Blog
TITLE AND SUBJECT OF ARTICLE
41 –
Putting your Vegetarian Toddler on the Fast Track to
Health
Though many people have the idea that feeding a toddler
a vegetarian diet isn’t safe, so long as parents take
care to make sure that all the appropriate nutrients are
met, it’s actually quite healthy. Some benefits to a
lifelong, proper vegetarian diet include a lower risk of
heart disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and
obesity.
The main problem with vegetarianism and
toddler nutrition is making sure your child gets enough
nutrients and calories. Calorie consumption is important
for ensuring your toddler has the energy he needs to
play hard and grow.
It can be challenging to
develop a well-rounded vegetarian toddler menu that
provides enough protein and iron. Since toddlers already
have such a small appetite, it can be difficult to get
them to eat enough vegetables or beans to receive all of
their nutrients. Therefore, it is important that
vegetarian children are served nutrient-dense foods.
Soybeans and tofu are a great source of protein for
adults and children over four. For toddlers, though, it
shouldn’t be used as their main source of protein. In
this instance, compliment the tofu or soybeans that you
serve with soymilk that has been fortified with vitamins
and minerals. Not only will this help provide some
protein, it will also help your toddler’s nutrition by
providing calcium, and vitamins A and D, which can often
be hard to get in a vegan diet.
Iron can be found
in many vegetarian-friendly foods. Kidney beans, lima
beans, green beans, and spinach are all excellent
sources of iron. However, unlike iron derived from
animal sources, iron from vegetables can be hard for
your body to absorb properly. But serving a vitamin C
rich food with those beans or spinach can make the iron
easier for your toddler to absorb. Some great sources of
vitamin C include tomatoes, oranges, broccoli, red
peppers, and cantaloupe.
While it is possible to
raise a healthy vegan, it can take a bit more work. You
may need to supplement your toddler’s diet to ensure
they get all the nutrition that they need. Vitamin B-12
can be especially difficult for vegans to get enough of.
While vegetables contain some B-12 vitamins, the body
does not easily absorb these. Your toddler’s healthcare
provider can help you decide on a B-12 suitable for
toddlers.
A diet that does not allow for calcium
can also be detrimental to your child’s health. Calcium
helps to make bones stronger and aids in proper growth
and development. Choose soymilk that is
calcium-fortified, but be sure it’s also fortified with
other nutrients that your toddler needs for good
nutrition.
42 – Sample
Menu Items for your Growing Vegetarian Toddler
Vegetarian child.
The term almost sounds like an oxymoron we’ve joked
about through the years, like jumbo shrimp. The words
just don’t seem to go together! It's not as unnatural as
it may sound. Actually, kids are almost natural
vegetarians. It’s imperative that you offer your growing
vegetarian child a wide variety of fruits, vegetables,
grains, nuts, seeds, and soy based proteins to ensure
they have the energy and nutrients needed to grow up
strong, healthy, and happy. Consider including items in
your daily menu planning for a well-rounded,
nutrient-dense healthy diet:
2.5-3 cups
fortified soymilk
1/4-1/2 cup iron-fortified cereal
2-5 servings grains (1/2 slice bread, 1/4 cup cooked
rice, pasta, quinoa, etc)
2-3 servings veggies
(1/2 cup salad or raw veggies, 1/4 cup cooked
veggies—bear in mind that the younger your child is,
cooked vegetables might be easier for them to chew and
digest, then introduce raw veggies as they grow older.)
2-3 servings fruit (1/2 fresh fruit, 1/4 cup
cooked fruit, 1/4 cup juice)
2 servings protein
foods (1/4 -1/3 cup cooked beans/lentils, a slice or so
of calcium-fortified tofu, or peanut or almond butter –
be sure that nut butters are fed to children who’ve been
tested and shown not to have nut allergies; if you’re
unsure, wait until your child’s healthcare provider has
had the opportunity to test for such allergies in your
child before trying them)
Vitamin B-12 source -
nutritional yeast, breast milk, formula, fortified soy
milks and cheeses
Vitamin D - sunlight, breast
milk, formula, fortified soy milk
Omega-3
Essential Fatty Acids - flaxseed oil, freshly ground
flaxseed
And here’s some finger-food friendly
options for your growing vegetarian toddler:
Fresh or frozen mango
Fresh or frozen
peaches/nectarines/plums
Cubed avocado
Tofu (put in microwave or steam for 10-30 seconds
Fresh or frozen peas
Pasta that is slightly
overcooked
Cubed soy or rice cheeses
Canned beans- black, garbanzo, black eyed peas, or
kidney
Toast, cut into little pieces
37 – The
Healing Effects a Vegetarian Diet has on your Post-Baby
Body
The
breastfeeding vegetarian diet doesn’t vary all that much
from the pregnancy vegetarian diet. Protein
recommendations are the same, vitamin B-12
recommendations are higher, and the recommendations for
iron and calories are lower than during pregnancy. But
the key in ensuring your healthy vegetarian diet is also
helping you recover from the stresses of giving birth
and taking care of your newborn is healthy fats. Healthy
fats and oils play active roles in every stage of the
body’s healing, building, and maintenance processes. In
fact, they are as important to an active individual’s
body as amino acids, minerals, and vitamins. Healthy
fats and oils help convert light and sound into
electrical nerve impulses, remove potentially toxic
substances from sensitive tissue, and provide strength
to cell membranes.
The key is in balancing fats
from a variety of foods. All foods that contain dietary
fat contain a combination of fatty acids-the chemical
building blocks of fat. Learning about the mixture of
fatty acids in your diet will help you figure out how to
choose foods with the good fats and avoid those foods
that contain the bad fats.
For healthy fats, look
to monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids.
These can readily be found in a variety of vegetables,
oils, and nuts, such as avocados, almonds, and olive
oil. These help your body to resist attack from free
radicals, which are specially formed types of atoms that
can damage your body’s cells when they react with DNA or
cell membranes-better than other fats and thus are less
prone to stick to your arteries.
Polyunsaturated
fats occur in food either as omega-3 or omega-6 fatty
acids. The key to eating healthy polyunsaturated fats is
to maintain the right balance of omega-3 acids-found
abundantly in flax, walnuts and canola oil-with omega-6
acids, found in vegetable oils such as corn, safflower
and sesame.