with careful planning a vegan diet can meet the needs of your child. but you do have to be more vigilant about key nutrients such as iron zinc calcium vitamin d vitamin b12 and dha. because iron and zinc are not absorbed as well in plant foods include higher-than-recommended amounts. adding vitamin-c rich sources (strawberries tomatoes/tomato based products oranges kiwi and broccoli) to help absorb iron from fortified foods and plant sources. vegan children need a supplemental source of b12 (either fortified foods or supplements) because it only occurs naturally in animal foods. here are vegan foods sources for key nutrients that are important to stay on top of: vitamin b12: fortified nutritional yeast fortified cereals fortified soymilk meat analogues and supplements. iron: iron-fortified cereal beans tofu spinach raisins and enriched bread. zinc: cashews chickpeas oatmeal almonds beans and peas (be careful with nuts which are choking hazards) vitamin d: fortified foods (like soy milk) and supplements. the american academy of pediatrics recommends supplementation for children who don't get enough from diet. the recommended amount is 600iu. omega-3 dha: not naturally found in plant foods but can be found in some fortified foods and supplements. calcium: tofu made with calcium sulfate fortified soy milk/yogurt turnip greens kale fortified cereals a vegan diet is perfectly healthy for your son. you can get a complete diet based on the food pyramid if you are a vegan. here is how: grains - all natural forms of these products are vegan. if you buy processed foods you will need to check all the labels as some often contain animal products. be careful as some products use terminology that does not make it explicit that they are animal products. i recommend that you check an official vegan website for some of this terminology like sheffafoods veganfoods and many more you can do some online searches to find the relevant information. dairy: if you are a lacto vegan you can eat most dairy products. milk is not an animal so you might be okay with this. you will need b12 supplement if you are pure vegan; it is supplied in soy milk. drink it daily if you are pure vegan. if you ask me animal protein can't be replaced by anything else! so i would say that a vegan diet would not be a good idea especially for a 3-year child!
is a vegan diet healthy for my 3 year old son?