Toddler Not Recommended Becoming Vegetarian

Vegetarians are people who live by eating vegetable products with or without milk and eggs, but avoiding the consumption of meat, poultry and seafood. Vegetarians who eat only plant foods is called Vegan, while vegetarians who eat plant foods, milk and other dairy products are called lacto vegetarian. Vegetarians who consume plant foods, dairy and eggs and other dairy products are called lacto ovo vegetarian. Some of the reasons why people choose to become vegetarians, among others because they want to live a healthy life, religion, concern for animals and the environment.

Survey results reported in 1997 there was 1% of the U.S. population is vegetarian. This figure rose to 2.5% in 2000 and 2.8% in 2003. UK population are vegetarian in 1987 as much as 3%, rising nearly doubled in 1997 to 5.4%. Newspoll survey in 2000 reported there were 2% of Australians are vegetarian and 18% of the population prefers vegetarian food, while in India in 2003 there were more than 50% of the population is vegetarian.

The number of vegetarians who are listed on the Indonesia Vegetarian Society (IVS) in 1998 stood at about five thousand people and increased to sixty thousand members in 2007. This figure represents a fraction of the actual number of vegetarians because not all vegetarians to register as members. In Indonesia there are three hundred toddler vegetarian where nearly one-third residing in Jakarta.

 

Nutrient Intake Lower

Research on the growth and development of vegetarian children was first performed by Hardinge in 1954 with a large sample of 30 children aged 13-17 years old vegetarian. The study design used was cross-sectional study to assess the nutritional status based on anthropometric indices. Hardinge reports that the growth of lacto ovo vegetarian children are similar to non-vegetarian groups of children the same age, while vegan children have smaller body weight (BW / U) and height (TB / U) which is lower than non-vegetarian groups of children the same age .

The results of the study in England showed that vegetarian pre-school children (1.5 to 4.5 years) have the energy intake of protein and fat, cholesterol, niacin, sodium, and serum ferritin lower than non-vegetarian children, but higher intake of carbohydrates , vitamin A, C, E and potassium, as well as enough substance Fe, Zinc and B12. Vegan children compared to children who eat meat, will tend to be shorter (TB / U) and thin (BB / TB) as well as the risk for deficiency of nutrients essential for growth. Research in India, Britain and the United States proves that vegan groups and other types of vegetarians suffer from vitamin B12 deficiency.

Less energy and protein is a factor that affects the nutritional status of children. Infectious disease be the direct cause of malnutrition among infants less than nutrient intake. Toddler is one of the groups vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies that are not recommended to be vegetarian.

Factor of parental education, indirectly affects the nutritional status of children, where low education became one of the causes of nutrition problems. Maternal nutritional knowledge is also shown to be associated with nutritional status of babies. Families of children with a maximum of two people have children with better nutritional status than the families of more than two children.

Given a toddler is one of the groups who are vulnerable to malnutrition and are in a period of rapid growth that will affect the nutritional status of the next phase of life, as well as theoretically vegetarian toddlers is not recommended because it feared would suffer from malnutrition.

Need Counseling

Nutritional counseling needed to be particularly negative impact over nutrition and obesity in toddlers by government authorities. Further research can be done with the design of case control or cohort longitudinally to study the growth and development of vegetarian toddlers.

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