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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Definitely supplement B12 and you might also look into whether she needs zinc.

I would have a lot of concerns about veganism in an 11-year-old girl too—it is such a common age for disordered eating to arise. Some vegans I know will eat eggs from backyard chickens. Assuming keeping chickens is too much, maybe you could buy ones from someone who raises them in good conditions?[/quote]

The issue, according to kid, is that even if the backyard birds are currently treated well, there were almost certainly male chicks culled or raised for meat in order for the backyard chicken owner to get a flock of egg layers.[/quote]

OK. Just a thought. fWIW I have several close friends and relatives who are “mostly vegan” and in certain circumstances they will eat fish (one of them), cheese, or eggs. In general I would put the emphasis with her on making more humane choices/substitutions rather than trying to be 100% vegan, which IME can become obsessional. For example, with my child I made the argument that if the family as a whole (5 ppl) eats a vegan dinner twice a week, that creates more impact in terms of animal welfare than him being exclusively vegan at all times. This was not totally persuasive to him but it shifts the focus away from personal perfectionism.

FWIW my son has extreme empathy for animals and wanted to be vegan at about age 10. In his case he was later diagnosed with ARFID, an eating disorder that does not have to do with body image and is connected to his OCD. He is no longer vegan or even vegetarian- he is a young adult now- but anyway, veganism can really exacerbate OCD tendencies. That may not be relevant to her but I didn’t know when he started down this path.[/quote]

OP here,

I know that there's a risk of veganism being a step towards orthorexia or AFRID or anorexia, and i will be watching carefully.  If her sister asked to be vegan, i'd be worried, because she can be pickier, and more anxious about food already.  But she's a kid who transitioned easily to vegetarianism.  She learned to cook vegetarian food, and was willing to try a large variety of things.  I know that many kids who are vegan or vegetarian restrict choices of calories, but she eats a good variety and has a large appetite.  She's also not at all OCD in other ways.

So, of course we'll watch carefully, but I am pretty optimistic that this isn't an ED. [/quote]

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