweigh the cons in terms of raising vegan children. Let’s see the many food choices that will come in handy in this endeavor and whether, at all, you should raise your little one to be vegan.
Is A Vegan Diet Safe for Kids?
One of the first questions that you or many people around you who have experience with childbirth would be curious about is whether raising a vegan baby is safe for them. Inherently, what this means is raising your babies on a purely plant-based diet that involves no components from poultry products or the like.
While on the surface, this may feel like you’re depriving your baby of essential nutrition by taking away some of the complete sources of energy and protein responsible for their growth and development, it is actually not so. Numerous studies have been performed which have proved that a vegan diet can be as good as a meat-based diet for your baby, provided you take special care in sticking to it.
Naturally, there are fewer vegan options for baby formula, but they exist. As far as breast milk is concerned, while it is debated upon in being a strictly vegan option, you can rest assured against the ethical implications that come with the consumption of milk. This is because breast milk is produced by the human body as a natural course of childbirth and is not the same as extracting milk from animals.
Can Kids Get Enough Protein on A Vegan Diet?
While it is natural to worry about the nutrients your baby may or may not get from a plant-based diet, it is possible to ensure a complete form of nutrition even with plant-based alternatives. Keeping macronutrients in mind, one of the essential components of nutrition that can be difficult to obtain in vegan nutritional alternatives is protein.
Once your baby is accustomed to eating solid food, it is best to introduce them to protein-rich plant-based foods such as tofu, nut and seed butter, beans, lentils, and beans - foods that you can easily incorporate into fun recipes to ensure that your kid enjoys eating them.
Especially in their initial years, it is best to avoid vegan foods that are low in protein - especially coconut milk or almond milk - to ensure that they’re getting adequate amounts of protein and not just satiating their hunger.
What Nutrients Can A Vegan Child Potentially Lack?
1. Vitamin B12
One of the many nutrients that a vegan diet can potentially lack is Vitamin B12. Substances like cow’s milk are quite rich in Vitamin B12 and give this essential nutrient to non-vegan children. However, vegan alternatives can instead be fortified with Vitamin B12 so that your child is not missing out on it.
Soy milk, for instance, while being high in protein, is also available fortified with Vitamin B12 and fulfilling around half of your baby’s daily Vitamin B12 requirement. If their Vitamin B12 content is still not enough, then you can consult your pediatrician for Vitamin B12 supplements instead.
2. Iodine
Iodine is yet another nutrient that there can be a lack of in a vegan diet, especially one that is designed for growing babies. Most sources of iodine are non-plant-based, such as seafood and other dairy products - which is why you may need to supplement iodine in your vegan child’s diet.
The most iodine-rich source of food that is free from animal-based nutrients is salt - and since salt is not recommended to be added to a baby’s diet, it is quite possible that they may lack iodine. However, it is possible to supplement fortified iodine as well - something it is best to discuss with your pediatrician. You can also begin by adding cereals and grains to your baby’s diet.
3. Iron
Yet another concern on a purely vegan diet is that iron can be tricky to obtain due to its low bioavailability. Dietary iron is of two types, namely heme and non-heme, of which the latter is less bioavailable. Most vegan iron sources contain non-heme iron. This essentially means that iron cannot be absorbed just as well through vegan sources as through meat-based sources - leading to an inevitable lack of iron in their diet. However, there are ways in which this can be avoided.
Combining iron-rich vegan sources of food with vegan sources of Vitamin C is a great way to increase the bioavailability of iron in vegan foods - these can include foods such as orange juice, tomato juice, and the like.
You can also increase the bioavailability of iron in vegan foods by using a cast iron pan when you’re cooking or even using cereal that is fortified with iron so as to ensure that your child is getting the adequate amount of iron in their vegan diet.
4. Calcium
Off the top of our heads, we can name the richest calcium sources as cow’s milk, cheese, and other forms of dairy products. However, these options are not vegan - and there are, in fact, plenty of vegan sources of calcium to choose from.
Once again, fortified soy milk makes a feature as being rich in calcium - accompanied with tofu, leafy greens such as kale, and vegetables such as broccoli and arugula. All of these sources of calcium can be enough to sustain your baby’s calcium requirements.
However, if you want to be sure, you can also choose to supplement their diet with calcium supplements by consulting your pediatrician.
Is Breast Milk Vegan? Is It Okay to Breastfeed a Vegan Toddler?
Once again, the vegan lifestyle involves not consuming products that would indirectly or directly contribute to animal cruelty or exploitation in any way. This includes not consuming products derived from animals - such as dairy, and especially not meat - but this can be extended into other spheres as well.
There are those who consider themselves dietary vegans and practice the vegan lifestyle mainly by being more mindful about plant-based nutrition in their diet - and the short answer for whether breast milk is vegan is technically yes.
Even if breast milk is technically animal-based, it is not derived out of cruelty or exploitation. Additionally, breast milk is mainly produced by the human body for the purposes of feeding a human child.
It is even an opportunity for you to bond with your baby while breastfeeding. Even if breast milk is dairy, you can breastfeed your baby with ease while planning ahead for vegan dietary practices without worrying about the ethical implications of the same.
What is the Best Type of Milk for Vegan Toddlers and Kids?
In terms of plant-based sources of milk, the number one spot is claimed by soy milk. Fortified with various essential nutrients for your baby’s development, soy milk is as easily accessible as it is close to dairy milk in terms of nutrition. It offers your child those proteins and vitamins that they may potentially miss out on.
However, there are other great plant-based sources of milk as well for raising kids vegan - such as almond milk, coconut milk, rice milk, oat milk, among others. In their initial months, it is best to sustain them solely on breastmilk and vegan baby formula - after which you can begin to consider introducing them to other vegan milk types.
Exclusions | When Should You Avoid Putting Your Child on a Vegan Diet?
If you would consider your child a picky eater or someone who is not naturally inclined towards a bigger appetite, then it is perhaps best to reconsider whether your child should be put on a vegan diet after all. If your child already struggles with issues relating to digesting food, then restricting their diet even further by restricting them to vegan options might not be the best play.
Alternatively, with vegan foods, it is quite easy to develop food allergies and digestive problems. Being high in fiber, a strict vegan diet can be hard on the digestive system of your young one, especially if they can’t digest all that well, to begin with.
Lastly, with premature babies, having a vegan diet can make it significantly harder for them to develop in the way that animal-based sources of nutrition can aid them.
Animal-based sources of nutrition can help in the growth and development of premature babies faster and more efficiently than plant-based sources of nutrition, so it would be best for them to get a full spectrum of nutrients through a non-restrictive diet.
Reasons Why Should Consider Raising a Vegan Child
1. They Acknowledge Compassion from a Very Young Age
On the ethical side, it is a fantastic alternative to animal-based sources of food. Since it is one of the main tenets of veganism to allow for as little animal cruelty and exploitation as possible, it is important to instill those same values within your children.
It can be quite shocking for them to discover that the animals that they love and grow to care for can end up being consumed or exploited, and a vegan diet can help them take a small step towards reducing these acts of cruelty. Hence, a sense of deep compassion towards animals and the world at large is developed by your children.
2. They Are Safeguarded Against A hoard of Diseases.
One of the many benefits of veganism is the fact that you can ensure a healthy lifestyle - and the same applies to raising your kids vegan as well. Vegan foods are popular for being low in fat - something that can help them in the long run by protecting them against heart diseases and having high amounts of cholesterol.
And as seen before, a vegan diet does not fall short of offering you any form of nutrition, provided you do it right. So while avoiding all the unhealthy effects of being on a non-plant-based diet, a vegan diet ensures better health overall.
3. Your Child will Love Their Vegetables.
A problem that is frequently faced by parents of non-vegan children and the fact that their kids are simply unwilling to eat their vegetables. No matter how well you incorporate them in fun recipes, vegetables inevitably end up scraped away towards the edges of your kid’s plate. However, on a vegan diet, this possibility is significantly lowered.
Since they’re used to eating their greens and enjoy a diet that composes of mostly vegetables, it makes it unlikely for them to be picky about them. Hence, worrying about your little one not eating enough vegetables is a thing of the past with a vegan diet.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. Is Soy Milk Suitable for Toddlers?
Soy milk is popular as being the best cow milk alternative for vegan toddlers. While there are many plant-based varieties of milk currently available, soy milk has an adequate amount of protein that your child needs when they’re growing up - but it is always best to consult your pediatrician as to which milk your child should take to.
2. Do Vegan Babies Develop Slower?
While there are many concerns about your baby’s growth being slowed considerably when they’re on a vegan diet, it is easy to fix a lack of vitamins and minerals with supplements.
As mentioned above, a vegan diet can be potentially lacking in some nutrients - however, with the conscientious use of supplements, slower growth is not something you’ll have to worry about.
3. Is It Cruel to Raise A Child Vegan?
While many believe that sustaining your baby on a vegan diet for toddlers is essentially depriving them of easily obtainable nutrients, it is the opposite of cruel to work against animal exploitation actively. If done right, a vegan diet is in no way lacking as compared to an animal-based diet.
Verdict | Is Raising A Vegan Child Practical?
A discussion that is part of a larger debate, a vegan lifestyle is an ethical alternative that you can introduce to your child early on to allow for a variety of benefits - not only to them but to the environment at large. It essentially boils down to whether you have the financial and emotional resources to commit to doing so.
As you might have observed, while your baby can get all their essential nutrients from plant-based food sources, it may be a challenging venture all the same. However, keeping that in mind, creating guilt-free dietary practices has become extremely necessary. If you have the means to do so, then it is truly the most sustainable and healthy nutritional alternative out there.
