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
Yahshua!
I wonder how that girl is doing since the story is from 2008. I don’t know whether the parents in these stories just didn’t know that what they were doing was going to cause these things to happen, or if they did know but were just pushing their own lifestyle choices onto their children.
It’s all well and good if an adult chooses to eat a vegan diet (well it’s not good but it’s their choice) but to put your child in that situation to me is horrible.
Obviously they did not know what they were doing. It does not matter that it was a vegan diet. A proper vegan diet is perfectly healthy. It would be helpful to examine the specific foods fed to the child, but the author apparently doesn’t see this information necessary. Why use our brains when we can resort to the mindless “vegan=bad, bacon=good” mantra?
Feeding a child a proper vegan diet is not a “situation” and it’s not “horrible”. Feeding a child the diet these specific parents chose was, however, a horrible situation.
Eating meat does not cause diabetes, heart disease, cancer, nor any diseases of modern civilization. You need some bacon. Relax.
LOL. Well said.
I have always been a proponent of eating healthy meats. Our bodies also needs the fat to help transport nutrients. I mean come on. The disciples, and even Messiah ate lamb, and drank a little wine.
LOL, When humans were created they did not eat meat. The Heavenly Father made our bodies to flourish on plants, veggies, and fruits. People did not begin to eat any meat until after the flood. I do eat meat but I also know that the vegetarian diet is by far the healthiest. How do cattle’s meat become a good protein source? By eating plants. Good try though.
Soooo you were there at the time of Creation? Seriously? “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.” Yes, I know what the next line is. But if you read THIS line and look at the original Hebrew it clearly indicates that animals were a resource to be used for our benefit. So that means at the very least harvesting wool and collecting milk. More than likely, though, that means domesticating the animals and eating them eventually.
But even all of this aside, it comes down to a simple truth: don’t make broad statements about things you weren’t there to personally witness. I believe in the Bible and I believe it is truth. I also believe that some passages are not complete or sometimes hard to decipher and that some interpretation is needed. Either way, you weren’t there so don’t try to use the Bible to back up your brand of madness.
Thanks Mrs. Yoder! I believe the Word too! I also took note that God told King David to eat the roasted meat of the sacrifice to satisfy their hunger; then, in the New Testament we are told that all is clean if we pray over it, even tho I honor anyone’s aversion to certain foods. (That is mentioned too in Romans) We are to make sure that we are not in bondage to ANYTHING and even health/wellness/exercise, etc. can become a god. I appreciate your comment.
Wow awesome follow up to my follow up! 🙂
Thank-you, ladies, for such good biblical discussion! Great points to ponder! I’ve often thought about points in the biblical historical record that seem to indicate that God made some changed or that open the possibility that he may have. I try not to allow myself to be guilty of too much speculation, of course. Then that leaves me with going back to the more concrete. God gave people all the plants to eat. He later specifically told people to eat meat in at least two places that I’ve found. And then he summed it all up for me under the new covenant that I have the liberty to eat but not to bind my choices on my brethren. It is all fascinating to think on and explore further, but I can have confidence in that basic outline!
Gorillas are able to turn that plant matter into something like 70% fat. Humans cannot.
This is very sad and parents really need to be educated. Hopefully our thousands of blogs about real food at least do something to educate parents. What’s alarming though is that those parents thought they were doing a good thing. If government will punish for something like this instead of helping the family and the recovery of the child, it sets an alarming precedent – they could essentially decide that a lot of things that parents do for the child aren’t actually ‘good’ in the eyes of the government.
I was thinking the same thing. I was also thinking that these stories may be getting more press time because someone wants to make a move to take parental rights away for good and/or support the decision already made in countries where they have.
Most countries in the world already signed onto the UN Rights of the Child except here in the US and one country in Africa. Unfortunately that bill isn’t about the child at all, but about putting a government wedge between children and parents. Look up some of the stuff Mike Farris has done with this and you’ll see it goes into every part of the parent child relationship. What they eat. Who they talk to. Where they’re educated. If the child goes to church or not. Whether they have vaccinations or not. And it’s not what YOU as the parent think is right for the child, it depends on what the child and then ultimately a bureaucrat thinks is best for your child. Absolutely sick making!
Kids don’t need to make that choice. Parents need to be the responsible, educated , decision maker protectingtheir children and getting help. I would give my kid a freshly killed tiger if her body needed it. This is an example of extremists vegans. Not all are this rigid. This is about parents making very bad choices. Much greater than just not eating meat. Thank you for sharing this.
I do eat meat from time to time. My daughter does a few times a week now also. We always ate fish. Again, most important in our home was to have whatever we needed no matter what a book says. Using soy milk or cow milk as baby formula is never recommend by any dr. Or vegans or grannies that I knew.
Sounds like you have it under control. I wouldn’t label yourself as a vegan because it sounds like you’re more just eating right for you and your body type, which is what ideal health should be all about.
I believe in most of the WAP principals, but I need more raw vegetables and less meat and dairy than recommended by WAP so I do my own thing. My husband, son, and one of my daughters is more what is called a ‘protein’ type if you look at it in a metabolic typing sense. They crave meat and fat and thrive on very little veg at all. That’s the way it should be. Try looking up Paul Chek’s work because he wrote extensively on blending WAP principles with individualized nutrition and needs.
This says the parents were well known in the vegan community so I would think they knew what they were doing. Apparently not. Do the kids in vegan households have a choice would be my first question.
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/shock-as-vegan-diet-girl-12-979912
Do the kids in omnivorous households have a choice?
Yep they sure do they can always say no I don’t want to eat that meat
I sort of gave my kids a choice: I’d fix some vegetarian meals during the week, some meals where the meat was optional, and see to it that there were healthy vegetarian options for those meals where the meat dish couldn’t be separated (ie, casseroles) — but only if they ALSO ate vegetarian while they were out, and educated themselves about how to eat a healthy vegetarian diet. If they were going to eat hamburgers when they went out, I wouldn’t go to the extra effort of providing vegetarian food for them at home. (Neither their Dad nor I were interested in switching to a vegetarian diet.) Though two of my kids expressed an interest in vegetarianism, neither was willing to do it full time. On the other hand, I took in another kid who WAS vegetarian, and catered to her needs, but when she wanted to switch to vegan, I said no: it would have involved too many changes in how I cooked, and one of the criteria for her living with us was that she eat dinner with us every evening. (And our kitchen was WAY too small for two people to prepare meals at once.) I might have made a different choice if she had planned on living with us for much longer, but I knew it would take me a while to even begin to learn how to provide a healthy vegan diet, and I had not been impressed with the vegan meals I had eaten. I suggested she take the time left in our house to educate herself about how to eat a healthy vegan diet, and make the switch when she had her own kitchen. She is now vegan, grows much of her own food, and I understand is an excellent cook. So, yes, some choices for kids living in households like mine, but with limits based on what I can manage.