Vegan children

[stoffer]

As we all know it can be a good idea to take supplements, especially b12, and I was wondering if young children need supplements more if they are vegan, as they are growing and all that. Are there any vegan parents out there who give supplements to their children, and if so at what age do you start giving them supplements?

[Rosemary]

I gave Nicky some kind of vitamin drops when he was a baby. In Canada because we have less sunlight during the winter all breastfed babies are supposed to take vitamin D--there have actually been cases of Toronto babies developing rickets because we just do not have enough sunshine here!

Now that he's 5, he takes a multivitamin (and so do I).

[dropscone]

they sell children's chewable vitamins in a couple of local shops. I was going to buy some for me, cos I liked the idea of chewy sweetie type pills, especially after what has been said in another thread about vitamin b12 being more easily absorbed if it was mixed with saliva.

The instructions on one packet said one tablet for under 12 year olds and 2 for over that age. I ended up not buying them because although they were vegetarian they had lanolin in (of all things). We had to actually ring the manufacturer to find this out though. So beware the veggie animal tablets that don't actually state they are vegan.

I intend to get some dinochew multivits now which state they're vegan on the jar. Unfortunately they are twice as expensive. I know I won't bother taking vitamins unless they're easy to eat and taste nice though, from previous experience.