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What To Do If Your Child Wants To Go Vegan

September 15, 2020

September 15, 2020

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For whatever reason, your child has decided to go vegan. This can come from a love of animals, or it might be due to external influencing factors. Kids are growing up in the world of YouTube and social media, so it’s easy to be exposed to different ways of thinking. Regardless of why your child wants to go vegan, you have to know how to react. What should you do in this situation? I think some parents are guilty of overreacting to this situation, turning it into a massive problem. With that in mind, here are some steps you should take:

Support Their Decision

Many parents will ignore their child and continue serving non-vegan food at dinner. This is because you think your child is too young to make this decision, or you don’t think it’s good for them. Realistically, this will have the opposite effect than you desire. They’ll refuse to eat the meat, so they don’t eat anything at every meal. Essentially, you’re starving your child and stunting their growth. Instead, you should respect their decision and support it for as long as it lasts. Who knows, they may change their mind after a few weeks of eating vegan food. Or, they could stay vegan forever – the point is that you let them come to this conclusion themselves.

Find Easy Vegan Foods To Make

The biggest challenge is altering the family menu around someone with new dietary restrictions. However, you just need to find easy vegan dinners to make. Something like vegan tomato soup is perfect as it’s a dish the entire family can enjoy. Pasta and rice dishes can be made without animal products, so the whole family can eat the same thing. Also, consider swapping out ingredients to cater to the vegan child. For example, you cook chicken curry for the whole family, but you have the same dish with tofu in a separate pot. Little changes like this will stop you from cooking two completely different dishes at every meal!

Ensure They Get The Right Balance Of Nutrients

As a parent, one of your key roles is to protect your family at all costs. This is why you might think a vegan diet is a bad idea – you worry, it stops your child from growing up big and strong. Meat and dairy products contain a lot of nutrients a child needs to grow healthily. However, you can always find substitutes for this in vegan food. It’s your job to find the right foods to feed your vegan child, ensuring they get the right balance of nutrients. Don’t worry, this isn’t as hard as you might think! They can get all they need by eating a balanced diet.

All in all, you should avoid arguing with a child that wants to go vegan. It may not be your wish, but you have to respect their decision. Like I said earlier, let them eat vegan foods for as long as they like. If it’s a phase, they will soon grow out of it. If not, you’ll gradually come to terms with it, and it will feel natural to cook vegan dinners!


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