A strictly vegan diet generally has some nutritional deficiencies and needs supplementation, most notably for B-12 and other B vitamins (which are primarily found in animal products -- there is *some* in nutr.yeast), iron, thiamin, riboflavin, essential fatty acids, etc...... I do give my kids a multivitamin that's age-appropriate and flax-seed oil and walnuts, nuts and seeds which contribute good polyunsaturated fats and efa's but I"m thinking I should be supplementing with B-12, possibly other  vitamins, and iron.... I do provide as much a healthy diet as possible and even try 'sneaking' in foods but they don't always want to eat nuts and avocados, etc....At the moment I give them a lacto-ovo diet because adequate fat is super important for brain development and function and they are growing at such an accelerated rate, and this is what I'm comfortable with.... At the moment, I don't want to be giving them a million supplements a day to take which could be costly $$$ as well as difficult to administer(especially because of tastes, etc)  It occurred to me that if I gave them a few ounces of fish 2 -3x a week that I wouldn't need all these supplements for them save for the daily multi.... because of the intrinsic factor in fish (animal proteins in general)  a lot of these possible deficiencies could be met...

Anyways, I have not bought or fed them fish (yet?) , but I am thinking about the idea of supplementing their diet with either some supplements or possibly some fish to make sure everything is covered...  I read a lot of extensive nutrition material (that is what I majored in actually) and I've read that B12 deficiency can lead to neurological damage, etc...

In addition, the iron in their diet (in any veg kid's diet) is non-heme (from plant foods)  iron which is less readily absorbed than heme iron (from  animal foods) -- about 50% less. Calcium in foods also blocks some absorption of iron, too, so this is something to think about as well as orange juice, tofu, soymilk and other foods contain calcium which can be canceling out a lot of the iron. I do get calcium-fortified orange juice and soymilk but I was thinking of getting a non-fortified one as well so as not to cancel out the iron absorption....anyways, there is a ton of menu/diet planning to make sure there are the right nutrients combined at the same meal, etc....

Any positive input is appreciated. I have been veg for more than 5 years and previously never would have opened my mind up to this concept but just recently thought about this because I think it may be nutritionally superior, rather than in alignment with my own (selfish) personal beliefs about animal welfare, environment, etc.... I'm still doing research on this and am interested in what's best for their development. There were actually professional academic studies comparing kids raised on macrobiotic vegan diets versus omni diets. The macro kids went omni from age 6 on and were compared in adolescence to kids who were omni from birth and there was a lot of nutritional deficiencies, mainly B vitamins... I will look for the journal later and cite this study....so this is kind of a real issue.
Feel free to share your experiences as parents, or yourselves as non-parents if you take any supplements or of links to credible articles, etc....

Anyways, as I stated, I have been a veggie for 5+ years and my kids have been veg since birth so it's really not necessary to post flame comments like 'Oh my god this is a veggie board...blah blah blah....', etc.... I'm just looking for positive feedback about different options and supplements, etc out there that are currently working for my fellow vegwebbers, thanks!  :)

Thanks!  :)