If you are a parent considering raising your child plant-based, consider the case of a 12-year-old girl raised on a strict vegan diet. The girl ended up in the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, Scotland suffering from a severe form of rickets.
The girl had already experienced multiple fractures and been diagnosed with a degenerated spine comparable to that of an unhealthy 80-year-old woman.
Fast Food Diet Better for a Child than Veganism
Say what you will about a child who eats junk food, if the diet overall includes animal foods like eggs, meat and dairy…even if from fast food joints…this type of bone degeneration simply does not happen.
For all the downsides of The Standard American Diet, it is shockingly still a better choice than even a whole food vegan diet (aka “plant-based”) that is devoid of numerous critical nutrients a growing child’s body demands.
Pediatrician Discredits Veganism for Children
Media reports indicate that the hospital doctors were under pressure to report the girl’s parents to police and social workers.
Dr. Faisal Ahmed, a pediatrician treating the girl, warned that the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet need to be publicized. (1)
If raised strictly vegan, the child would almost certainly have severe deficiencies of Vitamins A and D, both of which are essential bone nutrients that can only be obtained from animal foods.
For example, using aquafaba instead of eggs and plant-based meat substitutes can prove very dangerous.
In all likelihood, the child would also be lacking needed calcium, zinc (the intelligence mineral), B-12 as well as other B vitamins, Vitamin K2, the EPA and DHA fatty acids, and the sulfur containing amino acids methionine and cysteine.
Although the human body is theoretically capable of converting beta carotene from vegetables like carrots into true Vitamin A, children are not able to do so efficiently if at all.
Sunlight could have provided Vitamin D but only if the family spent a lot of time outdoors year-round in a tropical area. Northern climes like Scotland simply do not offer the benefit of Vitamin D-producing sunlight for much of the year.
Other Cases of Child Vegans Suffering Severe Nutritional Deficiencies
Sadly, this is not the first time vegans have been accused of child abuse though it may be the first case involving crippling bone damage. More typically, vegan babies end up in the hospital from malnutrition caused by the use of soy milk instead of infant formula.
Given soy milk alone, babies end up with severe vitamin, mineral, fatty acid, and amino acid deficiencies, which is why soy formula manufacturers are required by law to add methionine and other nutrients that are critical for a baby’s growth.
In 1990, the FDA investigated after a two month old girl in California was hospitalized with severe malnutrition. Her parents had fed her soy milk instead of soy formula. Because of this and a similar incident in Arkansas involving the SoyMoo brand of soy milk, the FDA issued a warning on June 13, 1990. Since then, most brands of soy milk include warning labels in tiny print on their packages.
Clearly, voluntary warning labels have not been enough, and there have been deaths as well as hospitalizations of vegan babies fed soy milk. Vegan parents in Atlanta were found guilty of the death of their six-month-old baby. To supplement the mother’s inadequate supply of breast milk the parents had fed their son soy milk and apple juice. The baby was only 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation. (3)
The sad truth is that numerous vegans have been charged and found guilty of unintentionally starving their children from all across the globe, including parents in Belgium, Sweden, Italy, Australia, and the United States among others. (4-10)
Vegan Breastfeeding Dangerous Too
In France, a vegan couple was sentenced to 5 years in prison for the death of their 11-month-old daughter. The baby, who was only 12.5 pounds at the time of her death, had been exclusively breastfed by a vegan mother.
An autopsy showed her to be not only severely underweight and malnourished but severely deficient in Vitamins A and B12. (2, 11-12)
The mother had cared enough to breastfeed, but had an inadequate supply of poor quality milk because of the severe nutritional limitations of her plant-based diet.
While veganism for very young children can be catastrophic, the tragic case of the 12-year-old Scottish girl illustrates that plant based diets for older children are also dangerous. Although finally getting medical treatment, the child’s long-term prognosis for recovery and a normal life remains grim.
Sadly, the word about the dangers of veganism for children doesn’t seem to be getting through to the general public. The continual barrage of highly flawed propaganda-ridden, documentaries such as What The Health guarantees that more well-intentioned but seriously misinformed vegan child malnourishment cases are likely to follow.
References
(1) Parents of 12-Year-Old Vegan Girl Who Has Degenerative Condition May Face Charges
(2) French Vegans Charged with Neglect After Baby’s Death from Nutritional Deficiencies
(3) Vegan Couple Serving Life Sentences for Starving Baby to Death
(4) Vegan Couple Who Fed Child Only Raw Fruit and Vegetables Charged with Murder
(5) Sydney vegan couple starved 20-month-old girl leaving her toothless and with rickets
(6) Baby Death: Parents Convicted of Killing Son with a Diet of Vegetable Milk
(7) Swedish Parents Jailed for Almost Starving Vegan Toddler to Death
(8) Strict vegan parents starved their baby of nutrients so badly that the one-year-old developed cerebral palsy and was in intensive care for a month with rashes and internal bleeding
(9) Italian baby raised on a vegan diet hospitalized for severe malnutrition, removed from parents
(10) Vegan couple will serve life sentences for starving baby to death, Georgia court rules
(11) French Couple Sentenced to 5 Years in Jail for Vegan Breastfeeding Death of 11 Month Old Baby
(12) Vegan Parents Face Jail
Get sunshine or at least a tanning bed. Your body needs vitamin D. About 85% of Americans are vitamin D deficient. Nothing like the real thing — get rays. Pesto is great for vitamin K.
Re: above comment – yes, I look forward to a meatless diet in heaven too but we are not there yet and this is what our bodies need here on earth, this earth, that we currently inhabit not the original. why and when it changed? don’t know. Will ask Him but for now will eat what we need for now. Mom always talked about eating a Garden of Eden diet when she raised me vegan but we don’t live in the Garden of Eden! I am sure the top soil was different, the plants more nutritious, etc. But they are not sufficient now. Israelites didn’t need meat in the desert but manna is straight from Heaven. my food now isn’t! Israelites ate meat at all other times as did the apostles in the NT.
Cats are NOT strictly carnivores, they eat grasses and other plant material like catnip essential for digestion. If they were strictly carnivores they wouldn’t eat catnip or grasses. My own cat will devour an entire plant of catnip including stems.
Yes, cats are carnivores. Cats and dogs will seek out plants that they need to make themselves better. Cats and dogs generally will eat grass to make themselves throw up. Or they’ll look for something like catnip which makes them high and devour it. Or they’ll find a medicinal plant in the wild and eat it to cure themselves. That doesn’t make them omnivores.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They don’t derive any nutritional value eating grass. This is an instinctual behavior that helps them expel items difficult to digest – like feet, feathers, mouse whiskers and teeth, for example. Cats are also becoming sick with many of the same chronic degenerative diseases as humans because most are fed a species-inappropriate, high starch, highly processed food from a bag. The SAD diet for cats. Cats need meat, organs, bones and that’s it. See catinfo.org for good, species appropriate, nutrition info from a vet. Even canned food is much better than dry, Very sad, too, that some vegans will attempt to feed obligate carnivores a plant-based diet.
I believe they are obligate carnivores but it’s not true that it’s meat and “that’s it.” In the wild when they’re eating a bird or a mouse, there is a small amount of grain/vegetable matter in the animal’s stomach that they eat and they have evolved to need that small amount in their diet. It’s a small amount, but they are missing out if their diet is pure meat.
Hi Juliet, I don’t agree that cats have evolved to need grains or vegetable matter – especially NOT grains. Birds and mice don’t naturally eat grains anyway; sometimes they do get some grain with “bird feed” or corn if they are near farms, but grains are not a natural food for them. Vegetable matter in the stomach of prey is a tiny amount, even if it’s even present, and also it’s predigested. I don’t think a small amount of vegetable matter is necessarily bad, but some well-known feline vets like Dr. Lisa Pierson (catinfo.org) and Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins do, and feel it’s unnecessary to include vegetables (certainly no grain) in a cats diet. Some veggies can cause digestive upset in cats and can also affect blood glucose, but if it’s small amount (as a lot of premium canned food has), it’s probably not a problem. Cats basically need to eat the whole animal: meat, bones, skin, fat, organs in a balanced amount. Ideally, that is. Catinfo,org and fnes.org have good info. My own cat developed diabetes after years of high starch, highly processed species inappropriate dry food. This is part of why I’m rambling here about feline diet, but I’ve gone through a lot with my sweet boy.
The best diet is the one your body needs. I totally get veganism and all that, but you need to be practical and honest. All this talk about a natural diet that is best for the body … plant based B12 is not absorbed by the body. Only animal base. Heck, Gabriel Cousins’ blog told me that. So you have to supplement it. Here’s a question: if you gotta take a pill to supplement it, how natural and complete is this “natural” diet?
If there is a philosophical/religious reason for not eating meat, then cool … go with the flow, and ride your faith. No problem here.
Look, no one will argue that most people need more raw plants/veggies/fruits/seeds/nuts in their diet. Just in the right amounts. And, yeah, you still need to eat meat. I wouldn’t touch that “regular” crap that gets massed produced, and, yes, you shouldn’t be eating 2 lbs or whatever a day, but you still need meat for the fat and nutrients.
B12 is in bacteria, fool!
Were you paid off by the beef industry or something??
I’m not a vegan, I’m a nutritionist who eats animal foods, but this REALLY sends the wrong message.
A vegan diet doesn’t cause severe nutritional deficiencies such as rickets, a CRAPPY diet does without adequate nutritional supplementation. If you eat the standard western junk food diet no matter if it’s vegan, paleo or whatever, you will suffer.
I really wish you made the distinction here rather than just creating anger and hatred towards vegans.
Sometimes I love your articles and sometimes they are just sensationalistic tabloid-like crap to drive views/readership.
While I don’t think being a vegan is the best option for great health, I think it’s going a bit too far to paint all vegans as child abusers, which although was not outright stated was definitely implied by your article. I have friends that are vegans and make sure their kids get the supplements they need to stay healthy. While eating a diet that absolutely depends on supplements to keep you from getting ill seems illogical to me, so does a little here and there of what you eat and feed your children. But I would never argue that you are not a great mother because of that. I think it’s very important not to fall into the pattern of discrediting others with absurd generalizations based on a small percentage of ill informed people. It would be wise to remember that that tactic is often used against us and our choices and does not bear out the truth at all.
It may seem illogical to you, but most vegans only rely on one supplement, B12. Even then, you can find it in fortified foods that omnivores eat too! Otherwise your post was great.
such nonsense!!
uhhh…dont folks who eat a non vegan/vegetarian diet take vitamins?
yes, yes they do….
Proper vegan diets are fine if nutritionally balanced. Unbalanced ones are the problem.
This “story” is full of lies and only tends to scare people off. If you eat a variety of foods you will not have a problem with getting RDA of vitamins and minerals. The ONLY one missing is B-12 and that can be obtained very easily with a supplement. Calcium is found in most leafy green vegetables. Most commercial dairyless milks are fortified with Vitamins A & D. EHA/ALA is found in flax seeds or walnuts. I could go on but claiming that you can ONLY get nutrients from animal sources is an outright lie. BigAg wants you to believe that you need meat and dairy to get enough proteins and vitamins, but that is simply not the case.
If you take a look at http://jacknorrisrd.com/ , http://veggiedietitian.blogspot.com/ and http://www.veganhealth.org/ you will see scientific-based vegan nutrition information that is very helpful.
it seems like a lot of vegans and vegetarians don’t eat more veggies and fruits, they just eat meat and/or animal products… it’s all ‘replacement’ or alternative meats and cheeses. which seems to be a lot of processed non food. I’m wondering if there is any study showing the difference between the two types. there are examples like Mimi Kirk that are extremely healthy and vibrant… just thinking out loud… but I do wonder!
There are not only two types, but vast variations between vegan diets. Just as diets including meat and dairy come in all different shades, so do vegan diets. I don’t think we need a study to know that people who eat whole foods are healthier than those who rely on processed foods. You didn’t explicitly say it, but I’m guessing you agree.
ok..good article..
one thing though your comparison of soy formula vs infant formula is nonsense…both are making kids malnourished…only breast fed babies can receive proper nutrition…no formula,soy or cows..can even begin to compare…it’s all about balance..eating processed meat will do more harm that good too…for me ,it is always about wholesome,balanced diet,local & seasonal..not fashionable latest trends.