Last Monday our colleague Cristina Lafuente was in the La Ciutat de Onda Cero program with the pediatrician Jamil Ajram. In the program they discussed vegetarian and vegan nutrition for babies and children, a topic that has some controversy because of how rare it is and how parents often feel judged.

A vegetarian diet, like an omnivorous diet, is not healthy in and of itself. We can see hundreds of examples of diets that include foods of animal origin that are a disaster, as well as a vegetarian diet, so the advice of a dietitian-nutritionist is very useful for the entire population.

What is special about a vegetarian diet for children?

• Breast milk is recommended up to 6 months, and you can start with complementary feeding just like omnivores and at the time it would be time to incorporate animal products, instead of incorporating meat and fish, we will give you legumes (first peeled), tofu, seitan, textured soybeans, unsweetened vegetable yogurts, creamed nuts or crushed seeds (tahini). We will introduce the foods one by one, in small quantities, assessing tolerance.
• Protein intake does not present any problem. It is a frequently asked question in the media but in reality we rarely see a problem of insufficient protein intake.
• The calcium intake will be made from calcium-enriched vegetable drinks, tofu (obtained with calcium), broccoli, okra or okra, cabbage, spinach, kale, figs, almonds, sesame, soybeans, juices or breakfast cereals enriched.

We leave you with the audio of the program