Vegan breastfeeding has caused an 11-month-old baby to die and the parents are charged with neglect after an autopsy indicated the baby suffered from severe deficiencies in Vitamin B12 and Vitamin A. Both these nutrients are known to be critical to a child’s development and sorely lacking in a vegan diet. This is why doctors strongly advise against nursing mothers and growing children following a vegan diet (1).
Vegans have long been advised to take B12 supplements as long term veganism runs the huge risk of serious B12 deficiency as well as other nutrients only found in animal foods such as true Vitamin A. Beta carotene is not true vitamin A nor does it easily convert to adequate amounts of Vitamin A in the body to sustain optimal health.
While charging the parents in this tragedy is questionable as it smacks of too much interference by government into private life, it does communicate a clear message to other vegans: abstinence from all animal foods is a danger to one’s health and most particularly, your baby!
It also sends a clear message that what a nursing Mother eats definitely DOES affect the quality of her breastmilk, particularly with vegan breastfeeding. Many breastfeeding advocates insist that breastmilk will include all a baby needs despite what the Mother eats, but clearly this is not the case.
Traditional cultures took great care to ensure that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers consumed ample amounts of animal foods rich in vitamins A, D, E, K2 and of course B12. These foods included grass-fed butter, pastured eggs, liver, seafood, and fish eggs. Notice that none – NOT ONE of these traditionally sacred foods is plant-based!
Incidentally, the 2017 vegan film What The Health was unable to cite a single successful vegan population group either. Why? Because there are none. Ever.
If you are pregnant and breastfeeding and would like to learn what foods will maximally support the health of your baby while nursing, please check this link for the complete listing of traditionally sacred foods for optimal fetal and baby development. These foods will also ensure the preservation of your own health during pregnancy and lactation which can easily deplete a Mother’s nutritional stores leaving her vulnerable to exhaustion.
Vegan Parents Convicted
The vegan breastfeeding mother and father whose baby died as described in this article were convicted by a French court to 5 years in prison due to the imbalanced vegan diet the mother ate which led to nutrient-poor breastmilk and a failure to thrive child who eventually fell ill from severe nutrient deficiency and died without the parents ever seeking proper medical attention (source).
For more information on how vegan breastfeeding and also a vegan diet devastate the health of children, read about how a 12-year-old vegan was diagnosed with the degenerating bones of an 80-year-old. Dr. Faisal Ahmed MD, a pediatrician treating the child, said that the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet need to be publicized.
Unfortunately, vegan parents don’t seem to be getting the message quickly enough. The latest case involves vegans who nearly starved their 5-month-old baby to death feeding him potato mash instead of the doctor advised organic formula.
The child, who weighed just over 8 pounds and had sunken eyes and protruding ribs, is recovering but will likely suffer long-term damage from the experience (source).
References
Angelina Jolie says veganism nearly killed her
Supersize Me Girlfriend Quits Veganism
Vitamin A Vagary
Vitamin B12: Vital Nutrient for Good Health
French vegan couple whose baby died of vitamin deficiency after being fed solely on breast milk face jail for child neglect
I find some of this ridiculous. Let’s start with this mother. If your child is being breastfed only and you KNOW that breastfeeding causes malnourished people then WHY oh WHY did you know consistently take the supplements in the three areas where Vegans are traditionally vitamin deficient on a daily basis. Parenting fail. She was neglectful of herself and her baby.
To the question of veganism, to each his own. Take your vitamins.
I eat everything-beef, pork, seafood, cow’s milk. I breastfed both of my children. My daughter was breastfed for the first year. Anything after and it is not really for the kid it’s for you. Be real. By about 5-6 months she was saying words and by 9 months she was walking. She was very quick to walk, talk, and learn. However, she ate like any adult-still does. She was eating food with us before the age of one. She was hungry. She will grow big and tall like the rest of the women in my family and her dad’s family. She is now larger than most kids at 7. She is very big. And she likely eats more food than I send to school with her. She has a horrible metabolism-I did too and intense exercise only kept me small until now at 33 where my metabolism is dead. Really. My son never made it past the first few weeks. He couldn’t attach properly and feeding him was painful. The breastfeeding help lines couldn’t help me to get him to latch properly. And he was on Enfamil shortly after that. Both children are smart because I am. However, she is smarter, perhaps because she was breastfed or maybe because she is the older of the two. He doesn’t pick up things as fast. There are noticeable differences and I believe the feeding method has everything to do with it. You try to get them the best if you can as long as you can.
The issue with this situation is that that child was missing out on vitamins that could be obtained from food or formula. They weren’t feeding that baby. And at that age if your baby is sitting around on the nip and is not walking and talking then what was the point of all your breastfeeding? It’s supposed to get you smarter, healthier, more capable kids and not less capable attached to the nip kids. What are you people doing?
Veganism does work for some. It is not for me because I love a good steak. And it is not for people who are not responsible enough to tow the line. I take my vitamins every day. Things that I need because I don’t eat enough veggies or get enough sun. If I can do it as a meat eater she should have been doing it as a responsible vegan.
Hi! I’m new to your blog. I noticed in your post about donor breastmilk you talked about how when you changed your diet, you saw your breastmilk change….One thing you mentioned was not drinking pasteurized milk. I noticed on your link to Westin Price in this post, it mentions drinking milk….My question is this: I do not have access to raw milk – is it better to drink no milk at all (as a nursing mom) or to drink whole/pasteurized as a “second best”? I would value your opinion! Thank you.
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All meat eaters have cancer the fat bastards they never chose their diet yet they always have comments about a vegetarian or vegan diet because they’re so damn fat they can’t even climb stairs if you want to make an ignorant website with ignorant comments I figure hey I can to. all you fat bastards out there stuffing your pie holes tonight I can’t wait until you have prostate cancer and diabetes. Your heart attacks make me smile
On December 15, 2012 I posted the following:
“… Vegans tend to make such a$$e$ out of themselves by preaching how their ethics, lifestyles, or morals are superior that I think that in this case …”
I hate to say I told you so but I did tell you so. Above please find the loving, moral, and ethical response of someone called… “Meat eaters have cancer” I won’t dignify it by reposting it here. Doesn’t that person make you vegans proud of yourselves? Aren’t you proud of the fact that you are associated with a person that displays so much of the “Breast Milk of Human Kindness?” If this is the loving ethical movement you champion please remove me and all other Americans from your dinner guess list. I have always maintained that Nazism was closely entwined with Animal Rights, and the poster “Meat eaters have cancer” is the proof.
“… Vegans tend to make such a$$e$ out of themselves by preaching how their ethics, lifestyles, or morals are superior that I think that in this case …”
I made the above statement before Christmas of last year. Then on January 30,2013 one of those lovely vegans displayed his or her superior morals and ethics for all of us to see. Way to go there, “MEAT EATERS HAVE CANCER”
You are the reason that I was so glad when Apple founder Steve Jobs died from colon cancer. Jobs was a life time vegetarian or vegan but his life style could not protect him from colon cancer any better than veganism or veganism protected Paul McCartney’s wife from breast cancer. And neither will being a vegan do anything special for the health of you or of anyone else..
What made Jobs’ cancer so special was that when it was first discovered it was early enough to cure with surgery and chemo. But Jobs was so arrogant or else Jobs was so convinced in the “righteousness” of his life style that he went on an even MORE “SPECIAL” vegan diet and I suppose that he also sat cross legged contemplating a crystal imbedded in his navel. Either way Jobs fully expected to be cured of colon cancer, how sad.
While I appreciate the concern, a baby has died, it’s very sad, this article is really ridiculous. This child did not die because the mother was vegan or because she refused to eat meat. I was a breastfed baby. My mother was a vegetarian. There are TONS of breastfed babies with vegan mothers who live happy healthy lives. Now, I’m not saying that because my mother was a vegetarian, a vegan diet for 11 months won’t harm the baby. What I’m saying is that it wasn’t being vegan that caused it. It was being stupid. Being stupid is what killed this baby. A child needs to be introduced to baby food LONG before 11 months. It doesn’t have to be the store bought, processed crap that most vegans would complain isn’t healthy enough for their babies. No, you can make it yourself with a blender. By 11 months this child should be transitioning OUT of baby food into solid foods. Breastfeeding your child for 11 months is great but only for their required milk intake not for their entire sustenance.