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
Highly unlikely an 11 month old, who is able to get these vitamins through FOOD at that age, died bc of a vegan, breastfeeding mother. What an extremely irresponsible post.
Please explain to me how telling a truthful story exactly how it happened to warn others not to exclusively breastfeed a child when they are vegan that is backed up by quotations from an MD saying the same thing is irresponsible? Irresponsible perhaps because you don’t like it? That doesn’t make the article irresponsible! LOL
Weird how vegans will spout nonsense when it suits them. While omnivores can have a B12 deficiency, this deficiency is higher in vegans. I am an omnivore, no B12 deficiency here. And I am not the exception.
One of the key symptoms of B12 deficiency is the inability to think straight along with irritibility, agitation and other mood disorders (perhaps this is why vegans seem prone to drop the F-bomb constantly when in discussions with omnivores). This is epidemic among vegans which is why trying to talk sense into them is usually fruitless. In my experience, most only wake up once the severe dental problems emerge which is typically only a few years in.
agree
Mr. Mitchell,
Associating the obesity epidemic in America with our “meat-eating” diets is just ignorant. The meat you find at your typical drive-through restaurant is far from healthy meat and I’m not even going to bother mentioning why because, based on your comments, I’m sure you know why. Noone will argue that our current health issues in America are directly tied to our unhealthy consumption of processed fast food meats and other such products. However, the facts are the facts and you can’t intelligently argue with scientifically and historically backed data. Such data being the rapid development of the brains in our prehuman ancestors after a change to a high fat based diet and then the cooking of our food. Without this diet change, we would still be hopping around on all fours and swinging through the trees of the jungle like our VEGAN primate relatives. You are more than welcome to practice and support any diet you want and you have every constitutional right to do so without anyone interfering, as long as it doesn’t directly affect the lives of those around you, e.g., a breastfeeding baby who dies as a result of poor dietary decisions of the mother and their incompetence to seek proper medical attention once the child fell ill.
Oh, and interjecting with the fact that the baby died of pneumonia is another ignorant comment. That’s like saying someone who got hit by a car didn’t die from being hit by the car, they died from internal bleeding. The child may have died from pneumonia but it wouldn’t have had pneumonia if not for the poor nutrition it was receiving from the mother.
Sarah, after researching this, the child died of pneumonia. That’s the cause of death. Also, the child was being fed strictly breast milk, without additional food (which would cause malnutrition in any breastfed baby, even if the mother was eating meat). Babies start with solid food at 6 months, maybe earlier. I’m sorry, but shame on you for leaving out important information in this story (to promote your agenda). I’m not a vegan, but I believe all of our bodies are different and we do not all have to follow the exact same diet. I also believe a plant based diet is a healthier one. I personally know cancer survivors who have switched to a vegan diet and remained cancer free. Something to think about.
Hey friend, if what you say is true, then why was this couple convicted of negligence by a court of law specifically for feeding the child a vegan diet? Please refer to the sourced articles above.
If vegan pregnancy, breastfeeding, and feeding a child vegan isn’t “adequate”, then why would the World Health Organization PROMOTE it, “predominantly plant-based diets rich in a variety of vegetables and fruits, pulses or legumes, and minimally processed starchy staple foods.”, and the American Dietetics Assocation state that it is healthy for all life stages, “appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes.”?
As I’ve said before in this comment thread, vegetarian and vegan are not the same! The WHO is promoting a “predominantly” plant based diet … this means there are animal foods in that diet that they are recommending. Not vegan is it? You are reading what you want to see into the WHO’s recommendation. Regarding the American Dietetics Assoc .. those people are clueless. I wouldn’t listen to a thing they have to say. The dietitians I know hand out 100 calorie packs of chips ahoy cookies to diabetics at the hospital and think this is a good thing. They also allow McDonald’s to be a sponsor of their corporate events. They buy into the USDA Food Plate in all its Farm Bill political correctness without a shred of evidence that this is actually an anthropologically accurate way to eat.
Any parent that attempts to raise a child vegan should be given life in prison! Veganism is not a diet, but a cult-like religion of seriously mid-informed lunatics.
You talk about rare exceptions (aka anecdotal evidence), but fail to see obesity as a huge problem in America. There’s plenty of evidence to support the dangers we have people with their current cruel diets for both children and the animals they eat. There’s no truth to the lies you spread about veganism.
“It is the position of the American Dietetic Association that appropriately planned vegetarian diets, including total vegetarian or vegan diets, are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. Well-planned vegetarian diets are appropriate for individuals during all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, and adolescence, and for athletes. A vegetarian diet is defined as one that does not include meat (including fowl) or seafood, or products containing those foods.”
ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/m/pubmed/19562864/
You are using “vegetarianism” and “veganism” interchangeably. THEY ARE NOT THE SAME. Vegetarians eat eggs and dairy and even sometimes fish (pescatarian). I agree that whole food based vegetarian diets can be ok for some people (not all .. some folks need meat due to their genetic background). But veganism IS BAD FOR EVERYONE as it is not natural and never before succeeded in history. Humans are omnivore, not herbivores. There is not a single large population group that ate this way and thrived. Even the ancestral polynesian groups that had an abundance of vegetable and fruits year round ate seafood and even risked their lives to obtain shark liver oil for its abundant vitamin A, D and K2.
I am a vegan mother of three healthy vegan children and have been vegan throughout the pregnancy and nursing period. My children have had a somewhat larger than average birthweight and have continued to stay healthy and active with no deficiencies. One of my children is a gifted athlete and another is a very talented artist. While nursing I have had such an abundance of high quality breast milk that the hospital asked me to donate milk to their premature infants. I of course have read a lot of books and articles about vegan nutrition and take appropriate supplements such as B12. The baby you are referring to died from pneumonia after the parents refused to seek medical help for their ill child who was loosing weight. This child was also fed a diet consisting of only breastmilk although the child was eleven months old. This case is clearly not applicable to vegan infants of sane parents, as they would normally introduce food around the six month mark as well as of course bring their child to the hospital if it is loosing weight and has pneumonia.
You are the rare exception to the rule. Your n=1 experience doesn’t mean vegan breastfeeding is a good idea! Thankfully you are at least taking B12 supplements. You can thank your omnivore mother for your good health as veganism decimates health in a few generations which is why there are zero ancestral cultures/population groups that successfully ate this way. And no, the Jains aren’t vegan .. they are vegetarian.
You say “unable to cite a single successful vegan population group either. Why? Because there are none. Ever.” what nonsense, Jains in India are vegan and a lot of Indians of all religions are vegetarian with minimal dairy/eggs. You are clearly bigoted against Veganism but the vast majority of Vegans/vegetarians are far healthier!!
The Jains are VEGETARIAN, they are NOT vegan! They eat DAIRY (but not eggs or meat). Do your research friends. There are NO successful vegan populations throughout history. Only very small religious vegan groups scattered here and there that did not last very long.
https://www.quora.com/In-Jainism-why-is-the-consumption-of-eggs-banned-but-milk-and-dairy-products-are-allowed