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.

Not vegan (although I do have a couple of vegan meals a week). My kids are going through fussy phase and the vegan meals tend to be the ones they have no issue with. I think if a family is mainly eating food cooked from scratch with a basics of nutritional thinking, they'll be fine whether vegan or omnivore. I wonder how many people who scream that vegans are malnourished actually get their 8 portions of fruit/veg a day & 30g fibre a day...

I'm interested in what parents do if their vegan child gets to school and they decide they want the cake at the party, or the birthday sweets, or they want the same thing as everyone else has made in cooking, or even that they just want a big fat greasy sausage roll!

I'm not being goady, I'm genuinely interested. My friend who is raising her child vegan hasn't got to this stage yet and I know it's something she is having to consider.

@peterrousethethefleshofmankind I can't speak for everyone, and my children were raised vegetarian not vegan (though I would raise them vegan today if I had it to do over) - but the answer is that when they were tiny children who couldn't choose their own food from the buffet or understand what they were eating, I made up plates with the veggie options and I didn't stress if they managed to get their hands on a cocktail sausage anyway. When they were old enough to choose their own food, we talked about why we ate veggie food in our house at a level they could understand, made sure they realised it was our choice and that other families and other kids made different choices, and if they still wanted a sausage roll, they could have it. Both of my kids were (and are) obsessed with animals and chose not to eat them (and being an animal lover isn't even why I'm vegan - it's because of the environmental impact).

I expect the average vegan child eats a more nutritious diet than those who aren't- because their parents are actually interested in food and therefore much less likely to stuff them full of junk.

So yes, veganism is for children, because it produces healthy children.

And yes, vegans are annoying. It's annoying when someone else is right about a whole lot of things.

I'm not a vegan- I will be making a massive corpse pie later today.

@PeterRouseTheFleshofMankind my teenage children eat meat and dairy. Not massive amounts but I think it was too hard when they went to sleepovers or parties and the only food was pepperoni pizza etc. They like the idea of being vegan but not the practicalities. It's all ok, nothing is made into an issue, they are people in their own right with their own views and morals.

This thread has become a debate about whether or not it's possible to get good nutrition from a vegan diet.

That wasn't my point.

My point, is that it is often difficult to get kids to eat a balanced diet to start with. It seems wrong to make it anymore difficult for no reason other than a moral stance (which I respect) but does not have any intrinsic benefit to the child.

Why make something hard, even harder? Being vegan is not healthier than a balanced, omnivorous diet. So there is no benefit to the child.

Food is not just about nutrition- it's far more complex. It's emotional, cultural, moral, mixed up with a sense of hygiene etc. Putting arbitrary restrictions on it is also effectively restricting those areas of development.

Reading to my child is not restrictive nor is taking them out in to the countryside. I love doing those things. A very bizarre and strained analogy!

And there are NO traditional vegan cultures.

Not even in India.

It's a modern phenomenon. But then so are both penicillin and agent orange. Doesn't mean a thing.

Thank you Jizelle and SonjaMorgan

Soy is a tricky one because huge swathes of the Amazon have been cleared to farm soybeans.

Most soy is grown to feed livestock, not people.

Surely feeding your children healthy vegan food is far better than burgers, nuggets and chips, which a helluva lot of kids grow up on.

YANBU. The things that make being vegan ‘easy’ are really no better than feeding your kids children nuggets and petit filous every day. Most children won’t be able to cope with a healthy vegan diet. A lot of them struggle with a healthy everything diet as it is!

Kids normally fit In With what the family eat at meal times
Obviously a vegan family is not going to cook meat for the kids ,they all eat the same
To be vegan you have to really give a shit about what you eat to avoid all the nasties ..
Worry about your own kids op ,and let the vegans worry about theirs

Nuggets and chips...

Chicken and potatoes?

Nowt like a bit of class prejudice 😎

@ohhhhlivia you are making no sense at all. Are you OK?

One could argue that it’s more unreasonable to force children to eat dead animals that have been factory farmed and cows breast milk when they could live without it. They could then make the decision if they want to incorporate those into their diet if they so wish when they are older? The whole “veganism isn’t an extreme diet” is quite a bad argument.
I do agree with accessibility and convenience options though, however it isn’t too hard to plan in advance and luckily we live in a world where lots more vegan options are popping up in convenience food and restaurants!

Forcing children to eat any food, is likely to cause them to gag. It's a stupid phrase.

@fairynick

Isn't the logical conclusion of that, to just stick them on peadiasure until they're 18?

@Jizelle

I'm sorry, would you like me to use smaller words? Interpretive dance perhaps?

Ive been vegan for over 10 years and veggie for 20 before that. Its a perfect diet, nutritionally complete. And its easier now than its ever been.
Any child who is deficient, and who also happens to be vegan, is deficient because they are not eating a good diet, and their food givers are uneducated.

Brought my 2 up eating a meat and vegetarian diet but as a pp said, would bring them up vegan if I had them now.

Any doubters should watch the documentary The Gamechangers.

I don't even have little kids anymore and I could come up with a healthy, easy to prepare, non-junk based vegan meal plan that most little kids would devour in about ten minutes (and if I weren't about to go out for the evening, I would - if this thread is still going tomorrow I'll do it then). This isn't rocket science. It would be more difficult if a child had food sensory issues or categorically refused all vegetables, but adding in meat and dairy doesn't make those problems go away.

@ohhhhlivia why are you so anti-vegan and making up these weird, nonsensical arguments and straw men, that's the question.
Maybe get off the computer and do something useful.

Food is not just about nutrition- it's far more complex. It's emotional, cultural, moral, mixed up with a sense of hygiene etc

Totally

Putting arbitrary restrictions on it is also effectively restricting those areas of development

But this is bollocks.

The emotional, cultural experience of food can easily be delivered in a vegan diet. There are vegan celebration foods, versions of national dishes, fun foods and so on. I’d say the moral dimensions of food production are introduced to the vegan child much earlier than the non vegan child. And I don’t see why that’s a bad thing.

I agree, OP.

I've read quite a few posts on here about what vegan parents feed their vegan kids, and what strikes me is how normalised highly processed, unethically produced vegan has become.

Soya is a synthetic hormone and is contraindicated in cancer patients. The airmiles that go into the various replacement milks are abhorrent - and the same with other grains. The water crisis in California is being worsened by almond production; avos are fast becoming a cartel-based business; farming communities in other countries are being starved by our demand for quinoa. The list goes on.

By all means raise your kids vegan - but see if you can do it on locally produced food that is as damaging as meat production (and sometimes equally unhealthy).

Sorry - that last sentence doesn't make sense at all!

"but see if you can do it on locally produced food and not internationally derived food that is as damaging as meat production (and sometimes equally unhealthy).

@Jizelle

Shoo.

Most kids diets aren’t healthy vegan or not.

Why is it “forcing” views or a diet onto a child by eating vegan? You could say exactly the same about meat, you’re forcing them to eat meat which can’t be rescinded.

Not a vegan, but not a gaping arsehole who gets tied up in other people’s diets either, just curious.