Vegan child nutrition – pro – versus vegan nutrition in children

Vegan child nutrition

The topic of nutrition is enormously important for parents. With hardly any topic on health they have more influence than on the diet. Children eat what they are offered. Guidelines are given to parents by recommendations of large health organizations or their own pediatrician. Often, food choices are influenced by other things as well. For example, religious aspects (such as the renunciation of cattle by Buddhists or pork by Muslims) or other beliefs can influence the diet. Currently, the vegan diet is frequently discussed. But, what does it mean to eat vegan? Above all, it means a major change from the usual kitchen and rightly, parents will wonder if this diet is at all something for their children and their health.

What exactly does children eat vegan??

In a vegan diet is dispensed with all animal products; so not only on animal meat and fish, but also on the products of animals, i. also on honey, eggs and dairy products.

The term “vegan” actually goes far beyond pure nutrition and excludes the use of animal products such as wool, leather and silk for a vegan. Cosmetic products or household products that have been tested on animals are also taboo.

What speaks for or against vegan child nutrition?

Pro vegan diet in children

Who decides in our society for a vegan diet, does this out of pure conviction. It is the welfare of animals that justifies the abandonment of animal products. Many vegans are also convinced that they are not only more animal-friendly, but also healthier to feed, since many in the production of animal products necessary drugs or environmentally harmful products such as fertilizers, etc. then do not enter the body. If one already feeds children vegan, one takes direct influence on the later nutrition. Many of the vegan foods are so naturally integrated into everyday life. Even a certain value mediation can not be denied.

Contraindicated vegan diet in children

Since a large amount of food disappears for a balanced diet, the risk of nutrient deficiency is very high. It is extremely difficult to ensure the necessary energy supply that an infant or child needs for growth and development through the restricted diet. Unlike an adult, short-term deficiencies in needed nutrients can cause long-term side effects. If the organism does not get enough vital proteins, vitamins, minerals and trace elements, the health suffers greatly. For example, a child shortage leads to disorders of blood formation, growth retardation and permanent neurological damage.

Providing a child with a vegan diet with all the necessary nutrients requires a great deal of nutritional knowledge. Few parents have this knowledge sufficient to endanger the child. An exclusively vegan diet throughout childhood therefore considers the German Nutrition Society unsuitable!

A nice alternative to convey the vegan beliefs to his child and also to benefit from the health aspects of the vegan diet is the insertion of vegan days, interrupted by regular meals with animal products.

Mainly vegan-fed children often lack vitamin B12. A sufficient amount of this vitamin should therefore be ensured even with experienced vegans in principle by the intake of tablets.

Ideas for a “vegan day”

There are great vegan recipe ideas for children on the Internet and special cookbooks that make a “vegan day” a week a taste experience. A meal plan could look like this:

  • Breakfast:
    Wholemeal roll with jam and soy-based meats, cucumber and carrot sticks, with mineral water and orange juice
  • Main courses:
    fried rice with vegetables and bamboo shoots, colorful salad plate or tofu tagliatelle with tomato sauce and fried mushrooms
  • Dinner:
    Tofu and eggplant skewers or vegetable soup
  • In between:
    Corn flatbread with watermelon or banana

As a mother of two children, I deal with all topics relating to everyday life with children at www.kinder-tipps.com. Of course, the weight is always in focus. Even in the womb weight of a baby plays a major role and even after birth, it does not lose importance. But on the contrary. Now the health of our children is above all in the hands of the parents. Google+ | Facebook | Twitter

More articles by Lisa Werner. Lisa Werner’s website.

Marlies Brüggmann September 7, 2018 at 12:15

What do you think if a mother has already given birth to a healthy child with a normal diet. Now she decides to be vegan for one year, now for the second child without change during pregnancy. I’m just very worried that my second grandchild is born with a shortage. Can someone take this fear or write a review about it.

F.Piga October 17, 2018 at 11:24

Dear Lisa Werner,
I’ve been bothering with it for a long time, but I have to say it: your article may not be factually wrong, but it has no real content. Even the introduction suggests something evil. Parents have many, many opportunities to promote their children‘s health. Especially with children who are in public care facilities (ie most), the influence of parents on the diet is not as high as you are. And children do not eat everything that is offered – it would be nice.
Anyone who is vegan (s) t will educate their kids vegan, that’s logical and needs no special explanation.
The suggestion to take vegan days is likely to provoke real vegan people into persistent tantrums. You can not be serious about that! “Today I’m going to raise my kids, but that’s not so healthy, so we’ll forget that tomorrow.” Believe that people with the beliefs they listed in their section “Pro vegan nutrition …”, something like that seriously consider? And if not, who is your article aimed at? That’s not clear at all.
Because wraum should parents who otherwise eat vegetarian or even by mixed diet, vegan days insert? They also have no problem with milk and meat …
Maybe you should have gone into more intense reasons for vegan days, instead of the juxtaposition of commonplaces and the bleak statement that only vegan diets will not embarrass. Then your article would have a meaningful content.

Lisa October 17, 2018 at 13:17

Hi,
Thanks for your feedback. Too bad, if I’m with the listed items apparently not much help. The aim of this page was to carry as comprehensive as possible tips for the nutrition of children together. Here I really lack self-experience. Maybe you would like to tell something more about your way of life or your beliefs? I would be glad.
I for my part e.g. can understand the conviction behind this diet well, but it does not actually make in the family on vegan diet or exclusively vegetarian food switch. I find “vegan days” already a good step towards a more conscious diet. A nice tip but also from you, here more on the motives for it.

F.Piga October 17, 2018 at 15:21

Dear Lisa Werner,
Your article has been pretty much picked up by me. Nevertheless, you answer very friendly and open. I expect you to high.
Our family does not eat vegan. We just skip fish and meat, which is commonly considered vegetarian and is actually quite old-fashioned. Of course it is true that the reduction of animal products on the diet is already a good step. I was disturbed by the fact that in this context the word vegan falls. Veganism is a lifestyle based on a particular ethic. So you can not be vegan one day and not the other, just as you do not believe in God one day and not in another. Maybe you find the hair-cleaving, maybe it is. In my opinion, an inflationary use of this term blurs the very message of this way of life, and thereby everything becomes arbitrary and superficial.
Now to the concrete: Vegan also means to compensate for the abandonment of animal products. But if you do not give up what is practically the case, if you only omit meat, milk, etc. on some days, you do not have to compensate. Then you can make a pure vegetable-fruit-cereal day, without having to do for many getting used to the taste of soy products and the like (which also do not bring so much). In that sense, their ideas for such days are quite ok.

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