NOVEMBER 1998

UPDATED MARCH 2009

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When my son was six years old I decided that we would both become vegetarian. I started to change our diet by replacing several meat-containing meals a week with vegetarian recipes and continued to do this until all of our meals were entirely meat and fish-free. My son adapted quickly and particularly liked eating veggie burgers, pizzas and macaroni cheese. Eating out wasn't too much of a problem for him as vegetarian meals were available on the school menu if he wanted to have a school dinner. In fact, on most days he preferred to take his own packed lunch to school anyway. When he visited friends' houses for a meal after school, he was usually happy to eat a cheese dish, or else I provided a frozen veggie burger (or nut cutlet) for the parent to cook. And when we were travelling veggie burgers, baked potatoes or vegetarian pizzas could be obtained fairly easily from most cafes and restaurants.

However, in these early attempts to devise meat-free meals we often consumed more eggs and too much cheese and after about four years on a vegetarian diet I became increasingly dissatisfied with it and started to question whether removing meat from my diet was actually preventing animal cruelty at all. I found it difficult to understand how keeping cows perpetually pregnant, so that I could eat more cheese and other dairy products instead of meat, was actually being kind to cows or to their calves and I also wondered if our fat-laden, cheese-and-egg containing diet was really doing us that much good! It was at this point that I started to research the vegan diet. I obtained a copy of Dr Gill Langley's book: Vegan Nutrition from the public library and after reading it I decided that there didn't seem that much to worry about after all. Vegans, it seemed, were not a load of 'cranks' but healthy, normal people who tended to be of higher than average intelligence!

Reassured by this research, I started to move towards the vegan diet, gradually replacing dairy products and eggs with egg substitutes and soya alternatives. However, by this time, my son was about eleven years old and had started to develop a few ideas of his own, so changing his diet wasn't quite so easy this time. In fact, he decided quite firmly that he didn't want to give up his cheese and wanted to remain a vegetarian! Eventually though, we reached an agreement that at school (and on school trips) he was a vegetarian and that he would eat vegan meals at home to make cooking easier, but would be allowed to have some cheese and dairy products whenever possible. Now, four years later, Richard follows a nearly-vegan diet and is happy to eat soya yogurt, soya ice cream and vegan cheese. He is not strictly speaking a vegan because he still insists on putting cow's milk on his cereal and also reverts to a vegetarian diet on school trips!

So how do you raise vegan children? For a start I am sure that it's far easier if you bring children up as vegans from birth and it also helps if both parents follow a vegan diet and can offer a consistent example. However, better late than never, so late starters shouldn't be put off!

This month I have put together a list of Internet and off-line resources which I am sure will be of interest to anyone who wants to find out more about bringing up vegan children. This resource list includes many books, leaflets and Internet sites and I hope that you will all enjoy using these resources to find out more about this topic for yourselves. However, if you are short of time, then I have included a brief summary for you below:

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1. Let's Start at the Beginning - The Vegan Infant



• Vegan babies should be breast fed if at all possible. Benefits include protection against infection and a reduced risk of allergies.

• Never give young babies ordinary soya milk - it does not contain the proper ratio of protein, fat and carbohydrate, or enough vitamins and minerals. If you are not able to breastfeed, then a soy based formula should be used for at least the first six months. At the moment, the only suitable soy infant formula, available in the UK, is 'Farley's Soya Formula' which is made by Heinz and is available from most chemists. Babies, in the USA, have more choice and Dr Reed Mangels recommends the following brands of US. soy formula for babies under 6 months:- Isomil, Prosobee, Nursoy and Soyalac.

• Solid foods are usually introduced sometime between four and six months. Introduce them when it becomes apparent that your baby is no longer satisfied with his/her normal amount of formula or breast milk. Throughout weaning, continue to feed your baby the usual milk intake and introduce new solid foods, one food at a time, to see if there is a reaction. (Common reactions include skin rashes or sore bottoms.) When you are sure that particular foods will not cause a reaction, then you can make meals more interesting by combining different pureed fruits or vegetables, together. Iron-fortified baby rice cereal is often given as a first food, because it is unlikely to cause any allergic response and at around six months various, cooked and pureed fruits and steamed vegetables can also be introduced. First of all try pureed stewed apples or pears and mild vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, swedes, turnips, parsnips, courgettes, cauliflower and broccoli. A little later you can introduce pureed tomatoes, peas, spinach, peaches and plums and from the age of six months your baby will probably like some of the tiny egg-free pasta shapes (used in soups) which can be served with a vegetable puree for a sauce. From about eight months food does not need to be pureed so smoothly and you can now give your baby some mashed foods or leave some small lumps for your baby to chew. (Remember when preparing baby food do not add any salt or sugar.)

  You will find an example of a feeding schedule for babies of 6-12 months old in the nutrition section of Simply Vegan by Debra Wasserman and there is also a copy of this schedule on the Internet at the Feeding Vegan Kids website, listed below.

• If you are unable to obtain a book of special vegan baby recipes, then it is worth looking in the ordinary baby books in your public library, as these often contain recipes which are suitable for the young vegan baby, because meat, fish and dairy products are not normally introduced into any baby's diet until after the age of six months. The Complete Baby and Toddler Meal Planner by Annabel Karmel, is one such non-vegan book which has many easy, fruit-and-vegetable based recipes and you will find that most of the recipes, before page 53, are suitable for the vegan baby. Incidentally, it is also worth looking for recipes in any vegetarian baby books that you can find. Tofu, soy cheese, soy yogurt, legumes (e.g. lentils, split peas) and nut butters are usually introduced at around 7-10 mths and by the age of one year, vegan babies can also be given nutritional yeast, blackstrap molasses and ordinary soymilk. However, if there is a history of nut allergy in your family, then it is better not to introduce nuts until the child is about three years old and of course children under three can choke on whole nuts, so use nut butters or grind nuts for young children.

• Supplements: Nursing mothers should make sure that they are getting enough vitamin B12 in their diet, as breast milk is the only source of this vitamin for the breastfed vegan infant. In winter, breastfed vegan babies may need a vitamin D supplement if they are not getting enough sunshine and breast fed infants are often given an iron supplement from the age of 6 months, although many infant cereals are now fortified with this important vitamin.

• It is now fairly easy to purchase ready-made vegan baby foods and these can sometimes be quite useful if you are travelling or if you are in a hurry. You will find a list of suitable brands of vegan baby foods and other baby products that are suitable for the vegan baby in The Animal-Free Shopper.

  2. Moving On - The Growing Child

• It is very important to make sure that growing vegan children have adequate calories. The vegan diet tends to be high in fibre and can be rather bulky for a child's small stomach. Vegan children need to be given more low fibre, energy-dense foods than vegan adults so include: nut butters; tahini; fruit spreads; fruit juice; chickpea hummus; pureed beans and avocados.

  3. Nearly There - Adolescence

• Adolescence is a time of rapid growth and change and parents need to make sure that vegan teenagers consume enough protein, calcium, iron and vitamin B12. A sixteen year old, weighing about 120 pounds, needs about 44 g of protein/day. (The RDA for protein is 0.5 g per pound for 11-14 year olds and 0.4 g per pound for 15-18 year olds.) Bone density is also determined in adolescence and young adulthood, so it is important that young people eat three or more helpings of calcium-rich foods/day. (See last month's article for good vegan sources of calcium, iron and B12.) 

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Resource List for Vegan Parents

Leaflets:

1. Happy, Caring, Healthy and Sharing
   Is an illustrated booklet especially written for vegan children. Written by Graham Burnett, it is available from SpiralSeed.

2. For Vegan Parents
   Leaflet, available from the Movement for Compassionate Living. 

3. The Vegan Families' List
   This list is available, free of charge, from the Vegan Society (UK) but send a SAE. All of the vegan families on this list have had, or have, vegan children and are happy to be contacted for advice and support. 
4. The Vegan Diet for Infants and Children Available from the Vegan Society.

Books

1. Pregnancy, Children and the Vegan Diet by Dr Michael Klaper. (Gentle World.)
   A very useful book for vegan parents and parents-to-be. It contains meal plans for pregnant women and children and a selection of recipes. Available from the American Vegan Society.

2. Simply Vegan by Debra Wasserman and Dr Reed Mangels.
   Has a useful section on 'Feeding Vegan Kids' (p.189-198) which includes a feeding schedule for vegan babies aged 6-12 months and a diet plan for older vegan children. It also has a good section on the vegan diet in pregnancy and lacatation.

3. Vegan Nutrition by Gill Langley
   This book surveys the research on vegan diets but also has a section on vegan mothers and children. 

4. The Mother, Baby & Toddler Book by Rose Elliot
   This guide covers the vegetarian and vegan diet in pregnancy and gives many menus and recipes for mums, babies and toddlers. 

5. The Vegan Diet by David Scott & Claire Golding. (Rider)
   This vegan cookery book contains some recipes for vegan children. (See 'Children's Favourites' section on p.121-128.) Note: some of the recipes in this book contain honey.

6. Vegetarian Baby and Child by Petra Jackson
   Has 180 recipes for babies/toddlers. Most are vegetarian and contain milk or butter, but vegan substitutes could probably be used. 

7. The Animal Free Shopper
   This pocket-sized book is available from the Vegan Society (UK) and has a small section on the vegan baby and infant care products which can be purchased in the UK.

8. Freya Dinshah - Feeding Vegan Babies. (Leaflet)

9. Vegan Children by Dr. Reed Mangels.

10. Vegetarian Baby by Sharon Yntema. (McBooks Press)
    This book contains the knowledge needed to bring up babies on a vegetarian diet. 

11. Vegetarian Children by Sharon Yntema. (McBooks Press)
    This book provides parents with the assurances and knowledge needed to raise healthy children on a vegetarian diet. 

12. Vegetarian Pregnancy by Sharon Yntema. (McBooks Press)
    How to have a healthy vegetarian or vegan pregnancy. 

13. Better Than Peanut Butter & Jelly: Quick Vegetarian Meals Your Kids Will Love! (McBooks Press)
    This book contains over 150 low fat, sugar-free, easy-to-prepare, vegetarian and vegan recipes. It's still available from McBooks Press. 

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Interesting Web Sites:

1. Wholesome Baby Foods
2. Avoiding the Baby Food Trap
3. Feeding Vegan Kids - Dr Reed Mangels
4. Raising Vegan Children - Vegetarian Journal
5. Travelling with Vegan Children
6. The International Vegetarian Union 
7. The Vegetarian Youth Network Home Page

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Mail Order Details for Books/Leaflets:

1. The Vegan Society.
2. Movement for Compassionate Living. MCL, c/o Sumac Centre, 245 Gladstone Street, Nottingham NG7 6HX, UK. Tel: 0845 458 9595.
3. The American Vegan Society.
4. McBooks Press. 
5. Amazon UK
   

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