Forums: April 2011 Kickstart Forum: Diet for a Toddler
Created on: 04/08/11 10:01 AM Views: 1339 Replies: 6
dythia99 Joined: 03/30/11 Posts: 40	Diet for a Toddler Posted Friday, April 8, 2011 at 10:01 AM I have an almost 2 year old son and I would like to get him eating a plant based diet (he doesn't like meat much anyways) I was wondering if anyone has raised small children on a plant based diet. What did you do about milk? Everyone stresses milk is so important for growing boys. Is it different with toddlers then adults? My son has his 2 year appointment in a week, so I am going to talk to his pediatrician, but I would like to hear other peoples opinions, so that I can back up what I am telling my pediatrician. He is "old school" (he was my pediatrician when I was born, I am 30 now )so I don't know how he will react to a plant based diet. Plus I have to also explain this to my husband, who when I first got with 10 years ago said salad is what food eats, sigh, so obviously he will never give up meat...not to mention dairy. Any info or opinions are greatly appriciated! Thanks!
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Bugsmom Joined: 09/13/10 Posts: 2072	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Friday, April 8, 2011 at 10:49 AM dythia99 wrote: I have an almost 2 year old son and I would like to get him eating a plant based diet (he doesn't like meat much anyways) I was wondering if anyone has raised small children on a plant based diet. What did you do about milk? Everyone stresses milk is so important for growing boys. Is it different with toddlers then adults? My son has his 2 year appointment in a week, so I am going to talk to his pediatrician, but I would like to hear other peoples opinions, so that I can back up what I am telling my pediatrician. He is "old school" (he was my pediatrician when I was born, I am 30 now )so I don't know how he will react to a plant based diet. Plus I have to also explain this to my husband, who when I first got with 10 years ago said salad is what food eats, sigh, so obviously he will never give up meat...not to mention dairy. Any info or opinions are greatly appriciated! Thanks! My DS wouldn't drink milk when he was 2 - he ate cheese and yogurt back then as snacks and that was it. Basically, growing kids need fat, protein, calcium, etc. Milk is a "culturally convenient" way to do that. Nut butters have plenty of protein and fat. Greens have calcium. Etc. There are plenty of ways to meet his needs without animal products. A big thing for a growing toddler is to provide lots of small things frequently - I've got friends that call it "monkey platters" - they put out a plate (maybe a fun divided dish or something) with stable things like grapes, cut up melon, baby carrots, whole grain munchies (crackers and such) and just let their offspring nibble as they get hungry, replenishing things as they go and changing things up occasionally to avoid food boredom and introduce new foods (sometimes) (including adding the occasional bits of chocolate - finding vegan chocolate is getting easier, just look out for added milk powder or milk fat in the ingredients). Remember that growing kids need LOTS and LOTS of energy, way more than adults, but also have way smaller stomachs, so adding fat and carbs to their diet in small easily managed bits is a good thing. If we had paid more attention to eating the way DS ate as a toddler, we'd have been veg*n 12 years ago and we probably would've lost weight as well. Fortunately, by not forcing his eating habits to match ours, he retained that sense of "I've had enough" and "No, I really don't want that donut, I'd rather have some grapes" (or, "I really need something sweet right now, fruit isn't enough" when he's got a higer need for fast fuel) --Deb R
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dythia99 Joined: 03/30/11 Posts: 40	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Friday, April 8, 2011 at 1:04 PM Thank you those are all great tips....thank you for taking the time to reply to me I like the idea of a "monkey plate" he loves monkeys so it will be a hit!
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dythia99 Joined: 03/30/11 Posts: 40	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Friday, April 8, 2011 at 1:04 PM Thank you those are all great tips....thank you for taking the time to reply to me I like the idea of a "monkey plate" he loves monkeys so it will be a hit!
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Katherine Lawrence Joined: 01/12/11 Posts: 24	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 1:17 AM Here is a great factsheet on Vegetarian Diets for Children: http://pcrm.org/health/veginfo/veg_diets_for_children.html And on the advantages for children: http://pcrm.org/health/veginfo/vegetarian_kids.html. Perhaps your doctor would be more receptive to these since they document the science behind the recommendations. Greens and beans will be your child's most advantageous sources of calcium. We know that animal protein can leach calcium, so avoiding those will also have advantages. Thanks, Katherine Katherine Lawrence Instructor, PCRM & The Cancer Project www.plantbasedhealth.com
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cathyb Joined: 09/13/10 Posts: 149	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 1:35 AM My oldest two kids are vegetarian, while my youngest 2 are almost vegan. My 7-year-old just told me she was vegan, but then a day later she was looking for cheese (I got her some vegan parmesan instead). The youngest two were never feed meat at home (cuz there wasn't any), so got used to not eating it, and never liked it at family events. The 7 yo never liked milk, my 5yo drinks soymilk. As far as calcium needs go, when you don't eat animal products, you need less than the RDA. I figure that my youngest is ok because of no animal products and she drinks enriched soymilk. The 7 yo eats a lot of veggies and whole grains, and gets some soymilk that is used in recipes. I give her a chewable calcium supplement (from swansonvitamins.com) most days, because I am not sure that she gets enough. I also have some powdered calcium citrate (NOW foods brand) that I sometimes add to baked goods. The 7 yo doesn't like dried beans, tempeh, or seitan, so for protein she gets edamame, soynuts and tofu, plus what is in grains (pasta, barley and oats are favorites). The 5yo is the same, but she loves seitan and will eat some beans if in something like an enchilada. They both love crispy chickenless nuggets from happyherbivore.com, so they get beans in there. I give them a multivitamin almost daily, plus B12 a few times a week since they went mostly vegan.
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dythia99 Joined: 03/30/11 Posts: 40	RE: Diet for a Toddler Posted Saturday, April 9, 2011 at 8:42 AM Thank you Katherine for the links....they will be very helpful to arm myself when I bring this up with the Dr Cathyb thank you for the advice Pickyness is my major hurdle at this point, and in some ways my major blessing. I havent tried tofu with him or soy beans so that will be new. He LOVES fruit (of course) and is so so on veggies.... he doesnt always eat them, but I do catch him nibbling on them to try them. So I hope that is a good sign He mainly eats nut butters at this point, since he isn't much into meat. He doesn't like red meat at all. He will eat ham (sliced lunch meat...and yes I know it is awful for him) and chicken nuggets (yes also terrible). So to cut out all meat will be pretty easy. The only issue I will have is when he goes to my inlaws (they tend to want to do what they want....but that is a whole different issue LOL) Thank you guys so much for the info!!
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