Carefully planned vegetarian diets for children can provide all the nutrients they need. Children on a lacto-ovo vegetarian diet do not eat meat, but they consume eggs and dairy products and have the easiest time attaining proper nutrition. Kids on a vegan diet do not eat meat, and they also do not eat eggs, dairy or animal products such as honey. Vegan children have a more difficult time acquiring proper nutrition.
6 to 18 Months
Once your vegetarian child weans from breastfeeding, pay special attention to ensure she obtains all the nutrients she needs, especially vitamin D, vitamin B12 and iron. According to a review performed by the Department of Nutrition and Dietetics at King's College London in the United Kingdom and published in the August 1995 issue of the journal "Pediatric Clinics in North America," vegetarian children with an iron deficiency can experience reversible impaired psychomotor development.
Vegetarian proteins from non-animal sources are incomplete. Complimentary proteins, such as legumes with grains or nuts with dairy products, form a complete protein. Vegan infants between 6 and 18 months risk deficiencies in calories, protein, vitamins D and B12, calcium, phosphorus, zinc and iron, according to information provided by a Cathy Jacobs, MS, RD, and Johanna T. Dwyer, DSc, RD in a 1988 issue of the "American Journal of Clinical Nutrition". (REF 1 and 2)
18 Months to 5 Years
Your child, at 18 months, is ready for preschool and eating away from home. Vegan diets for children require special planning to provide adequate nutrition, especially calcium, iron and zinc. Cathy Jacobs and Johanna T. Dwyer, in an article published by "The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition," recommend adding fermented soy products and fortified foods, such a cereal, to provide extra vitamins such as B12. Their advice to parents planning vegetarian meals for children includes combining foods containing iron, for example green leafy vegetables with a source of ascorbic acid like citrus fruit. Citrus fruit improves its ability to be absorbed during the digestive process. Lacto-ovo vegetarian children more easily obtain the nutrients that vegan children have trouble acquiring because they get them from eggs and milk products.
Adolescents
The growth in puberty marks a period of substantial increases in nutritional needs for your child. Jacobs and Dwyer indicate that between ages 11 and 18, your child needs adequate amounts of protein, calcium, potassium, iron, zinc and vitamin A to accommodate her growth and energy needs. They recommend vegan adolescents of this age begin to take a multivitamin that includes calcium. Bone density, a determining factor in osteoporosis, is determined in adolescence, according to Reed Mangels, Ph.D., R.D., from the Vegetarian Resource Group. To attain the proper amount of calcium, Mangels recommends adolescents eat collard greens, mustard greens and kale, along with calcium-fortified soy milk and orange juice.
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