A Healthy Plan for Your Vegetarian Toddler

A lot of people believe that putting a toddler on a vegetarian diet isn’t healthy. But it can be perfectly safe as long as your child is getting all the proper nutrients.

Some of the benefits to a lifelong, proper vegetarian diet include a lower risk of diabetes, high blood pressure, obesity and heart disease. If you bring your toddler up with these foods, chances are he or she will not balk at them later on.

The major concern with vegetarianism and toddler nutrition is ensuring your child consumes adequate nutrients and calories. Calorie consumption is essential to make certain your child has the energy he needs to play hard and grow well.

It’s not easy to come up with a well-balanced vegetarian toddler menu that provides an adequate amount of protein and iron. Given that toddlers already have such a small appetite, it can be tricky to get them to eat enough vegetables or beans so they get all of their nutrients. For this reason, it’s essential that vegetarian children are served nutrient-dense foods.

For adults and children over four, soybeans and tofu are great sources of protein. For toddlers, however, it should not be used as their main source of protein. In this case, complement the tofu or soybeans that you serve with soymilk that has been fortified with minerals and vitamins. This will not only help to provide some protein, but it will be a help to your toddler’s nutrition by providing Vitamins A and D and calcium, which can often be hard to get in a vegan diet.

You will find iron in many vegetarian-friendly foods. Great sources of iron include kidney beans, green beans, spinach, and lima beans. However, iron from vegetables can be harder for the body to absorb properly than iron from animal products. This process can become easier if you serve a Vitamin C rich food with those beans or spinach. Some great sources of Vitamin C are oranges, red peppers, tomatoes, broccoli and cantaloupe.

While it is possible to raise a healthy vegan, it can take a lot more work. It might be a good idea to add a vitamin supplement to your toddler’s diet to ensure that he gets all the nutrients he needs.

Vitamin B-12 can be particularly difficult for vegans to get enough of from food. While there are B-12 vitamins in certain vegetables, they are not easily absorbed by the body. Your toddler’s healthcare provider can help find a B-12 supplement appropriate for a toddler.

A diet that does not take calcium into consideration can also be detrimental to your toddler’s health. Calcium helps make bones stronger and aids in proper growth and development. Choose soymilk that is calcium-fortified, but make sure it is also fortified with other nutrients that your toddler needs for good nutrition.

Ideally, all parents, whether they themselves are vegan or not, should think carefully about what their children eat. The years all the way from birth to adolescence are the years when habits are set down about eating, when growth rate is high, and to a big extent, when the size of essential nutrients such as iron and calcium are determined.