Feeding children can be stressful, between knowing what to give them, ensuring they eat enough, and overcoming common challenges like pickiness. Add to that stress the particular considerations of the plant-based lifestyle, and you might start to feel overwhelmed.

Have you ever had to deal with negative reactions from family, other parents, or your kid’s pediatrician? Do you feel well equipped to answer the most common questions?

Rest assured, you are not alone. Dr. Reshma Shah is here to help. She is a board-certified pediatrician and coauthor of the award-winning book Nourish: The Definitive Plant-Based Nutrition Guide for Families. In her presentation as part of CNS’s Plant Forward Workshop series, she shared a wealth of practical advice and answered some of the most common questions she hears from concerned parents.

Are Plant-Based Diets Safe for Children?

In short, yes! Dr. Shah reassures us that appropriately planned plant-based diets are safe and healthy for children. If you need evidence to share with a medical professional, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (AND) position statement on vegetarian and vegan diets is a succinct, straightforward resource you can show them:^[1]

“A well-planned vegetarian diet containing vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds can provide adequate nutrition. . . . Deficiencies can be readily avoided by appropriate planning.”

Given the abysmal state of pediatric health, it is important to recognize that nearly every parent would do well to spend more time considering their children’s food and beverage intake. The “appropriate planning” required for a plant-based lifestyle need not exceed that for any other lifestyle. Basically, make sure your children consume many different types of whole plant-based food, including whole grains, legumes, and leafy green vegetables.

In addition to the AND position statement, Dr. Shah recommends reading a paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine titled “Milk and Health,” which explains how milk can undermine lifelong health by increasing bone fracture risk, total mortality (compared to consuming plant-based sources of protein), and the rates of certain cancers.^[2] This is a great resource to keep in your back pocket, considering how many people in the medical community mistakenly assume that milk is necessary for children. (Learn more about cow’s milk.)

If there is one nutrient you have probably been asked about since following a WFPB lifestyle, it is protein. Dr. Shah explains why obtaining adequate protein is not a legitimate issue: one would find it almost impossible to craft a protein-deficient diet, even for children, provided the diet contains enough calories and variety. (Learn more about protein deficiency.)

Dr. Shah does recommend giving your children a B12 supplement. (Learn more about B12.) To determine other needs, you should assess multiple factors, including your child’s current stage of life, what they regularly eat, and whether their diet includes fortified items. For example, children at the weaning stage have greater iron needs; some parents try to boost their kids’ iron intake with iron-fortified infant cereals.

How Do You Get the Whole Family on Board?

For many families, having different tastes can make mealtimes stressful, and if someone in your family doesn’t like the WFPB lifestyle, it can be extra challenging. Dr. Shah emphasizes the importance of recognizing that people are at different stages. Her advice is to start with yourself. You can showcase many amazing foods and meals for your family. Even if they are not ready to change their lifestyles, you can help them develop familiarity and acceptance of new foods.

Dr. Shah advises patience, compassion, and respect for family members who currently want something different. This may mean accepting that some family members occasionally eat differently outside the home; while that might sound difficult, it can go a long way to keeping a harmonious household!

Another potentially difficult situation for your kids to navigate is when they are with friends or other peers. In the following short clip, Dr. Shah offers great advice for such situations.

What about Sugar and Processed Foods?

Dr. Shah recommends avoiding sugary drinks in the house if possible. Once children develop a taste for these beverages, it can be a challenge to get them to drink water. To transition, you can try seltzer water with pieces of fruit or, in moderation, smoothies made with green vegetables. (Read about smoothies here.) You can also use a fun straw to make the drink more appealing.

It’s also helpful to remember that not all processed foods are the same. While we obviously want to avoid hyper-processed foods, such as potato chips, minimally processed items like soy milk (unsweetened), accompanied by lots of whole foods, can help make mealtimes a lot less stressful.

From my experience, if you tell your child they can’t have something, they’ll want it even more. The same is often true with adults! With my clients, I reinforce the positives and don’t tell them what they can’t have.

Dr. Shah recommends a pragmatic approach to the occasional consumption of foods such as ice cream or cake. The idea is that children will develop the confidence to deal with situations away from the family dinner table if they are used to making some decisions about what they eat.

How to Introduce Plant-Based Foods to Children

Dr. Shah’s advice is to talk about food positively, especially with young children. You want them to learn that healthy whole foods can be delicious. If you have older children who are interested in learning about or trying new plant foods, it’s a good idea to provide them with nutritional information, with an emphasis on the positives.

Dr. Shah has three simple strategies for introducing more plant foods to your children:

1. Focus on what you are adding, not what you are taking it out. This strategy, known as crowding out, can help ease concerns about animal-based foods being taken away from them. As you add more whole plant-based foods, animal food consumption will naturally, necessarily decline but without too much fuss.
2. Reinvent favorite meals and substitute a few ingredients to help keep meals familiar. I love Dr. Shah’s idea of replacing taco meat with baked tofu, beans, and seasoning!
3. When planning meals, emphasize the plant-based foods that everyone already enjoys.

I hope you found this advice helpful. If you’re transitioning your family, maybe you have successful strategies you’d like to share. Please let us know.

To watch Dr. Shah’s full video, join Whole Communities.. This is a designated space for you to connect with others who have embraced the WFPB lifestyle, attend live educational webinars and access recordings, and become an exemplary advocate for lifestyle change.




References

1. Melina V, Craig W, Levin S. Position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics: Vegetarian Diets. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2016;116(12):1970-1980. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2016.09.025
2. Willett WC, Ludwig DS. Milk and Health. N Engl J Med. 2020;382(7):644-654. doi:10.1056/NEJMra1903547