Raising Vegan Kids: Healthier & Better, Yea We Said It.
Published on February 15, 2011 by chloejo · 8 CommentsIf you’re raising a vegan kid, be prepared to hear questions and concerns from your family and friends that a vegan diet won’t be sufficient for your growing child. To reassure your well-intentioned loved ones, offer these morsels of truth:
via PETA's Adorable Vegan Babies (Photos) - click image to see more.
- Several studies suggest that vegan children’s growth rates are more gradual than non-vegans. These children often grow slowly at first, and then they catch up later on. The ultimate adult heights reached by vegan children are comparable to those of non-vegans.
o (Pediatrics, 1989)
- Children who grow up without dairy in their diets have less diarrhea, less gas, fewer ear infections, and less constipation.
- Dairy-free kids have less of a chance of developing Type 2 diabetes, several childhood cancers and heart disease.
- Vegan children have fewer problems with acne and exzema and encounter fewer cases of asthma.
- A Harvard study from 2000 showed that diets relying heavily on animal protein were shown to produce earlier onset of menstruation in girls by 3 to 8 years.
-From Living Vegan For Dummies by Alexandra Jamieson (Wiley, 2010)
I'm a vegan baby. Got a problem with it?
Not to mention the levels on compassion, kindness, and sensitivity your little one will be imbued with. After all, children are innate herbivores. Put a child in a crib with a rabbit and a carrot, and will the child play with the carrot and eat the rabbit, or vice versa?
For more information, check out the Physician’s Committee for Responsible Medicine and their recommendations for children’s dietary needs.
A must-see for all vegan parents is this short film on vegan parenting (below) from Perhaps Media. You’ll want to share it with everyone you know. Promise.
Tags: Living Vegan For Dummies by Alexandra Jamieson, Perhaps Media, PETA, PETA's Adorable Vegan Babies, Raising Vegan Kids, Vegan Babies, Vegan Children, vegan little ones
Readers Comments (8)
Well, my vegan baby’s growth is STRONG and coud not at all be described as off to a slow start! My 4 1/2 month old son is now in the 94th percentile for height and 87th for weight!!! I’m so proud of him!
mine too! he was over 9 lbs. at birth and just under 22 lbs. at 7 months. he’s hasn’t even had so much as a runny nose yet and has always slept through the night. he’s the best kid imaginable and incredibly intelligent. i attribute his perfection to eating a diet of vegetables and fruits only!
Yeah, my son Laken was in the 90% for his first 2 years too. I breast fed him exclusively until 8 or 9 months, then he ate his weight in avocados every week for months after. Now he’s 4 and is still growing just fine. He’s in the more normal range for his age at this point, and I don’t really know what percentile he’s in – we go to the doctor so rarely I can’t tell you how much he weighs or how tall he is! He has hardly been sick, and when he does get sick he recovers really fast. I guess veggies work!
Thanks for all of the great info I think what you feed your children is soo important and so many people are uneducated!
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This just made my day even better.
Finding out that people are raising vegan kids.
All this best too you.
A was just thinking the other day if people raise kids vegan .
I thought too my self I got be rich. lol
Um leaving in ottawa.
I just found most people in ottawa starting too eat healthyer but it expences. Mostly because they are sick. Each day I wish it had someting a fast food places in a mall at less vegan.
Um so gland some thing are changing.
I just wish it had more vegeterain restaurent around.
Now that a tough one.
Here some ideal too change thing up.
Finding out if alot of people eat vegeterain foods.
The locations of %persentagies %.
The values too invest around building them.
People change so many people can live at places
and places change.(Home)
Generations with historys family values changing.
People that want WORK vegeterain
Story always change and gossip changes.
I like too see a lots of vegeterain movies.
About life in ways shoping in a grocers stores
were thay sale no meat at all.
and everbody is vegan.
The places the shop at.
Nice cartoons.
or people changing too become Vegeterains Love and lots more.
I put my family on vegan diet mor ethan a year ago. My son, 11 years old just stopped growing. Usualy he was taller couple inches each summer. This summer he added only half inch, then stopped. He did not add height since September. All his friends are taller than him.
Please, reassure me, I don’t want my boy to be tiny…
I started to give him big amounts of protein, (soy milk, beans) but he only gains weight.
Please tell me that your vegan kids are not short…
Julia ~
I’m sorry you’re worried – as a mom, I know I worry over every little bump, bruise, growth chart etc.
I don’t know enough about your situation to offer any suggestions, but I do recommend that you contact your doctor to find out if there is anything else going on.
Kids go through growth spurts – they grow, they stop, they grow again.
Be well, Alex