Feed children vegan? For some parents, nothing else is an option

Only half a percent of Swiss households follow a strict vegan diet, i.e. without meat, fish, milk, eggs, honey and other animal products. This is evident from a representative survey conducted by the University of St.Gallen. Although the vegan diet is on the rise, it ultimately remains a marginal phenomenon. Regardless, the topic is emotionally heated in society, especially when it comes to children. In addition, many specialized associations advise against a vegan diet in childhood and toddlerhood. The chance of deficiency symptoms is too great.

Yet some parents decide to raise their children vegan, for example 37-year-old Iris, mother of three children. She described French-speaking Swiss anthropologist Edmée Ballif, who conducts research at University College London and has conducted interviews with vegan families:

One of Ballif’s findings is that the idea of ​​a good upbringing for vegan parents like Iris is based on the fact that the children will only have a good future if not only they, but also the environment and the animals are well cared for.

It is not enough for parents to ‘just’ follow a vegetarian lifestyle. They are also concerned about milk production. 34-year-old Charlotte explains this as follows:

Isabelle Rieckh is a research assistant at the University of Bern and an independent nutritionist in Basel with a focus on infants and children. She says she receives a surprising number of applications from parents who want to feed their babies vegan. Like the parents in Ballif’s study, their motivation for a vegan diet is not primarily health, but the environment.

The nutritionist admits that a vegan diet for children is very challenging:

The children who come to her are very healthy. She often observes problems with other childrenfor example, those who eat eggs, dairy products and meat, but otherwise have very unbalanced eating habits.

Not all healthcare workers are as open as Rieckh. To avoid judgment, the vegan families in Ballif’s research developed targeted strategies. “This ranges from exchanging addresses of pediatric practices that are open to veganism to completely avoiding medical consultations,” says the researcher. One problem is that medical professionals and nutritionists learn little or nothing about veganism during their training. More education is needed.

A crucial point that anthropologist Ballif noted in her research is that vegan families are at risk of falling back into old gender roles. In our society, choosing a vegan diet means an additional burden, for example when children have to bring their own meals to daycare, kindergarten or school.

In almost half of the families surveyed, one parent had stopped workingso the family can eat vegan. As a rule, this was the mother, because childcare in Switzerland is still largely done by women, says Ballif. However, she emphasizes that mothers whose children require special nutrition due to food intolerance, for example, have most likely also reduced their workload.

Sophie, 39 years old, also raises her four children vegan together with her husband. To teach them this diet, she resorted to a radical method, as described to researcher Ballif: she showed her children documentation of animals that were made to suffer and then slaughtered.

“I remember,” she said, “the first time my son was sick all night; It was a real emotional shock, a bit difficult.” The girls reportedly cried. But she couldn’t understand why other parents would give their children a piece of dead meat without telling them how this food ended up on their plates.

Nutritionist Rieckh considers such extreme parenting attempts undesirable. At the same time, she emphasizes that it is important to teach children extensive knowledge about nutrition. She says:

But that would be important, also so that children learn to appreciate animal products and consider them valuable. “This knowledge is partly lacking,” says Rieckh.

It is crucial that parents set a good example and raise children to be independent thinkers. “If the child decides to eat vegan on their own initiative, that’s fine,” she says, adding: “But the child should not be forced to do so.”