4 year old that is hungry all the time

[Englishgirlintw]

Ok so i am new here, I was looking for a forum that i could ask this question without everyone yelling "give her some meat and she'll be just fine"...

So the thing is that i have a four year old daughter. I adopted her here in Taiwan (i live in Taiwan) she has been vegan since she was 1. She use to be way under the 3%, for weight, as she is allergic to cows milk (thus formula) and at the orphanage they didn't want to change her due to expense. I met her when she was 3 months and argued with them for over a month before they changed her to hydrolysis formula...anyway by that point she hated the bottle and they didn't have time to encourage or help her. So when she came to live with me full time (at 1) she ate food more than the formula. By 1 and a half she gone up to the 3%, by 3 she was almost at 5 and that's where she stays. Her height as almost always been at the 50%.
So the point is that my kid has been eating SO much for along time, over 6 months. she eats about as much as i do if not more. she is often hungry an hour after eating. Now, i am super careful what i feed her, in the respect that i give her two or more sources of protein in her meal. i include hemp seeds in one meal a day (would do more but i can't buy them here and thus i only get it when i go home). I fed her complex carbs and try to give her fatty foods like avocado ect. i also try to give her puddings and stuff but she hates sweet food...strange right but true. she chooses broccoli over chocolate cake...and i really don't!
She's active...to say the least, but really even with that i worry there is something else. I am thinking of taking her to the doctors but am a little scared to due to them being critical of a vegan diet. Living here has one major disadvantage there is no vegan cheese and she love that. i get it from time to time but not often. Is there any thing else that i could feed her?
any dietitians out there that could give me some input?
thanks in advance.

[twinkle]

I'm not a dietitian, but I know there are a lot of recipes for vegan cheeses that look really good, have you tried making your own? I've been checking out recipes for almond cheese recently, either raw or cooked.

[harpy]

Please don't be offended but this made me think of one time when one of my cats was hungry all the time. We wormed him and a short while after that he was back to normal (even though the vet said British worms didn't have that effect and ran a lot of expensive tests to find out what else it could be). Do you think there's any chance your daughter could have picked up a tapeworm or something like that? Maybe you could ask a doctor about that without mentioning vegan diets - after all we know children can do fine on vegan diets.

Other than that, I'm not sure it's all that unusual for active children to be hungry a lot. Does she like nuts and nut butters? They are calorie-dense and good for you. ETA I think I've read young children shouldn't have too much bulky high-fibre food in their diet because it makes it hard to get enough calories but I'm sure you know all about that.

[Englishgirlintw]

Thanks, I will try to make vegan cheese.. Hopefully it will work. As for fiber I'm pretty careful not to give her too much as you are right kids need lower fiber than adults as they need to absorb more calories. Everyone suspects worms.. She eats that much.. But the probability is pretty low as she has none of the other symptoms. However I do think I will take her to the doctors to ask for a test. Do you think if shes low in something, like b12 (which she shouldn't be) that this could make her eat loads?? It's a puzzle!!

[treehugga]

Make sure she is getting plenty of protein rich foods such as tofu, tempe, beans and lentils. These will keep her fuller longer. Young children have amazing growth spurts. Sometimes my son eats more than my husband and I for periods of time. Let her snack on heaps of fresh fruit to raise her vitamin levels. It might be worth getting a medical check. I don't tell Dr's my son is vegan but if they ask why she doesn't have meat or dairy just say she wont eat it or it makes her sick so they won't push. If they know she's getting plenty of protein from other sources they should be ok with it.

[Korn]

Hi Englishgirlintw!
I'm not a dietician - but I wouldn't worry at all about taking a vegan kid to a doctor. (You could always print this out in case you need to explain why the largest organization of dietician support eating vegan food for babies, pregnants etc). Or this. Or this.

The main thing to pay attention to, for vegans, is vitamin B12. Make sure your daughter gets the B12 she need from a reliable source. The easiest way to do that for babies who aren't breastfed (by a mother with healthy B12 levels) and toddlers may be to crush and dissolve a B12 pill in a smoothie, apple juice or something similar.