Across the first two years of life, growth trajectories were largely similar among all groups, with no clinically meaningful differences in weight gain or height progression.
By Shula Rosen
A nationwide Israeli study tracking nearly 1.2 million infants found that children raised on vegan or vegetarian diets from birth showed growth patterns comparable to those of their peers, challenging long-standing concerns about plant-based nutrition in early childhood, researchers said.
The research, led by Ben-Gurion University of the Negev and the Nutrition Division of the Health Ministry, analyzed data from Israel’s network of maternal and child health clinics, known as Tipat Halav. The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.
Researchers examined measurements from birth through age 2½, including weight, height and head circumference.
The dataset included 1,198,818 infants, representing about 70% of children born in Israel between 2014 and 2023. Of those, 98.5% were from omnivorous households, 1.2% from vegetarian families and 0.3% from vegan families.
Across the first two years of life, growth trajectories were largely similar among all groups, with no clinically meaningful differences in weight gain or height progression.
By 24 months, the proportion of underweight children was about 1% regardless of diet, and rates of stunted growth were low and statistically comparable across groups.
The researchers identified one early difference at birth. Infants from vegan households were somewhat more likely to have low birth weight, with 6.1% classified as such compared with 4.6% among infants from omnivorous families.
That gap, however, had disappeared by age 2, the study found.
“We know there has been a significant increase in the number of people consuming vegetarian and vegan diets,” Karem Avital, a doctoral candidate at Ben-Gurion University and the study’s lead researcher, told Ynet. “We wanted to understand whether infants in these families grow similarly to others or whether there are problems.”
The authors emphasized that the findings apply to settings with access to nutritional guidance and fortified foods. They stressed that vegan and vegetarian diets in infancy require careful planning, professional supervision and particular attention to vitamin B12 supplementation, which is critical for neurological development.
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