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 have to agree with Shane, reading many articles and studies indicating such. I spent many years eating a Weston A. Price diet, and while I believe many things promoted by them, I do not believe all. While drinking a quart or more of raw milk a day and eating tons of butter and eggs, (and following all other WAPF advice) my weight ballooned and I was fatigued and foggy all of the time. The problem? Major milk allergy, leading to hypothyroidism. Am I yeasty, am I Celiac? No, been tested time and time again. Just a milk allergy, leading to inflammation and disease. It took me over 35 years to find it. I am now on the mend. I do eat less animal foods now than I used to, and while I see the importance of some animal foods in the diet, I truly do not subscribe to the belief that all of the milk and eggs promoted by this group are necessary for health, and in fact, may be a detriment to many others like myself. I found the opposite to be true in my life, citing a diet high in natural, organic plant foods to be very healing to my immune system after years of attack.
The pleas ring hollow about not criticizing the Vegan parents of the 11 pound, 11 month old infant whose parents basically starved the poor child to death in a misguided attempt to save its life. There can be many reasons for an 11 month old child to die, but in this case there is only one. That reason is the parent’s slavish devotion to an inherently unhealthy religious orthodoxy, Veganism. If Veganism was so healthy to start with why in the Sam Hill are so many Vegans on this forum making excuses for the mother by saying that her only sin was not taking her vitamin supplements “religiously.” Anyway you turn in this tragedy you can‘t get away from the word “Religion.”
Look at it this way. Would the parents be guilty of a crime if they gave their 11 month old a live rattlesnake to play with, like other religions encourage their adherents to do? If the snake fatally bit their toddler what punishment would you say is appropriate? It’s the same principle and only someone with no principles themselves will attempt to defend parents who starve an 11 month old to death either accidentally or on purpose, end of story! There is also no difference in this case from the recent incident where two animal loving parent’s “pet” python got out of its cage in the middle of the night and swallowed their child. Doing anything less than condemning the father and mother in any of these tragic cases is a green light for anyone reading your words posted here to let it happen again.
The vegans in these comments seem to have little concept of what the Healthy Home Economist actually endorses. Their arguments are based on why their vegan diet is better than the Standard American Diet. But Sarah doesn’t endorse the SAD – she endorses the traditional diet. Grassfed, unadulterated beef, unpasteurized dairy, pastured eggs, liver, fish oils. Foods naturally rich in vitamins A, D, E, and K, and free of GMOs and pesticides. All other diets that are vitamin deficient are inferior – this includes veganism and SAD. Vitamin supplements are inefficient and certainly not “natural”. Whole foods, naturally rich in the vitamins our body needs, is what this website endorses (as far as I know).
That said, everyone’s body is different. There are some people who can’t digest meat. There are some people whose bodies can’t digest only plant matter. Veganism can work perfectly for one person, and completely starve another. Eating meat works for one person, and causes bowel problems in another. Everyone’s body is different – some people’s digestions are far more resilient than others. Some people can thrive perfectly well on a fast food diet! But most of us will have innumerable health problems if we try to live on that much fast food. Same goes for veganism.
The traditional diet is, in my opinion, the healthiest one for the most amount of people, since it puts an emphasis on whole, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods, naturally rich in vitamins and minerals that our body needs.
If anyone bothered to read the article”, the child was sick. They did the stupid thing by not going to get proper medical care, and *that* is why the child died. And even if she was lacking in nutrients, it does not mean all other vegans/vegetarians have that problem. Her parents just lacked good judgment when it came to healthcare and a *proper* vegan diet.
The author’s argument is like the abstinence argument…. If you’re going to be dogmatic and try to pretend all other options/choices are not viable (but are somehow often better supported by hard data), you’re going to have a bad time.
Michael Sean Macdonald there is a big reason that the homozygous died out and the homosapien survived .. to all you narrow minded hippies and wanna be hippies the meat eater survived and the plant eaters died out thus making meat our natural diet . that being said i believe a true vegetarian for humane reasons is very admiral just dont give me that natural diet bullshit .
What happened was terrible and tragic. But there are ways to raise your baby sufficiently without meat. My mom was vegetarian when pregnant with me and I was raised vegetarian. I eat meat now cuz I love it! But those were very unaware parents of how a baby needs nutrients more than adults because they are growing and still developing.
I have been happily vegan for 10 years. Since deciding a vegan lifestyle would suit me I have breastfed 3 healthy, happy and intelligent children. Nobody reports the happy-ending stories do they?? rant over.
I am struggling to believe this is the whole truth in the matter, I think the article is very breif and obviously swayed to get a response. I can’t quite understand how this works in realtion to all those mothers in countries where a balanced diet is not available still have surviving infants. Surely in India most diets are close if not vegan.
The baby should have been introduced to other foods months prior to its untimely death. I believe this parent was just very uneducated and had no support. Otherwise, I just can’t see why else this would happen. I know plenty of vegan mothers and their children are absolutely thriving and healthy. This is so senseless. Why wasn’t the baby brought for well checks at his pediatrician? I personally can’t cut meat out of my diet but I still respect people’s choice to do so. This is just a case of someone not paying attention to the signs that their baby would display in the case of being severely malnourished! Very sad!
Her Dr. should have told her to continued to take her prenatal vitamins. I was told if you are thinking about getting pregnant , are pregnant or breastfeeding you should take them.