Can I raise my child as a vegan?

[muddlethroughmumma]

I myself have been vegan for nearly a year, and all throughout my pregnancy I was shamed for being vegan even though if anything my baby's growth and our health was off of the charts, can I raise my child to be vegan or would it be seen as limiting his diet in a wrong way, don't get me wrong have had soy protein as meat alternatives in foods to ensure we are still consuming a balanced diet so there wouldn't be any limitations on his diet. If anyone else is raising their children as vegans or vegan their self I would appreciate some advice. xxx

I think that’s a good suggestion. I always gave my kids vegan at home, my partner gave them non vegan if he cooked.

Being relaxed about it meant they got to join in with sweets and parties with friends without feeling left out. Kids want to fit in and not be singled out. As much as I think being vegan is the best choice, we live in a non vegan world at the moment so it’s hard for kids in certain situations.

One of my kids is ‘officially’ vegetarian by choice but thinks they’ll be vegan soon, eats dairy/egg very, very occasionally. My partner and other child eat mostly plant based but maybe cook meat once a week or if they have a takeaway and they eat some chocolate.

A vegan diet is healthy for a child though, as long as it’s done well. I’d speak to a dietician if you want to do it or at least research it well. And obviously give a multivitamin but I think that’s a good idea for kids anyway.

And get rid of these people that are shaming your choices, they’re unlikely to be good people to have around your kids in the future.

This is good advice. My husband is vegan, I'm vegetarian but we mainly eat vegan meals because it's easier than cooking different things. DS (age 3) eats mainly vegan meals but he has dairy yogurt and cows milk with weetabix etc. He'll also happily eat vegan yogurt and soya or oat milk if we're out of dairy, we'll let him choose when he gets older whether he wants to be vegan or vegetarian. Or have meat if he wishes.

My concern in your shoes would be that it could be hard for your child not to be able to have a piece of birthday cake at a party etc and have to bring his own alternative. It's just my opinion but I would be relaxed about letting him have what others are having if he wants. We've always been happy for DS to have a bit of meat if we're at a social event where other people are having it, although he's never wanted to try it yet.

My son is vegan when he's under my control 🤣. I'm not going to enforce any rules on his grandparents who look after him 2 days a week.

It made me happy when they reported back he's stopped drinking the cows milk they give him and asked for oat milk though!

I raised my DS vegetarian which is a LOT easier than vegan.
now I'm vegan I have replaced a fair amount of products at home with vegan options but even if I could insist on him eating vegan outside I wouldn't.
in your position I would raise them vegetarian but with vegan at home.

I do. It's easy nowadays. Thankfully its becoming much more mainstream. Kudos to the folks who were vegan years ago.

Vegan alternatives to pretty much everything are readily available plus if you go to asda they are no more expensive as they match the free from prices to regular ones

That's ok if it's your child's party, but not everyone who invites your child to their child's party is going to have a fully vegan party. Making sure we had vegan alternatives for the vegan child at DS's party took as much effort as all the other catering combined, it wasn't so much the main part of the party food (although that was hard enough) but making sure I was there to swap sweets given as prizes by the entertainer for vegan alternatives. The child was old enough to know they needed swapping - it would have been harder stall with a younger child.

I think veganism is wonderful but surely this should be a choice for your child when they are older? I am not a meat fan at all, but made a variety of things for my children to eat. At the age of 8 one of my children made a conscious decision to stop eating meat, which of course I happily support.

I think you could and it would be fine when they're with you and eating food bought/prepared by you.

It does limit them in other ways though like school/parties/trips. I think with children I'd go with a flexible approach so vegan diet at home but maybe vegetarian elsewhere until they're old enough to decide themselves.

You can but you need to be incredibly careful about getting the diet right. DP is vegan but we'll be raising our kids veggie because we don't feel confident with the nutritional element of raising a child vegan. It's a huge task to undertake.

I've been a vegetarian for 30 odd years (since pre teen age), personally I don't agree with enforcing eating opinions on children, they should be free to choose for themselves

You have chances of harming their health by creating deficiencies and I tolerances.ost importantly, you made a choice as an adult, let them have this choice

Calcium is just not as readily available in non-dairy sources.

I’ve had to make a massive effort to ensure dairy-allergic DD has enough calcium. Second best source of calcium after dairy is small fish like sardines... Yes, green leafy veg have calcium but it’s not as readily absorbable.

If you do make this decision for your child you will have to be absolutely dedicated to ensuring they get all the nutrients they need. It’s more important for developing children than it is for you, so you may be very healthy indeed on your vegan diet but that doesn’t mean a toddler would be.

You need to do some research on the effects of too much soya on young children. Of all the replacement milks, soya is not the one to go for (nor is rice).

From a social perspective I think it’s a huge decision to make on behalf of your child that you’re going to alienate them from being able to fully join in with food at school and at parties.

I wouldn’t do it.

Yes, you can. You have to do lots of reading and approach it seriously.

People will give you a hard time, for some reason no one openly criticises the people feeding their kids turkey twizzlers and monster munch but a vegan is fair game.

There are quite a number of malnourished children in the UK, almost all of them are technically omnivores, just with very bad diets (either due to restricted eating or lack of good food).

The best thing with veganism is to keep quiet about it, practise some brush off lines e.g. 'I have taken nutritional advice and am happy with my choices' and most importantly be openminded about needing to change what you do if your child needs a different diet - don't put purity ahead of health.

If your child wants to eat meat, don;t make a thing of it and also you can always be vegan at home and omnivorous out of the home, that can be a good middle ground.

FWIW, I am not a vegan myself, didn;t raise my kids as vegan, and even though I was a vegetarian I fed my young children meat.

But my view is being a vegan is really, on the spectrum of diets parents feed to their kids, at the mild end if done properly.

Just cutting out food groups is a whole different matter.

True, but any diet has its risks. Check out the Cancer Research U.K. website (and World health Organisation) which list processed red meat (sausages, bacon) as a carcinogen. I see a lot of parents feed their children those.

I mean, whatever you feed them initially you are making that choice. It's unavoidable.

My now vegan by choice 11 year old hates the fact I fed her dead animals when she was little.

In short yes but be prepared to bend for certain things.

Breastfeed as that's the only vegan infant food source. If you can't then please use a standard formula. The non dairy ones are really only for use in serious dairy allergies and under doctor care. They are not as good for baby (especially baby boys) as the dairy ones.

Once you start weaning though you can be vegan if you want.

As for social side. My son is allergic to milk and learnt from a young age to ask before he ate anything. His best friend is vegetarian and together they know to ask before they eat.

She's very healthy by the way! Eats incredibly well with loads of veg and we actually haven't found parties to be difficult. People have been incredibly kind about it, which has been surprising and lovely.

(I always bring / offer to bring her food/ though as you say you can almost always find vegan food there anyway).

I totally agree about sausages/bacon etc - this is a known carcingen and feeding it to small children given what we know now is very strange.

@carefullycourageous yes, it seems mad doesn't it?

My sisters son is a huge animal lover and they feed him these things. He doesn't know they are animals (4.5) I worry about the day that conversation comes, as well as his heath from eating them. They're very intelligent and kind parents I don't really understand it when there are so many easy alternatives now. Maybe in time things will change.

Can you give the class teacher a tub of " treats" your dc can have so they don't get left out? One mum whistle kid had a oceanus allergy did that and it worked really well, they were never left out.

Ia with this also. Vegan where possible, but the occasional chocolate bar/slice of cake/pizza is nbd. As with everything, being too strict is not healthy. If you are vegan from an ethical pov you do not want your kid to feel guilty for eating non-vegan food every once in a while.

I've been vegan for 15 years and on the very odd occasion will eat something vegetarian out of politeness or to avoid waste. Imo it's best to be pragmatic rather than dogmatic.

People like to focus on veganism purely as an ethical stance when there is plenty of research done and available to show that a planned out plant based diet is very healthy ! As long as you don't limit your child or embarrassed them (sort of you can't have someone else bday cake etc) then you should be fine.
Just don't be anal about it.
People forget that choice to eat meat is a choice etc.All things we subject our children to is a choice parents make.So when they say you shouldn't be making that choice for them...well it's not like the child decided themselves to wean off and consume dairy for example ?(something by nature designed for cows )

This.I am plant based at home but if someone doesn't know and gives me chocolate box etc I will not correct them.

Yes you can but only if you breastfeed until the child is ready to wean (average seems to be about 3.5yrs). You should also get some proper advice from a registered dietitian and be prepared to reconsider if your child won’t eat enough of the the right vegan foods to have a balanced diet including enough fat and protein and all the essential micro nutrients. Protein is easy. Iron and b12 and calcium can be harder. Vegans really have to take supplements. A vegetarian diet is much easier to work with because things like eggs can fill those nutritional gaps very effectively.
If breastfeeding doesn’t work out or you don’t want to feed until natural weaning age, you really do need animal milk as a substitute (eg. formula, whole cows milk after 12months). The non-dairy alternatives are just not as good and it’s a huge deal when it’s a massive proportion of a baby or toddler’s food. Humans are mammals. Milk for juveniles is an essential. Oat/soy/almond ´milk’ is not milk, and mostly it’s not nutritionally equivalent in any way.

I have recently turned vegan about 2 months ago and feel the healthiest I've ever been in a long time. I have thought about doing a vegan diet for the kids but I just feel like it would be putting too much restriction on them. None of my kids are particularly great with eating a wide variety of vegetables and they hate things like beans and pulses. What I've decided to do is do vegan family meals a few times a week with things that everyone will eat and then cook omni meals for the rest of the time for kids and husband and then I have a separate vegan option.

I just feel kids being vegan is restricting them too much and it makes it awkward with them going to parties and friends houses. I don't want them to be resentful and I don't want them to miss out. I think being vegan should be an individual life choice and you should do it because you want to, not because it's been forced on you by someone else. If my kids decide they want to be vegan by themselves then I'll support them. In the mean time I can lead by example and hope that they will follow me eventually.