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Whole-grain or enriched pasta with blended kale marinara sauce

Oven-baked sweet potato fries

Soy yogurt mixed with 1/2 teaspoon flaxseed oil

Hemp milkshake blended with nut butter and flaxseed oil

Sunflower seed butter and jam sandwiches

Raisins and chopped dried apricots

Pancakes topped with almond or sunflower seed butter and apple butter

Udon noodles with tahini sauce

Cucumbers or flax crackers with nut cheese or tofu dip

Carrot and zucchini muffins

Mashed potatoes and vegan gravy

Bagels spread with nut or seed butter or mashed avocado and hummus

Pudding made from soaked and drained raw sunflower seeds that are blended into a paste with raisins or dried apricots and fortified hemp or soymilk

To avoid choking hazards when providing snacks to your toddler, be sure to do the following:

Finely grind nuts in a spice grinder or blender instead of offering whole or coarsely chopped nuts.

Spoon out half-teaspoons of nut butter rather than large globs.

Chop vegan hot dogs into pea-sized bits.

Quarter or halve cherry tomatoes, olives, grapes, pitted cherries, and any other large, round foods.

Grate raw carrots into shreds rather than offering small chunks.

Avoid popcorn and gum until the child is older.

Chapter 22

Vegan Diets for Kids, Tweens, and Teens

In This Chapter

Understanding what the experts think of vegan diets for kids

Discovering kid-friendly vegan food choices

Ensuring proper nutrition for all ages and stages

Setting a solid foundation for healthy eating for life

Helping kids deal with commercial and media messages

Ensuring that kids eat well when away from home

Raising vegan children from infancy is pretty easy with a little education and planning. On the other hand, transitioning children, tweens, and teens from the standard American diet can be more difficult, especially if they’ve grown accustomed to dairy, meat, and processed snacks and meals.

You don’t need to worry when it comes to nutrition for kids; whether they’re active athletes or cerebral book worms, vegan kids can and do get everything they need for proper development. The research is in, and experts agree that vegan kids are healthy and avoid many common health problems. The trick to raising a child vegan is doing it in a kid-friendly way and avoiding the common pitfalls.

Exploring strategies and shopping and cooking tips for families who decide to go vegan is the goal of this chapter. I discuss what to do when your kids will be traveling away from home, and I help you deal with shopping and media messaging. Arming kids with proper nutrition and the information to back up their decision to go vegan prepares them for a successful vegan life in the modern world.

This chapter covers the topics of nutrition and health benefits of a vegan diet for people between the ages of 3 and 19. This group of humans has the most to gain from living vegan — a lifetime of health and responsible action.

Is a Vegan Diet Safe? The Experts Weigh In

Gathering scientific proof on the safety and health of a vegan diet is easy — numerous studies and books detail the benefits of this style of eating. Experts — from the old-school professors to the cutting edge researchers — have been giving a well-balanced vegan diet for children rave reviews for years.

For example, second only to the Bible in terms of worldwide sales, Dr. Benjamin Spock’s classic book Baby and Child Care is on most parent’s shelves. Most people don’t know it, but Dr. Spock went vegan in his later years — and he recommended it for children, too. After seeing his own chronic bronchitis disappear at the age of 88, Dr. Spock began to research this miracle diet and came to realize that a dairy- and meat-free diet would offer optimal nutrition for the children he was famous for writing about.

Similarly, Dr. Neal Barnard, the head of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), recommends a vegan diet for children as a way to avoid serious health