My 10 yr old son is vegetarian, should I supplement his diet to make sure he is getting everything he needs?


diet supplement
Linda Lu asked:


He will eat eggs, beans, nuts…but nothing with eyes.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 at 9:37 pm and is filed under Vegetarian & Vegan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

8 Responses to “My 10 yr old son is vegetarian, should I supplement his diet to make sure he is getting everything he needs?”

  1. duzziebat Says:
    January 16th, 2010 at 7:28 am

    Unless he isnt eating his vegetables then no. he is getting protien from what you just listed, but he needs leafy vegetables and some fruits for his iron, vitamins (they also have protien in them).

    So get him to eat his vegetables and he will be perfectly healthy. If he wont, make him take vitamins

    Edit: he is also eating breads and pastas for his carbs right? duzziebat

  2. rundown73 Says:
    January 19th, 2010 at 1:19 am

    Eggs are good.
    I’d be concerned with a young child being vegetarian that he wouldn’t get enough protein to support growth. So I’d at least give him a whey protein shake every day. (Whey protein powder is widely available and frequently used by body builders. I’ve even found it at Sam’s Club).

    Also, there are certain vitamins and micronutrients that we normally get from meat or from freshly harvested (i.e. dirty) vegetables that we can’t get without eating meat in our industrialized society. From what I understand, miso paste replaces these well. Miso makes a decent soup and it’s not bad as a salty flavoring on top of mushrooms or potatoes or whatever.

    So, whey protein and miso paste.
    (EDIT: And a good multi-vitamin as mentioned for iron) rundown73

  3. Meilien Says:
    January 20th, 2010 at 1:10 am

    I’d personally suggest adding meat to his diet, for his own health.

    The fact that you don’t know enough about a vegetarian diet to have to come onto YA to ask shows that you probably can’t manage his diet on your own, and that you risk damaging his health by missing out important vitamins and minerals.

    He’s still growing, if you don’t get his diet right he could suffer from all kinds of things, from anemia to rickets. He shouldn’t go vegetarian until he’s at least 16-18. Otherwise he could suffer from things that mostly only happen to kids in the third world. He could even be taken away by child services if he get sick because of his diet. They aren’t always tolerant or understanding of “alternative lifestyles”.

    The question is “is it he won’t eat, or you won’t let him eat”?

    Give him a normal meat diet for his own health. Meilien

  4. braceface Says:
    January 22nd, 2010 at 11:05 pm

    whey protein shake is good, like the person before said. Just make sure that he’s getting his milk. Tofu is also a good source of protein. There are cookbooks out there that can help with this. You can cook together. Great way to bond with the kid.

    A 10 year-old vegetarian? What a progressive kid! braceface

  5. Golden Says:
    January 23rd, 2010 at 8:08 am

    Golden

  6. Kim N Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 5:27 am

    Vegetarian Diets: Advantages for Children
    Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine

    Some cookbooks for veggie moms -
    The Vegetarian Mother’s Cookbook - Cathe Olson
    Raising Vegetarian Children - Joanne Stepaniak Kim N

  7. La Vie Boheme Says:
    January 26th, 2010 at 11:18 am

    If he will eat eggs, beans and nuts along with whole grains and a variety of vegetables..he won’t need any supplement. La Vie Boheme

  8. Daisy Buchanon Says:
    January 27th, 2010 at 10:35 pm

    I have two exceptionally healthy VEGAN children, who have never taken supplements, so I should say he’ll be fine. ;) Daisy Buchanon

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