Haynes 1

Emma Haynes

Professor Sobocinski

English 1201

9 July 2020

Literature Review

A vegan diet seems to be a healthy and viable option for adults but is it a healthy and safe

option for growing children. There is stigma on how a vegan/vegetarian diet is not efficient to

sustain a healthy growing rate for a child. A main health concern that is found in the majority if

not all of the article is in a diet of a vegan/vegetarians of a growing child there is a lack vitamin

B-12 and D and bulk eating. Vitamin B-12 and D are normally found in meat and fish. A lack of

vitamin B-12 and D can lead to the development of rickets, a skeletal disorder, stunting growth,

soft bones and in severe cases skeletal deformities. Another health concern for vegan/vegetarian

children is bulk eating. Bulk eating can cause a child to be full on vegetables and fruits and since

these foods lack a certain substation it can lead a child to be low in energy. Can a

vegan/vegetarian diet can be adequate for a child.

A vegetarian diet mainly consists of fruits, vegetables, legumes, oils, nuts, seeds, dairy

products, and eggs, a vegan diet excludes all animal products like dairy, eggs, butter, honey and

gelatin. These types of food can be easily accessible for adults to control what they eat but for

children it’s a bit harder, from Vegetarian diets and children by Sheela Reddy “Although strict

vegetarian diets, in view of their low saturated fat and high fiber contents, may offer certain

advantages to the health of adults, their adequacy for children has been a moot point.” Vegan

children weight and height compared to their non-vegan peers tend to be in the lower percentile
Haynes 2

for both weight and height from Growth and Development of British Vegan Children by Thomas

AB Sanders, PhD, “A bulk diet can be beneficial for children trying to lose weight, but for a

growing child it can be a health risk.” To maintain a healthy way of life a child needs to have an

energy rich diet in order for them to grow efficiently.

There seems to be the question if a vegan/vegetarian diet is suitable for a child. From

another article Vegetarian Diets in children and adolescents “Restrictive vegan diets, however,

may cause energy deficits because of low energy density and excessive bulk, presenting

challenges in feeding smaller children.” A diet that only consist of certain foods that lacks a

necessity vitamin in order to be as healthy as possible should not be suitable for a child. There is

a food questionnaire in order to help pinpoint what is being eating in a day, from Vegetarian

Eating for Children and Adolescents “the purpose of these tools is to identify potential

deficiencies in dietary intake and provide direction for patient education discussions.” If a

caretaker is educated on the matters that a vegan diet does lack important vitamins, they are

aware that they need to supply them to their child.

There is also a dispute that some vegan options are not meant for children from Pediatric

Nutrition in Practice, Vegan Diet “Homemade milk preparations, (soy milk, rice milk, and nut

milk) are not suitable in the first year, owing to low iron bioavailability, insufficient vitamins and

inappropriately high concentrations of minerals,” a child who vegan tends to be smaller than

their omnivore peers, since “vegetarian diets can be lower in energy and higher in dietary fiber”

which “can result in early satiety in infants when small quantities of food are consumed.” A

vegan diet can be very filling but lacks the nutrimental value leading to a child having low

energy. A vegan/vegetarian diet now can add certain health risks when the children enter into

adult hood From Vegetarian Eating for Children and Adolescents by Laurie Dunham and Linda
Haynes 3

M Kollar “We also have learned that vegetarians adults have a decreased risk for several chronic

diseases such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, hypertension, obesity, and some types of

cancer”

A vegan diet is more manageable for an adult, “Problem of dietary inadequacy are more

likely to occur in children than in adults. Their requirements relative to body weight are greater

and they are unable to exert the same degree of control over what they eat compared with

adults.” (Sanders). From Vegetarian diets and children “The diets and growth of children reared

on vegetarian diets are reviewed. Excessive bulk combined with low energy density can be a

problem for children aged < 5 y and can lead to impaired growth.” A vegan diet in infants to

adolescents need extra attention on how the child is growing and what they are lacking. In an

information box in the article Vegetarian eating for children and adolescents inform the reader on

what to lookout for when tending to a child with dietary needs. Some of the factors to lookout for

are supplements for vitamin B-12, since their diet is severely lacking in it. Exposure to sunlight

is very important for those on a vegan diet since it is also lacking in vitamin D. From the same

article “For children and adolescents who follow a vegetarian diet and may not be ingesting

100% of the recommended amounts of vitamins and minerals, a multivitamin or single

vitamin/mineral supplements will help ensure that their needs are being met.”

There is a misconception that a vegan/vegetarian diet is only for those with an ethical

idea and to help the animals that are being used in the distribution of meat and animal products.

There are other reasons why someone would want a vegan/vegetarian diet, it could be its easier

to manage since they themselves or their child had a gluten or difficult allergies to manage and a

vegan/vegetarian diet can help maintain their health.

Haynes 4

While there are a lot of health risks for those children, and it may be difficult for that

child to ingest all the proper vitamins and nutrients to be able to grow. For those who aren’t able

to give their child the proper supplements a vegan/vegetarian their child may suffer from rickets

and have impaired growth. A diet is manageable for those who are well educated on the fact that

their vegan child may need a little more attention than a child without a diet restriction.
Haynes 5

Works Cited

Dunham, Laurie, and Linda M. Kollar. “Vegetarian Eating for Children and Adolescents.”

Journal of Pediatric Health Care, vol. 20, no. 1, 2006, pp. 27–34.,

doi:10.1016/j.pedhc.2005.08.012.

M Amit, Canadian Paediatric Society, Community Paediatrics Committee, Vegetarian diets in

children and adolescents, Paediatrics & Child Health, Volume 15, Issue 5, 5/6 2010, Pages

303–314, https://doi.org/10.1093/pch/15.5.303

Mcevoy, Claire T., and Jayne V. Woodside. “2.9 Vegetarian Diets.” World Review of Nutrition

and Dietetics Pediatric Nutrition in Practice, vol. 113, 2015, pp. 134–138.,

doi:10.1159/000367873.

Reddy, Sheela. “Vegetarian diets and children.”, The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition,

vol. 60, no 3, 1994, pp. 1176-1180., doi:10.1.1.911.1862

Sanders, T A. “Growth and Development of British Vegan Children.” The American Journal of

Clinical Nutrition, vol. 48, no. 3, 1988, pp. 822–825., doi:10.1093/ajcn/48.3.822.

Haynes 6