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
Sensationalist bullcrap, and lousy journalism.
That’s odd, because the Dieticians of Canada, and their counterparts in the USA, state that an appropriately planned vegan diet is safe for all life stages. I can think of a lot more than 1 sick 12 year old – most of them are obese from eating a meat and dairy diet. Some are even getting type 2 diebetes in childhood, although I hope it hasn’t hit the 12 year olds yet!
MJ
Better to just leave the “traditional” people to themselves and go look for some delicious veg*n chocolate recipes. 🙂 A lot of the readers here don’t believe/trust in mainstream health organziations.
It always amazes me how many uneducated people are out there. No matter what diet anybody is on, they have to educate themselves about balance and nutrition. Nobody raises an eye, when an obese child develops health problems due to bad diet! I used to have a normal diet, eating meat, dairy, fruits and vegetables, etc., but I was always ill, I developed CFS, IBS, always overweight and could not loose any of it, acid reflux and suffered with depression. I am now vegan, IBS, acid reflux, CFS all gone! And the weight is not a problem any more. I am stronger and healthier than ever in my life, and I have so much energy that I started doing extreme sports, and other activities on a daily basis.
The thing is, there have been healthy, thriving vegetarians and vegans for as long as there have been humans. Some were so do to moral or ethical concerns, others due resource utilization issues, others due to cultural taboos. All other factors being equal, the veg(etari)ans have thrived, and continue to do so.
For some more recent historical examples of vegans, we can look at Pythagoras, the “Pythagoreans” (as vegans were called for the following 1300 years). Buddhists, Jainists, et al., have been doing grand as veg(etari)ans since around the 6th century BCE. There are many more examples, but the point is as it effect this conversation is that vegans have not and do not suffer greater occurrences of edge case conditions such as depicted in this article any more than the rest of the population, and it’s just silly to suggest otherwise.
But then, this story is sourced from Fox “News”, so I suppose we shouldn’t expect much in the way of academic or scientific rigor in the reporting, eh?
As an aside, for anyone who is interested in engaging the broader discussion of veganism, you can find a willing and interested group of folks in the Vegan community on G+: goo.gl/gkg0P
But my dear Heather, the truth is that almost 65 percent of grains are being fed to animals. Meat is leading to so many diseases, slaughter houses are any ways cruel where beautiful living creatures with red blood and tears of pain are being killed, slaughter houses have led to so many problems on earth. Let me explain you more..though not completely because I have to rush. But do you know that artificial breeding is leading to deforestation and global warming. Land is being used to grow crops for animals and leading to many social, economical and environmental issues. It is largely leading to poverty too. Great people and thinkers from west and east, not 1 but there is a huge list..Plato, Leonardo da vinci, Albert Einstein, George Bernard Show, Nikola Tesla, Leo Tolstoy, Voltaire have strongly propagated a vegetarian diet because of its moral, spiritual and health benefits. In fact, Pythagoras, the father of medicine himself is against meat-eating because firstly of the cruelty factor towards animal. Apart from it, nowadays if you are well informed you will get an advice from majority of the doctors to stop meat as it leads to so many diseases like cancer and cardiac, liver, bones problems. In fact so many people are getting cancer today because of meat eating. First of all, the animals produces so many negative emotions and hormones in the blood stream when being killed (just like a human would feel too, because animals are living creatures..with blood, eyes, gentials..they reproduce..they have feelings) and secondly it is too heavy for our intestines as our intestines are really long. In fact if you look around Heather, you will see so many intelligent, ecologically aware and health conscious people have turned vegan..and they have got amazing results..yes majority of them. There is a huge revolution everywhere. There are so many spiritual gurus, so many actors and actresses and sport personalities who have gone vegan and found amazing benefits. But the sad thing is that still there are people who are unaware of the tricks that huge companies who deal in slaughter business. And to support them is Mc donalds, KFC, Burger King who are bringing in more diseases amongst children and adults. Today there are numerous scientific research going on by dedicated team of doctors and scholars on vegetarianism. It heals and cures. But there are wrong propaganda put across by huge money making corporations to mislead us. Though people are standing strong, now they are also moving towards veg but organic food which is the most healthy.
But at the end Heather, the cruel involved is gruesome. To see these lovely animals, who have equal rights to live and enjoy this earthly life are being treated like slaves. Like slavery even slaughtering is absolutely wrong. It would be extremely unwise to say that humans can control, torture and kill animals. Because being human is to show humanity, to show respect and compassion for all the beings. Being human is to evolve and find out alternative non-violent means of living. I am happy to know that you appreciate plant based diet, Heather. But do not be disheartened or think that it is difficult to get veg food in your country. I have traveled and researched. In today’s, modern world many many veggie healthy options are available even in your country. I have many friends who are healthy vegetarians living in North East, and they say more and more people over there are also trying to become vegetarian. So if you do not think that the ‘whale blubber isn’t good for your family, then you are thinking so right..because don’t you think that by killing a marvelous huge and stunning animal like a whale the humans show a disrupted and psychotic personality? It takes a lot to kill, animals have feelings…but we all can protect them. Compassion is the word to be practiced..so you have done such a wonderful thing for your family..your kids by respecting the life of a whale! Kids can learn from us to protect animals, acknowledge their lives. Also there is so much greed for pleasure in the society that we base our happiness on the cost of someone else happiness. The real killer is also radiation, but we can’t live without our wireless and mobiles (that is what we think which is not true) and another killer is meat but humans are now so addicted to meat just like radiation. Thinking rationally, scientifically, spiritually, morally, emotionally…also financially, ecologically as an intelligent human meat actually can lead us to so much harm. Yes Heather. But please do not misunderstand that I am pushing my opinions on you, I am just sharing with you, as you shared with us your views about this vegan girl having some sort of problem. May be you are honestly concerned about this and you have good intentions. However don’t you think that this one incident and such a story would not be appropriate, it has less weight..there should be more reasons and points that one can rely before coming to a conclusion, especially today when millions of people are going vegan and are really improving their health. Therefore, some people are upset with this article and they feel frustrated because they had have positive experiences with vegetarianism. Some are really upset, I can see that. I agree to them, but they could have been polite with you Heather. But it seems they felt that the information was not right..so may be.
I just hope that we all, the animals, the earth and our children be happy and healthy. And together we can bring love, share and care. We can bring small healthy non-violent changes. No slaughter houses, lots of trees, no radiation, organic food coming from the core of the earth, fresh water to drink, cows and pigs and chicken happy, all happy and a life to rejoice. That is what people who have opted for vegetarianism are trying to bring. If you wish, you can join the team too!!! But even if you do not wish to join this movement or disagree..I still respect you. Because we all have different opinions and we still should try to bring peace. Please do not feel bad if I said anything that you did not like. But I think I was polite and lovely with you and also the animals!!
I wish you so much love, big success in your work, and a lot of joy in life.
May we all be lead to pure knowledge and may all come out of pain and ignorance. May you be happy, may all be happy!
Well wisher of everyone
Jeenal
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
This was definitely an interesting read. I think that food is such a sensitive topic – as evidenced by the comments on this post. I agree with some of the comments that the region you live, and the ancestors you have probably has a large part to do with how well you do on certain diets. I am a big proponent of a plant based lifestyle, but finding fresh veggies in winter in the North East is not entirely easy. I think we have to remind ourselves that there are people who have done exceptionally well eating mainly whale blubber, but I definitely don’t think that would work for my family 🙂
Don’t countries with the highest dairy consumption have the highest rates of bone fractures? It has to do with your body’s mechanism of using calcium from your bones to buffer the acid forming high protien foods.
When parents who follow a more standard diet fail their children nutritionally, we blame the parents in that specific situation rather than diet in general or all people who follow that diet. This girl (http://www.takepart.com/article/2012/01/27/child-abuse-17-year-old-drops-after-eating-only-chicken-nuggets-age-2), for example, was really unhealthy because she ate pretty much nothing but fast food but the reaction wasn’t “PARENTS WHO LET THEIR KIDS EAT FAST FOOD ARE EVIL AND SHOULDN’T BE ALLOWED TO HAVE KIDS.”
As others have said, the failing here was not making sure the child had a nutritious diet, vegan or otherwise. This is a failure of every parent who sends their kid to school with hot chips and soda for lunch (I’m talking to you, pretty much every parent at the school where I teach) and every parent who comments on their child’s weight in a way that pushes them into an eating disorder (I’m talking to you, pretty much every parent at the school where I went). It is not a failure inherent in veganism. To prove that failure would require a whole lot more than a few cases of uninformed or unfit parents.
Well said.
I’m glad you specified that you are talking to parents at the school where you teach, and the school you attended, because you sure aren’t talking to any parents reading this blog.
Sure. I think failing your child nutritionally – I mean truly failing, not just allowing maybe a few more snacks than you should – is not that normal. But I also want to call out that it’s not normal for vegan parents, either. A few unhealthy vegan children does not call into question the diet, just as a few unhealthy omnivores does not call into question diets that include animal products.