Ask a Dietitian: My Child Wants to Go Vegetarian — How Should Parents Support That?

The Question

My child says they want to go vegetarian — should I agree, and will it affect their development?

The Dietitian's Answer

With proper planning, a vegetarian diet can fully support a child's normal growth and development. That said, it does require parents to plan meals more carefully than an omnivorous household would, especially around protein, iron, zinc, calcium, B12, and DHA. Rather than simply refusing or simply going along with it, it's better to work with your child to learn how to eat a nutritionally balanced vegetarian diet together.

What Parents Can Do

• Understand why your child is choosing vegetarianism (animal welfare, religious belief, taste preference, etc.), and respect that reason while working out a meal plan together
• Consult a pediatrician or pediatric dietitian to build a specific meal plan suited to your child's age
• Keep up with regular pediatric checkups, tracking growth curves and relevant nutrition markers
• If your child is choosing a stricter vegan diet rather than lacto-ovo vegetarian, pay extra attention to B12 and DHA supplementation
• Try a "one pot, two ways" approach — make the main dish vegetarian, and let other family members add meat on the side if needed, which also cuts down on meal-prep effort

One Word of Caution

Parents should pay special attention if a teenager turns to vegetarianism out of extreme dieting motives rather than genuine values. Make sure vegetarianism doesn't become a way of masking an eating disorder, and seek professional help if needed.