7 year old newly vegan, looking for (clean) multivitamin recommendations please.

[PinkyU]

Hi all, my youngest lo has been vegan (gluten free also) for a few weeks now. I’ve used this time to really have a look at what she eats and what areas of diet she may need a little support in.

I feel that she is struggling to eat enough variety for calcium, protein and B12. So I feel a multivitamin and perhaps a B12 specific vitamin would be helpful.

I’d much prefer ones that are organic and chemical free. I’ve had a look at “mykind” and am a bit eye-watery over the price, but with little experience I’m not sure if the cost is just the cost?

Have you looked on the vegan society website? They sell their own brand vitamins on there but not sure if they do a child version. At the very least they must be having B12 as the only dietry places they can get this is things like fortified milk /cereal, it doesn't naturally occur in any food. I'm not really sure what you mean by "clean" either tbh. For myself I just get whatevers on sale at the supermarket and I've never had a problem.

Oh sorry, just reread your post and you did specify what you meant by clean. My mistake!

Just remembered, we used the Nature's Aid multivitamin drops when my kids were babies as I also wanted everything organic (they just get asda own brand now I'm afraid haha). They do these ones which are much cheaper than the MyKind (which are insanely expensive)

www.naturesaid.co.uk/vegan-c16/natures-aid-kidz-multi-vitamins-minerals-p178

Thanks for that link @ByGrabtharsHammerWhatASavings, unfortunately some of the ingredients wouldn’t be suitable for dd due to the possible gut inflammation they can cause.

Gutted as the price was far more in-line with what I was hoping/expecting.

Ah that's a shame. Hope you find something suitable.

Nutrients and a vegan diet is a very important topic at any age, but much more so at 7.
You don't specify what she eats. Vegan in itself doesn't mean anything as it just specifies what she doesn't eat, but is she having a diet high in processed or ultra processed food with fake foods (fake burgers, fake sausages) or out of packets and jars, or a diet high in vegetables, pulses, tofu, seeds, ...

Calcium is tricky because unless you couple your supplement with vitamin K2, it won't go into bones/teeth.

You also must consider the 0mega 3 and be aware that the plant based ALA doesn't always convert into EPA and DHA. I was eating 800% of the daily recommendation of ALA and became severely deficient to the point of having cognitive issues.

Make a free account on cronometer.com and insert every morsel in the food dairy to check for nutrients. So many of us vegans are malnourished .

I buy my supplements for the USA, on a website called iHerbs and have several from the DEVA vegan range.

Some nutrients, like selenium, you can easily get from diet. 1 Brazil nut a day will cover your needs. Other are impossible to get from diet like B12, unless B12 has been added to the food, so take it yourself .
Zinc, vitamin D and iodine are other nutrients to consider.

For proteins, you need to first know the minimum she needs. At her age it is 0.9 gr/kg of bodyweight.

I have regular blood tests to check for all my nutrients, including omega 3.

B vitamins cannot be absorbed that well by the body in tablet form - they pass out in wee so literally money down the toilet. If you want your child to have b vitamins food is your best bet.

"Chemical free"- you know what chemicals are, yes? And that food is chemicals. You are chemicals. Your child is 7, and already has a medically restricted diet, veganism is unlikely to be healthy.

Veganism can be healthy but it requires a lot of planning. It can become very quickly unhealthy and even dangerous because nutrients on papers are not nutrients in real life, so the nutrients of an apple are averages, but the same apple, picked in your garden in September or in an industrial farm and kept almost frozen for 7 months before hitting your supermarket will not be the same.

THen there is the issue of your body and how it uses or converts nutrients.
Even with the best intentions and a dietician supervision it is very easy to become malnourished as I experienced.

I have a tumour inducing genetic syndrome with a 60% lifetime cancer risk, and follow a low protein diet and avoiding all the animal products was part of the diet. I am followed by a geneticist, dietician and I became unwell because of my diet.

A lot of vegans forget about the VEG letters in vegan . Becoming picky about which supplement and looking for "clean" is missing the point.
Buy a good nutrition book and learn about vegan nutrition, being aware it will only make you conscious about the needs with no guarantee of covering them.
For the B vitamins, nutritional yeast in your salads or soups or even tofu, gives a good kick.

Making nutritional mistakes in crucial years can have long lasting consequences.

We use asda multivitamins! The kids ones are great they are not organic I wouldn't imagine
But the reason I'm posting is make sure you get her an algae omega 3 which has the long chain DHA and EPA DPA
Not just ALA
We use together omega 3 from holland & barret
Also the protein and calcium are not too difficult almost all plant milk is fortified and nutritional yeast is excellent for added B vitamins which like a PP said can put in almost anything
Most tofu is calcium set! Cauldren's definitely is I hate the stuff but my 3 year old loves it which is great
I'm not sure about GF bread etc but most flour is also fortified so I would assume that is also

I was actually having a look today and was pretty surprised at how little fruit and veg is OK for a vegan diet for children so don't panic too much

I wouldn't called 4 serving of vegetables and 2 serving of fruits " little" amounts.

For the average seven year old!

Is this your seven year old's free choice to further restrict her diet so much more than her peers?

Only in a rich country would a parent voluntarily risk malnutrition for their child with voluntary diet restrictions on top of a medically necessary diet.

This is like being anti-vax, a rich person's privilege. If you have money to burn on expensive supplements, why not feed your child properly, which you can afford to do, and donate to a project that helps actually malnourished children access nutrition? Once every child in the world has adequate nutrition, then I'd say to parents wishing to restrict diets them supplement, "crack on", but in the current world, it disgusts me.

The Vegan board is a safe place for vegans and vegan parents where they can ask for advice.

A restricted diet is not a prerogative of vegans, but a generalisation .
I see restricted diets all around me in non-vegans.
A diet made of morning cheerios, sausage rolls/ chicken nuggets for lunch and McDonals in the evening or similar 50-shades-of-beiges, high processed foods, junk foods, crisps, biscuits, ....
Kids here in Australia have become blind because of these diets, we just don't call them with a label.
I see kids eating enormous amount of serious crap, so in that regard, even an imperfect vegan diet is better than that.

We don't know what the OP's child eat, so we shouldn't be quick to blame or attack.

And generally, choosing veganism and doing it carefully is fine.

But this child is already coeliac. And she's only seven. This is very different to an adult, or a teen, who is capable of weighing up the decision. This is very different to someone who is free to eat a "normal" vegan diet. This is a very young child who is already on a restricted diet for medical reasons, being encouraged to further restrict her diet. A vegan coeliac diet for a seven year old (prime time to be fussy) will be incredibly restricting. She's seven.

Feed them properly???

With what meat and dairy that's been proven to cause disease and obesity?

The amount of plants grown to feed cattle could end world hunger

Omnivores can also be deficient its not a vegan thing

Far more people on the planet are vegan for the majority of time without having a name on it.

Lots of children don’t eat a balanced diet, regardless on their parents feelings about tofu.

Have you looked at Health 4 All? I have no idea where it is on the “chemical” scale but they sell everything I need, except evening primrose.

Thank you @LeGrandBleu, @firstimemamma and @40andginger for all that information, we’re reading as much as we can to make sure we’re knowledgeable in covering all her needs.

I understand your concerns @Bravefarts, we’ve held this off for a long time after repeated requests and self imposed refusals to eat meat/animal products.

Dd is autistic and for a few years has had a severely self restricted diet, this has consisted of lots of highly processed foods, beige, bland and unimaginative. Little to no vegetables, a few fruits, no nuts, grains, legumes, seeds etc.

In the last few weeks since becoming vegan she’s now eating most vegetables (as above struggling with greens), most fruit (allergies allowing), beans, legumes, pulses, nuts, seeds, tofu, rice etc alongside some processed vegan alternatives.

Her diet has expanded massively, she’s in less pain re her gut and associated inflammation (joints, eyes) and is just generally happier.

However, whilst she is eating more variety the actual amount is small, she fills up quickly and the new “whole foods/unprocessed foods” she’s eating are, in all honesty, just more effortful for her to chew (after soft bland food, and her sensory difficulties) so the actual amount she’s eating overall is less than previous (though she is currently maintaining her weight). Hence us looking to ensure we have all her dietary essentials covered while she increases and expands her food.

But the 'clean' 'no chemicals' restrictions come from you?

She also eats lots of nori in sushi and some is soup (though she’s not super keen on soups) which I’ve read is a good source of calcium but I’d prefer her or feels she needs more variety of sources.

She drinks nut milks.

What do you mean by "no chemicals"?

And your child also has allergies? As well as coeliac, and a predisposition to a restricted diet?

Obesity isn't caused by dairy, or meat. I say that as a vegan. Gosh, veganism can be healthy. Omnivorous eating can be unhealthy. But nonsense about "chemicals", and allowing a seven year old with coeliac disease, a restricted diet, and allergies, restrict their diet further, isn't ethical to encourage.

You can be vegan, with losing sense of perspective that children need nutrition.

@TheSpottedZebra yes, I’ve noticed a lot of vitamins contain ingredients that can cause gut inflammation and irritation so I’d prefer ones that are as “whole food” as possible to prevent her possibly reacting to these irritants.

Gluten free and vegan is a difficult combination. We eat a lot of vegan food, and get a lot of recipes from the Bosh Facebook page and their books. Obviously you would need to navigate round the gluten issue, but the recipes are so imaginative and tasty that even meat eaters don't miss meat.

The biggest revelation for me was making cashew nut cream. It makes the best korma ever, and I'm not even vegetarian, let alone vegan (but I am slightly lactose intolerant).

@Bravefarts as above I’m looking for vitamins that don’t contain ingredients that are known to potentially cause gut inflammation and irritation, so I’m looking for recommendations for ones other than the ones I’d already found (which are expensive), I asked on here as I thought some experienced vegans may have some across some.

It’s an odd one as in choosing to change her diet to vegan, she is now open, motivated and excited to eat foods (on a consistent basis) that she would never have previously.

We’re being very careful and vigilant, we also have the support of our gp who has advised to keep a diary of her weight, gut symptoms and general wellness over the next few weeks.