Feeding Baby Solid Foods - Vegan Nutrition with Marty Davey

Marty Davey is a Registered Dietitian and has a Masters degree in Food and Nutrition from Marywood University. She became a vegetarian in 1980 when she discovered that the chemicals in American meat made them unsellable to Europeans. She and her husband have raised their son as a vegan. She teaches nutrition and has a private practice specializing in assisting clients transitioning to a plant-based regime step by step. Her website is martydavey.com

I have a 12 month old who has been on organic formula. We recently have gone vegan as a family and I am confused as to what I should give my 12 month old, since we won't be giving him formula OR dairy milk. Do you have any suggestions?

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Your child needs fat for brain development, and protein for overall growth. I would recommend enriched, FULL-FAT soy milk. There are a lot of low-fat soy products out there making it necessary to read the labels. When my son went from breast to soy, we had to scour the market for a full-fat milk. Usually, I avoid soy milk except for moistening cereal or baking, but I do agree with dietitians, Brenda Davis, RD, and Vesanto Melina, RD, MS, in their book, The New Becoming Vegetarian, that full-fat soy is fine for kids. An enriched milk will have calcium, vitamin B12 and vitamin D added. If you serve milk a couple of times a day, [approximately 20-24 oz. or 600-720ml per day] the amount should be adequate. Just to be sure, here are some more specific numbers: You are shooting for 1mcg of vitamin B12 and 5 mcg of vitamin D. Of course, your child should be outside as much as possible to get vitamin D from sunlight and proper exercise for strong bone growth. After suggesting full-fat soy milk, I would add the caveat of limiting the amount of tofu and soy "meats" included in the diet. Other fat sources should also be considered such as avocados, flax meal [not seed] and pureed nuts and seeds.

Don't feed your 1 year-old whole nuts and seeds as they could choke. I pulsed seeds a few times in my food processor to get them into a safe texture for swallowing when my son was little. I added them to oatmeal, soups and burritos. Nut butter and sweet potatoes mashed together is much better than using vegan margarines when analyzed by my nutrition department, and this tastes really yummy. You can make your own nut butters in a good food processor or blender. Adding nut butters instead of margarines also keeps the sodium low in the diet and teaches the palate to like low sodium dishes. My son cannot understand why my husband and I put margarine on our baked potatoes. Nor does he like margarine on pancakes or waffles. Fruit compote with a little maple syrup is fine for him. I've taken up his example.

Grains can be bulky for kids and can fill up their tummies before they have eaten adequate amounts to ensure proper nourishment. However, enriched cereals are great. In addition to being kid-friendly, they are easily transported to the playground. Make sure your cereals are whole grains with less than 10g of sugars per serving. Check the label.

One grain I highly recommend is quinoa. It is high in protein and most kids love it. Mine liked it with apple sauce and a little other fruit. I also added the pulsed nuts or seeds.

If calcium is a concern, not only will the enriched milk have calcium, but so will the dark leafy greens you are feeding your child. Again, adding these to soups, burritos or other dishes will introduce them to these at an early age. To make bitter greens more palatable, we would roll them up like a cigar and make thin cuts across creating rolled ribbons of the leaf. Then, we would take the large chef's knife and slice down the cigar of ribbons a few times making very small pieces of greens. This made them very easy to hide in food. In sandwich spreads they didn't need to be cooked, and added a touch of green. In soups and hot dishes, they cooked very quickly. The main objection my son had to greens was when he would find a long, stringy ribbon of collards. He described this as his newest word in a 18-month vocabulary - booger. Instead of making him change his eating habit, [and find out other descriptive words he picked up at the playground], we changed the presentation to a more acceptable form. Collards, kale, turnip greens and bok choy are all high in calcium, also white beans, edamame and black-eyed peas.

You are at the beginning of teaching your child to eat a varied and colorful diet. Here's some tips to get you through:

Kids need to be exposed to foods at least 9 times before you know a particular food is a "forget about it." Even then, they are usually only "forget about it" for some months or a year as long as they keep seeing you eat them.

Lose the battle, win the war. You may have to change the appearance or how you serve a food completely to make it palatable to a new diner. I never would think of having quinoa with apple sauce or as a morning dish, but I had to be open and was successful when I got over my limitations on different foods. Also, if I let my kid have ice cream at a party, he didn't bemoan the fact that we were vegans. After a brief explanation of what ice cream was, and reminding him that he used to feed from mom just like calves, I let him go. I sent him with stuff, but he felt weird. Now, he takes or leaves ice cream. I gave in at parties, and have no problems at home where he eats 90% of his meals.

Feast and famine is a way of life for small children. This can be due to growth spurts. They can eat everything in the house one day, and only want peanut butter and crackers the next. If it is easy to adapt to, try and do it. That being said . . .

Your house is not a restaurant. Serve healthy, tasty meals and let the chips fall. If you give in to every whim, you will be making a meal for every member of the family. Each of my 4 siblings and I had one thing we hated that no one else did. We could substitute it with something left over in the frig. Otherwise, you ate what was on the table. My son knows that we eat what is on the table or if there is a quick fix in the frig that is ok. Examples are broccoli instead of collard, carrot sticks or apple sauce instead of lettuce salad, or PBJ instead of oatmeal. Chocolate milk instead of plain is not ok. PBJ instead of stir fry is not ok.

Real food doesn't come in boxes, waxed paper wrappers, or Styrofoam. 'Nuf said.

Cooking is essential to help kids try new foods. When working with children, I have found that if they help make or grow the food, they are much more interested in eating it. Even very little kids can push a button on the food processor or blender. They can stir a fruit salad or tear lettuce. Put them in a garden with cherry tomatoes and you will want to have the camera on hand. The look on their face the first time they pluck the tomato and eat it is precious.

These are habits they will have for the rest of their lives. Even if they wander around in other food regimes, studies show that people tend to return to their early habits. As a parent, you have the strongest influence on your child. Thanks for doing your part.

Get your own personal nutrition consultation with Marty here.

Disclaimer: The advice given here is for eductional purposes only. You should not use this information to diagnose or treat a health problem or disease without consulting with a qualified health care provider.

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