Should I raise my child vegan?

[Howtolivelife]

Okay, I get it, milks important, but is giving my child soy milk or almond milk really a better solution? My mother certainly doesn’t agree.

I myself became vegan some years ago for personal reasons and was wondering if raising my child with that lifestyle would be unbenificial, how would she cope at school? There’d be so much she could and couldn’t eat that it leads me to wonder if the other kids would poke fun because of it.

What’s a mother to do?

In short I think it’s fine but it will be harder worker for you to ensure they have a balanced diet.

I would eat vegan at home and be flexi away from home. My DC have allergies and honestly it's so wearing making sure all things they come into contact with are "correct" and I feel so bad when their friends have something and they get fruit or a plain cracker as the substitute. Or when you find an ice cream at all but they don't have sorbet and they make a sad little face

Fwiw mine don't really like much meat so they often eat vegan all day (they can't have dairy so don't have the "cheese choice" hah) but it's also a PITA to get their vitamin supplements in them.

I'm an omnivore but would actually like to go veggie again one day

I think if you're meeting their nutritional needs when they're small its fine, but sooner or later they'll want choice and you shouldn't stop that and force them down the vegan path.

As soon as they go to a birthday party with chicken nuggets they're going to chow down 😋

I think if you’re a vegan it makes perfect sense for you to raise your child as a vegan. With a growing number of vegan adults, it makes perfect sense that there will be a growing number of vegan children.

@fmac2987

I think if you're meeting their nutritional needs when they're small its fine, but sooner or later they'll want choice and you shouldn't stop that and force them down the vegan path.

As soon as they go to a birthday party with chicken nuggets they're going to chow down 😋

To be fair this goes for everything. Not just food. Children are people in their own right and they increasingly make their own decisions as they grow. That’s baked in, so to speak. It doesn’t really have anything to do with your decision around how to raise your child. If you provide vegan food at home, that’s what they get at home, unless they request or buy something different.

It doesn’t really have anything to do with your decision around how to raise your child

I think it does I think that’s why it’s so important on issues like dietary choices, religion etc that parents make it clear “this is my view and as such how you have been raised so far but it’s not the only view and it’s fine to not follow the same path as me”

If nothing else it lets them come to their views on things because it’s their views and not just because they either feel compelled to agree or want to rebel!

No I wouldn’t (and I say this as a vegan myself).

GloriaPunniford

My children have a choice but everything I cook is vegan. I do allow meat/dairy etc in the house and the children can eat whatever they want outside of the house.

Nutritional intake is key, a good vegan diet is so much better than a poor omni diet.“

Sensible position to take.

I only need to look at the people I know that are vegan to realise that there is a severe lack of nutrients in the vegan diet. Despite exercising regularly, their skin is dull, excessively wrinkled, and they look about 20 years older then that actually are.

I could perhaps raise my kids veggie but not vegan. I don't think it's an appropriate diet for a young child who has no choice in the matter.

What nutrients are lacking @Peanutsandchilli? (Other than B12 which is given as a vitamin or spray)

When I worked as a family support worker I was horrified by the food some children were being fed in apparently omnivorous households. Not a vitamin in sight, microwave burgers for tea, eaten from a plate on the floor as there was no dining table.

I don’t doubt that for a second. I’m a terrible cook. I can burn water. But feeding my kids a variety of foods mean at least they stand some chance of getting a wide range of nutrients. If I started taking 80% of food stuffs off the table I honestly don’t think my kids would be healthy. So the OP really needs to be sure she knows how to feed a vegan diet encompassing all the nutrients required plus have children that will eat the food she prepares.

It’s going to be tough but I’m sure some people do it successfully.

I only need to look at the people I know that are vegan to realise that there is a severe lack of nutrients in the vegan diet. Despite exercising regularly, their skin is dull, excessively wrinkled, and they look about 20 years older then that actually are.

Whereas eating meat and dairy makes you talk absolute bollocks apparently. Now, get back in your cave.

80% is a bit of an exaggeration- 1/3 of your diet is supposed to be fruit & veg and 1/3 starch so that’s 2/3 of it that’s meant to be made up of foods which are naturally vegan.

Peanutsandchilli

I only need to look at the people I know that are vegan to realise that there is a severe lack of nutrients in the vegan diet. Despite exercising regularly, their skin is dull, excessively wrinkled, and they look about 20 years older then that actually are.

I could perhaps raise my kids veggie but not vegan. I don't think it's an appropriate diet for a young child who has no choice in the matter.“

We live between a city and a large coastal town in the NW. Town is amongst the most deprived in the UK with many of the very worst health stats in the UK.

Many of the people in that town who look exactly as you describe have been through necessity or lack of education been raised in cheap, processed meat products.

Sweeping statements in support of either choice generally aren’t realistic or helpful.

It’s not to my taste, personally, but a very nutritious, vegan diet is not that difficult to achieve and often cheaper than a diet including animal products.

I think it's fine until they're old enough to choose for themselves. I know someone who did this, not really by choice as her DC had a load of allergies, (dairy, soy, nuts, eggs, lamb, beef...) and she was already veggie, so they all went vegan. Seems to be fine.

I know a few adults who have gone vegan and became really unhealthy, but I assume they are choosing the wrong vegan foods. You're used to it and I assume aren't ballooning in weight or feeling like shit or you wouldn't still be doing it, so imagine you'll manage your DC's diet just fine.

I think you should allow them to make heir own choices and bring them up omnivores until then. If you demand vegan you will make their childhoods especially difficult as schools are not really set up for vegans and kids need iron and calcium from easily accessible foods. All schools use free range eggs now and you could nag the Lea to use free range meat (worth an ask!)

Plus your kids will be the 'I can only eat chips etc' at parties and teenage outings. Veggie might be an easier option.

@SuperstarDog

Cows milk is the best

It is the best......for calves. Shame they don’t get to drink it.

Indeed!

This thread makes me wonder about the birth-to-12m+ stage; infants really DO need animal milk. Ideally milk from their own mother i.e. exclusive breastfeeding, which of course would be the way for a vegan mother to raise a vegan child from birth.

But if not exclusively breastfeeding - and let's face it, that's pretty rare - I would be really worried about using vegan infant formula (if indeed such a thing exists).

I was raised vegetarian and was very glad to be, once I was old enough to make the choice I stayed vegetarian (and subsequently went vegan of my own volition). My child will be raised vegan because of my own, and my husband’s, ethics, and we all choose what we think is best for our own families. Also no judgement on anyone else but personally I don’t want to force animal products on them until they are old enough to know what they are and make an informed choice. I would have preferred to have been raised with no animal products at all. Once they are old enough to decide then they can choose to do whatever they want.

If you want them to be flexi make sure they have some regular but infrequent experience of meat or dairy or it will upset their stomach.

I think you should allow them to make heir own choices and bring them up omnivores until then.

A lot of people seem to say that, but I would have preferred to have never eaten any meat. I feel disgusted that I’ve eaten it without being given a choice. I think in years to come, eating animal products won’t be the norm. I think we’ll look back on the exploitation of animals as a terrible thing. Lots of people think of products have words like free range, organic, grain fed, red tractor approved, animals have a decent life but unfortunately it’s not true.

No it’s haram to be vegan. Astagfirullah

This is a good resource that I intend to have regard to static1.squarespace.com/static/59f75004f09ca48694070f3b/t/5a5a4935ec212dd5067a0622/1515866446317/Eating_well_Vegans_Oct_2017_final.pdf

Thank you for sharing that @kikisparks, I’ll have an in depth read later but it looks really helpful. I see it mentions that there are no vegan formulas for infants under 6mo which surprised me. MIL told me my DP had CMPA as a baby so he had special formula which I thought was soya based but things might have changed since then!

I would feed them the diet they have evolved for, until and unless they decide to do differently. However we feel now about eating animals, as a species we only exist because our ancestors did eat animals.

Were we to all stop eating animals or animal products overnight then there wouldn't be enough food for everyone on the planet and people would starve (not the wealthy westerners obviously).

Nut 'milk' isn't great from an environmental perspective, often the nuts are grown in very droughty areas.

I would feed them a balanced diet, with grass reared red meat from local farmers, and organic poultry. I would avoid processed meat alternatives, cheap poultry, or red meat from abroad, and I'd avoid nut 'milk'. I would teach them the importance of knowing where their food comes from, the value of buying high welfare produce and the imperative to reduce food waste.

They can make their own choice when they're old enough, but then you've given them the opportunity of understanding the issues/context for whatever they decide.

@TuftyMarmoset you’re welcome i think the specialist formula used for CMPA is vegan other than the vitamin D but available on prescription only (seems to be amino acid based rather than soya based, which makes sense as CMPA can often accompany a soya allergy) and isn’t recommended for babies without CMPA.