Do you have older kids that have been vegan since conception?

[crunchy_mommy]

I'm wondering whose kids have been vegan since conception/birth. How old are they now? Have they remained 100% vegan? Do you supplement at all?

Going through a weird time right now, I'm afraid it will be a UAV if I get into it in depth, but it would help me so much to hear other moms with healthy 100% vegan kids.

[Sayward]

My son is only 4 months but I do know all-vegan children who are perfectly healthy. What is it in particular that's worrying you? I assume you've seen this page.

I don't know what UAV is (damn acronyms!), but feel free to spill if you need to talk. I'm sure nobody would mind =)

[crunchy_mommy]

UAV = user agreement violation, the thing I'm perpetually in fear of haha but I'll try to word this carefully & apologize in advance if I do violate it!!

I have seen that Real Vegan Children page I just wish there were more kids on it!

OK so I have been vegetarian for... 15 years? And vegan for probably 6 years or so. I LOVE being vegan, so does my DH (though he's not technically vegan because he occasionally consumes animal products out of the house at parties etc. but fully vegan at home) When I first went vegan I felt great, but I have been suffering from an undiagnosed chronic illness similar to chronic fatigue for the past ~4 years. I highly doubt it's due to being vegan but it's sort of there in the back of my mind since no treatments are helping at all.

OK so I always planned on raising my kid(s) fully vegan and always felt like it was the healthiest way to live. But, now I HAVE a kid, and that has caused me to think through every belief I have about everything in the world (including veganism) because of course I want to make sure I give DS the best start to life possible! So with me being sick it's causing me to focus even more on how healthy veganism is.

DS is now 17mos old and is completely vegan (OK he has eaten pieces of dog food a couple times ) and I feel very comfortable with him remaining vegan as long as he is breastfeeding. But I am starting to wonder if he will require non-vegan food occasionally once he weans. What I'm worried about is less specific vitamins & minerals and more the trace nutrients present in animal foods. I believe in eating as naturally as possible and also don't believe in supplementing except to correct specific short-term issues. I feel that we should get all our vitamins & minerals from food (or the sun etc.) because that's the most natural way & there are other trace minerals in the foods that are important as well & would be missing from supplements.

So what I am considering/discussing with DH is the possibility of our family eating a small amount of animal products on an occasional basis (maybe once a week or less) just to get trace nutrients. But I can't stand fish & can't stomach the thought of eating meat. I can't rationalize eating cow-dairy (though maybe goat dairy or something, though I'm not thrilled with that either) and I am allergic to eggs (and DH & I both think they are gross anyway) so that really doesn't leave much in the way of animal products which in my heart I want to continue to avoid anyway.

But I feel like it's one thing to experiment with my own health, as an adult, and another thing to toy with a rapidly-growing child's development... I'm terrified of him not reaching his full potential because of our dietary restrictions. Not sure if I'm making sense... I just wish there were more unbiased long-term studies on veganism, particularly in children... but everything I find with regards to children is either supplemented vegans = OK or raw vegans = not as OK (we're not raw anyway) or vegetarians = OK (but they are consuming some animal products)... nothing on the type of diet my family eats, without supplementation.

Sorry this is so long-winded but I've been struggling with this for months & not sure what to do.

[cocoanib]

Hmmm, I don't know any personally, but there are lot's of kids vegan from the womb. I'm raising DD vegan, but she's only 3.5 months, so that doesn't help you out any there.
What trace nutrients are you worried about LO not getting?

[crunchy_mommy]

I don't know really, it's just this vague feeling I have I guess. I mean, I worry about iodine a bit, and K2, and cholesterol, and B12... and just unspecified/unnamed nutrients if that makes sense. Like even vegetarian animals get trace amounts of animal matter through incidentally ingesting insects etc. but I don't really want DS eating bugs...

I think the hard thing is that I don't know a single vegan in real life... as a matter of fact, I've only met a handful of vegetarians. So I feel like I'm chartering unknown territory, and that's scary when it affects my baby. I know there must be lots of vegan kids out there but I don't know any of them, & I don't know if they routinely supplement, or if people sneak non-vegan food into them, etc.

[catnip]

We supplement B-12 and use iodized sea salt. I don't think it is healthy or advisable to be vegan without a B-12 source for an adult, let alone for a kid. Personally, I think that our healthy, mostly whole food vegan diet with those few supplements is the way to go. My kid is happy, healthy and strong, with lots of energy, and she's seldom sick.

I think it's very hard to get enough nutrients into a growing child on a raw vegan diet, for many the same reasons that it is so great for an adult. Adults and kids have different nutritional needs. Adults tend to need a higher VOLUME of food, kids need more calorically dense foods. So yeah, animal foods are less dangerous for kids in that respect.

BUT, and here's the big but ... Animal products are incredibly resource intensive. They concentrate environmental pollutants. They tend to be more likely to harbor food borne illness. Eating lower on the food chain helps to make the world a less toxic place for our kids to live. And we're SO FAR from the point where maybe mixed agriculture and very occasional consumption of ethically, sustainably produced animal foods is something that we all can do that it really, really makes sense to me to be vegan if I care at all about the world we all share.

[catnip]

Incidentally, my daughter is 5 1/2, and is vegan. She did eat milk and eggs up until her 5th birthday, when she decided on her own to be vegan like me and Daddy. She's been sick even less often since, and she was never a sickly kid. I did feed her whole milk yogurt and cheese because her congenital tongue tie left me with a low milk supply, and babies need milk.

[cocoanib]

Originally Posted by crunchy_mommy

I don't know really, it's just this vague feeling I have I guess. I mean, I worry about iodine a bit, and K2, and cholesterol, and B12... and just unspecified/unnamed nutrients if that makes sense. Like even vegetarian animals get trace amounts of animal matter through incidentally ingesting insects etc. but I don't really want DS eating bugs...

I think the hard thing is that I don't know a single vegan in real life... as a matter of fact, I've only met a handful of vegetarians. So I feel like I'm chartering unknown territory, and that's scary when it affects my baby. I know there must be lots of vegan kids out there but I don't know any of them, & I don't know if they routinely supplement, or if people sneak non-vegan food into them, etc.

Totally understandable!
If your'e not around other vegan families or for some who haven't been in the lifestyle long, I could see it really being a concern.
As far as some of the above things go
iodine- sea vegetables
b-12- nutritional yeast, fortified nut milks and cereals
I'm not sure about sources for the others or even their importance in the human diet.

[ShadowMoon]

My son is 3.5 and he's been fully vegan since conception. He is rarely sick, on target with all developmental milestones, and is robust and active. He consumes a large variety of organic foods, (whole grains, fruits, vegetables, legumes, etc), and some soy/almond milk and soy products as well. We're not doing vitamin supplements at the moment, (he's not deficient in anything), but I might add a vitamin in the future if needed. He also gets a lot of healthy fats and oils, (nut butters, flax/olive oil, avocados).

My favorite book is Raising Vegetarian Children by Joanne Stepaniak. It's a great resource to have.

[crunchy_mommy]

Yeah I think I need to read Jo's book, I talked to her a few times long before I had kids and she was always a valuable resource.

Right now, DS is doing great, has only been mildly ill 2 or 3 times in his life, very strong & healthy & very advanced actually as far as developmental milestones... but he's still nursing constantly too. But he's also at that age where he's starting to lose his baby fat which even though I KNOW that's what happens at this age, it makes me nervous to see him less plump (though he still has a Buddha belly & some chub left!)

I guess when I see other kids & what they eat (was at a cookout today and all the little kids were loading up on cupcakes & juice & chips) I remember how far he is from that... Today he ate a banana muffin, lots of fruit at the cookout (big treat!), roasted veggies, a homemade black bean burger, avocado, onions, and tomatoes... I don't doubt for a second that a vegan diet is healthiest for him 99% of the time. Just wonder if the other 1% of the time, a little animal product would enhance his diet (especially cause that's how DH eats, he has meat maybe once a month i.e. at a party, and is very healthy). Oh and we do use nutritional yeast in our cooking but I bought a whole bunch of the wrong kind by accident (no B12)... I suppose we could eat more sea vegetables & iodized salt but I can't stand either I will have to work on that.

The other part of the issue is that I originally went vegan for health reasons... over time it has evolved into an ethical/compassionate stance as well but health is still at the core of it, which I know is different than most other vegans...

I think I'm mostly over my little crisis for the moment but I have a feeling I will rehash this several times, especially once he weans (which I hope is a long way off)... It's hard to trust myself sometimes & go against the tide, you know?

[dovey]

I have two kids who have been vegan since conception. They are 6 and 4. (I guess I should say mostly vegan, since they do indulge in non-vegan junk foods - ice cream, cake and milk chocolate - at birthday parties etc.)

They are both healthy kids. My son is small for his age (the six year old), but his dad is also a small person, and our pediatrician is not worried at all. His weight and height are both in the 10th percentile. He's very smart, very active and is above average for all his developmental milestones. He did have some food allergy issues a few years ago, but he seems to have outgrown them.

My daughter (the four year old) is very healthy too. She's still quite chubby although she's small by the weight and height charts too (25th percentile). She too is a very bright child and extremely active. She has always hit her developmental milestones and is doing wonderfully.

We do supplement. They take vitamin B-12 and a multivitamin each day. They also eat lots of nutritional yeast. Their diets are far from perfect - they are typical picky eaters. But I try to make sure that they drink some soymilk and/or fortified OJ each day, that they get enough protein and not too much processed sugar.

I think that even if animal products did give them some small nutritional advantage, it would place them at an ethical disadvantage to teach them that it was okay to imprison and eat other creatures.

[pinksprklybarefoot]

DS is three and has been vegetarian since conception and we went vegan around the time that he was really eating solid foods (so he has had cheese a handful of times in his life). He is quite healthy - hardly ever sick.

One of the biggest issues with introducing meat occasionally is that young children sometimes have trouble with gray areas. Is it wrong to eat meat, or is it okay? Is it okay sometimes? Why not all of the time? If you present your lifestyle as a health-based decision you will have an easier time explaining it than if it is an ethical/moral issue.

[sky_and_lavender]

I'm really glad you posted this because the replies were so encouraging, and I can relate to your concerns.

I have been vegan for 6 years and veg for... hmmm... 20 or so years and have had the same fears you stated, that vegan is fine for adults but we don't know its effects on babies, etc. But when I contemplate adding very occasional dairy, it doesn't make sense to me. Also, in reality studies like The Farm study show that veganism can work well for vegan babies. And my own 10 month old vegan baby (while small like me and some family members) is so healthy, happy and on track developmentally.

Oh, and I just wanted to say that I have really dry skin and rosacea (apparently inherited in my case) and I'm always thinking, "maybe this is the sign that veganism is terrible for my baby." My immune system is also not great since I had the baby, and I think it's due to lack of sleep, but because my very healthy diet is "unconventional," I always view it as the cause of all problems. It doesn't help that my midwives and doula were also not particularly informed or supportive about veg diets.

I think a lot of the challenge is that I don't know many vegan families in person.

I keep the book Becoming Vegan nearby all the time and compulsively read it when I have doubts. I'm always comforted by the dietary suggestions for kids and adults--a good vegan diet is so achievable!

[crunchy_mommy]

sky_and_lavendar, I'm glad I'm not the only one struggling with these concerns!! I go back & forth every day it seems... I definitely have to do more reading, remind myself why I became vegan in the first place & get a refresher on all the little health & nutrition tips.... I haven't heard of The Farm study, sounds like something I need to take a look at!!

[Ianthe]

my children are 3 and 1 and vegan.

my MIL recently stated her concerns were the same as yours (it's ok for adults but not for kids), but I am very comfortable with my decision. My 1 year old is still mostly BF, but my 3 yr old is weaned now and VERY healthy. We eat a variety of foods, lots of healthy fats, and Nut. yeast a lot.. also fortified soy/rice/almond, etc milk. He is never sick, VERY smart, great skin, hair, etc.. As of now, I don't feel like he is lacking in anything. We get WIC, so he gets his iron levels counted and they are perfect.

After reading The China Study, it really puts animal product consumption, in children, into perspective. I highly recommend that book.

[KimL]

My son has been. He's 7.5 now. He was a 33 week preemie. He's always been a very healthy boy and is extra tall (all be it skinny) for his age. He's a fierce competitor and athlete for his age and a staunch animal rights activist.

[somegirl99]

Originally Posted by sky_and_lavender

I keep the book Becoming Vegan nearby all the time and compulsively read it when I have doubts. I'm always comforted by the dietary suggestions for kids and adults--a good vegan diet is so achievable!

I do the same, I'm always referring back to it.