Vegetarianism for Babies?

As a nutritionist, I've worked with all kinds of clients and worked with some very specific dietary needs. Some of my vegetarian clients have asked me about how to fulfill their babies' needs while adhering to a strict vegetarian diet. This sets up a conflict because most parents want to give their babies the best possible start nutritionally, but don't want to compromise their own dietary beliefs. At this point, I suggest that they plan to stick to their ideals when it comes to their choice of diet, but to hold off on asking their child to do the same until he or she is 3 years or older.

Why? Because being a vegetarian is a very personal choice, as well as an ethical one. Children are not capable of letting their parents know their feelings about such a complex topic until they are at least able to understand where their food comes from, to exhibit empathy and to modulate their own emotions (otherwise known as being able to "hold back" when they really want to do something).

Also, you have to consider that babies and toddlers traditionally get most of their nutrition from mother's milk for the first couple of years of life, and this was the norm until formula started being commercially produced in the 1960s. Mother's milk is the perfect nutrition for a baby and it is an animal by-product. A growing toddler needs a steady diet of fat and protein as well as the many vitamins and minerals available in fruits and vegetables. It's possible to get protein, as well as iron, calcium, and even zinc from plant food sources, but it requires a lot of cooking and balancing of food types (e.g. beans with rice) to ensure they are present in the diet each day. It's also impossible to get Vitamin D or B12 from a vegan diet without supplementation.

Unless their religion mandates it, most vegetarians choose this noble path because it feels right for them. Different people have different bodies which require different foods. I believe that some folks need a small amount of heavier, animal-sourced protein in their diets for their bodies to function well. There are many omnivores who are horrified by the ethical issues surrounding the modern treatment of livestock, but still feel compelled to eat animal products occasionally because they feel their bodies require it. Fortunately for these folks, the SPCA and others can show them which companies treat their livestock fairly resulting in kinder and healthier egg production and poultry, for example.

On the other side, in addition to the emotional effects of eating meat, many vegetarians simply find themselves feeling better, lighter, healthier on a meat-free in diet. To those vegetarian parents, I say "give your son or daughter the chance to make the same choice." Our children are their own persons and just as we should not impose our own dislikes and likes upon them, we should not dictate what they should eat, especially while still very young. I'm not suggesting that parents hold back on sharing their beliefs and the hard facts about how animals are treated in modern farming practices, but only when the children are able to truly understand and cope with these harsh realities.

I was very excited when my 6 year-old stepdaughter took an interest in vegetarianism, helped perhaps in part, by her vegan babysitter. We had several discussions about the sad way that animals are treated so that we can buy plastic-wrapped portions of meat at our grocery stores. I encouraged her to think about this and said that at any time if she wanted to stop eating meat we'd find her lots of yummy foods that were animal by-product-free. However, she realised that this meant giving up a lot of her favourite foods and decided that this wasn't her path right now. I sure wish that vegetarian product manufacturers made more kid-friendly foods (i.e. can we tone down the spices please?!) but that's a topic for another post altogether. And I'm already afraid my baby is a full-blown carnivore. Whenever we have meat at dinner it's the first thing she gobbles off her plate and grunts for more. But like the rest of the family, I can appease her with vegetarian alternatives each week. When it's time, she too will learn where her food comes from and she'll be encouraged to make up her own mind about what she puts on her plate.