adding vitamins to food?

[Lucy S]

Looking for some advice... Abby (now 15 months) is doing very well, but I do still worry about her getting adequate nutrition (as should all parents of small children - vegan or not). She is starting to nurse less and I know this can be a nutritionally-vulnerable period. Plus, she isn't a big drinker. I am working hard to get her to consume enough fortified soymilk, but she doesn't always get too much in her. (I give her smoothies, she doesn't like pudding, use it in cooking, etc.). She will gobble up soy-yogurt, but we cannot get a fortified brand. Regrettably, our choices are fewer up here in Canada. I was wondering if anyone had any advice or thoughts about adding vitamins, such as ground up calcium/B12 supplements to her food, so that I could, in effect, make the soy-yogurt or the cheezy-sauce she loves fortified.

We had a doctor's appointment yesterday and the dr. we saw said that veg diets were fine - and could provide everything with concerns however about iron and calcium. Yup, I know that. Done the reading. Everything I can get my hands on. Thanks. At least she was positive about veg. diets being okay and was happy that I had done lots of reading.

Cheers.

[Erin Pavlina]

How about giving her some of the Kid Bear multivitamins daily? She's old enough to chew them, they're like gummi bears, she'd love the taste. You can even get a free sample.

Go to http://www.vegfamily.com/product-reviews and you'll see their offer and information at the top there.

[Lucy S]

I'll give it a try, but I wouldn't bet on her liking them! She has zero sweet tooth. Which is fine by me. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Christa]

Actually the Yummi Bears are more tangy than sweet, but they are very expensive. The ones that contain gelatin are about 1/2 the price of the ones that are vegan here :(.

Do you use nutritional yeast? I know that not everyone likes it, but my girls both love it & I used to sprinkle it on a lot of their vegis when they were little - nut. yeast on corn & on potatoes were favorites. You could at least supplement the B-12 there if you make sure that the brand you buy contains B-12.

Re the calcium - her needs for calcium should be less on a vegan diet than on your typical high protein western diet, but I understand the concern b/c I didn't want to rely on the reduced need in my kids either. I recollect that my older daughter liked cooked greens in rice a lot (spinach or other dark green leafy vegis). Some of those do have a reasonable amount of calcium. Will she drink calcium fortified juices? I have even seen some calcium fortified apple juice & graham crackers.

I haven't looked into any other powdered vitamins that you could add to anything myself, but maybe someone else will have some ideas.

[Lucy S]

Thanks for the thoughts. I probably shouldn't worry so much, especially about the calcium. She will drink some OJ, and I make her smoothies with OJ, soy milk. And she loves broccoli and spinach (which doesn't have much calcium at all). I haven't managed to get her to accept other greens (such as collards) yet, but I'm trying. And, she loves tofu and I get a high in calcium one (about 350 mg/100 gr). I should trust my vegan-diet knowledge and go with that, but... I think I've just had some encounters recently with people who are dubious and I want to be extra-careful with Abby of course. I know I can go a bit without eating as well as I should, but she is growing and I am not.

[go4green]

Hi Lucy,

Beans have some calcium too, I know you are doing Tofu, Elle (Almost 1 Year!) will eat lentils, black beans and pintos if I just put them on her tray. I too was worried about vitamins, so for insurance I give her a liquid I found called Schiff Children’s vegetarian formula. I only give Elle 1/3-1/2 teaspoon which is 1/6-1/4 of the recommended dose of 2 teaspoons. I am aware than many vitamins are not formulated correctly, too high and potentially toxic in some ingredients. By giving her the reduced dose she is getting a little extra insurance without going over the RDA’s on any of the vitamins for her age. This is the only liquid vitamin I have found without a bunch of junk in it (vegan). I get it at my local co-op, but it’s available on-line. Remember it will last you longer, (at least 3 months in the 8oz. bottle) when doing your cost analysis. I plan to try the veggie bears when Elle is older. Here’s a link of a website where you can order or read reviews;

http://www.vitamins-etc.com/product.asp?pid=329

Also here is a link to Veg resource group on calcium, it sounds like you know what your doing, but in case anyone was wondering, there is a chart on calcium in foods.

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/calcium.htm

Under the chart it addresses Oxalic acid (which is found in spinach, rhubarb, chard, and beet greens) binding with calcium (I have also heard it binds with Iron, as well) when I was pregnant my nutritionist taught me to blanch these greens in boiling water for 10-15 seconds before cooking with them, this removes the acid (you have to throw out the water, don't use for a broth).

Take care, Jenna

[go4green]

Oh yeah, and for the critics, “How do you get your Calcium, Iron, Protein?” If you don’t have time to explain that carnivores pee out their calcium, due to the high protein content of their diet, just say “Beans and Greens!”

I think the hardest thing about raising a healthy child, is that I seem to go against everyone else’s grain. I wish everyone I knew paid half the attention to their diet as the families on this discussion board, for the animals and the planet, AND themselves!
~Jenna

[Lucy S]

I, too, wish everyone paid as much attention to their diets, and especially the diets of their children, as I do to ours. I generally don't worry too much about Abby's diet, but right now she is weaning herself down from nursing (2-3 a day), and won't always drink a lot of soymilk (or anything else, I might add) so I worry a bit more than usual. I've read that as a baby is weaning off of breastmilk it is a nutritionally vulnerable period and I think that is why I'm more concerned right now. And she doesn't always want to eat a variety of foods. I had more luck with non-soybeans with her when she was younger; she is more sceptical of them right now, but I keep trying. White beans (navy, white kidney beans, great northerns) are quite good for calcium, as I recall. Lentils, chickpeas - good iron.

I've requested a sample of the kid bear vitamins and I'll see if she likes them. I also bought her some "toddler" cereal fortified with calcium and iron (and zinc) and hope she'll take to it (she otherwise snacks on vegan-cheerio type cereal).

I have no problem answering people's questions. We have a mad cow outbreak/scare in Canada right now (out in the prairies, not in Ontario where I am) so if anyone bothers me about a vegan diet, I can just ask them about mad cow. hee hee

Cheers and thanks for the advice. Lucy

[Christa]

RE spinach: I thought that I remembered it containing a good amount of calcium, so I looked it up in some of my nutrition books. It does, in fact, contain a lot of calcium - much more than other leafy green vegis like kale, collards, etc. The other leafy greens contain approx. 30-100mg of calcium per 1 cooked cup. Spinach contains 245mg of calcium in 1 cooked/steamed cup.

However, spinach does definately have the issue with oxalic acid binding with the calcium and making it unavailable for the human body. I have not looked into it much, but you may want to look into the blanching technique mentioned earlier.

[sophie]

Re. Oxalic acid- I had gall stones after the birth of my second child and while attempting to fix myself naturally (didn't work, ended up having my gall bladder out) I had a consultation with a herbalist friend. He told me that most of the oxalic acid in spinich and silverbeet/swiss chard is in the stalks, (oxalic acid was one of the things I had to avoid), so ever since then I have discarded the stalks when cooking.
Also, I know that some B12 vitamins need to be taken into the stomach whole to be absorbed, as B12 is absorbed in the lower intestine or something. So grinding them up for kids may mean they don't absorb them. This is the case with the ones we use, anyway, you're not even supposed to break them in half.