What Parents Need to Know to Raise Healthy Vegetarian Kids

Many parents complain they can never get their kids to eat anything green, but for some American children, vegetable products are the main event at every meal. Becoming vegetarian is a decision that families and children make to varying degrees and for a wide range of reasons. Whatever the motivation, going meatless can bring valuable health benefits as well as challenges. Families and nutrition experts recommend ways to make the most of a vegetarian lifestyle.

By Sarah Tomlinson

Kids Gone Veggie!


As summer blooms, the season’s fruits and vegetables beckon at farm stands and supermarkets. The bounty of fuzzy peaches and glossy plums, vibrant vine-ripened tomatoes and lush, leafy lettuces all make healthful eating easier.

The more fresh produce the better, as every parent knows. But three-quarters of Americans don’t eat the daily minimum of fruit and vegetables recommended by the federal Department of Agriculture, according to Christine Filardo, M.S., R.D., of the Produce for Better Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization working to increase Americans’ consumption of fruits and vegetables.

But for some families, vegetables are the main event all year round. Vegetarian families or vegetarian children put vegetables front-and-center on every menu, and the health benefits are just one reason. Religious and philosophical beliefs, as well as concerns about the environmental impact of meat production are other reasons for opting for a vegetarian or vegan (no animal products, including eggs and dairy) lifestyle.

Jennie Glenn and her husband, Jeffrey, are raising their 1-year-old son, Dalton, on a diet based on their own flexible approach to vegetarianism. They have gone back and forth between vegan and vegetarian, and they do eat small amounts of fish, especially if they are dining out or entertaining. Glenn chooses vegetarianism largely because of “the possibility of antibiotics and hormones in meat,” she says. “And because of that, I guess I feel, for us, fish is the best choice out of everything.”

Whether vegetarianism is a family choice or a child’s own preference, it’s a decision that has led to an estimated one million school-age vegetarians – about 2 percent of the total age group.

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