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Pregnancy, Infants, & Children

See Real Vegan Children for examples of vegan kids whose mothers had a vegan pregnancy.

Click here for 3 minute video about Trulie Ankerberg-Nobis, RD and her daughter Saige's diet.

Expert Opinions on Veg Diets for Pregnancy, Infants, & Children

In their 5th Edition (2004) of the Pediatric Nutrition Handbook, the American Academy of Pediatrics says:

Children exhibit good growth and thrive on most lacto-ovo vegetarian and vegan diets when they are well planned and supplemented appropriately. (Chapter 12: Nutrition Aspects of Vegetarian Diets, p. 194)

In their 2009 Position Paper, Vegetarian Diets, the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada state:

Well-planned vegan, lacto-vegetarian, and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy and lactation. Appropriately planned vegan, lacto-vegetarian, and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets satisfy nutrient needs of infants, children, and adolescents and promote normal growth.

Pregnancy

Pregnancy and the Vegan Diet by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD.

Vitamin B12 and iodine are two nutrients of which vegan mothers should make sure they have a reliable supply.

Deva Nutrition has a Vegan Prenatal Multivitamin

Unfortunately, two of three studies of vegetarian mothers showed an increased risk of having a boy with hypospadias. You can read more about that research in the article Hypospadias and Vegetarian Diets.

Infants

The American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics agree that well-planned vegan diets can satisfy the nutrient needs and normal growth of infants.1

Breast-feeding is the best option when possible. Vegan parents should not try to make their own infant formulas as this often leads to poor child development. Although more research is desirable, it appears that soy infant formulas are generally safe. See below for information regarding soy formulas.

Breast milk is low in vitamin D and varies according to the mother's intake/sun exposure. According to some experts, dark-skinned, breast-fed babies should be given vitamin D supplements.2

For more information see:

Soy Formulas

If you need to feed your baby formula, soy formulas are available. Unfortunately, they all contain vitamin D3 (which comes from lanolin in sheep's wool or from fish). As of June 2007, the following brands were vegan except for the vitamin D3:

Click here for thoughts on the subject of trying to be 100% vegan.

Are soy formulas safe?

Infant soy formulas have been around for many years and used without apparent problems. In their review of the subject Badger et al (2009) state:

Even though soy isoflavones can bind and activate [estrogen receptors (ER)], they do not behave like typical estrogen agonists but rather as selective ER modulators and, in addition, have many other actions that are ER independent, eg, tyrosine kinase inhibition. It is unfortunate that soy isoflavones have been called "phytoestrogens," because they are not estrogens and are not truly estrogenic at nutritionally relevant concentrations. The weak isoflavone potency for activating the ERs combined with competition with endogenous estrogens for the ERs make isoflavone-related ER activity minimal when fed in amounts similar to those found in [soy formula], even when fed during early development. Moreover, although some studies have shown similar gene expression profiles for genistein (the major soy isoflavone) and [estrogen] in some tissues in vitro and in vivo, ingestion of soy foods results in a complex mixture containing hundreds of phytochemicals and peptides being introduced to the gastrointestinal tract, many of which are absorbed and have biological actions. This situation is not unlike the mixture of phytochemicals found in a typical meal containing a mixed salad and vegetables.

Click here for an abstract of the only long-term study, published in 2002 in the Journal of the American Medical Association, comparing infants receiving cow's milk formula to infants receiving soy formula.

Click here for an abstract to a 2002 review.

Click here for an article about a recent, ongoing study of soy infant formulas conducted by the Agricultural Research Service of the USDA. A summary of the article is that there have been no observed negative effects of soy formulas in humans but some animal research has raised concerns that soy formulas may cause infants to metabolize drugs abnormally fast. While this has not yet been directly studied in human infants, it seems that researchers looking at other aspects of soy formulas' effects on infants would have observed manifestations of abnormally fast drug metabolism if it were a common or serious problem.

Children

For more information, see:

Fiber and Children

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children eat no more than .23 g of fiber per pound of body weight per day. Vegan children can easily exceed this limit. They might come closer to recommendations by eating half of their servings of grains as refined grains (e.g., white pasta, white rice, white bread).3

Vegan children who do not eat much because they get full easily may benefit from eating some low-fiber foods such as refined grains, peeled fruits and vegetables, and added oils.3 Nuts and nut butters can also increase their calorie and protein intake. For younger children, be sure to chop or grind nuts well enough to prevent choking.

References

1. Mangels AR, Messina V. Considerations in planning vegan diets: infants. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001 Jun;101(6):670-7.

2. Vitamin D. Vegetarian Nutrition & Health Letter Loma Linda University School of Public Health. 2001;4(5):1-5.

3. Messina V, Mangels AR. Considerations in planning vegan diets: children. J Am Diet Assoc. 2001 Jun;101(6):661-9.


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