Can babies be given Vegetarian eating patterns?
A vegetarian diet is increasingly desirable by all ages. For vegetarian parents, can the baby be given the same diet?
To this day, a vegetarian diet is in demand as part of a healthy lifestyle. For a vegetarian parent, does the baby also be given the same diet?
Before answering the question, please be aware that the condition of the parent body differs from the child. The difference includes many things, including health-related and bodily functions. The younger the child's age, such as babies, then the further the difference. So, what is safe for adults is not necessarily safe for children.
The main thing that distinguishes is the growing aspect of flowers. Growth is a generally graded increase in size from weight, height and head circumference parameters. Meanwhile, developments are the addition of functions of various organ systems in the child's body, including the development of sexual organs during puberty until the child becomes an adult.
To support the process of such growth and development, the role of nutrients is crucial, especially during pregnancy up to the first two years of the child's life. In that period, 80 percent of brain growth occurred. So, this time to determine the fate of future babies will be what they want.
Not only in terms of quantity, the quality of food provided should also be carefully noticed. The quality of the food in question is what meets the needs of macro (macronutrients) and micro micronutrients, which consist of carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins, and minerals following the recommended proportions.
Can you apply a vegetarian diet to your baby?
The vegetarian Society defines vegetarians as a lifestyle with bean feeding menu, vegetables, nuts, fruits, mushrooms, and some other non-animal foods such as salt with or without dairy products, honey, and/or eggs.
A vegetarian does not consume food that originated or was made with the help of products made from animal sources of life or death, such as meat, poultry, and fish.
Although the vegetarian diet includes economical (because meat consumption is very minimal), but in general the vegetarian diet is not recommended for infants, except in special circumstances.
Why? As discussed earlier, the main priority is to ensure the child's growth is going well, that is to fulfill the recommended quantity and quality of the nutrients he needs.
In terms of quantity, a vegetarian diet can still meet the body's energy needs. But in terms of quality, some nutrients can not be fulfilled by implementing a diet that is rumored to have been there since 700 years before the ad.
Some aspects of nutrients that could not be fulfilled from a vegetarian diet for infants include:
1. Protein
A vegetarian diet can actually meet the needs of baby proteins, because it can still be obtained from vegetable protein sources, namely from the nuts.
Nonetheless, vegetable proteins do not contain certain types of essential amino acids such as those offered by animal proteins. That is why nutrition, animal protein is better than vegetable protein for babies.
2. Fat Loss
Fat is also one component of nutrients that is very important for infants, especially for brain growth. Some of the unsaturated short-chain fatty acids, such as omega-3 and omega-6, are essential to the growth of the brain, far more widely obtained by animal fat sources than vegetable fats.
3. Iron
Iron is also one type of mineral that is very important for growing baby flowers. Although some types of vegetable sources contain iron, the absorption is less good when compared to the absorption of iron obtained from animal food sources.
So, can babies be given a vegetarian diet? In answering this question, parents should think well, especially the risk of deficiency or deficiency of important nutrients as mentioned above. Because it can affect children's growth later.