Raising Vegan Babies

Many people wonder how safe it is raise their children on a vegan diet. We are all made to believe that we NEED meat and dairy for survival!! It can be a scary transition, because of course you want the absolute best for your child. Well, rest assured that a vegan diet is perfectly safe (and in fact much healthier than the standard American diet) for your children and for you.

Check out Keep Kids Healthy, a great website about all sorts of health issues for kids.
Another great resource is Veg Family, addressing all sorts of issues and ideas for raising a vegan family, from diet to activities to nutrition and health.
Parenthood.com has a great article, with tons of other links and resources for raising vegan/ vegetarian kids, too.

Also, check out the books I've recommended in previous posts, which all have sections on raising vegan kids!!!

You might be asking, "will my child get everything he or she needs?" The answer is a resounding yes. First, the main thing meat has to offer is cholesterol. Your bodies external intake of cholesterol should be zero, as the body makes all the cholesterol it needs to function on its own. Otherwise, the protein is the easiest thing to come by from non-animal sources. Everything is packed full of protein. Scroll halfway through this page for an excellent chart showing protein content in animal vs. plant foods.

Now on to dairy. Dairy and eggs also offer high levels of cholesterol. In addition, they can be packed full of harmful hormones and antibiotics which can actually harm your child's growing body. Otherwise, dairy is a source of calcium, and sometimes vitamin D or other added vitamins. Luckily, soy milk, and rice milk are fortified with the exact same amounts of vitamins and calcium, making for an easy switch. Even better are the natural sources of calcium and vitamins also known as fruits and vegetables. Dark leafy greens are excellent sources of calcium, as are almonds, figs, beans, rice, and many other fruits and vegetables.

It is easy to get all the nutrients/ vitamins you need on a plant based diet. The important thing is to eat a variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains. If your diet is balanced, then your children will be healthy too. Especially for nursing moms, as long as you are eating the right amounts of fruits and vegetables, and laying off the refined sugars, caffeine, added salts, alcohol, and processed foods, your baby will be super healthy and free of artificial hormones and antibiotics.

For more info on how to balance your diet and make sure you are getting the right servings, check out Vegan Health, and the many books I continually recommend (search the "vegan resources" tag on this page's side bar).

**Though I am neither a doctor nor a nutritionist, my knowledge and suggestions come from an accumulation of information acquired from the books listed in previous blogs and the many articles I reference on the blog.**