Do vegetarian children get enough nutrients?

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I'm a vegetarian, and I promote vegetarian diets for the children in my practice. The standard American diet, best abbreviated SAD, is very heavy in high-fat, low-fiber protein. Very low in high-fiber, high-nutrient vegetables. Kids get all the protein that they need, all the nutrients that they need without eating beef and chicken and fish. There's some small debate about whether or not red meat is unhealthy for you. There's pretty good evidence that eating a lot of red meat increases the incidence of heart disease, cancer, a lot of other problems. That debate can go on. But there's no debate about salami and bologna. These are meats that are unsafe for kids. A vegetarian diet contains all the nutrients that they need, and that's what I recommend. My ideal diet for your 9-month old child: fresh fruits and vegetables, grains, beans, a little bit of pasta, maybe some soy protein, and maybe other sources of protein at 9-12 months of age, the protein that your family eats. But you don't need red meat in your diet. And you certainly don't need hot dogs and salami.

Video Categories: ALL PARENTS, Nutrition, Vegetarian and Vegan Diets

Pediatrician Jay Gordon, MD, shares advice for parents on why he promotes vegetarian diets for kids due to the fact that the standard American diet is so unhealthy

Transcript

Expert Bio

Jay Gordon, MD

Pediatrician

Jay Gordon, MD, FAAP, IBCLC - In the middle of his residency training, pediatrician Jay Gordon took an unusual step. Deciding that he needed greater knowledge about nutrition, vitamins, and alternative medicine in order to practice medicine the way he wanted to, Dr. Gordon took a Senior Fellowship in Pediatric Nutrition at Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York City. After his residency at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles, Dr. Gordon joined the teaching attending faculty at UCLA Medical Center and Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Intensely interested in infant nutrition and breastfeeding, Dr. Gordon is the first male physician to sit for and pass the International Board of Lactation Certification Exam and has served on the Professional Advisory Board of La Leche League for 24 years.

In addition to treating patients, he participates in the training of medical students and residents, lectures all over the world, writes books, and writes a monthly column for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine. He has contributed to “New York Parent,” “Parenting” magazine and has been quoted in the L.A. Times, New York Times, and The London Times.

Dr. Gordon’s first book, the well-received Good Food Today, Great Kids Tomorrow, offers a life-changing plan for families who want to make dramatic changes in health and fitness through nutrition. Brighter Baby examines the positive effect that attachment parenting, combined with infant massage, has on children’s health and intelligence. Other releases include: Good Night! The Parents’ Guide to the Family Bed and Hug Your Baby, a Gentle Guide through the First Year, which was released summer, 2002. He also authored Listening To Your Baby: A New Approach to Parenting Your Newborn, which still gets great reviews from parents. His most recent book is The ADD and ADHD Cure, the Natural Way to Treat Hyperactivity and Refocus Your Child.

When the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Committee on Television and the Media named Dr. Gordon “the most influential doctor in America,” they were referring, tongue-in-cheek, to Dr. Gordon’s role, as the medical script consultant, in eliminating lollipops from the office of “Doctor Weston,” lead character on the sitcom “Empty Nest.”

After two years of consulting on television scripts, sets, and ideas, Dr. Gordon was named CBS TV’s Medical Consultant for Children’s programming. He also worked for five years on ABC Television as the on-air medical correspondent for the “Home Show,” and continues to consult regularly for television and movies. He’s appeared on Fox 11 News, ABC’s 20/20 and most recently on Larry King Live.

Dr. Gordon contributed and wrote the forward to Smart Medicine for a Healthy Child and The Encyclopedia of Vitamins and Supplements (both published in 1999), is pediatric consultant for “Fit Pregnancy” magazine and a frequent contributor to “Parents,” “Parenting,” and other media outlets.  Busy as he is, Dr. Gordon finds that his most challenging job is “being a good husband and the best possible parent to my 22 year-old daughter.”

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