# Vegetarian Diets During Complementary Feeding: An Overview of Nutritional and Health Features

## TL;DR

This paper reviews the nutritional and health aspects of vegetarian diets for infants during complementary feeding, highlighting the need for well-planned diets and supplements.

## Contribution

The paper provides a comprehensive overview of recent opinions on implementing vegetarian diets during complementary feeding.

## Key findings

- A well-planned vegetarian diet can meet infants' nutritional needs with proper planning and supplementation.
- Most studies agree that normal growth is achievable with appropriate dietary management.
- Long-term follow-up and better-defined dietary features are needed for clearer conclusions.

## Abstract

Nowadays, vegetarian diets are present in a solid way in Western countries’ lifestyles. Some families opt for this dietetic pattern for their infants too, during the period of introduction of complementary foods. Many releases have been issued about this subject, with different and often contradictory advice and conclusions. The aim of this work is to provide a comprehensive overview through the analysis of recently published opinions of the implementation of a vegetarian or vegan diet over the course of complementary feeding. The literature agrees about some key points to consider, that is the necessity for the diet to be well-planned, in order to meet energy, macro- and micronutrients requirements, as well as the need to follow the child longitudinally. Also, there is a substantial agreement on the need for fortified foods and/or supplements to be included in the diet. Following these suggestions, most (but not all) of the papers agree that normal growth and development may be achieved. Final considerations, however, are not straightforward to make and more research with better definition of the features of the diet adopted and of supplementation used and long-term follow-up studies are highly warranted.