To think veganism is not for children?

[ohhhhlivia]

Yes, I am aware that it is perfectly possible to have a healthy vegan diet at any age. I know that.

However, it is more difficult and easier to get wrong if you want to be vegan. It still is restrictive (even with all of the new stuff coming out) as in you need to tell hosts, check menus in advance etc.

It's a barrier that has to be overcome. I don't understand why you would do that to someone who has no choice in the matter.

Lots of kids go through a fussy phase too, add veganism in and surely you're at a high risk of health problems?

I think what I'm getting at, is that childhood nutrition can be hard enough as it is, so it just feels wrong to make it harder for reasons that do not directly benefit the child.

I love the way that people keep using the words like 'corpses' and 'flesh' as if it's some sort of shock factor gotcha. As if a meat eater doesn't know that they are eating a dead animal! 😂

@ohhhhlivia I've been vegan for 20+ years and while I gave my children dairy, I would raise them vegan today if I had to do it again. It is not difficult. There is always something on the menu I can eat, either with or without slight adjustments. I'm not going to freak out if a spare piece of cheese touches my food - I just move it to the side. Even if I somehow ended up at a restaurant that somehow embedded animal ingredients in every item on the menu, I will not die. I can wait. I can go around the corner to tesco express and get a bag of salted peanuts and a banana. If I had small kids, I would make sure to have backup food for them when I went out, just in case, or, in an emergency, I'd be flexible. My children are now 13 and 19, the younger one is vegan by choice and the older is as well for the most part, though she is travelling in South America so is a bit more flexible when she needs to be.

@TitaniaQueenOfTheFairiesI (usually) make my own almond milk for baking or whatever, and even if didn't I'm not an idiot, I realise that almonds and oats don't have tiny nipples that are milked by tiny milkmaids. Every processed food is just that-processed. Being vegan doesn't make me forget that.

@Justkeeprollingalong I didn't word it too well. I don't understand the issue with plant based milks being called milk. Breast milk is for human babies, goats milk is for baby goats and then what we call "milk" is from cows and for baby cow's.
I am lactose intolerant like a large proportion of the worlds population. I use plant based milk in recipes and on cereal like most people use cow's milk. Why would anyone care about the name and if they do why are they not annoyed that milk is not called cow's milk. And if you are going to say it is because it is produced in the mammary glands and plant milk isn't then maybe we should sell all kinds of milk without a note of which animal it comes from.

I have been vegan for just over a year and my 13 yo has now decided to join me. I was vegetarian when he was born and he ate what I did until I felt he was old enough to understand what it was he was eating, so about age 4. Before that it had seemed crazy to feed something to my child that I didn’t agree with and that I wouldn’t eat myself. All parents ‘force’ their children to eat a certain way when they are young. Meat eaters are doing exactly the same thing.

My son has always been incredibly easy to feed and loves all kinds of foods including fruits and veggies. The only thing he had never liked is fish. It occurred to him the other day that despite being vegan he actually eats a much wider range of food than most of his omni friends!

We recently watched Forks over knives and The game changers on Netflix. If there is anyone wondering why vegans think their diet is healthier (as well as better for the animals and the planet) please give these a watch as they explain things beautifully.

Potato and canned beans? Where is the protein? The veg?

Is this post supposed to be intentionally funny

Anyway, vegan threads always bring out the batshit.

Of course it’s possible to feed kids a balanced vegan diet. Far, far more children are eating non vegan diets full of crap; trans-fats, poor quality meat, loads of sugar, limited fruit and veg.

As for calling SS - delusional.

But surely making your children eat meat is "forcing" your views onto them?

Nobody has answered the OP

I did!

Was there a different answer you were looking for?

Pretty sure I did too...

I don’t agree with forcing it on young children. We had a vegan child at toddler group and the poor thing was around 2 and looked severely malnourished, skin and bone, it was another child’s birthday so cake was handed out and I felt so sad when the father said oh no she can’t have that she’s vegan.

@BezalHell if I offered them a plate which only contained meat, then I would agree 😉

Nobody has answered the OP.....

Well I'm guessing if done correctly veganism is fine for kids. 🤷🏻‍♀️ people can only speak about their own experiences.

My daughter's brain certainly hasn't lacked development through not eating animal fats. In fact given that she's studying neuroscience at a prestigious university on an excellence scholarship and has already been told that her dissertation is likely to get published then I'd say her brain development is just fine

@joyfullittlehippo, do you have a source for only organic grass fed meat containing B12? I am pretty sure that cattle overwintered on silage and supplemented feeds have plenty of B12.

rainingallday you make no sense whatsoever. Whatever you feed your dc is forcing yourself views on them. Do you give your dc horse meat, dog meat or grubs? Why not? In many cultures these are completely normal. Why do you think what YOU eat is the 'norm' and anyone doing anything different is doing it wrong? Many millions of people around the world eat vegan or close to vegan as the norm. They would view you as a disgusting savage for eating flesh. Who is to say who of you or them is right or wrong?

my friend is vegan and thinks she and her DH are eating healthy because of the absence of meat/dairy/egg. Their diet consists of highly processed crap.

their sons are brought up vegan too and are 10 and 12. They are both very small for their age (parents are average to talk), skinny, very pale and often ill. I think it's their (crap) vegan diet and that booth kids are lacking nutrients.

I say that as a vegetarian (who lets the kids eat meat).

I think a vegan diet is probably suboptimal nutritionally. I accept that the ideal human diet is probably plant based with small quantities of fish and meat and with children breastfed for 2-4 years.

However a vegan diet in the modern world is nutritionally adequate for most people and does not require the slaughter of other creatures. I choose not to harm other creatures when there is an adequate alternative option and there currently is. I feed my children vegan because I will not financially support harm to other creatures. As they get older they can eat animal products on other people’s dime or buy them with their share of the family money.

If there is a need to use animal products at some point then we will. I vaccinate my children because there aren’t vegan options and the alternative (not vaccinating) is inadequate. I fed my daughter with complex needs dairy based high calorie formula because she needed it.

Feel free to report me to social services. I can’t imagine they’d be interested.

TatianaQueenoftyeFairies errr how is nut milk no different from supplements and not food. Cultures have been drinking nut milk and oat milk for a thousand years. It's food. It's not animal milk but that doesn't mean it's not a food. Unless you think juice and soups are not foods either. Do you think nothing but animal milk is food? There are some freaking weird comments on here tonight.

YANBU. I am dead against people forcing their views on their children, and particularly when it could be (and probably WILL be ) detrimental to their child/children's health.

I have no problems with vegans (unless they are the evangelistic, preachy sort) but I do agree it is a decision that should be for the child to make when they are older. It is a lifestyle choice so let children have the choice.

If anyone’s interested in actual, you know, evidence, take a look at nutritionfacts.org and also Dr Gemma Newman on Facebook.
Lots of quality research around the benefits of plant-based diets for adults and children.
I’d sooner invest my time and effort in cooking nutritionally planned vegan meals from scratch for my young children, than giving them meat from goodness knows where, fed and pumped with goodness knows what, heightening their risk of a whole range of diseases later in life for them.
Anyway, I respect the views of meat eaters and even though I disagree, I certainly wouldn’t report them to social services. Unless the team there were having a down day and wanted a giggle.

I'm neither vegan nor vegetarian.

However, I'm aware it's perfectly possible to raise a child as such and ensure they have the appropriate nutrition.

It's equally possible for parents to who eat meat to provide poor diet that doesn't give give children the nutrients they need.

So, frankly I'll reserve my judgy pants for parents who don't provide a proper balanced diet regardless of their overall food choices.

Finally I fail to grasp the argument about imposing a vegan diet on children. Non vegans impose a dairy and or meat inclusive
their children. Why is one choice more "valid" than another?

In a wider context we also make lots of choices for our children that shape their future development and heath. Why should their diet be exempt from that?

I find this whole vegan bashing attitude quite tiresome tbh.

@ohhhhlivia what exactly were you hoping to get from this thread , given that you keep posting that people are not answering your OP. It appears to invite discussion as to whether a vegan diet is appropriate for children which is what posters are doing.

Seems like formerbabe thinks the only thing kids should eat is an egg with butter

The b12 issue is a bit of a pointless one as the majority of b12 consumed by meat eaters is fortified in animal food, which is passed onto the person that consumes it, so it's six and half a dozen. B12 is produced in soil.

@cantfindname oh come off it. Literally everything you do when you raise children is 'forcing a lifestyle choice' on them. Sending them to school, home education, one type of school like Montessori over another type of school. Attachment parenting or putting him in his own room the moment he's old enough. Church or mosque or temple or no religion whatsoever. Living on a farm in the Hebrides or living in a 15th floor flat in London. The food you serve in your own home is no different than any of these 'lifestyle choices'. It only becomes a problem when it's something that you continue to 'force' when they are old enough to make their own decisions - whether it's continuing to go to church (or not go), whether to take on the family farm when they're old enough, or, indeed, what they choose to eat when they are old enough to eat away from home or buy their own good. My (teenage and young adult) children are absolutely free to eat what they like when they are out of my house (subject to my mild disappointment if they were to go straight to a steakhouse) and they are free to bring non-vegan (though not non-vegetarian) food home to cook and eat as they please.

Any way we choose to bring our children up can be difficult and restrictive at times.

Diet choices - not having any cooking skills, being Jewish, vegetarian, vegan, relying on processed foods. All choices and all with associated barriers.

Bringing your child up as a particularly religion can be restrictive.

Insisting on reading with your child before bed rather than letting them fall asleep watching tv - restrictive.

Choosing a family hike every Sunday rather than two hours on the Xbox - restrictive.

Surely the point is that as parents we make choices about how we bring our children up. Some of those practices we choose to do despite the associated restrictions because those values are important to us to instil in our children.

OP, what is the question in the OP that you want answered?

The main barriers encountered in feeding a vegan child would be faced by the parents. If the parents are up for the research, the cooking, the meal planning, what business is it if yours?

Then once the child makes their own choices they can eat what they like.

Loads of parents navigate bringing up kids with non mainstream diets: kosher, halal, various allergies, coeliac disease , no refined sugar, etc etc.

Choosing to be vegan gets easier and easier all the time because it is so popular.

People just need to make sure their kids food is nutritionally OK.

The NHS is calm and helpful in the matter: www.nhs.uk/conditions/pregnancy-and-baby/vegetarian-vegan-children/

(I am not vegan, or even veggie)