The Vegan Diet and Your Baby
 

I was reading a People's magazine, and was looking over the section where it shows various people's reactions to past issues. Usually to the bottom right corner there is a yellow box, which is probably suppose to be the main of controversial review. The recent issue, or at least the one that my mom got in the mail, was talking about an article that had about a baby dying due to the fact that it's parents had it on a vegan diet. Which, being the crazy person I am, made me think.

I will admit---I am not a vegan or a vegetarian.

Usually up to a certain point, a baby usually gets his or her nutrients either from formula or from breast feeding. There's usually a time where babies start to get 'solid' or 'mushy' food such as (rice?) cereal. Usually you can buy these in small jars---hence Gerber's. (I can't claim to be a genius when it comes to babies. But I do pick up on things.)

But I do believe that if you are going to force your child on a vegan diet you make sure your child still gets all the nutrients that they need. Hell, I would recommend talking to the pediatrician. I'm struggling between "well, it's okay if they know what they are doing? and "well, isn't it kind of mean to force their morals/views/whatever on the baby?"

In the case of Crown---I am wondering what the parents were thinking giving the six-week old baby soy milk. I know that regular milk isn't good for babies, yes. But soy milk? No. That would be lacking nutrients that formula would have. Or, you know, they could of just breast feed the child.

Funny. I wonder if the parents even knew there was soy milk-based formula.

Opinions? Thoughts?

Augh, that disgusts me. People are just so stupid sometimes. The baby was 6 weeks old. That's nowhere near old enough to be eating other things aside from breast milk, last I checked. I wonder why this "mother" didn't breast feed her child, and then I remember that, I guess, Vegans can't drink milk. I don't know, it really doesn't make sense to me.

Some people just shouldn't have children.

I actually encountered vegan parents at the day care where I worked. They had their baby on soy-formula (not soy milk) and home-made baby food.

Even though they were very careful to get her all the nutrients she needed, the girl was still underdeveloped and underweight by age 2. They ended up starting to give her some meat products and milk. She's almost five now and she's still pretty short and light, but she's doing better than she had been.

Vegan diets for infants/toddlers/young children isn't safe. It's better to do when they're in elementary school when they can take more supplements, eat more things like nuts and beans.

You'd think if the parents cared about the child that they would take it to a health care provider. I'm sure they could tell the child wasn't doing well before it died. Some people I just don't understand.

I don't like parents forcing any views on a child, especially one that young. If they must, they could have researched it first!

my mom, who loves meat with a passion,

went vegan when she was pregnant with my little brother

simply because anything that came from animals made her SICK

and now he loves meat too, lol

and he's so healthy!

You would think the child's abnormally low weight or size would at least alarm them that something was wrong.

I *was* three pounds when I was born. The six-month old baby weighed just as much as I did when I popped into the world. Creepy, no?

Meat is important in your nutrition, end of story. :?

It's always sad to hear about stories like this and it is sad that a life had to end because of a lack of knowledge and a lack of willingness for one to give up their beliefs for the life of another.

Sounds like these people knew nothing about nutrient and growing children. Really, the only thing we can all hope for now is for people to learn from what these people did. As nice as the idea of growing up completely vegan sounds, they clearly didn't know what they were doing.

Clearly. There is more to the vegan diet than soy milk and apple juice which could be eaten by a small child. An infant could be breast-fed, if they were worried about the formula.

the poor child. Every time these things happen, I lost a little faith in humanity. o_o

Ugh, I don't approve of vegan diets. They're unnatural and bad for your body. (So are a lot of other diets too, but they're not important at the moment.) I don't think people need or should eat meat every day, but it is part of the diet we evolved on, as are animal products.

To be vegan in the first place makes me leery of a person, but to the feed a baby that way? What the heck? I mean, I'm still blown away by the fact that some people don't breast feed their kids to begin with, since it's such the obvious thing to do, but for theoretically health conscious vegans not to go that road is incomprehensible. Breast milk is the ultimate is healthy food for babies, seeing as out own bodies make if for just that purpose.

Thought it occurs to me now, since the parents were vegan, maybe the mother was too unhealthy herself to have enough breast milk to give. God, that's tragic.

If you're smart, you can be Vegan without sacrificing your health. It's actually a very healthy way to live. But, you have to be willing to do the research and put in the work.

This does -not- mean, however, that it's safe for a child. Children grow too fast and your body needs the nutrients from eating dairy products and occasionally meat and stuff. I feel sorry for those people who are morally opposed to meat and have kids, because it does put them in a dilemma, but in the end, you'd think they would choose the path that'd keep their kid alive and healthy. They could still be vegan themselves, and have their kids transition to veganism when they're a bit older and it's safe, though you'd probably have to talk to your health care specialist about when that'd be a good idea and all.

That sounds horrible. It's okay when the child's a teen and want to try it out, but when you're a baby you need all of the nutrients you can intake. I wouldn't do that to my children, even if I refused to eat meat and drink milk I would kill myself before my child died from starvation. It's incredibly stupid to do that to a baby. I really wished someone would have said something before it escalated like that. :cry:

What makes them terrible parents is that they chose their beliefs over their child's health. They obviously never thought to listen to doctors about this and continued despite the baby's failing health. And that poor child had to suffer for a month before finally passing, I think the parents got what they deserved.

I've met people who were raised vegetarian from the start and are very healthy, but you do have to be well-educated about what kind of nutrition a child needs. There are always alternatives if they're conscious about their decisions.