Is a Vegetarian Diet Safe for My Child?
Written by admin on May 17th, 2009
If you are a vegetarian parent you have probably considered putting your child on a vegetarian diet. Not only would it save you time and make meal planning easier, but for dietary reasons or ethical reasons you may believe it is the best choice for your child.
Conversely, you may not be a vegetarian but you may have a child who is at a vegetarian phase where he or she is rejecting meat but doesn’t eat enough healthy foods to compensate for the nutritional gap.
Whatever the case may be, you may be wondering if a vegetarian diet is a sustainable, healthy choice for your child. Or, perhaps you have heard that a vegetarian diet could potentially stunt the growth of your child.
These concerns probably prevented you from putting your child on a vegetarian diet up to this point.
You should be aware that these concerns are in-fact legitimate issues and that if a vegetarian diet is poorly planned, it can cause serious long term and short term deficiencies especially in children who do not have sufficient stores of vitamins and minerals in their bodies as yet.
If you have not done sufficient research and are not well-prepared for the task of putting your child on a vegetarian diet, then you probably should not. However, if you’ve done your research and are aware of the kind of nutrients that vegetarian diets lack, then you know that these problems can easily be over-come with some meal planning.
You will probably be aware that putting your child on a vegetarian diet can greatly improve his or her health and limit the exposure to animal products that are often linked to hormones and preservatives.
To begin your child on a vegetarian diet you should make sure that you your meal-planning ensures enough of the following elements that vegetarian diets lack:
1) Protein - make sure that your child is getting enough protein from additional sources such as nuts and soybeans.
2) Calcium - ensure that your child is getting enough calcium in his diet by including lots of green leafy vegetables to his diet.
3) Iron - add more iron to your child’s diet by increasing beans, soybeans, tofu and cereals.
4) Zinc - enhance your child’s Zinc intake by increasing, nuts, peanut butter, and mushrooms.
If you concentrate on compensating for all of these common deficiencies that vegetarian diets lack, then, you can absolutely put your child on a vegetarian diet without any negative consequences.
Nicky Pilkington
http://www.articlesbase.com/health-articles/is-a-vegetarian-diet-safe-for-my-child-11246.html
11 Comments at "Is a Vegetarian Diet Safe for My Child?"
Will it be safe to raise my child vegetarian?
When I have my child, I was him or her to be a vegetarian (obviously, not until they start solids though). However, I have read in some places that it is not healthy to not feed your children meat or whole milk (we're 2% people, but apparently you can change them to 2% at age two. Neither of us are vegans, just ovo-lacto-vegetarians.) Would it be possible to have a healthy child raised on a vegetarian diet? Regardless of my beliefs, if it is not healthy, I'm not willing to put their health at stake, so that's why I'm concerned. Thanks for any help!
yes
the American Dietetic Association has stated that vegetarian diets are healthful and nutritionally adequate during all stages of the life cycle, when appropriately planned. It is important that vegetarians understand the principles necessary to practice safe and healthy vegetarianism.
colorado state university
http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/foodnut/09324.html
http://www.vegfamily.com
References :
He or she should be able to decide about that, why turning them into what you want them to be?
References :
Yes it is healthy as long as they are getting plenty of protein from sources other than meat - I would keep them on whole milk as long as possible just so they are getting plenty of calcium to help them grow.
However, be prepared that once they grow up they may change their beliefs - I had a friend who was raised vegan but who would have meat for lunch every day in school because she loved it but was afraid to tell her mom.
Many people are brought up healthy and happy on a vegetarian diet so I wish you the best of luck.
References :
Raising your child to be a vegetarian could be the best thing you could do for his/her health. Be sure to talk to a pediatrician about it so you can come up with a good diet that will supply the baby with all the nutrients that it needs.
References :
I'm a vegetarian and have friends that give their babies vegetarian food approved by their docs.
it is safe. lots of people in england do so and the children are usually healthier than other children who eat meat
References :
vegan atheist
Absolutely pump your child with Veggies and fruits!! Once your baby is weined off breast milk they will no longer need milk again. Doing this will be the healthiest way to raise your child.
References :
I believe that everyone should be entitled to a diet that they want to follow, even children. Obviously children are too young to understand what it means to be a vegetarian, but when they grow older I think it is their decision as to whether they want to eat meat or not. Being a vegetarian can definitely be healthy if done correctly so if you want to raise your child vegetarian, just make sure they are getting all the vitamins and nutrients they need.
References :
I just asked the same question hun and i think we should go to our pediatritian or even better buy a book that helps babys coming from a vegetarian family but it will be hard for me as i am a new vegetarian and his father is not and he goes to his fathers every weekend so i dont know how im going to do this as his father wants him to eat meat and i Definatly dont
References :
Sure, if you want an undernourished, sickly and pale kid. Please feed him meat, eggs, fish, milk and cheese.
References :
> Will it be safe to raise my child vegetarian?
Parent two healthy vegan kids.
Know many others.
> (obviously, not until they start solids though)
Breastfed our kids exclusively until they were 8mo.
Slowly started feeding them easy to digest foods, continuing breast feeding for at least a couple years.
> However, I have read in some places
> that it is not healthy to not feed your
> children meat or whole milk
I'd never give my kids milk, even if I wasn't vegan. There's no need for it. No mammal on the planet consumes milk after they are done feeding on mother's milk. Only humans do, and they take the milk from other animals — very unnatural.
> Would it be possible to have a healthy
> child raised on a vegetarian diet?
I know many people who have been vegan or vegetarian their whole lives. There are so many books on the subject, but just look to somewhere such as India, where millions upon millions of people are born and raised vegan or vegetarian - it has been very normal there for thousands of years. It's their traditional diet (vegan, that is — dairy consumption has only started in recent history in India).
There's a good book you should read, along with other books about breastfeeding, vegetarian/vegan children babies, and it's called "Macrobiotic Pregnancy and Care of the Newborn" by Michio Kushi. No, you don't have to be macrobiotic (that just basically means eating locally grown seasonal foods) to read it, because it is full of great information about pre-pregnancy, pre-birth, birthing, post-birth, etc. and it's almost all vegetarian too. See, foods you eat before, during, and after will affect your child. It's really important information I think and recommend it to everyone as a basic book to read before having a child.
Other good books are written by Dr Michael Klaper… well, there are so many, just google it.
Ask away if you have any more Qs… I'm an old pro at this now.
References :
Comment Now!