My top 3 thoughts on “Should I put my child on a vegan diet?”

I’m getting a lot of questions about this topic lately, due to a popular Netflix documentary. I’ll start with saying that a ‘healthy’ vegan diet is no more superior than a ‘healthy’ vegetarian diet or a ‘healthy’ diet containing foods from all food groups. The key word here is healthy, which in this situation I am using to describe a dietary pattern that is nutritionally complete - meaning a diet that covers all macro- and micro-nutrient requirements for age and gender. I’m going to focus on the fact I have been asked about the suitability of a vegan diet for children multiple times.

Please note that this post will not address environmental considerations. I am by no means an expert in environmental or climate change science, and do not have the time to brush up on the vast amount of current research papers on this topic, therefore rendering any opinion I might have uninformed and invalid. I am however an expert in food and nutrition, so the topic of nutritional adequacy throughout the lifespan is something I do know about.

Please read the entire post before commenting.

So this is a summary of my top 3 considerations for ‘should I put my child on a vegan diet?’

1/ Adult nutrition requirements are VERY different to the nutrition requirements of a child as they are still undergoing what is known as growth and development. In the simplest of terms it means making many more cells so children increase in size (bone, organ and muscle tissue, fat and fluid volume - think blood) and reaching physical, mental and emotional milestones, like coordination at sports, laying down memory as learnings from school, how to make decisions and managing emotions. This takes lots of energy and lots of nutrients, and these requirements change every few years as children grow. If a child does not ingest adequate nutrition, they can become malnourished. This means stunted growth, extreme fatigue and irritability, and an inability to learn and emotionally develop. If prolonged, malnourishment during childhood can lead to lifelong consequences (mental health disorders, increase in abdominal fat storage, changes to metabolism, brittle bones or rickets and poor tooth enamel, just to name a few). A vegan diet is by nature restrictive, meaning that without careful consideration of a child’s individual nutrition requirements, they are at higher risk of malnourishment.

2/ Young children are still developing their own critical reasoning skills. To understand the complexity of the factors you have weighed up in your decision to choose a vegan diet for them is well beyond their mental capacity. It is likely this restriction will be interpreted as ‘these foods are good; these foods are bad’. This is a huge risk factor for disordered eating and eating disorders down the track, as it places morality on food and eating behaviours (ie. if I eat bad food, I must also be bad). Research tells us that one of the biggest risk factors for developing an eating disorder is restrictive dieting. 

3/ Teenage boys and girls (12 to 18 yrs) require the same amount of calcium as a post-menopausal woman. Dairy is an efficient, very bioavailable (easily absorbed and utilised by the body) source of calcium. If vegan, calcium fortified dairy alternatives are usually required. Unfortunately, vegan cheese and yoghurt are usually not fortified, or fortified in inadequate amounts. This leaves calcium to come from calcium fortified dairy alternatives, such as soy or almond milk, plus tofu, chickpeas and small amounts from foods such as leafy greens, dried fruit and nuts. For a 12 year old boy to reach 1300mg of calcium, this would require a variety of vegan sources including 2 cups almond milk, ½ cup or 130g firm tofu, 1 cup chickpeas, 2 cups Asian greens and 4 dried figs. This is a lot more difficult to get into a 12 year old kid than 2 cups dairy milk, a tub of yoghurt and 2 slices of cheese.

Other nutrients at high risk of deficiency include iron, B12, zinc and omega 3’s EPA and DHA. I am not going to go through considerations for each in this post.

Please remember that what is acceptable and appropriate for you to choose to eat as an adult is not always nutritionally adequate to provide to a child. Their nutrition requirements are different. 

Please note, I recommend almost ALL my clients to increase their plant intake one way or another, either via fruit, vegetables, legumes, nuts, seeds or wholegrains. I regularly suggest clients to reduce or monitor their meat intake as most people eat above current recommendations. I live for meat free Monday and I think everyone should have a plant based diet (a plant based diet is an eating pattern made up of MOSTLY plants, but not made up of ONLY plants). 

I am also not anti vegan, but I am anti making nutrition choices for children without careful consideration of (and planning to prevent) possible negative consequences. This also goes for weight loss diets, as well as paleo, non-medically justified gluten or dairy free and sugar free diets (restricting refined and natural sugars).

A healthy diet has a million different forms. The best diet or eating pattern for you is the one you can stick to long term. There are nutritionally adequate whole food, pescatarian, keto, vegetarian and vegan diets and there are nutrition inadequate whole food, pescatarian, keto, vegetarian and vegan diets.

It is possible to have a nutritionally complete vegan diet for a child. But it takes a lot of knowledge, label reading, smart food swaps, lots of preparation and planning for, and choosing supplementation to fill the nutrition gaps. If you do make the decision for your child or family to go vegan, commit to it. Ensure you do your research and access expert assistance. This does not include Dr Google, following the latest vegan influencer, and it certainly does not mean watching one emotive vegan documentary (with shoddy science - the blood lipid/burrito experiment is actually nuts due to the results being so misappropriated). 

Your best resource for nutrition recommendations for transferring a child onto a vegan diet is an Accredited Practising Dietitian. Please reach out if this is something you would like to do.