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Babies at 9 months need about 15 grams protein daily.

Vitamins and Minerals

Breast milk and fortified infant formula provide almost all the vitamins and minerals infants need. But there are a few exceptions:

Iron: If your baby eats iron-fortified infant cereals when you introduce solids and you continue to introduce other iron-rich foods as he gets older, no other iron supplementation should be necessary.

Vitamin B12:According to the American Dietetic Association, unless vegan moms who breast-feed regularly supplement their diet with B12, “it is important that all breast-fed vegan infants receive a regular supplement of vitamin B12” (0.4 ug, or microgram, per day for the first 6 months, 0.5 ug/day beginning at age 6 months). B12 deficiencies can cause irreversible brain damage and must be safeguarded against.

Vitamin D: Families who live in higher latitudes or seasonal climates or who do not get adequate sunlight outdoors regularly should provide a daily 400 IU (international units) vitamin D supplement for their vegan baby starting at about 3 months.

Vitamin K: This shot is given to most babies shortly after birth and is important to prevent uncontrolled bleeding.

Zinc:The evidence is still mixed on whether vegan babies should receive a zinc supplement. The AAP currently doesn’t recommend zinc supplements for vegan infants. Guidelines from the Institute of Medicine suggest an upper limit of zinc of 5 milligrams/day for 6-month- to 1-year-old infants but a well-respected pediatric text suggests 2 milligrams for babies up to 6 months and 3 milligrams for 7 months to 4 years.

Fats/Omega-3s

DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and EPA (eicosapentanoic acid), which are the beneficial omega-3 fats, promote healthy brain and eyesight development. No set-in-stone recommendations currently exist for how much DHA supplementation is appropriate for babies. However, leading pediatrician Dr. William Sears recommends approximately 500 milligrams a day for infants aged 6 months and older. (Dr. Sears’s markets omega-3 products that are fish oil based.)

There is DHA in breast milk (although lower in vegan moms than vegetarian and omnivorous moms), and some infant formulas are supplemented with it (although the levels in the infant formulas are lower than in vegan breast-feeding moms).

Hydration

Babies up to 6 months old obviously get all their hydration needs from the food they drink—breast milk or infant formula. It’s not a good idea to give babies sugar water or any other old wives’ tale concoctions. (Babies’ kidneys can’t regulate water or water and sugar. They need to have breast milk or formula that has the proper balance of electrolytes or they can become very ill.)

Parent Trap

Babies under 1 year old should not be given regular soy milk. It should be supplemented with breast milk or soy infant formula until age 2 at which age the child is able to drink up to 24 ounces soy milk daily.

After 6 months, you can add some juice and smoothies. But the AAP suggests no more than ¾ cup (4 to 6 ounces) juice a day for kids over 6 months. Look for 100 percent pasteurized juice. Another good choice is calcium-fortified orange juice because calcium is a mineral to watch in vegan diets.

Sample Meal Plan for Vegan Babies

A sample meal plan for vegan infants may be the most difficult to offer because it will vary widely from family to family. Those first foods will depend on if a baby is breast-fed or formula fed, how careful a parent must be about introducing new foods because of a history of family food allergies, parents’ choice to use jarred baby food, and whether the infant is in a child-care setting.

The Vegetarian Resource Group (VRG) develops and posts excellent resources for vegan infants, children, and adults at its website, vrg. org. The sample menu on the next page is from the VRG and applies to babies ages 4 to 12 months. (Overlap of ages occurs because of varying rate of development.)

Sample Menu for Babies(0 to 12)

The Least You Need to Know

◆ Breast milk is the