There’s a huge number of people these days that choose vegetarian lifestyle, some for health reasons, others for ethical, and there is also a number who doing that for religious reasons. It is a matter of the person’s choice and view of life. Many parents who are vegetarians decide to raise their child in the same manner as a vegetarian baby, because of the environment and then one important question arises which is, how to provide to child everything he needs for healthy growth and to avoid giving non-vegetarian foods.

That is a very healthy diet and raising a vegetarian baby is probably a very good choice but it is necessary to prepare food longer and to avoid packed food. There are some dietary requirements that parents should pay attention to and they are to give enough calcium, protein, iron, zinc and vitamin B12 to their baby. If you decide to go even further, to completely vegan diet, then things get even more complicated.

When you start giving solid foods to your baby, it is very important to include foods such as tofu or cottage cheese. Later you can add any other cheese, soy milk, legumes and cow’s milk. To raise a vegetarian baby, you have to provide your child necessary energy through frequent meals throughout the day. That is even more important in case you decide to raise vegan child because your baby will need even more frequent meals with soy drinks, vegetables, mashed fruits etc.

If you are not giving your baby diary products, then to provide enough calcium to baby’s body, you will have to replace that with enough nuts, seeds, leafy vegetables and beans. Good source of calcium are sesame seeds, chia seeds and similar. Cow’s milk can be replaced with almond milk which is also very rich in calcium.

Protein is very important for proper growth and baby needs protein for bones, skin, muscles, hair and tissues. Life without meat is not at all complicated and it is easy to replace that protein with soybeans, tofu, lentils, kidney beans or chickpeas.

Iron is one more important thing for your baby’s growth and lack of iron can cause many problems. Iron from meat is easier to absorb while with vegetables is not such case. There is a number of foods rich in iron such are peas, leafy greens, whole grains, legumes, cereals etc. If such food is combined with foods rich in C vitamin, it will help the baby’s body to absorb iron from vegetables easier.

Zinc can be provided from nut butter, pumpkin seed, nuts, pumpkin seed butter, beans etc. Vitamin B12 is very important for proper brain development and vegetarian products that are rich in this vitamin are dairy products. For vegans will be a bit complicated to get this necessary vitamin from foods and the best source are soy beverages and vegetarian burgers.

Raising a vegetarian baby is complicated task but if you are  willing, nothing is impossible. You may need more time for food preparation and to find everything, but during pregnancy you can get informed and talk about it to your doctor.

Baby’s growth and development is the most important thing and that should be your priority. That is why after proper food and good sleep, the next important thing in baby’s development are games. Babies develop their intelligence faster through activity games for your baby, from math skills, understanding of shapes and sizes to colors and how some items can be used.

Most parents go for expensive and modern toys which playing some nice tunes and babies can only watch them, not much to play with. No matter how strange that sounds, but classic toys such are cubes in different colors, plastic containers that go from small to big in a variety of shapes, can actually teach your baby many things.

Teach your baby what is size of items around. Ask baby how big is she and show with your hands. Then show smaller object such as a some colorful cube. Place bigger cube next to that saying that cube is bigger than previous and continue playing that way. Don’t site across your baby but next, so you can see items from the same side. Teach baby what is up, down, below, above etc. Stand in front of the toy, behind, and ask baby to repeat that, learning what that means.

Buy your baby a sorting toy which can teach her about shapes and sizes. Take one container and fill it with little fishes, other container with little cats and so on. Then take one from each container and put all in a pile and ask baby to put each where belongs, cat with cats, fish with fishes etc. Then do same with colors filling one container with green shapes, other with yellow, third with blue, and repeat previous procedure asking baby to find a place for each color from a pile. You can use candies for this task or anything you have at home and it is safe for baby to play with.

Learn baby math using simple songs such as ”This Little Piggy” where you will sing, touch baby’s fingers and move them, which will make baby focus on your voice, meaning of words and visual side of the game. That is the best way to slowly learn numbers, their meaning and how to count, starting with own fingers. The move to an other objest, counting toys, candies, stripes etc. Baby may not be interested sometimes and you shouldn’t force playing then. Remember that activity games for your baby are meant to be fun and make baby smile, not to end with baby upset and crying.

Turn on some music which baby likes to hear and teach baby to dance clapping hands and feeling beat. Give her drums or something to shake following rhythm. That is the easiest way to teach baby to count because she will try to find patterns of that song. Even without music, try to make the rhythm of your own using anything you have, bowl and spoon, your fingers on table etc. and baby will try to do the same.

New parents are very excited about their baby growth during the first year and all watch baby’s development carefully, measuring every inch, counting new words and first steps. The biggest worry of all new parents is how to know is your baby developing properly. When the first teeth should come out, when babies say their first words, when they start crawling, walking etc. During the first year of baby’s life, the baby starts learning about the outside world and adjusting, learning to see, hear, crawl, walk, talk, use items and understand world around her, but most of all, baby is growing.

First three months baby is growing quickly and you will see changes every day. Growth development during those first three months is rapid and signs you will notice are increased length and weight. Babies during that time increase weight over 30% and length more than 20%.

Baby will quickly become aware of hands and start moving it and grabbing things, but still not intentionally. Don’t expect to see baby in the first three months to reach out and grab some toy you offering. Baby will start touching her blanket and hold it or some other soothing textures near, like your shirt.

In those first three months of baby’s growth development, baby will become aware of your voice and scent and if someone else holding her she will become nervous and start crying, but when you take baby in your arms crying will stop. Soon the baby will be able to see objects clearly if they are 10 to 15 inches from her face but still ability to decide how far or near items are won’t be developed.

During three to six months baby will gain new skills and abilities and her growth development will be obvious when it comes to weight. In those three months baby will double weight she had at birth and you will see you need more effort to lift baby. She will start babbling and moving her head to follow noise around. Baby’s eyes will start following items and she will be aware of distance of those items.

Baby will start supporting herself while laying down on her tummy and trying to lift the head up and her chest. She will also start rolling in bed from back to tummy. Before you know baby will sit with support of some pillow and soon even without any support. Baby will start using her hands more, lifting toys and passing from one hand to another or just banging them around.

Baby growth development continues from 6 to 9 months as a gain in eyesight, hearing, motorics etc. She will reach for items around, sit without support, roll over in bed, start crawling, manipulating with her toys, seeing things around her equally well as adult people and also understanding words.

From 9 to 12 months baby will be three times heavier than she was on birth and her length will increase for about 9 to 10 inches. Baby will stand up without your help and start walking with support.

Ask pediatric doctors or nurses what it was like for them to be new parents. They will tell you that all their knowledge about babies was not enough to keep them from being overwhelmed by their own babies.