Raising a Vegan Child: What Parents Need to Know About Nutrition
Choosing to raise your child vegan can attract a surprising number of opinions.
People who wouldn’t normally dream of asking what your child had for breakfast can suddenly become extremely interested in whether they’re getting enough protein, iron or calcium, while at the other extreme you’ll find people online insisting that a vegan diet automatically provides everything a growing child needs and there’s absolutely nothing to think about.
As with most things involving children’s health, the reality deserves more thought than either position. A vegan diet for children is as important as a healthy diet for meat-eating children!
Children can eat a vegan diet, but they’re growing rapidly and have different nutritional needs from adults. Simply removing meat, fish, eggs and dairy products from the meals your family already eats isn’t enough. The foods replacing them need to provide the energy and nutrients that would otherwise have come from those animal products.
That doesn’t mean creating complicated meals or spending your life calculating every nutrient your child eats. It does mean understanding the areas that deserve particular attention, especially vitamin B12, iron, calcium, vitamin D, iodine, protein and overall energy intake.
If you’re raising a baby or young child vegan, I’d also strongly recommend getting individual advice from your health visitor, GP or a registered dietitian rather than relying entirely on articles online, including this one. The younger the child, the more important it is that their diet supports their particular stage of growth and development. Check NHS vegan diet guidance for official information.
A vegan diet for children needs to provide enough energy as well as nutrients
When we talk about healthy eating as adults, we’re often encouraged to eat plenty of high-fibre foods because they’re filling.
That’s not necessarily something we want to take too far with a small child.
Young children have small stomachs but relatively high energy requirements because they’re growing. A diet containing enormous amounts of bulky vegetables and very high-fibre foods could fill them up before they’ve eaten enough energy.
This is one reason a healthy vegan diet for a toddler won’t necessarily look exactly like a healthy vegan diet designed for an adult trying to lose weight.
Alongside fruit and vegetables, children need suitable starchy foods, sources of protein and foods providing enough fat and energy. Nut and seed butters, avocado, suitable oils, hummus and other energy-dense foods can be useful additions, depending on the child’s age and how safely the food can be served.
There’s no prize for giving a toddler the lowest-calorie version of everything.
Growing children need fuel.
Protein usually isn’t the enormous problem people imagine
Protein is probably the first nutrient people mention whenever vegan diets come up.
Fortunately, there are plenty of plant foods containing protein, including beans, chickpeas, lentils, peas, tofu, soya products, nuts and seeds. Bread, grains and various other foods contribute protein too.
The old idea that every vegan meal needs carefully matched foods to create a “complete protein” is unnecessarily complicated.
Different plant proteins contain different amounts of the essential amino acids our bodies need, but we don’t have to combine precise foods at every meal. Eating a varied diet containing different protein sources across the day can provide the amino acids the body needs.
So while beans on toast, hummus with pitta and rice with lentils are all perfectly useful meals, you don’t need to serve those particular combinations because the proteins somehow don’t work unless they’re eaten together.
I’d concentrate much more on variety and making sure protein-rich foods appear regularly throughout the day.
With younger children in particular, it’s also worth remembering that whole nuts can be a choking hazard. Nuts and seeds need to be offered in an age-appropriate form, such as smooth nut butter or finely ground nuts, depending on the child’s age.
Vitamin B12 is one nutrient you really can’t ignore
This is probably the nutrient I’d most want parents to understand because reliable natural vegan sources of vitamin B12 are extremely limited.
B12 is important for healthy blood and the nervous system, and vegan diets need to include a reliable source from fortified foods or an appropriate supplement.
Some plant-based milks, breakfast cereals, nutritional yeast products and yeast extracts are fortified with B12, but don’t assume they all are. Fortification varies between brands and products, so check the label.
I also wouldn’t rely on a child liking Marmite as the family’s entire B12 strategy!
Sometimes it is suggested that getting young children to love Marmite is one of the best things parents could do for B12. Fortified yeast extract can certainly contribute, but when we’re talking about a nutrient this important, I’d rather parents know exactly where their child’s B12 is coming from.
If you’re unsure whether your child is getting enough, this is something I’d discuss with a healthcare professional or registered dietitian.
Iron needs a little more thought too
Children need iron for normal growth and development, and plant-based diets can certainly contain plenty of iron. Beans, chickpeas, lentils, green leafy vegetables, nuts and seeds, wholemeal bread and fortified breakfast cereals can all contribute.
The difference is that the iron in plant foods isn’t absorbed as readily by the body as the iron found in meat. That doesn’t mean vegan children can’t get enough. One useful habit is serving foods containing vitamin C alongside iron-rich foods because vitamin C helps the body absorb plant-based iron.
That could be something as ordinary as lentils with tomatoes, beans with peppers or fortified cereal with some fruit. You don’t need to start engineering every meal around nutrient combinations, but understanding that relationship can make planning a vegan diet a little easier.
Check NHS guidance on feeding young children for advice
Don’t forget calcium and vitamin D
When dairy disappears from a child’s diet, it’s important to think about what will replace the nutrients it was providing rather than simply swapping cow’s milk for whichever plant drink happens to be on offer.
Calcium is particularly important for developing bones and teeth.
Fortified plant-based alternatives can be useful sources, as can calcium-set tofu, some green vegetables, pulses, tahini and other foods. Bread also contributes calcium in the UK because calcium is added to white and brown flour.
The word fortified matters when you’re buying milk alternatives.
Different products can have very different nutritional profiles, and something being made from almonds, oats or coconut doesn’t automatically make it nutritionally equivalent to cow’s milk.
For young children, the choice of milk alternative deserves particular care. Plant drinks aren’t suitable as a replacement for breast milk or infant formula during the first year, and if a plant-based alternative is going to become a child’s main milk after 12 months, I’d seek professional advice about the most appropriate option.
Vitamin D needs consideration too. In the UK, it’s difficult to obtain enough from food and sunlight throughout the year, which is why there are specific supplement recommendations for babies and young children.
The exact recommendation depends on age, feeding and circumstances, so I’d check the current NHS guidance rather than guessing from the amount an adult takes.
Iodine is easy to overlook on a vegan diet
Iodine gets far less attention than protein, yet it’s one of the nutrients parents following a vegan diet need to be aware of.
Dairy products and fish are significant sources of iodine in the typical UK diet, so removing both means thinking about where iodine will come from instead.
Some plant-based milk alternatives are fortified with iodine, but many aren’t, which is another reason to turn the carton around and read the nutritional information rather than assuming all fortified drinks are much the same.
Seaweed might sound like an obvious vegan iodine source, but the amount of iodine can vary enormously and some seaweeds can contain excessive amounts. I wouldn’t use seaweed or kelp supplements as an improvised iodine solution for a child.
Again, if you’re not confident your child’s diet provides an appropriate amount, a registered dietitian can help you work out whether food, fortified products or supplementation is the best option.
What about omega-3 fats?
Omega-3 is another area that can sound unnecessarily intimidating once you start reading about vegan nutrition.
Plant sources include walnuts, chia seeds, ground linseed or flaxseed, hemp seeds and rapeseed oil, although obviously nuts and seeds need to be prepared appropriately for younger children.
These foods provide a type of omega-3 called ALA, which the body can convert into the longer-chain omega-3 fats EPA and DHA, although that conversion is limited.
Whether a vegan child needs an algae-based DHA supplement is something I’d discuss with a dietitian or other suitably qualified healthcare professional rather than making a blanket recommendation for every child.
That’s probably a recurring theme throughout this article, but children’s nutrition isn’t an area where I think guessing supplement doses from Google is particularly sensible.
Weaning a vegan baby
Weaning is probably the stage where I’d be particularly keen for parents to use current NHS advice because recommendations have changed over the years.
Solid foods are usually introduced from around six months, alongside breast milk or suitable infant formula. From there, babies can gradually experience different tastes and textures while beginning to get more of their nutrition from food.
A vegan baby’s food might include things such as lentils, beans, tofu, vegetables, fruit, suitable cereals, avocado and smooth nut or seed butters as appropriate.
You don’t have to buy special vegan baby meals. Babies can often eat adapted versions of family food, provided it’s suitable for their developmental stage and doesn’t contain inappropriate amounts of salt or sugar.
I’d be cautious about relying heavily on fruit and vegetables alone, though. Babies need energy, fat, protein and a range of vitamins and minerals as well as their five-a-day eventually becoming part of their diet.
There’s also a really important distinction between plant-based drinks and infant formula.
Ordinary oat, almond, coconut and other plant drinks shouldn’t be used as a substitute for breast milk or infant formula during the first year. If you’re vegan and unable or don’t wish to breastfeed, speak to your health visitor or another healthcare professional about suitable feeding options rather than improvising with a plant drink.
Supplements aren’t an admission that a vegan diet has failed
Sometimes discussions around vegan diets become strangely competitive, as though needing a supplement somehow proves the entire diet doesn’t work.
I don’t see it that way.
Vitamin D supplementation is routinely recommended for many children in the UK regardless of whether they eat meat, while vitamin B12 is something vegans specifically need a reliable source of because it isn’t naturally available in sufficient amounts from ordinary plant foods.
The important thing is knowing what your child needs rather than trying to prove a particular way of eating is nutritionally perfect without any help.
Supplement requirements can vary according to age, what a child eats, whether they’re breastfed or formula-fed and which fortified foods they regularly consume.
That’s why I’d get individual advice rather than buying an adult multivitamin, cutting it in half and hoping for the best.
A normal vegan family diet doesn’t need to be complicated
Reading through a list of B12, iodine, iron, calcium, vitamin D and omega-3 can make feeding a vegan child sound like a chemistry exam.
In everyday life, it doesn’t have to feel like that.
Breakfast might be porridge made with an appropriate fortified plant milk and topped with fruit and smooth nut butter. Lunch could be beans on toast with vegetables or hummus with pitta and suitable sides. Dinner might be lentil bolognese, tofu stir-fry, chickpea curry, bean chilli or one of countless other meals based around foods the whole family can eat.
You don’t need quinoa harvested under a full moon or twelve different superfoods nobody in your local supermarket has heard of. Beans on toast is still allowed.
What matters much more is the overall pattern: enough food and energy for growth, variety, regular protein-rich foods, suitable fats and reliable sources of nutrients that need particular attention on a vegan diet.
What if your vegan child is a fussy eater?
This is where things can become trickier.
A varied vegan diet is one thing when your child happily eats lentils, tofu, beans, vegetables and fortified cereals. It’s quite another when they’ve suddenly decided the only acceptable foods are beige and must never touch each other on the plate.
Most parents experience some degree of fussiness, but a very restricted vegan diet can make it harder to cover all the nutritional bases.
If your child is refusing most protein sources or fortified foods, has a very limited range of accepted foods, isn’t growing as expected or you’re worried about their intake for any reason, I’d ask for professional advice rather than continually trying to sneak lentils into things and hoping for the best.
The same applies whether a child is vegan or not. The aim isn’t to create a child who eats perfectly. I’m not entirely convinced such a child exists. It’s to make sure that, across the foods they do eat, their nutritional needs are being met.
Can children really be healthy on a vegan diet?
A well-planned vegan diet can form part of healthy eating for children, but well-planned is the important part.
I don’t think it’s helpful to tell parents that raising a vegan child is automatically dangerous, but I don’t think it’s helpful to wave away genuine nutritional considerations either.
Children aren’t simply small adults.
They’re building bones, muscles, blood and nervous systems while growing at an astonishing rate, and their diet needs to support that. Vegan families therefore need to understand where nutrients such as B12, iron, calcium, vitamin D and iodine are coming from, alongside providing enough protein, fat and overall energy.
Once you understand those foundations, food itself can become much more normal.
Lentil bolognese is dinner, not a nutritional intervention. Hummus is lunch rather than a carefully engineered amino-acid strategy, and a peanut butter sandwich doesn’t need to prove anything about veganism before a child is allowed to enjoy it.
If you’re considering raising your child vegan, use reliable information, check fortified-food labels and ask for professional advice when you need it.
You don’t need to become an expert in nutritional science.
You just need to know enough to recognise the things that matter.
