The first worry of most parents on making the decision to raise their children as vegans is whether they will have a rounded enough diet to help them grow in their important baby years. This worry is a legitimate one but easy to tackle as long as the parents think carefully about how to replace the vitamins and nutrients that meat and animal products would usually provide. With a little careful planning there is no reason why a vegan baby can't be just as healthy as a non vegan baby. The main aim for the parent should be to ensure that their baby replaces all of the nutrients which animal products provide and that their baby does not get malnourished.

The first few months of weaning will be no different than for non vegan babies as it is for meat eating babies. This is because most babies start off with baby rice, fruit and vegetable purees.

The main concern from age 6 - 9 months is ensuring that any pre-packaged baby foods used do not contain animal products. From 9 months onwards baby would usually start to try meat and some dairy  products so this is the point where parents will have to educate themselves on the nutrients and vitamins needed by young babies and how to get these without meat and dairy.

To ensure that baby is healthy parents should look at what meat and dairy products provide and activley seek to provide these nutrients and vitamins via other foods.

Iron

A baby's natural store of iron has begun to diminish by 6 months so this becomes one of the most important nutrients to gain in order to help grow healthy blood and muscles. This is also one of the nutrients found most often in meat. Vegan sources of iron include beans and pulses, dried fruit, wholegrain cereal and green vegetables (spinach, peas and broccoli).

Calcium

Without milk, cheese and other dairy products how do babies get the calcium needed to help them grow healthy teeth and bones? This has been explored in this article on lactose intolerant babies.

Protein

Protein helps baby's imune system and their ability to repair skin, tissue and muscle. Protein is another nutrient found most in meat and fish. Vegan sources of protein can be rice, pasta, beans, lentils, seeds and oats.

Vitamin D

The easiest and most effective source of vitamin D is sunlight so make sure that baby gets plenty of chances to play outside.

Vitamin B12

As the only reliable sources of B12 are meat, eggs and dairy most vegan foods are fortified with vitamin B12. Parents should look at the food normally eaten in their household to find one which is low in salt, sugar and fat and is vitamin B12 fortified to see if there are any suitable for baby.

Iodine

Iodine helps cell metabolism and keeps the thyroid gland, skin, hair and teeth healthy. A major source of iodine is milk but there are vegan alternatives such as seaweed and some vegetables and grain (depending on the level of iodine in the soil).

Keeping a Healthy Vegan Baby

Vegan babies will have to be monitered carefully to ensure they do not become malnourished. This is often best done by the parents so watch out for baby being listless, lacking in energy or being highly susceptible to colds and illnesses.

Keep all of the above sources of vitamins and nutrients in mind and if at any time you feel your baby is not as they should be see your health visitor or doctor.

Do not avoid visiting a health practitioner out of the fear they will tell you that you should start to feed your baby animal products. If you explain to your practitioner how important your vegan lifestyle is to you they should be able to help you find a way to work around this by examining your baby's diet and making suggestions or prescribing baby vitamin drops.