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
This is just unbelievable. Though I’m less sympathetic – they should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Plain and simple, they should have known better.
and what’s really shocking (as if this isn’t shocking enough!) – this isn’t the first time something like this has happened; it’s happened in New York, Atlanta, Australia, Miami….it’s crazy! When are people going to stop adhering to their batsh*t ideology and face facts??
Really???? To the fullest extent of the law? You think this equals rape and murder? NICE attitude — these people lost their child and you are this mean-spirited? I really hope people are just as forgiving to you when you make mistakes.
Marcela – be very careful what you wish for ; it may some day come to be seen as “cruel” and “abusive” to feed your babies (or self!) in the traditional manner. We MUST be supportive of a person’s right to be wrong, or we all suffer. I seriously doubt this mother was trying to harm her baby, quite the contrary – she most likely thought she was doing good.
Denise Minger has completely discredited the China Study. Vegans have not been around for 1000’s of years because vegans become infertile after 1 or 2 generations and cannot reproduce. Vegetarians have been around, but not vegans.
http://rawfoodsos.com/2010/07/07/the-china-study-fact-or-fallac/
LOL!!!!!!!
“Vegans have not been around for 1000′s of years because vegans become infertile after 1 or 2 generations and cannot reproduce. Vegetarians have been around, but not vegans.”
WOW. I needed a good laugh today. Thank you. 🙂
I’m not being insensitive to the fact that these people lost their child, but I just can’t imagine how many people can be this grossly misinformed and have this sinister view of people who try to live a more natural, and cruelty-free lifestyle. Judging people who try to live compassionately because someone does it wrong and makes a huge mistake that they have to live with forever, that is ridiculous. There are many, many generations of vegans out there, fyi. People who eat omnivorous diets can also be malnourished and not get the right nutrients. It’s all about balance.
Briana, a meat eating or even a vegetarian mother can make a huge mistakes with her diet and her baby won’t die being breastfed. It’s true that omnivores can have imbalanced diets, but a vegan diet is so imbalanced that it can be deadly for breastfed babies. A vegan diet takes malnutrition to a whole new level as it leaves out the most important nutrients .. the fat soluble activators only found in animal foods.
Interesting how you fail to document any traditional vegan cultures? Why? Because there are none.
i know, right? i have been laughing while reading every comment from the original author. everyone else seems to be basing their opinions on at least some facts, but sarah keeps pulling random stuff from left field. i am actually going to post this on my other blog so people can come read her comments for a chuckle today. 😀 hahahahaha.
Name a traditional vegan culture. We’re all waiting. We’ll be here along time.
Veganism is a modern religion that can lead to malnutrition in children and adults. If the parents are very careful, it won’t but it’s way too easy to go there with no animal products. We are omnivores – meat is on the menu.
And veganism is not more compassionate, at least from the plant’s point of view. Neither plants nor animals are placed on the planet for us to eat. Just because a life form doesn’t move doesn’t make it less important.
The bottom line is that vegans tend to think they are being more compassionate and smarter than the rest of humanity, or at least Westerns. Unfortunately, that is only an illusion, completely separated from what it takes to produce food.
“And veganism is not more compassionate, at least from the plant’s point of view. Neither plants nor animals are placed on the planet for us to eat. Just because a life form doesn’t move doesn’t make it less important.”
That’s a bit disingenuous. Surely you understand why people might confine compassion to creatures who can feel pain and emotions. You can’t seriously need it pointed out to you that animals can feel pain and plants can’t. *shakes head* While we’re at it, you do get the difference between living things and inanimate objects right?
The WHO recommends exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months then adding solid foods for a healthy baby. These parents didn’t do that, that is most likely the real problem. Vegan mothers the world over have been breastfeeding their babies for 1000’s of years, and have avoided heart disease, diabetes an cancer along the way. Please read nutrition studies such as “The China Study” and see http://www.pcrm.org for more info.
The cause of the problem wasn’t that this infant was exclusively breast-fed until 11mo. It was that Mom was deficient in B12 (and A, but B12 has more significant implications in development – particularly neurologic development), likely because she was a vegan. It’s a pretty common thing to see with vegans.
Although current recommendations advise starting solids at 6mos, many parents don’t choose to start solid foods until 1yo. If the infants are receiving breastmilk and/or formula, that alone doesn’t usually cause a problem; t is not a form of starvation nor does it usually cause failure to thrive. In fact, this infant was a healthy weight – 12lbs for an 11mo infant is totally appropriate. The issue here is critical nutrient deprivation (B12). Pediatrician should have (and hopefully did) advise Mom that she either needed B12 supplementation or to change her diet while breastfeeding to ensure that the infant received adequate nutrients.
Hi Trina,
It certainly wasn’t just the issue of a B12 deficiency. In truth, the mother was also deficient in vitamins A, D, and K as well. The vitamin K that Weston A. Price was talking about was referred to as “activator X,” which can only be found in special foods of the animal kingdom like pastured butter, eggs, etc. The vitamin K is needed to assimilate minerals. So, in addition to having a deficiency in several major vitamins, the vegan mother was also severely deficient in minerals, as well.
Vitamin K is in breast milk. It doesn’t come from the mother’s diet. Her own body produces it.
what a sad story! i don’t think the doctors and pediatricians and obstetricians ask people what their diet is like, at least they never asked me when i was pregnant or breastfeeding. they do ask what supplements moms take when pregnant though, once i told my obstetrician that i am taking cod liver oil she was sooo schocked and told me to stop it immediately. i did not stop taking it though 🙂
so the mom just did not know she was doing something wrong and did not get a chance to find out.
Correction to my previous post – 12 *pounds* would indicate failure to thrive. I was thinking in kilos, though, and 12kg would have been totally appropriate. Sorry for the error!
Anyone have a link to the original article?
Hi MegganB, the source for the article is listed at the end of the post.
Sarah, I am not seeing it; maybe I’m just keep missing it, but I’ve looked over & over. Please help. Thanks!
Never mind, got it! If it were a snake…
Im shock. I was in a macrobiotic diet when I was pregnant of my first son, now 2 and a half years and still breastfeeding. I changed the diet about eight months ago: I and my son are eating now meat, eggs, diary. I havent been able yet to drink raw milk. I`m feeling really fine and with energy. I changed my diet because my instict told me something was going wwrong with my child: he was not much growing, he had a yellow skin tone, and he was under every curve of weight and height, and we have to gave him iron suplement.
Now I`m trying not to feel guilty for following a macrobiotic diet (that my husband still follows) and for not follow my basic insticts. I`m not makink such mistake again. I´m from Quito-Ecuador. Thank you Sarah!!
An 11 month old can live solely on breast milk from a healthy mother- my first child didn’t have a bite of food til after her first birthday (when she was about 25 lbs) and my second only had a few bites before his first birthday. They would spit solids out, I didn’t push it. Around 1 they started eating quite a bit.
I think your take on this story is good- I get nervous about the ‘neglect’ aspect of it as well, I do many things AMA – going with medical advice isn’t always the answer, but neither is veganism.
Why isn’t veganism the answer?
I have to say I’m confused by the first line which states that the baby was “exclusively breastfed by a vegan mother”. I took this to mean that the child had not been put on solid food yet which of course would also lead to severe nutrient deprivation. If I’m not reading this wrong then that would have been as significant a contributor to the babies death as the fact that the mother was a vegan.
Man, this is just painful to read.
I am currently breast feeding and I too believed that my daughter would get nutrients either way. I’ve recently began reading about the traditional way to eat and find it extremely interesting. On a trip to California, last week, I had the opportunity to purchase raw milk and pastured eggs. I did this for the few days I was there. Suddenly the color of my daughters “poop” became very bright yellow and she was passing less gas and was smiling instead of struggling when she had a movement. I was so happy for her and she was so happy as well. Upon my return to New Mexico, I resumed eating soy fed organic eggs and organic lactose milk (I was not lactose intolerant- to my surprise- with the raw milk) and my daughter’s movements returned to the previous color and she had the same struggles as she did before. I wish the government here would allow for an increase in raw milk supplies. I found a source for pastured eggs but the milk is not available here.
I too wonder if the parents had received this info if perhaps they would have had a change in ethical beliefs.
I found out that grass fed cow’s are treated much better when milked and the slaughter is more “humane” as well. Perhaps this would have helped that poor child. Sorry if I am all over the place. I still have “baby brain”.
Where are you in NM? I can help you source it, depending on where you are.
God bless,
amy
Gabriela, what’s this business with pasteurized eggs? What’s the matter? Don’t you cook your food? Even “raw” milk is mostly cooked before consumption, well except for beverage milk. Why do you suppose milk is heated before yogurt or cheese making begins? Sanitation or killing off stray bacteria is one reason.
Say Gaby, why don’t you have a Youtube video where we can watch you suck down raw (or pasteurized) eggs? I suspect that if you feed her real milk, instead of that soy faux milk, created in a 9-5 factory by hourly employees eager to get home, that your daughter’s digestion will again return to normal.
Uh, no, raw milk is not “cooked.” Ever watched the process at a farm? They milk, then it goes straight into a cooling system.
Seriously, this blog is painful to read. I am all about WAPF and health, but the ignorance being spewed here hurts my brain. Human milk certainly is vegan, because it is given freely by the mother to the baby. No other animals were exploited for the mother to make that milk.
Thanks a heap for making us sane WAPFers, capable of critical thinking, all look like a bunch of crazies. Geez.
How stupid does a person need to be to think that any milk (including human breast milk) can be vegan in any way when it’s full of animal proteins (human proteins), and is made in an animal’s ( human’s) body??? A nut milk, or a soy milk, or a seed milk is vegan, but human breast milk is in no way vegan “because it is freely given by the mother to the baby”! What does the mother’s intent have to do with the biochemical makeup of the milk? NOTHING!!! Humans are animals, thus human milk cannot be vegan!!
Lets step up to the plate here and start using our critical thinking skills before we make such completely ridiculous claims
Stop. If you don’t understand what Vegan/Vegetarian means, don’t debate about it.
Human breast milk is intended for human babies, just as the breast milk from a cow is intended for its calves. We are not built to consume dairy produced by cows (or other animals) because we are a different species.
We are talking about PASTURE RAISED EGGS here. .. .NOT pasteurized. They are QUITE different. 🙂 Pasture raised eggs are from chickens who are free to run about on grass and eat naturally available food. Pasteurized eggs are not raw and do not even exist here.
Pasture raised eggs can contain up to 5 times MORE nutrients than those from the standard confined operation.
And no, we do not like our milk to be cooked, many here like it raw. We buy it that way and drink it that way.
And soy milk is NOT the same as lactose free milk (though I wouldn’t drink either).
It seems you do not have most of your facts straight.
Proof positive here that most people have no idea what a “traditional diet” really is. *sigh*
I’m not a vegan or vegetarian. I feel bad for them. I’m sure they didn’t do this to their child on purpose! She was probably influenced by the agenda that veganism is actually good for you on top of the severe pressure from the breast feeding advocates to breast feed as long and as much as you can. I remember being bombarded by the breast feeding advocates for “giving up” too soon on my daughter when I started formula feeding her at 3 months. Never mind that my daughter’s skin was literally sagging on her body due to the loss of fat from my severely inadequate breast milk supply despite all my efforts to keep my breast milk up. I should have given her formula sooner, but the advocates kept pressuring me to “keep breast feeding.” “No one produces too little breast milk.” “You’re not feeding her often enough.” (Try every hour during the day and every 2 hours at night!!!!) It was seeing her sagging skin that woke me up. 2 days of formula feeding and she was chubbing up again and a much happier baby.
Ironically, breast milk is not vegan in that it is an “animal product” since it comes from humans.
A couple years ago when the economy tanked, a baby died from a mother watering down the formula in an effort to save money. I can’t remember if she was charged or not.
I totally feel you. We were out of hospital birthers, that ended up with two cesareans, so you can only imagine the ‘you fail’ crap we got there. Then, adding on me truly not having enough milk too and having to formula feed, I was then going to LLL hell! Some mom’s can’t exculsively BF. It’s the truth. Yes, they can ‘pump what they have’, but to be honest, that was too much for me. The only time I could pump was while holding her with a pumping bra, and I only got about 8 oz a day pumping every 3 hours. So we quit, and now formula feed as well. Kuddos to you for giving it your all!!!! Oh, if you start having issues with formula, as we did with both ours, try the weston a price homemade formula and do some reading on that. We’ve had a great experience with it and know we are not alone.. 🙂
Actually breast milk is vegan. Veganism is the minimisation/elimination of harm to other animals. Human breast milk is for human babies and is not contrary to the vegan philosophy. Cow’s milk is for calves and humans consuming it is contrary to the philosphy (also take a look at the nasty circumstances and horrible cases of mastitis of cows on dairy farms).
“Veganism” did not kill this baby. An ill-informed mother who did not take care to ensure that she consumed enough of the right vitamins and minerals (which are all available from plant based sources)- harmed this poor child. Unfortunately, not all vegans bright and well -informed, just as not all ominvores/carnivores are bright and well informed.
Blaming “veganism” would be like blamining “meat eaters” as a whole collective group whenever their child is ill or died through some form of vitamin/mineral deficiency or bad eating habits (which is a lot more frequent % wise than it is for vegans/vegetarians).
I’ve been a vegetarian almost all my life and a vegan for 18 years (I’m currently 32). I have been fit and healthy all my life. I am also 34 weeks preganant with a perfectly developing baby and all my blood tests have revealed perfect levels of everything. The doctor is quite chuffed that I am having such a smooth, healthy pregnancy because unlike most other (dare I say it “non-vegan”) mothers that come into the clinic- neither I or the baby are having any problems and have no deficiences. Co-incidence or not, I am also NOT suffering from any of those nasty common problems of pregnancy like constipation, hemeroids etc. (probably because I naturally get lots of fibre in my diet).
The parents need to be educated in nutrition, just like any other parent.
It is quite disappointing that so many people make such broad generalised comments about a named group such as “vegans” whilst they have obviously not done any research on the topic (by this I mean reading actual scientific studies rather than reading tabloids) and make ridicuouls comments such as “how can it not be the vegan diet”. We don’t have any details on what this woman was actually eating and therefore, I don’t see how anyone can blame “veganism” without knowing such details.
Ironically- when pregnant most woman are advised to eat “more fresh fruit and vegtables”- doesn’t that tell you something.
Now THAT is the most ridiculous vegan comment I’ve EVER heard. Human breastmilk is vegan? How closedminded and emotionally attached to your flawed way of thinking can you be?
THIS is the most ridiculous nonvegan comment. Seriously?!? I eat meat and I’m trying to eat more veggies and fruits and less carbs. I still breastfeed my 11-month old, who eats what we eat, including meat. To me, it is offensively obvious that you are anti-vegan/vegetarian and NOT pro-health. What a shame. It makes TOTAL sense that human breastmilk would be considered vegan in the diet of a human baby, at least for the first 4-6 months of life. It’s obvious that YOUR way of thinking is flawed because it is so close-minded and hateful. So much for taking anything seriously from you! If you ever have children that are obese or have type 2 diabetes, I hope you get charged with neglect for feeding thing too much crap.
what is wrong with you? AMW gave a very logical and reasonable response and you still respond rudely to her. are you that close minded that you wont listen to ANY information that suggest that it is possible to be healthy on a plant based diet? im not even vegan, or vegetarian for that matter, and i still think your biased jerk!
Sarah why is veganism a flawed way of thinking? Animals produce milk that is designed for their own newborns. As a species we are NOT naturally designed to drink it so why would not drinking constitute a flawed way of thinking? In fact i cant think of a single other species on this planet that drinks another species breast milk…
wait, are you being serious? you are the most ridiculous blogger i have ever read (ok, maybe not THE most, but ONE of the most ridiculous)! hahahahahaha, i LITERALLY laughed out loud when you commented this until i realized that you were being serious. and now i just feel sorry for you because you are so closed minded and uninformed. it is sad that you are actually blogging and that people are actually reading it (and it seems even a small percentage might agree with you??). i know bloggers are definitely allowed to have opinions, but i guess it was naive of me to think they would be informed about them! i am still chuckling at you. and wondering if this is somehow a joke…
And how closed minded are you? she is actually right about human milk for human babies being part of vegan ways. If you weren’t such an idiot on the subject, you’d know this.
It is also abundantly clear as well as a scientific fact that a long term vegan diet leads to a much lower IQ. Both in the young and in adults. That should be shockingly clear in this case.
See, I was right. Thank you AMW
” She was probably influenced by the agenda that veganism is actually good for you on top of the severe pressure”
Well, from you first line, we already know that you are going to pass on some un-truths.
“Ironically, breast milk is not vegan in that it is an “animal product” since it comes from humans.”
Are you ?? – never mind .