If 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:
- 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)
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.