 [ Symptoms ] is a vegan diet healthy for my 3 year old son [ Disease ] 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 tomatoestomato 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 do not 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 milkyogurt 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 not 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