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
The strongest animals in the world are elephants and they eat a plant-based diet.
There is a whole discipline of scientific study called physiology. Perhaps you should research and compare/contrast elephant physiology and human physiology.
Rickets is a vitamin d deficiency and it’s quite common in the Uk due to the lack of sun.
When it comes down to it, a cow, or even a tiger doesn’t care that you’re.a vegan. You’re still on the food chain….
When I saw this, I decided that it was time for me and my family to eat more cow’s liver (and beef too). Check out the super high amount of vitamins and minerals that beef and liver have:
do you know what the liver’s job is? it is a FILTER. now something all that healthy to eat. high in iron? absolutely. full of crap? sure thing.
The liver filters and flushes toxins yes but it’s main function is to store nutrients in fact there is no more nutritious food found in nature save fish eggs and oysters. FYI!
I personally believe/think that in human life balance must be achieved. Is like everything else in life, balance is the rule of all “thumbs”.
You seem to be on a mission to discredit the vegetarian and vegan diets. I and my husband have been vegetarians for 25 years and have raised three children in robust health on the same food chioces. Why are you being such a scaremonger with these (cherry picked) stories? You’re beginning to sound like Mike Adams. Not good.
Kaayla, I will be more than happy to show you my CBC. And I’d hope you’d do us the favor of posting your CBC, so we could contrast and compare. Then you’ll see what 6 years of an Organic Vegan diet can do for you.
Go Vegan.
I don’t understand how vegans think they can create a new biology for humanity than what it has always been for thousands of years. If vegans are so sure their diet is good, then list ONE traditional cultures that existed for MULTIPLE generations producing healthy children (both parents vegan with vegan children and so forth) with NORMAL and natural fertility (in vitro and other fertility methods do not count). Even a single one does not exist anywhere in history.
How would you know if “a single one does not exist anywhere in history”?
We have not been documenting anthropological history for more than 1500 years. There have been civilizations for millennia upon millennia.
If you went to the trouble to research properly, there is an abundance of testimony that a well managed vegan diet is perfectly adequate. Trouble is, that would create some cognitive dissonance for you I think.
lol sarah! yu can’t just make things up and write whatever you want, dear. there are facts, opinions, and what the hell it is you just did.
You are absolutely right, Sarah, in your desire to bring these stories to light, to question the lack of any evidence of there having ever been a vegan society that was able to sustain itself naturally, and in so many more things. I’m praying for you as I read all these attacks. So much misinformation, ad hominem, and other unethical and unworthy tactics… it’s certainly telling as to where your attackers are coming from and how much real evidence they have on their side. Thank-you for all you do to help those of us who are recovering from the health problems our former diets caused or contributed to!
I think it’s awfully sad how many children have died and suffered because their parents fed them a vegan diet.
But, I also think it’s wrong to prosecute the parents, who probably thought they were doing the best thing. I mean giving people a life sentence when they exclusively breast fed a child, is pretty harsh (given that breast feeding is best and all). Yes, I guess the parents should have been smart enough to see that their child wasn’t thriving… or someone should have picked it up sooner… But how devastating it would be to realise that you’d caused your child’s death??? Isn’t that enough of a punishment?
It’s just tragic!
There are plenty of books, websites etc. etc. out there promoting veganism as the most natural way for humans to eat, and when people start eating that way they generally believe they are doing the BEST THING. There was a time when *I* thought it was the best thing too, because I was swayed by what I read (and by being disgusted at the way food animals are treated).
However, I came around to realising that humans do best as omnivores (or at least, most do… some may thrive better as vegetarians/vegans than others, I’m not going to judge everyone who decides differently to me). But that doesn’t mean that parents who are vegan are actual “child abusers” and to classify them as such is wrong. They’re doing the best they can with the knowledge they have.
I have found it very eye opening to search for the top 20 food sources for each of the key nutrients. Top sources for many are all meat – check bio available A, most of the Bs, for instance. K1 & 2. many minerals are also best sourced from animal products. If you look at how much one gets from plants v. the animals you realize that there is no way one eats enough plant based foods every day to get even the minimum daily dosage. maybe a few days but not all. And that is just the RDAs not what you really might need. Research how RDAs are set too and know that every individual varies in needs. If you just hit the minimums chances are there is something you need more of. Whole Foods site is interesting because though they promote the China study and fire engine diet their own resources state that meat products are by far the best sources for many nutrients.
“there is no way one eats enough plant based foods every day to get even the minimum daily dosage.”
^^^^that right there is SPECULATION. while a person who chooses to eat an unrestricted diet may not consume enough plant based foods to ge the minimum daily dosage, a person who chooses vegetarianism or veganism ALTERS their diet to obtain what they need through plant based foods, and supplements where needed.
i think this is hilarious… suddenly eating whatever you want is the healthy diet, huh?? ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh america and their obesity problem….lol