Best Vegan & Plant Based Formula (2024 Guide)

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If you’re a new parent, you know that breast milk or formula is going to be your baby’s primary source of nutrition during the first 12 months of their life. But if you’re a vegan parent and want to raise your baby vegan, and you can’t (or don’t want to) breastfeed, what plant-based or vegan formula options are out there for you? 

That’s where this guide comes in! We are going to break down the best vegan baby formula options available on the market today. You’ll learn the pros and cons of each, as well as tips to help you choose the best formula for your baby!

Baby formula is a breast milk substitute designed to feed children during their first year of life. While most infant formula is made from cow’s milk, there are plenty of non-dairy options available to accommodate milk allergies, vegan families, lactose intolerance, and any other reason why dairy may not be an option for your baby.

Whether you’re raising a vegan baby, you’re looking for a more eco-friendly formula, or your baby simply can’t tolerate dairy because of a diagnosed cow’s milk allergy or sensitivity, you might be wondering whether dairy-free or plant-based infant formulas might work for your baby. Luckily, there are quite a few options to choose from, depending on your needs.

So, if you’re in the market for the best vegan baby formula, this guide is for you! I’ve researched so you don’t have to — what to look for in a vegan or plant-based formula for babies, how the different types of plant-based and vegan formulas differ, the best vegan, dairy-free, and plant-based baby formula options on the market that are available for purchase in the US, and more. Let’s go!

But First, A Quick Disclaimer

Some of the items below were given to me by the manufacturer to review or as part of an affiliate program. I may receive a commission (at no extra expense to you) if you purchase through the links provided. I only recommend products I’ve evaluated, I believe are the highest quality, and that can do the most to help you and your family. By purchasing any of these products from the links below, you help keep this blog running, so thanks for your support!

Keep in mind that every person & situation is different, especially yours, so make sure to talk to your doctor and see how these guidelines and tips can help you. These tips are not a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Never disregard or delay in seeking professional medical advice because of something you read here!

My recommendations are based on the manufacturer’s claims and ingredients list, and what I feel best giving to my own family. Your results may be different based on your overall diet, exercise, age, weight, family history, or pre-existing conditions.

What Is Vegan Baby Formula?

So, what is vegan baby formula? It is a formula that is made from a plant-based source and does not contain animal ingredients, animal products, or animal byproducts.

Whereas most traditional formulas are made with cow’s milk or goat milk, most plant-based or vegan formula for infants is made with soy, rice, or pea protein base. Because of the non-dairy base and lack of animal sources or products, vegan and plant-based formula is also suitable for dairy-free and vegetarian diets as well.

Is It Okay For A Baby To Be Vegan?

Vegan diets omit any animal-based food products, including both eggs and dairy, which can pose a unique risk for rapidly growing babies. However, in the first year of life, you can ensure a healthy vegan diet for your newborn either by breastfeeding and offering supplemental Vitamin D3 and B12 or by offering a soy-based formula that is recommended by your pediatrician (source). 

Because vegan and vegetarian diets can be low in calories and certain nutrients, many experts recommend that toddlers over 12 months of age are breastfed until 2 years old to ensure that they are receiving adequate nutrition (source). 

Does Vegan Or Plant-Based Baby Formula Have Complete Nutrition For My Baby? 

Yes, vegan infant formula, along with all other formulas, is required by the FDA to be a complete source of nutrition for your baby. All formula that is FDA-approved to be sold in the United States meets this government body’s regulatory standards, such as being a complete nutrition for your infant (from 0-12 months), needing at least 30 nutrients in particular amounts, and being made with ingredients that are verified to be safe for infant consumption (source). 

Just as cow’s milk-based formula or goat’s milk formula are modified and enhanced to be complete sources of nutrition for babies, vegan or plant-based proteins are too. Therefore, all products that are approved by the FDA are a complete source of nutrition for babies who are under 12 months of age. 

What Is The Difference Between Vegan Formula, Plant-Based Formula, And Dairy-Free Formula?

There are slight differences between vegan baby formula, plant-based infant formula, and dairy-free infant formula. They are as follows: 

• Dairy-Free Formula: This is a non-milk-based formula that is made without any dairy products, such as milk or goat milk, but still may contain other animal products or animal byproducts, such as animal-derived vitamin D3 or DHA derived from fish oil. Note: a dairy-free formula that is made with dish oil-derived DHA is not considered to be vegan or vegetarian-friendly. 
• Plant-Based Formula: Any formulas that are labeled as plant-based are made with plant-derived proteins – such as soy, rice, or pea protein – but still may contain small amounts of animal-derived ingredients, such as Vitamin D3.
• Vegan Formula: Choose this formula for an option that is made with plant-derived proteins but also doesn’t contain any animal-derived ingredients. Note that some truly vegan products are more expensive, as it can be more difficult or expensive to source or create vegan versions of vitamin D3, plant-derived DHA, and other vegan-friendly formula vitamins and ingredients. 

Given the difference in these three different categories, it is important to do your research and read the labeling on the baby formula cans carefully depending on which type of vegan, plant-based, or dairy-free baby formula you are looking for or considering. 

What Feeding Options Are Available For Vegan Babies?

When considering how to feed your baby, it is a good idea to look at all of the vegan baby feeding options! Here are healthy vegan-friendly ways you can choose to feed your baby:

• Breast Milk: Breastfeeding is a great option for vegan infants and vegan parents. Breast milk is full of vitamins, prebiotics, healthy fats, and more that are essential for your baby’s growth and developmental needs. Many pediatricians agree if that breastfeeding is possible for you it is better for your baby than formula feeding (source). If you are vegan, your breast milk is considered vegan, since breast milk is made from the foods you eat!
• Donor Breast Milk: If you can’t breastfeed yourself, you can opt to feed your baby with donated breast milk from a vegan mother. Check out the Human Milk Banking Association of Northern America to find a local milk donor.
• Soy Baby Formula: Soy milk contains essential nutrients for healthy development and growth, and most non-dairy infant formula brands will use a soy protein isolate and amino acid base instead of dairy. Note: if you’re wondering whether soy-based baby formulas are healthy, check out my section on this section below.
• Pea Protein Baby Formula: Baby’s Only is the only non-milk-based baby formula that uses pea protein as its base. It is technically a toddler formula, so if your baby is under 12 months of age you will want to consult with your pediatrician before feeding it to your little one. 
• Rice Formulas: Bebe M is one of the 100% vegan infant formulas that is made with hydrolyzed rice, producing a protein base that is safe for vegan or lactose intolerant babies to consume. 
• Oat Milk: Oat milk is a great option for toddlers but is not nutritionally complete enough to feed to your infant. There isn’t currently an oat milk-based infant formula for parents who are looking for non-soy alternatives, but there is an oat milk toddler formula, Tally, for babies and toddlers who are older than 12 months.
• Almond Milk: There is currently just one organic vegan toddler formula that uses almonds as the base (Else Nutrition). It is not formulated for ages 0-12 months, so if you are interested in feeding this to your baby, consult your pediatrician before doing so. On its own, almond milk is not the best protein source, but it is super low in calories and is often fortified with nutrients. It should not be given to babies under 12 months of age, similar to oat milk. If you do purchase almond milk for your toddler, make sure it is unsweetened and does not contain carrageenan. 
• Coconut Milk: I have not found a great vegan formula milk option that uses coconut milk as its base, likely because it does not naturally contain many nutrients other than dietary fat, making it less than ideal for your baby’s diet. Toddlers and kids can enjoy unsweetened coconut milk occasionally, but it won’t be a major source of nutrients, similar to almond milk.

Note: For more information on toddler formulas, check out my list of the best toddler formulas! 

Vitamin D In Infant Formula – Is It Vegan?

Most non-milk baby formulas are not 100 percent vegan, as they still contain Vitamin D3, which is made using lanolin from sheep’s wool. You can make Vitamin D3 from vegan sources, such as lichen or mushrooms, but this form tends to be much more difficult to source or expensive to extract. Furthermore, vitamin D2 is vegan-friendly but it is not as readily absorbed in digestion as D3 is. Because of this, most formula brands will use the lanolin-derived form of Vitamin D3. 

Vitamin D is an essential nutrient needed for healthy development, as it plays a role in immune system development, healthy bones & teeth, and brain development. Because of this, formula brands can’t just omit the vitamin when creating vegan baby formulas, so another solution has to be found. Often, companies will continue using vitamin D3 and label and market the product as plant-based instead of vegan. 

Another option is to source the vegan D3 and produce a truly vegan formula. Globally there are currently only three truly vegan baby formulas that don’t contain animal-derived D3 or any other animal by-products: Bebe M Infant Formula, Sprout Organic’s Infant Formula, and Premibio Organic Vegan Baby Formula. Bebe M is manufactured in Europe and Sprout Organic is produced in Australia. Both formulas are available to ship to the US. Click here to order Bebe M online; click here to order Sprout Organic online, and click here to order Premibio.

In the United States, there is currently only one organic soy-free vegan baby formula – but it’s meant for babies aged 12+ months, Else Plant-Based Toddler Formula. If you are considering this option for your baby who is younger than 1 year, check with your pediatrician to determine whether this formula is suitable for them. 

All four of these options, because they are 100% vegan and contain the vegan-derived D3, are more expensive vegan formulas. If you need to work within a budget, you may want to consider a plant-based formula for your infant, as they contain minimal animal-derived ingredients and are made with plant-based milk alternatives. After the first year, you can then transition your baby to an entirely vegan diet with food and toddler formula, if desired or as recommended by your pediatrician.

Is Soy-Based Baby Formula Safe To Use?

When considering formula options, many parents wonder if a vegan and plant-based formula is good for babies. As with most questions you’ll have to answer as a parent, whether or not you choose to use vegan, plant-based, or dairy-free baby formula is one that you will want to consult your pediatrician for but is ultimately up to you and your baby’s needs. 

When it comes to considering a vegan diet for your baby, it will take a lot more diligence to ensure that they are getting the nutrients they need for their extremely rapid growth rate. If done right, however, a vegan diet is completely safe. All of the vegan and plant-based soy formulas on this list are approved by the FDA or the European Union’s European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and are regulated to make sure that they have the nutrients that your child needs. So, as long as it’s okayed by your pediatrician, feeding your baby plant-based formula and keeping them on a plant-based diet when they transition to solid foods is a perfectly healthy option. 

In terms of soy-based baby formula brands specifically, the main concern with soy is due to the phytoestrogens (aka isoflavones) that are naturally present in soy. They are said to have an “estrogenic effect” because they’re similar in structure to the hormone estrogen. Babies who drink soy formula will be consuming much larger quantities of these isoflavones than babies who don’t drink soy-based formulas.

So it’s natural to wonder whether these isoflavones might have a negative hormonal impact on babies who are consuming so much during their most critical development period. There has been some research done on this, and the conclusion was that soy formula during infancy didn’t have a discernible impact on babies’ hormone levels later in life.

The American Academy of Pediatrics also says that soy formula is perfectly safe for full-term babies with a milk allergy or lactose intolerance (source), though soy-based formula is not recommended for preterm infants (source). The safety and health of soy formula on full-term infants have been studied extensively and it appears to be safe from a neuro-developmental perspective (source). 

Additionally, there are no clear negative effects regarding an infant’s sexual development and growth (source). There can be concerns with soy as an allergen, however, so always check with your pediatrician before starting a soy-based formula, and monitor your child for any symptoms of a soy allergy.

Aside from this, one of my biggest issues with soy is that most soy is genetically modified, so if you do decide to choose a soy formula, make sure you’re choosing an organic or non-GMO formula to ensure the soy is not genetically modified!

Do Vegan Babies Need Supplements?

The two most important supplements for vegan babies are vitamin D3 and vitamin B12 (source). If you are choosing one of the vegan or plant-based formulas on this list it will be supplemented with vitamin D3 and B12. If you choose to breastfeed, however, you will need to supplement with both of the vitamins. Liquid drops are the best bet for babies as they are easy to administer and for the baby to ingest; here is my favorite brand of vitamin D drops. Unfortunately, I have not found a good brand of a vitamin B12 supplement for infants, but I do love this brand of vitamin B12 drops for toddlers.

Where Do You Buy Vegan Or Plant-Based Baby Formula? 

As I mentioned, there is not a 100 percent vegan baby formula that is manufactured in the United States, though there is a 100 percent vegan toddler formula available. The only organic vegan formula for babies that I’ve found are made in Europe (Bebe M Infant Formula) or Australia (Sprout Organic’s Infant Formula), though you can purchase both online.

If you’re looking for a plant-based formula or non-cow’s milk formula that you can purchase in the grocery store, there are quite a few options available in most large grocery stores and Target. Typically, you can find them with other baby products or in the vegan foods section. 

Depending on if you want to choose a vegan or plant-based formula, here are your options when choosing a vegan baby formula in the US:

1. Ask your pediatrician if Bebe M is suitable for your baby and if so, order it here.
2. If your pediatrician does not recommend Bebe M, ask your pediatrician if Else Nutrition is suitable for your baby, since it’s the only vegan formula available for sale in the US.
3. If your pediatrician does not recommend Bebe M or Else, choose another plant-based formula that uses lanolin-derived Vitamin D (below are my best recommendations!), but all of the other ingredients are vegan-friendly. Below I share my best recommendations. 

What Should You Look For in a Vegan, Plant-Based, or Dairy-Free Formula?

Looking to buy your little one a non-dairy formula? Here’s what you should look for: 

• Ideally organic (or at least non-GMO). The best organic baby formulas adhere to the highest standards of food processing and are made with organic ingredients so it’s guaranteed to be the healthiest option for your baby. 
• Iron-fortified. Some babies don’t have enough natural reserves of iron, so it’s always a great idea to feed babies iron-fortified formulas if they are not being breastfed. 
• Docosahexaenoic acids (DHA). These omega-3 fatty acids are naturally found in breast milk. Because DHA is believed to be crucial for healthy brain and eye development (source), it is always good to look for when choosing a baby formula. Furthermore, look for natural and vegan-friendly DHA that is not extracted with hexane whenever possible (that is, DHA that is extracted from algae); many synthetic forms of it are often found in non-dairy formulas. 
• No added sugars. In an ideal world, there would be minimal added sugars in plant-based baby formula. There are a few soy-based formula brands that don’t add syrup solids to their formulas, though this can be a harder one to avoid when shopping for vegan formulas because formula makers can’t use lactose (which is the naturally occurring sugar in milk) for a carbohydrate source. Because of this, these brands will need to replace the lactose with another carbohydrate, such as sugar, to ensure the right balance of nutrients in the formula.

A Note On Maltodextrin And Corn Syrup:

For dairy-based formulas, I usually recommend against the addition of maltodextrin, as it can be added in as a substitute for naturally occurring and more beneficial lactose (source).

When concerning dairy-free and plant-based formulas, however, your options for carbohydrates are more limited, and in that case, maltodextrin can be an okay carbohydrate to use. It’s better than processed sugars and glucose syrup solids and meets the nutritional requirements for carbohydrates in baby formula when dairy-derived lactose is not an option. Maltodextrin is an easy-to-digest, complex carbohydrate that is lactose-intolerant friendly.

When it comes to corn syrup, you may also see that it is a common substitution for lactose in dairy-free formulas. I don’t recommend it, since it is just added simple sugars, and I would recommend choosing formulas that are free of syrup solids and corn syrup. But, corn syrup is an easily digestible carbohydrate that is recognized by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as a safe ingredient. This is why it commonly replaces lactose in non-dairy baby formulas. 

What Ingredients Should You Avoid In Baby Formula?

When it comes to non-milk-based baby formula, there are sneaky yet common ingredients that you should avoid. Casein, diacetyl, lactoglobulin, lactalbumin, Lacto acidophilus, lactoferrin, lactose, lactulose, rennet, and whey all come from milk, so keep that in mind if your baby has a milk allergy.

Other things you will want to avoid are added sugars, corn syrup or glucose syrup solids, gluten or wheat, phytin, and GMOs.

Best Vegan, Plant-Based, And Dairy-Free Baby Formulas

Even though it’s slightly more challenging to find, there are good formulas for vegan diets out there! Here are my top picks for the best non-dairy baby formula brands for your little ones:

Vegan Baby Formula FAQs

Below you will find the answers to some of the most frequently asked questions about vegan baby formula:

More Baby Formula Guides!

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• Best Formula For Gassy Babies
• Bubs Formula Review
• Best Hypoallergenic Baby Formulas
• Best A2 Baby Formula

Final Thoughts

I hope this guide has helped you find the best vegan formula for your baby! If your baby has a milk allergy or your family prescribes to a vegan lifestyle, these vegan baby formulas are worth checking out and discussing with your baby’s doctor. 

If you are struggling to find a plant-based baby formula that you feel good about giving your little one but can’t (or don’t want to) breastfeed, that is a valid decision that is your right to make! If you want to feed your baby a vegan formula but cannot find one that meets your needs or budget, remember that FED is best, above all else. If you have to allow a few animal-derived ingredients for your baby’s first few months or year, rest assured that once they turn 1 you can transition them to a 100% vegan diet.

For more recipes, guides, tips, and tricks, check out the Best For Kids section of my blog. If there’s a fabulous vegan formula brand that I missed (or a fully vegan one that finally hit the American market), be sure to let me know in the comments! And if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to leave a comment or send me a message – I respond to every question I get!