Eating habits are set in early childhood. Choosing a plant-based diet can give your child—and your whole family — the opportunity to learn to enjoy a variety of nutritious foods (from the PCRM website).
Contrary what the food industry and some doctors will tell you, children can thrive on a plant-based diet, more so than on an omnivore diet. However, it is important to be knowledgeable about the nutritional needs of children and how that translates into a well-managed plant-based whole foods diet.
Many people are worried that raising children vegan can cause all kinds of problems for the children involved. In recent years a number of high-profile stories and court cases have been used by some media outlets and proponents of animal-based diets to say that trying to raise your children on a plant-based diet is dangerous and criminal.
Apart from the fact that they ignore that worldwide tens of millions of children suffer from the consequences of animal-based diets, they also set aside the fact that the parents in these cases were misinformed to begin with, and that they ignored all the signs of malnutrition in their children. These parents did indeed act criminally.
However, children raised on a well-managed plant-based diet have better health outcomes than their peers, simply because they don't put junk in their bodies from early age.
The links on this page give you an overview of how to raise children on plants, what to watch out for, and how to make sure that your children can thrive on a plant-based diet.
- Overview of children's nutritional needs - by PCRM
- Nutrition for Kids - nutrition handbook for kids (recipes and ideas for healthy snacks)
- Milk for Kids - what infants should eat and drink (part 1/5), by Dr. Jackie Busse
- Soy formula for babies - debunking the soy formula myths
- Soy formula is safe - statement by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP)
- Use of soy protein-based formulas in infant feeding - policy papaer by AAP
- Soy-based infant formula fact sheet - by Viva Health
- The Ultimate Guide to Vegan Pregnancy - by Dr. Gemma Newman (paid content)
- The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Child Vegan - by Dr. Gemma Newman (paid content)
