The benefits of raising vegan children can far outweigh any challenges that may arise. Vegan children are often faced with scrutiny and placed into social situations where they must defend both their health and their beliefs. These instances require a sense of maturity and in the long-term help to strengthen their confidence in their ethical values and decisions. Other challenges that may arise are finding healthy foods, good clothing and shoes that are both durable and stylish. Because research may be required, a strong work ethic may be developed. With proper support and resources, parents and children will find that being a vegan is a great way to grow up.
Vegan children are just as healthy as their non-vegan peers are. Though there may be concern that they are meeting all of their nutritional requirements, vegan children often enjoy a variety of foods and usually experience less health problems than their meat-eating peers, such as obesity, asthma and allergies. Challenges may arise in social situations when they observe their non-vegan peers enjoying foods such as hamburgers, hotdogs and pizza. In these situations, non-meat substitutes such as garden burgers may be used. Plenty of cookbooks and internet resources are available for fun and nutritious foods for children.
Another advantage of raising vegan children is knowing that they are being raised to live by their values. By having to defend their beliefs, vegan children will learn to handle difficult situations in a mature manner that will benefit them throughout life. Vegan children can take strength in knowing that through their choices, they are not contributing to the exploitation and cruelty of animals while simultaneously benefiting the environment.
Finding clothes for vegan children is not usually a problem. Most clothing is made of either plant or synthetic materials such as cotton and polyester. Materials to avoid are leather, wool and silk, felt, down and fur.
Because veganism is a lifestyle, vegan children may also have concerns as to how the clothing was produced. Just as avoiding the exploitation of animals is important, avoiding the exploitation of humans may also remain a priority. In order to ensure that the clothes were produced in a humane way, parents may opt to wear organic materials free from processing and not made in sweat shops. Cruelty-free clothing may be found on the internet or in specialty shops.
While finding clothing may not be difficult, finding appropriate shoes for vegan children can be challenging. Shoes must be durable and offer support. Finding good shoes is also difficult because children can outgrow shoes rather quickly. Leather shoes usually offer good support and it is necessary to find an adequate substitute to prevent foot problems. Materials to look for in shoes are hemp, jute, bamboo, pleather and microfiber. Vegan shoes may be found on the internet or even in stores, though different brands may have to be researched.
Any challenges that must be met can simply create stronger individuals. Because it may seem that vegan children have to do more research and their choices may require more knowledge, vegan children have the opportunity to develop and strengthen their values.
Written by: elanger