Nutritionists have warned that vegetarian children could be at risk of serious health problems, after the NHS published advice on infant diet, according to the British Daily Mail.
Milk and dairy products
The NHS Start for Life website, which offers advice and advice for new parents, includes a section on vegetarian children. The NHS recommends that children on a vegan diet need vitamin B12 supplementation and advises parents to give their children plant-based drinks such as soy, oat and almond milk, after the age of one year, if they are drinking unsweetened and unfortified calcium drinks.
The NHS also warns parents to exclude cow’s milk and dairy products, which are good sources of nutrients, from a child’s diet without first speaking to a GP or dietitian.
balanced meals
But some nutrition experts have raised concerns about making children vegetarian at such a young age, especially since more and more cookbooks have recently been published with recipes for vegetarian children.
While most experts believe that a vegetarian diet for children can be safe, risks may arise when parents cannot strictly ensure that meals and snacks are properly balanced.
Terrifying negative effects
Duane Mellor, a registered dietitian and chair of nutrition at Aston University Medical School, said: “If an infant or child does not have enough energy and protein, it can affect their development. If their diet includes low levels of iodine, or they become deficient Iron, their brain development can be negatively affected and even reduce their intellectual ability.But if the diet lacks vitamin B12, the child can develop anemia and also negatively affect the development of his nerves.
3 cm shorter
A study conducted last year under the supervision of University College London, which included cases of 187 vegetarian and meat- and dairy-eating children between the ages of 5 and 10, found that children who follow a vegetarian diet are shorter by an average of three centimeters, indicating that they grow more slowly compared to the rest. children. The results also revealed that the bone mineral content of the vegan children was lower than the rest of the children, although they also had less body fat and lower levels of bad cholesterol.
Hummus and nuts
Pediatric nutritionist Bahe van de Boer advises “to include a good proportion of foods, which contain carbohydrates and fats from vegetable oils, nut butter, avocado and other high-energy foods such as chickpeas, which can meet the daily energy requirements of the child, warning that without careful planning of the requirements Overall energy and nutrients There can be nutritional gaps that compromise growth and increase the risk of nutrient deficiencies.
Essential nutritional supplements
Parents should also not ignore the advice to use dietary supplements for calcium, vitamin D, B12 and iodine, and to include foods containing omega-3s, to make a vegetarian diet safe from birth, because “a child’s brain grows rapidly in the early years, so adequate nutrition is essential to support this.” early development of the brain.”
The NHS website, in an update published in March 2020, confirmed: Infant formula (which is based on cow’s milk or goat’s milk) is the only suitable alternative to breast milk for children under 12 months of age. Soy formula should only be used on medical advice.
Beans, lentils, broccoli and mango
Children’s nutrition expert Dr. Carrie Ruxton said: “Adults who follow a vegan diet should make sure they mix in protein sources, for example eat lots of beans, lentils and wheat, but it can be difficult for children to achieve this,” while Dr. Chantal pointed out. Tomlinson, a nutritionist at the Vegetarian Society of England, notes that there are many plant-based foods rich in protein, iron and zinc, such as beans, chickpeas, lentils and tofu, and that iron absorption can be enhanced by including a rich source of vitamin C in every meal, such as broccoli, cabbage or mangoes.