Vegetarian Children Often have Tooth Decay in Baby Teeth

Children can be healthy on sea foods. In some countries a vegetarian is defined as someone who does not eat land animals. In the United States, a vegetarian child will not eat land animal foods like meat, pork or chicken, nor will they eat sea foods like fish.

When I was a vegetarian I never completely thought through why I was doing it. I am no longer a vegetarian and I do not encourage a vegetarian diet for women who are planning to be pregnant, are pregnant or who are breastfeeding. Neither do I encourage a vegetarian diet for children.

Michelle and I were both vegetarians before we had our first daughter. Our first daughter had poorly formed tooth enamel. You could not see this from a visual inspection; it only became clear when her teeth started to decay easily and rapidly.

I have discovered that research done by Edward Mellanby and his wife May Mellanby show that when the parents diet lack fat-soluble vitamins A or D then the child is susceptible to having weak tooth enamel. While butter has a moderate amount of fat-soluble vitamin A, it has hardly any fat-soluble vitamin D. Because a modern diet, particularily a vegetarian diet lacks these vitamins, and because it is typically high in whole grains, children many times do not grow well or have weak tooth enamel. Having some protein, chicken or fish soup, is a good place to start in resolving vegetarian tooth decay.

If You Are Willing to Eat Sea Foods

Many parents are willing to feed their children fish. A child with tooth decay faces a severe situation; I encourage you to drop your prejudices about meat temporarily, until their condition improves. Any extra help in your situation is worth exploring.

You may also be interested in my comments about veganism and tooth decay.