Vegetarian Diets for Children: Right from the Start

© Physician's Committee for Responsible Medicine

Eating habits are set in early childhood. Vegetarian diets give your child the chance to learn to enjoy a variety of wonderful, nutritious foods. They provide excellent nutrition for all stages of childhood, from birth through adolescence.
Infants
The best food for newborns is breast milk. If your baby is not being breast-fed, soy formulas are a good alternative and are widely available. Do not use commercial soymilk. Babies have special needs and require a soy formula that is developed especially for those needs.

Infants do not need any nourishment other than breast milk or soy formula for the first several months of life. Breast-fed infants need about 2 hours a week of sun exposure to make vitamin D. Some infants, especially those who live in cloudy climates, may not make adequate amounts of vitamin D. In that case, vitamin D supplements may be necessary.

Breast milk or infant formula should be used for at least the first year of your baby's life.

At about 4 to 5 months of age, or when your baby's weight has doubled, other foods can be added to the diet.

Add one new food at a time, at one- to two- week intervals. The following guidelines provide a flexible plan for adding foods to your baby's diet.

4 to 5 Months
Introduce iron-fortified infant cereal. Try rice cereal first since it is the least likely to cause allergies. Mix it with a little breast milk or soy formula. Then offer oat or barley cereals to your baby.

6 to 8 Months
Introduce vegetables. They should be thoroughly cooked and mashed. Potatoes, green beans, carrots, and peas are all good first choices.

Introduce fruits next. Try mashed bananas, avocados, strained peaches, or applesauce.

By 8 months of age, most babies can eat crackers, bread, and dry cereal.

Also, by about 8 months, infants can begin to eat higher protein foods like tofu or beans that have been cooked well and mashed.

Children
Children have a high calorie and nutrient need, but their stomachs are small. Offer your child frequent snacks, and include some less "bulky" foods like refined grains and fruit juices. Do limit juices however, since children may fill up on them, preferring their sweetness to other foods. Calorie needs vary from child to child. The following guidelines are general ones.


Food Groups for Children
Breads, cereals, and grains
Includes bread, hot and cold cereals, pasta, cooked grains such as rice and barley, crackers.
A serving is 1/2 cup pasta, grain, or cereal or 1 slice of bread.

Beans. Nuts. Seeds
Includes any cooked bean such as pinto, kidneys, lentils, split peas, black-eyed peas, navy beans, and chickpeas; soy products such as tofu and soymilk; all nuts and nut butters, seeds, and tahini (sesame butter).
A serving is « cup beans, 4 ounces tofu, 8 ounces soymilk, 1 tablespoon nuts or nut butter.


Vegetables
Includes all vegetables.
A serving is « cup cooked or 1 cup raw.


Fruits
Includes all fruits and fruit juices.
A serving is cup cooked fruit, 4 ounces fruit juice, dried fruit, 1 piece fruit.


Recommended Servings
Ages 1 to 3 (Preschoolers)
Grains: 4 servings
Beans, Nuts, Seeds: 5 servings total, to include 1 serving beans, 1 serving nuts or seeds, 3 servings fortified soymilk.
Vegetables: 2 servings, to include at least ¬ green leafy vegetables such as kale, collards, broccoli, Swiss chard, turnip greens, mustard greens.
Fruits: 2 servings

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