It is not difficult to raise healthy, happy children on a vegetarian or vegan diet as

Undergraduate Koh Ting Ting once cried after eating cake. That was about 15 years ago, around the time she turned vegetarian along with her family when she was six.

Her father, Mr Koh Guan Bin, 54, says: “After she realised that she had accidentally eaten a piece of cake
that contained eggs, she came home crying as she felt very bad about it.”

He and his wife have been vegetarian for 17 years, since they found out about the benefits of the diet that would be “good for health, animals and the planet”.

Ting Ting, now 21, their only child, recalls willingly “giving up my favourite ice cream, pastries and pizza”.

Indeed, in vegetarian families, the children may stick to the food regime better than many might expect.

Mrs Ros Wan, 40, goes so far as to say: “It’s actually the adults who backslide, since we have eaten meat before. The children have no idea what it’s like, they wouldn’t even know if they’ve eaten meat.”

The housewife converted to vegetarianism after getting married because of her husband, and the couple have brought up their two daughters, Pan, 11, and Kai, five, in the same lifestyle from birth.

It is not difficult to raise healthy children on a vegetarian diet, say advocates of vegetarianism.

Teacher Koh Li Keng, 38, says people who think that vegetarian children suffer from malnutrition are mistaken.

A vegan for 13 years, the single mother of a daughter aged 13 and a son aged 11, says: “After I stopped breastfeeding my children, I gave them soy-based milk formula.

“Now, we also eat organic vegetables as a healthier option.”

Experts LifeStyle spoke to agree that it is possible to grow up healthy without eating meat, but they have
caveats.

Dr Han Wee Meng, senior dietitian at KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital, says: “For older children and
teens, the idea of a vegetarian diet may sound healthy. However, without proper planning and guidance,
they may simply cut out, but not substitute, the entire animal food group, leading to inadequate protein,
iron, zinc and calcium intake.”

For infants, he recommends iron-fortified cereals and other vegetarian sources of iron such as eggs or
pureed beans.

Dr Ang Poon Liat, consultant paediatrician at Thomson Medical Centre, recommends that ideally, a
vegetarian should eat a broad-based vegetarian diet supplemented with dairy and eggs to get the missing
nutrients. The addition of these two complete animal foods makes them lacto-ovo-vegetarians or a variation of it.

According to him, vegans, those who do not eat eggs and dairy products, must take supplements of
Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), which is an omega-3 fatty acid, from algae sources; complete amino acids
from seeds such as quinoa and hempseed; and supplements of methyl B12.

Without these supplements, he warns, they may tend to have weak immune systems.

Nutrition issues aside, another problem for vegetarian parents to consider is whether or not to let their children go their own, perhaps meat-eating, way when they grow up.

Church pastor Paulraj Masillamony, 43, who turned vegetarian for health reasons along with his father when he was eight years old, allows his children to make their own choices.

He says: “I do not insist that my children have to be vegetarians. They grow up in the lifestyle and are educated to know that being vegetarian is good for their
health. They can see the benefits for themselves.”

He and his wife allow them to eat chocolates or
cakes “only on occasion and out of respect for the people who offer them such treats”.

His children have continued being vegetarian by choice, having eaten meat only by accident.

Daughter Betty Pauline, 13, says she does not like the taste of fish, while son Beniel Paul, 16, does not
think much of the taste of chicken and fish, which he ate thinking they were
mock meats.

In school, Betty Pauline does not face pressure from her friends to eat meat, even though most of them are not vegetarian.

She takes home-cooked meals to school and tries to tell her friends about the benefits of vegetarianism.

“Sometimes, when I see the look on their faces, I think they don’t want to hear about it,” she says.

Mrs Wan’s elder daughter Pan, who studies at the International Community School, says her friends find
her lifestyle choice to be “different but interesting”.

And they do not force her to try their food.

She says: “Even if I did eat some meat, I would probably just vomit it out.”

For Ms Koh Li Keng, educating her children about the vegan lifestyle is critical, so that they do not face
problems when they go to school.

She says: “I ask my children, if I cut you, do you feel pain? They can understand that.

“I explain to them that we don’t cause suffering to other living things and hope that if their friends ask,
they will know how to respond similarly.”

Some children go on to “outdo” their parents in the lifestyle. Three years ago, Ting Ting became a vegan and was a volunteer with the Vegetarian Society Singapore.

Passionate about her lifestyle, she says: “The best part of being vegan is that we get to enjoy the best food, fight climate change, protect our health and save farm animals.”