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
I interviewed to nanny for a vegan family stating that I used to be vegan (and was familiar with/comfortable preparing foods on that manner) and she was appalled that I was no longer a vegan…said shed never heard of someone going back to eating animal products and thought I was some kind of traitor. She made me feel horrible for a minute until I remembered how much healthier I am
The obvious facts are, meat and milk that come from factory farmed animals should not be consumed. If you are unable to buy raw milk don’t drink it. The nutrition I’m our meat and milk has gone down hill fast. Some people are better off on a vegan diet. Food is not a one size fits all. I know people who went vegan due to heart disease, diabetes, and cancer. It has and is working for them. If it works for you and you are able to stay on top of your nutrition, who cares. Factory farming needs to end. There is far more harm than good in meat milk and egg that comes from tortured animals.
Yes Danielle, I agree. I am so grateful for my 2 little mini alpine goats! They are the sweetest and most fun animals! They hop up there for me to milk and they are so proud of the good work they do; I just praise them and scratch them and that wonderful milk nourishes my whole family! These goats actually race me to the stand! If I don’t come out on time, they begin to “call” me! When I think of the way most dairies are run, I feel sick for those poor animals… Anyway, for any goat lovers…great blog.. adventuresinnoodleville.com Her name is Crystal and she is my guru for goats!
Thanks! I raise goats too. People don’t understand that hand milking goats is pleasurable for them, just as nursing is in general! They love being our mommies 🙂 thanks for the link!!! We browse our goats in the woods and feed them yummy grass, hay, clover, wild sassafras and alfalfa. They also enjoy munching conifer needles. Personally veganism to me is a therapeutic practice, vegetarianism is awesome as is being an omnivore. Funny that few folks know chickens if left to it, eat their own eggs if we don’t get them first. Eating milk and eggs is not cutely, animal abuse is.
I also am of the assumption that non organic produce is so depleted of nutrition in the US, once it’s cooked, you may as well be eating cardboard.
I think the important thing being whatever you consume, vegan or not, had better be produced as God intended it to be. Organic produce, grass fed, pastured meats, wild caught fish, non GMO varieties of everything…. That’s a battle in and of itself in the US.
Amen to that!
I am someone who does not believe EVERYONE sould be vegan or vegetatian or even pescitarian, yet this is the way I choose to eat. I really believe is depends so much on you genetics and family ancestry. And no, human physiology is not black & white and to say veganism causes infertility is rediculous. Talk about health propaganda.
I agree with you that everyone should eat a little differently. And I also agree with you that this blog tends to go toward extremes and I don’t always agree with what she says because it’s said in a very ‘my way or the highway’ style.
However… veganism isn’t remotely natural for humans. It just isn’t. Vegetarianism, lacto-ovo vegetarianism, etc. is fairly normal and has been seen in many places around the world. Veganism is dangerous simply because the body has no way of getting nutrients that can not be easily assimilated in ways other than through animal products.
– Heme iron is absorbed by the body more efficiently. That’s just a fact.
– B12 that is able to be absorbed and used by the body is almost impossible to find outside of animal products.
– Many vegans don’t get enough EFA’s and other healthy fats in their diets and so wind up with damage to their myelin sheaths and have issues similar to Parkinson’s after several years of a vegan diet.
– If you HAVE to take supplements to remain functional while eating your ‘healthy’ diet then there is a problem. Obviously that wasn’t meant to be.
These statements you made may be true for some, but not all. For the past three years, I have been eating a very meat heavy diet. I have always been a meat eater, except for my senior year of highschool into my first year of college, but have always consumed a lot of vegetables. Off and on, I have had problems with anemia (since college years). Last year, I found that, even with eating a large amount of meat, I am B12, vitamin D, and iron deficient. I had to take supplements. Now I am vegan, I incorporate a lot of mushrooms and nutritional yeast in my diet which increased my vitamin B and D levels and my iron levels are normal again. This works for me. I feel great. I look better. I am losing weight. I continue to take B12 shots just like I did as a meat eater.
Sounds to me like your body was both craving more vegetables and also has gut issues to the point you aren’t absorbing nutrients properly. And can you honestly tell me you meat wasn’t raised in factories? That grains comprised less than 15% of your diet? That you’ve been tested for food intolerances?
As a child I looked healthy but my lack of nutrients was like a slow leak. At 35 I began to eat meat and regain my health. A child may seem fine but are they actually optimally healthy? Why go against science and experiment with you own child? My child eats plenty of farm fresh butter from pastured, grain free cows, milk, eggs daily, lots of meat but also lots of fruit & veggies, some grains and even some sugar and honey. No diabetes or overweight child here! These things are healthy!
Good on you!
I was raised vegan by a well meaning, loving mother. She saw the SAD diet and its results and attributed the results to the choices of foods not the quality of those foods. She was partly right. To choose fast food, factory made foods, corn syrup, etc., is unhealthy. But other foods, such as meat, butter, eggs, etc., are healthy if one choose quality when one buys them.
I was raised on a vegan, sometimes only vegetarian, diet. I have the health problems to prove it! Kiara, children are not dying of meat eating. Meat Eating in no causes diabetes – never heard that one before! Children on a WAPF or Paleo diet, or any other old fashioned, balanced diet, will not be overweight and most will not encounter the above mentioned problems. Children eating a SAD diet will. Also, great variation in quality of meat. Factory style meat, yes, the above might be attributed to that but I would never feed my child meat grown in a factory. He has never had meat with antibiotics, preservatives, etc. He has only had meat from animals pastured on farms, not feed lots, and we eat meat from animals that are grain free or supplemented grain that is GMO free, organic and completely soy free (whether non gmo or not). Healthy meat is healthy and veganism is not! Science backs this up!
Meats also has healthy fats for the brain!
It is real shame when conclusions like these are drawn that trace the effect to one cause Just as some like to suggest that eating a vegan or vegetarian diet causes the consumption of too many carbs, and thus weight gain. That is, of course, not true. Consuming the wrong kind of vegetables (refined flours, especially wheat), or the wrong kind of anything, will result in unforeseen (because the eater is nutritionally unconscious and is buying what is sold) consequences.