Vegan toddlers can grow at the same rate as omnivores

Babies born into vegan or vegetarian families may be slightly underweight early in infancy, but appear to catch up with their omnivorous peers by age 2.

Official advice generally indicates that a well-planned vegan diet – rich in vegetables, beans, whole grains and fortified products – can provide all the nutrients needed for good health. But it can still be very difficult to meet a child’s growing nutritional needs, with veganism linked to amino acid and protein deficiencies.

When it comes to the pros and cons of veganism at a young age, small studies have provided conflicting results. To address the problem on a broader scale, Kerem Avital of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and colleagues analyzed data from 1.2 million babies collected from National Family Care Centers in Israel between 2014 and 2023, tracking records of each baby’s length, weight and head circumference from birth to 24 months.

The team then compared these growth rates to the type of diet the babies’ parents reported following when the infants were around 6 months old. The vast majority of households identify as omnivores, with only 1.2 percent identifying themselves as vegetarian and 0.3 percent as vegan.

But that still represented around 18,000 babies in vegetarian and vegan families. “Because of the scale of this study, even a small percentage represents a large enough number of children to be statistically significant and provide reliable assessments,” says Tomer Avnon of Tel Aviv University in Israel, who was not involved in the study.

During the first 60 days of life, babies’ length, head circumference, and rates of restricted growth and development were similar across all food groups. However, babies from meat-free families – particularly those from vegan households – were slightly more likely to be underweight. Being overweight was rare overall, but tended to be less common in vegetarian and vegan households.

By age 2, these differences had largely attenuated, with growth measures converging in all three groups. Stunting was more common among toddlers from vegetarian and vegan families, but the differences were small and not statistically significant, Avital says. The researchers took into account factors that might influence the results, such as income, mother’s age and breastfeeding.

“The results are quite encouraging,” says Avnon. “It is deeply reassuring to see large-scale data confirming that children of vegetarian and vegan mothers can expect healthy developmental futures. »

The study is consistent with medical observations that babies born small for their gestational age typically “catch up” later, Avnon says. This should also ensure that meat-free diets can promote healthy early growth, he says, but points out that the diets were self-reported by parents, which could affect the accuracy of the results. “Specifically, this study lacks an accurate, daily assessment of the child’s actual nutrition during their early years, which remains a critical factor for long-term development,” he says.

Zulfiqar Bhutta of the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, wonders whether the slight variations in restricted growth noted by researchers could be a cause for concern in the long term. “The small but appreciable growth differences between the three groups may well be relevant in the long term, particularly given evidence from elsewhere that vegan diets are associated with lower bone mineral density and micronutrient status,” he says.

He therefore cautions against interpreting these findings as a guarantee that vegan and vegetarian diets are still appropriate early in life, particularly in areas of the world where malnutrition is widespread.

Although the study was carried out in Israel, Avital says the findings likely apply to countries with similar incomes and accessible healthcare, such as the UK. Bhutta now wants to see larger studies that more accurately collect information on diet, as well as factors such as parental height.