Vegan toddlers can grow at the same rate as omnivores

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

Official advice generally states that a well-planned vegan diet—rich in vegetables, beans, whole grains, and fortified products—can provide all the nutrients needed for good health. However, it can still be very difficult to meet the growing nutritional needs of a child, as veganism is associated with amino acid and protein deficiencies.

When it comes to the pros and cons of going vegan at a young age, small studies have produced mixed results. To address the problem on a broader scale, Kerem Avital at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel and her colleagues have now analyzed data on 1.2 million children collected from national family care centers in Israel between 2014 and 2023, tracking records of each child’s length, weight and head circumference from birth to 24 months.

The team then compared these growth rates to the type of diet the children’s parents were feeding when they were about 6 months old. The vast majority of households reported being omnivorous, with only 1.2 percent reporting being vegetarian and 0.3 percent as vegan.

But that still represented about 18,000 children in vegetarian and vegan families. “Given the sheer size of this study, even a low percentage represents a large enough number of children to be statistically significant and provide reliable estimates,” he says Tomer Avnon at Tel Aviv University in Israel, who was not involved in the study.

In the first 60 days of life, infant length, head circumference, and rates of growth and development restriction were similar for all diet groups. However, children in meat-free families—particularly those in vegan households—were slightly more likely to be underweight. Being overweight was rare overall, but less common in vegetarian and vegan households.

By approximately 2 years of age, these differences had largely leveled out, with growth indices converging across the three groups. Stunting was more common in toddlers from vegetarian and vegan families, but the differences were small and not statistically significant, Avital says. The researchers took into account factors that may have influenced the results, such as income, maternal age and breastfeeding.

“The results are quite encouraging,” says Avnon. “It is deeply reassuring to see extensive data confirming that children of vegetarian and vegan mothers can expect a healthy developmental future.”

The study is consistent with medical observations that babies born small for their gestational age typically “catch up” later, Avnon says. It should also provide reassurance 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, day-to-day assessment of a child’s actual early nutrition, which remains a critical factor in long-term development,” he says.

Zulfiqar Bhutto at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada, wonders whether the slight variations in restricted growth that the researchers found may be cause for concern. “The small but noticeable differences in growth between the three groups could be relevant in the long term, especially given evidence from elsewhere that a vegan diet is associated with lower bone mineral density and micronutrient status,” he says.

He therefore cautions against interpreting the findings as reassurance that vegan and vegetarian diets are always appropriate at an early age, especially in parts of the world where malnutrition is prevalent.

Although the study was conducted in Israel, Avital says the results are likely to apply to countries with similar incomes and affordable healthcare, such as the UK. Bhutta now wants to see larger studies that more accurately collect information on diet and factors such as parents’ height.

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