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too few fruits and vegetables, most doctors will direct as many or more questions and concerns toward those parents as they will if they sense vegan parents aren’t watching out for potential pitfalls to their child’s health. Whether it’s too much of a bad thing, not enough of a good thing, too much weight, or too little weight, it all comes down to knowing and providing for the nutritional needs of your child at each age and stage, whether you feed him animal products or not.

Myth:Vegan Kids Are Lunchroom Bully Targets

Fact: Schools are rapidly improving both lunchroom offerings and antibullying policies. With the variety of portable vegan foods, your child’s lunchbox can look nearly identical to his omnivorous classmates’, if so desired.

Your child can fit into the lunchroom scene in so many delicious ways (see Chapter 3 for more details). And if he wants to be more open about his animal compassion through vegan eating, the lunchroom may be a good place to practice putting his beliefs out there quietly, in a natural way, by example.

Case in point: one neighborhood public school our second daughter attended was surprisingly progressive in the lunchroom. It always offered meatless options, including peanut butter and jelly and salad (her favorite). In first grade, she began to bring about half of her week’s lunches from home and the other half we would pay for school lunch. We were pleasantly surprised to find out she had become known among her friends in the lunchroom as the go-to veg girl for meat identification. The kids who were animal lovers and who were interested in learning but weren’t taught at home what a hamburger or pepperoni was really made from naturally gravitated to her to ask what was “okay” for them to eat in the lunch line. As they walked through the line pointing to the offerings, our daughter would give the thumbs-up for the meatless choices and shake her head “no” for animal-based foods.

In the unfortunate circumstance that your child is being bullied, however, you must intervene. Talk to your child about ideas for how to handle the problem; read books like The Bully, the Bullied, and the Bystander: From Preschool to High School—How Parents and Teachers Can Help Break the Cycle of Violence by Barbara Coloroso; and talk to school officials. Bullying can create life-long emotional scars and turn a child off from any difference in his life the bully may use against him, including veganism. You may not be able to prevent every act of bullying, and almost every child experiences it at some point. But don’t allow it to be a prolonged pain in your child’s life.

In the lunchroom, your child can make a difference both by example of what you pack from home, and with dollar power by buying school lunch and choosing the veg choices.

Myth:Vegan Kids Are Party Outcasts

Fact: Many kids with food restrictions due to allergies, diabetes, religion, and other issues are actively involved in all sorts of youth activities. Nothing about veganism inherently prevents your child from participating in any activity.

Parties and other group events like scouting, sports, church activities, and after-school programs bring fun and camaraderie—and often nonvegan food—into your child’s life. There’s no need to avoid any of them because he’s vegan. Accommodate the food needs, and focus on the fun.

Let’s look at birthday parties, for example. The easiest birthday party to attend for vegan kids is, of course, their own. Not only can the cake and food be vegan, but it’s a great opportunity to introduce the invitees to the great taste of animal-product-free foods and the joys of animal compassion. At her eleventh birthday party, our oldest daughter opted to share her love of animals in need with her invited friends by asking them to bring food and toy donations for the local animal shelter in lieu of gifts for her.

Going to other kids’ nonvegan parties needn’t be a problem, either, especially if you and your child know the birthday child’s family well and they know you’re vegan. In all honesty, a few acquaintances or classmates