photo credit: Can Stock Photo/ftlaudgirl
Despite media pieces aimed at discrediting vegan diets for kids, vegan children clearly can thrive when they have appropriate diets. For a project I’m working on, I’m hoping to learn more about the experiences of people who are raising vegan children or are in the process of transitioning their family to a vegan diet.
What kind of challenges have you faced as a vegan parent regarding nutrition and food choices? Which foods are especially important in your family meals to help your kids meet nutrient needs. Have there been any issues regarding school or social situations? How do you talk to your kids about why the family is vegan, and what is their response? What are their favorite foods?
Anything you’d like to share would be helpful . You can do so publicly in the comments below or on facebook, or you can share your story with me privately through the contact form (or send me an email if you’re an email subscriber). Thank you for helping me spread the word about the safety of vegan diets for children.
My 15 yr old son has been vegan since he was 5 (vegetarian before) and my 11 yr ild son has been vegan his entire life. They are great at reading ingredients lists, if they’re unsure they just won’t eat it and they’re both foodies who have very few dislikes. Neither has expressed any interest in not being gegan. If they see something non-vegan they want to try they will help look for a vegan recipe or figure out how to veganise it. They are both very healthy and rarely get ill. Anything you’d like to ask feel free to contact me.
My husband and I have been vegan for almost 11 years, and we have a 4.5 year old, vegan since conception. We don’t really face any challenges as vegan parents regarding nutrition and food choices. We readily obtain fresh produce and vegan packaged/processed foods. When our son was an infant, I had an unsuccessful breastfeeding experience, so he was given organic soy formula. He thrived on it. When he was a little over a year, we transitioned him to his current milk blend which is 2 parts fortified soy milk (EdenSoy), 1 part unsweetened hemp milk, and 1 part homemade cashew/oat milk (with added powdered multivitamin from Dr Fuhrman). In the homemade milk I add a Brazil nut, date, and a couple prunes. He still drinks a small pitcher of this milk per day, and we actually have to limit the amount he has or else he wants to drink more than eat. When he was under 2 he ate a huge variety of foods (that we ate), but after 2 he became more and more picky. (Grr!!) Currently, he’ll eat the following (in addition to his milk blend): apples, bananas, berries, dried mango, prunes, other seasonal fruits, corn thins, puffed corn, popcorn, flour tortillas, toast with earth balance, puffed Kamut, Wheaties, other cereal flakes (unsweetened or lightly sweetened), angel hair pasta with earth balance and nutritional yeast, pancakes, Chao vegan cheese slices, Lightlife vegan hot dogs, sunflower butter, and possibly some things I’m forgetting. He does have a peanut allergy. This is not a large variety, I know! It’s a struggle to get him to try foods. He gets a daily Vitamin D and B12 vegan gummy supplement in addition to the powdered multivitamin in his milk blend. He is very healthy, strong, and within the low average range (based on the bell curve) for height and weight. (We are both short and light, too). I don’t stress about his food because it’s just not worth the struggle and he appears to be thriving. He attends preschool and there haven’t been any issues so far. We pack him a snack daily. He knows that we don’t buy foods from animals and he knows we don’t eat animals, eggs, fish, cow milk, etc. He will point out thinks that he doesn’t eat in the store or on TV commercials. I’m just getting to the point where I can explain a little more. We are 100% vegan for animal rights reasons. My parents and my sister are not strictly vegan but they do make all plant based meals when we all get together at holidays, so it’s very normal in our family. I feel extremely comfortable since we have been vegan for so long.
My husband and I were already longtime vegans by the time we became pregnant with twins. They have just turned two years old, and we haven’t had any noteable healthy or stigma issues – they are 100% happy, healthy toddlers! We do run into the issue of other parents bringing non-vegan snacks to share at their early childhood learning classes, so we always make sure to pack our own snacks, just in case. We also felt a little pressure from our hospital nurses to feed the kids cow’s milk formula after their birth, but we resisted, and they absolutely thrived on breast milk. I’m excited to learn more about vegan parenting as the kids grow!
Continued from above – my son also will eat refried beans and rice at Mexican restaurants and pizza crust (but not the pizza itself)
I have been vegan for 15 years so I had a vegan pregnancy and am raising my twin daughters (now 6 years old) vegan. They understand that we are vegan because “we don’t want to hurt animals.” So that they are not tempted by non-vegan foods, I make sure to be prepared at all times. If they are going to a birthday party, I feed them before-hand and sometimes pack vegan cupcakes for them. Of course, I email the hosting parent first to ask permission to bring a vegan dessert for my kids and about 80% of the time, the hosting parent says she will just buy vegan cupcakes from Whole Foods for them. Many of the families around us are very respectful and supportive of our choices. They have even invited us to dinner and had many vegan options for everyone. In school, there are always vegan options but they may not be as appealing as the non-vegan options. I end up packing my kids more processed foods/snacks than I would like, but I want to make sure my kids don’t feel deprived in any way. The snacks are not awful — it’s usually bean chips (5g protein and 4g fiber per serving), lentil chips, or popcorn. I also pack dried strawberries, roasted seaweed, and apple sauce packets. Unfortunately, my kids don’t eat sandwiches…
But I’d say *that* is the biggest challenge: because I’m hyperconcerned that my kids will feel deprived and tempted to eat non-vegan foods, I end up overcompensating and giving them sweets or snacks more than I probably would otherwise. For instance, if we’re in the city for some festival where there are no vegan foods, I’ll take them to the vegan donut shop for donuts. And to compensate for them not getting to eat from the big, beautiful cake at their friend’s birthday party, we end up baking a lot of fun stuff at home. We’ve been playing around a lot with food coloring so our homemade cupcakes, donuts, and cookies have many colors and decorations. They eat a lot more sweets because of this than they would if we weren’t vegan and I wasn’t so worried about them feeling left out…
I agree re: over compensating with sweets and cakes. So much so I seriously thinking about selling my cakes to local cafes!
Hi! Me and my husband were vegetarians and became vegans when I got pregnant (4 years ago). We have a 3 year old vegan and are now expecting a new vegan into our family (due date is middle May). Regarding nutrition and food choices, we had a good breastfeeding experience and he self-weaned at 18 months, I believe mostly because he ate so well everything else that he didn’t care much to be sitting still nursing. We have regular doctors appointments in the NHS, like every child, and when we asked our doctor if she thought it necessary to have blood tests, a nutritionist appointment or something like that to check his health she readily said no, because he was cleary well developed fisically and cognitively, and she was happy with the diet we were giving him. Of course, if there were any concerns, we would make and appointment with a nutritionist, but our approach to food is more intuitive: we eat a varied diet, lots of fruits, vegetables of all colours, good fats, and also the occasional sweet. We also supplement with a multivitamins for kids mostly to ease my worries. He drinks fortified oat milk, eats a good amount os dried fruits and nuts and loves fruit. Regarding social situations, my mother and also onde of my nieces are vegetarians and my MIL always cooks vegan when we visit, so it’s been ok. At school it’s a bit harder because it’s only mandatory by law to have a vegan meals in public schools and those only start at elementary. Right now we send him his afternoon snack and his lunch his a mix of the soup of the day with added pulses, some side dish, salad, fruit, etc (the school does not allow to send his own lunch due health&higiene regulations issues). When there is a birthday his teacher warns us and we send him a slice of vegan cake. He also has always a pack of Oreos in his backpack for emergencies birthdays (like, the teacher forgot to warn us, the parents of the child didn’t warn the school that they were going to send cake, etc). Even thought the kitchen staff is utterly useless in preparing vegan meals (they tried the first couple of weeks, the food was lousy and he didn’t eat it), the teachers are always trying to accommodate his diet and we manage the situation quite well. He already knows (and says) that we don’t eat animals, because animals are friends, and that the eggs are chicken’s babies, and so on. Sometimes we do have someone asking stupid questions like “Oh, is to allowed for children to be vegan? That’s very extreme” or “You shouldn’t force your views on your children” and that sort of thing. But mostly people are nice about it. I think that it’s going to be harder when the school trips to the zoo start, and when they have to learn about food and farms and stuff like that in school, because there are some thinks in the curriculum that we don’t agree upon, like what foods are healthy and such. But we take each day and challenge as they come. Feel free to e-mail me with any questions.
Hello! thank you for your big post about raising vegan children!
you said we can ask you any questions by email, but you didn’t leave your email)
I’d love to ask some questions, I’m a vegan mom from Russia, my son is 1,5 years old, and my question are mostly about social life of a vegan child, it seems so hard and scary right now, how we will socialise with other kids, go to school, our country is much less vegan friendly than Europe or US
Oh, I forgot. Favourite foods: peanut butter, “fish sticks” but made with spinach, fries, beet soup (because it’s pink, duh), mangoes, pasta, fried green beans (it’s a portuguese tradicional dish), yoghurt, dried figs and cookies of any kind, shape of flavour.
I’m a vegan mother more than 25 years live with my 16 years old vegan daughter , /she never eat meet and drink animal milk products/..She’s started to be a vegan activist in Granada , Spain where we live right now, and yesterday she show a film “why vegan” and gave a lecture on the biology class in the high school… everybody was shocked the teacher went out from the class because she cried like a small girl, everybody cried some boys not..half of the class promised they will never eat meat again and try to stop the cheese and milk …I’m so happy about this…little by little but i hope we could change the world and the key is in the education …i only one time take her to the zoo to see and feel what is going on and never goes again..she’s also an activist to stop and empty the tanks ,her one of the favorite animals are whales and dolphins…she would like to work with wolfs in the future…
That is so beautiful and sad, Miriam. Beautiful – because you and your daughter bring awareness to the world (or at least her class). Sad – because, unfortunately, the majority of those kids will probably come home and tell their parents about that and won’t see any support from their parents. Well, hopefully, it will stick to their young minds that animals suffer a lot before they get to the people’s plates, and in future, they will be able to make their own decision to go vegan…
I find it quite sad that vegan parents are under attack and scrutiny when the majority of American children have very poor diets. Of course, every parent, vegan or not, should be paying special attention to what their kids are eating but I’ve found that vegan parents are nearly always more educated about nutrition and nearly always feeding their kids healthier. My partner and I have both been vegan for ~8 years and we have a thriving vegan 2 year old. She eats 4-5 vegetables a day and mostly whole foods. She has always been way ahead of the curve physically and intellectually and rarely gets sick. On the other hand, her non vegan friends are constantly sick, refuse to eat any vegetables and usually are not excelling and thriving to the extent that her vegan friends are. Of course, this is all anecdotal evidence but it boggles my mind that people spend the energy worrying that vegan kids aren’t getting what they need when most non-vegan children are definitely not getting what they need and no one says anything to the mom whose kid only eats macaroni and cheese and hot dogs.
As a holistic nutritionist, I strive to make my child’s plate 1/2 vegetables (both starchy and non, usually with a leafy green) and then 1/4 protein (tofu, tempeh, beans, meat alternative) and 1/4 carbs (pasta, bread, etc) and a fruit for dessert. We live in a very vegan friendly city (Portland, OR) so we have lots of vegan friends and even vegan family! Our child attends a vegan preschool too! So far, we’ve only scratched the surface with our 2 year old about why we are vegan but she understands the concept of ‘friends not food’ and she is very adamant about being an animal lover. Her favorite foods are spinach, beet greens, broccoli and grapes.
Thanks for all your hard work! As a vegan family we appreciate having your knowledge and expertise!
I have a six-year-old and eighteen-month-old. We rely on soy milk, peanut butter, and beans for calorie and nutrient density, and both children eat a large variety of fruits and vegetables. The most challenging part isn’t meeting their dietary needs; it’s still the social pressures and lack of education among the community. Many people are supportive, but sometimes people are well-meaning but speak way out of bounds! I know my children are eating a far more nutritious diet than the SAD, yet because we are outside the norm, we are asked questions that most omnivores are not.
Shouldn’t you also be interested in hearing from the parents have had issues with raising their children vegan?
We decided to forgo a plant-based diet when my wife became pregnant because we weren’t able to find any good information on how vegan diets may impact pregnancy and child development.
I have brought up all my kids vegan. They are aged 17, 14, 8 and 6. With the older ones I found it much harder, with no school dinner options and doctors, midwives and health visitors saying their diet might not be balanced. These days the medical profession seem much more clued up and I get no hassle, and there are vegan options almost everywhere.
I would recommend anyone wanting to raise their kids vegan to read some books on nutrition. I’m not suggesting that people can’t give their kids a balanced diet, as I’m sure we are all capable of that, but if you can sound knowledgeable it tends to help.
I am a board-certified pediatrician and am raising both of my sons vegan. They have each been vegan for 8 years and are 9 and 14 years of age currently. They are incredibly healthy and thriving and do not have health problems. They are very active children. I supplement them with a vegan multivitamin that include B12 and Vitamin D as well as omega 3 DHA/EPA.
I’d love to hear more about how you transitioned your oldest, if you don’t mind sharing. I have fairly recently started following a vegan diet and my almost five year old daughter has no interest in it. She says she doesn’t care that animals get killed to make meat. Any advice on how to explain things in an appropriate and non guilt tripping way would be much appreciated!
If you don’t mind sharing- What multivitamin do you use? I’m having a hard time finding one where three vitamin D is from a vegan source! ( also my daughter just turned 1 so gummies aren’t an option yet.)
Which Vegan multivitamin do you use, if u don’t mind?
I am a step parent. My partner was vegetarian with his three girls and his ex. There were lots of problems with the in-laws not respecting vegetarianism and feeding the kids meat. After the split, he went vegan and she went omnivore. The older the kids get (teens) the more they resent being vegan half time. We don’t even try to enforce what they eat outside of the house. If we go to a party with food they will run the cheese and meat with glee at getting back at their dad for their ‘forced’ veganism. Some of this attitude probably come from their mother, who has used their half time vegan diet as a reason for one of the daughters’ health problems. That daughter is convinced that she must eat meat to be healthy. The kids were more idealistic and on board when they were younger. They actually love all sorts of vegan food and don’t complain about the food in front of them, more about the concept of ‘having’ to follow their dad’s diet. I say this because it isn’t always easy, especially with the influence of others, to keep the kids on board as they grow.
Hello! My family transitioned to a vegan diet this past month. My daughter turns 2 this week. She didn’t like cow’s milk, eggs, or meat so I felt like I was constantly struggling to get her to eat these items that she didn’t enjoy! After some health issues with my husband’s gut and some research, we decided to focus on a vegan diet, mostly plant-based. It surprisingly has been a very smooth transition for us! I was nervous at first to get rid of my daughter’s minimal cheese and whole milk yogurt consumption, but once I found items to supply her with calcium, vitamin D, and B12 I felt pretty confident in our decision. We also consulted a plant-based dietitian (with a young daughter as well) so it was very helpful to get all of the information so I felt comfortable transitioning us. I get asked often about our protein intake by friends and family, but most are very open to hear about what we’ve learned so far! Our biggest hurdle right now is getting my daughter to eat more vegetables and beans (she doesn’t like the texture), but she is always willing to at least try these foods – even if she does spit them out! I focus on getting veggies into smoothies, sauces, and other dishes whenever I can for her. I even puree up cooked beans with sweet potatoes for a delicious dip or burrito filling. I’ve always loved cooking so it’s been enjoyable to focus more on plant-food preparation than mostly on meat! Sharing our journey through my blog and Instagram has also inspired me to be creative with our dishes and arm myself with as much research as possible. I’m fortunate that my daughter is so young because transition her has been pretty easy. We just deal with the typical picky toddler days, but that happens to even meat eaters!
Oh for my two year old, her favorite foods are fruit smoothies! Which is great because I incorporate greens, a variety of fruits, unsweetened soy milk, fortified unsweetened coconut yogurt, rolled oats, flaxseed, chia seeds, hemp hearts and more! Pasta is another favorite dish of hers so we always incorporate veggies into the sauce and rely on higher protein pasta noodles (like Banza garbanzo pasta, brown rice & quinoa pasta, etc.)
[…] my last blog post, I asked vegan parents to share stories of their experiences in raising children. Although I […]
I have been vegan for the past 18 years and currently have a two year old daughter with my non-vegan partner. I remained vegan throughout my pregnancy and we are raising our daughter on a vegan diet. Even though my husband is not a vegan, he has decided that he does not want to eat meat in her presence (we keep a vegan household but my husband would often eat non-vegan food outside the home before she was born).
Our daughter is well-nourished on her vegan diet. I breastfed her exclusively for the first five months of her life and then slowly introduced solid foods. Neither my husband nor I are particularly tall people, but our daughter has always been in the 95+ percentile for height and usually between the 60-70th percentile for weight. We started giving her a daily multivitamin with iron (or at least try to do it daily!) after she turned one and supplemented her with Vitamin D before that.
My husband and I work full time outside of the home, so our daughter has been attending daycare through an early learning center full time since she was 8 weeks old. We really lucked out with this center. It has a kitchen and creates every meal and snack fresh, from scratch. And I mean EVERYTHING. Nothing comes from a can or package. The center was already using a vegetarian menu when we enrolled, but only because they keep a kosher menu. (Since state law requires that cow’s milk be served at every meal, meat can’t be served per kosher dietary law). Once our daughter turned one and moved into a classroom where kids are served meals/snacks from the kitchen, the center, without my even requesting, changed their menu to become 100% vegan (minus the cow milk that they are legally required to make available to the children as a beverage). The chef was herself transitioning to a vegan diet at the time after years of being vegetarian and reasoned that with the various egg and dairy allergies among the children, it was easier to just make everything vegan. They also provide her organic soy milk at every meal. We don’t pay anything extra nor do we have to provide any foods. Like I said, we really lucked out on this front! Given where we live, this turn of events was certainly not something we expected.
As for foods our kiddo eats, I would have to say her hands-down favorite is a tie between plain soy yogurt—yes, plain—and, no joke, raw tofu straight from the package. We don’t even have to heat it up! She gladly eats it plain, as-is, though our own sensibilities usually drive us to offer her some coconut aminos to dip the flavorless cubes in. Even then, I think it’s more about the act of dipping for her than it is the flavor. Other go-tos include:
Pasta with red sauce (and usually some minced broccoli thrown in for good measure)
Veggie fried rice (esp Trader Joe’s Japanese style…can be iffy about homemade)
Cheez quesadilla on yellow corn tortilla (usually w/broccoli or spinach diced and mixed in)
Whole grain “everything” bagels with cream cheez, tofurkey, and romaine lettuce
Beans straight from the can (she is weird)
Pizza w/red sauce, vegan cheez, mushrooms, black olives, and onions
Smoothies made with some assortment of fruit, soy milk, spinach, and nut butter
Mac and cheez (homemade cashew-based cheez sauce)
Field roast veggie sausages
Blueberry pancakes
Oatmeal with cinnamon, minced walnuts, and raisins
Thinly sliced apples w/peanut butter
Almond butter by the spoonful. Throw in some raisins and it’s a snack! Add a glass of soy milk and I might even call it lunch depending on the day… 🙂
PB&J
Homemade granola bars
Homemade chia seed and walnut crackers (which she loooooves to dip into Miyoko’s cheez dips)
All manner of healthy homemade muffins (we favor oat and bean flours as a base)
All manner of fruit, esp mango, strawberries, bananas, freeze-dried pineapple, pears, watermelon, and mandarin oranges
Despite the fact that my husband and I eat a vegetable heavy diet at home, our daughter doesn’t really eat vegetables outside of what I have detailed above. She would never eat cooked peas or carrots on their own but somehow seems fine when they are in her favorite fried rice. She protests the broccoli I sneak into her quesadillas but begrudgingly eats it because at the end of the day, she wants that quesadilla. We continue to offer her the vegetables we eat daily and she continues to turn them down at every opportunity. I am hopeful that one day she will come to love them as much as we do. The only notable exception to her vegetable aversion is when we go to a particular vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant in the area (which is usually only on special occasions). There she devours salad roll upon salad roll and gobbles up their cabbage salad (comprised of raw cabbage, raw cilantro, pickled carrots, and pickled daikon radish in a lime vinaigrette). She would *never* eat these individual vegetables at home, raw or cooked. I have also tried to recreate these same dishes at home but she won’t have any of it. I am convinced this restaurant is enchanted.
As far as family is concerned, my younger brother has been vegan almost as long as I have and our extended family has, over the years, become quite supportive of our “lifestyle.” They go out of their way to include plenty of vegan side dishes and treats at family gatherings while the resident vegans usually provide a main dish (and more treats!) Thus, holidays and the like haven’t been too tricky so far. I am sure as she gets older though and realizes that her loved ones are eating animals, that will present new challenges. These are conversations that have to be had with vegan children regardless of the dietary choices of their extended family though.
Our daughter’s pediatrician is aware we are raising her on a vegan diet and has not had reason to raise any concerns. She is vaccinated according to the CDC schedule (I had no idea until very recently that this was maybe a controversial thing for vegans??) It was never a question for us. Since becoming pregnant and having our daughter, we, along with our immediate family, now get the flu shot every year as well. A life of compassion for all living beings must include consideration of our fellow humans! For us, that includes being socially responsible and immunizing ourselves to help protect not only ourselves but vulnerable peoples in our community.
All in all, we have been very fortunate to find ourselves surrounded by so much support. We feel great about our decision to raise our child vegan, but I would be lying if I said I didn’t have any worries about navigating the world of birthday parties and school lunches as she gets older. It’s definitely a non-vegan world out there and I want my daughter to feel confident about her diet and proud of our family’s values in the face of potential naysayers and critics.
The facebook group ‘Vegan Pregnancy and Parenting’ https://www.facebook.com/groups/veganpregnancyandparenting/ would have some good stories and info 🙂