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
There are a variety of diets that can be healthy and appropriate for pregant women and their infants. I am a pregnant vegan (11 years) and plan to raise my child an ovo-lacto vegetarian. Neither my midwife or the pediatrician who will see the baby after birth are concerned about me being vegan because they have taken the time to talk to me about how I ensure that I have the appropriate nutrition daily. I think that it is important for vegans, vegetarians and omnivores who are pregnant and nursing to take precautions to be sure that they are getting enough vitamins. Prior to getting pregnant I had blood tests run to be sure that I was not deficient in any nutrients including vitamin A, K, iron, and B-12. I eat many fortified foods and take a vegan prenatal vitamin approved by my doctor. One of my good friends is struggling with B-12 deficency but she is a meat eater. She was told by her doctor that B-12 deficiency is very common and easily solved by taking a vitamin. She recently began taking a vegan B-12 sublingual and is now doing just fine. All pregnant and nursing moms need to be serious about providing good nutrition to their little ones and should consult their doctors about appropriate nutrition.
It would behoove you to get your facts straight before making such gross assumptions.
Your “clear message” is actually not clear at all, it’s just a figment of your unfortunate imagination.
According to an article (one where research was actually conducted): “’The couple did not follow the doctor’s advice to hospitalize the baby who was suffering from bronchitis and was losing weight when they went for the nine-month check-up,” Mr. Daquo said.'” The couple decided to use a natural means to treat their baby. Unfortunately, the story ends very sadly.
Sarah, I don’t think you are rude or condescending. I think people are just scared to find out the lifestyle they have been living all these years, may actually harm them. It puts them on the attack! And by the way people, I actually somewhat dislike the way meat, eggs, dairy taste! I’ve only recently in the past year started forcing myself to eat more of it, after reading “Nourishing Traditions.” I’ve suffered with depression, and low energy since I was a small child, and definitely think it was my low fat, little meat, no eggs, little milk diet!! Keep speaking the hard truth! You are my favorite health blogger!!
>Assinine attacks on veganism (THE most natural diet; nature’s intent) are frustrating.
ThrivingFruititarian,
if you really believe that humans aren’t supposed to be omnivores, well, then you’re too stupid to help.
One last chance to have a mini-rant before I log off.
When I’ve been criticised for being a vegan, it has not been because I have been sick, unhealthy or deficient in anything (becasue I haven’t been), it has just been some meat-eater who thinks that by me not eating and living the way they do, that I am somehow having a go at them. What’s more, is the people who tend to have the go at me are fat/obese, lazy and/or unhealthy- it is sometimes hard not to laugh at them, I surely don’t want to be like them. I’ll take my healthy fit self over their cholesterol ridden couch potato selves any day.
I have noticed that the fitter/healthier version of meat-eaters are not so judgmental of vegans, they themselves see the benefits of reducing their consumption of animal products and junk food in general. I still have respect for those meat-eaters (even if I don’t agree with all of their food choices- it is possible to agree to disagree and leave it at that).
I’m a 35 year old vegan mother of two, I was raised vegan, my parents are vegan and so are my grandparents. I breastfed both of my children, I have never been deficient in nutrients, in fact my doctor who was initially outraged that I was a vegan is amazed at how healthy I was throughout my entire pregnancies. During my pregnancy the only supplements that I took were prenatal vitamins. My children are both healthy and happy and in the 95th percentile for their age and are rarely ill.
Here via Cracked. Nice job being a total nutjob! It gave me a good laugh at least.
(In case you’re wondering why you’re getting so much traffic, you were linked!)
If it’s so crazy, why were the parents prosecuted?
I also think it is very sad that you are laughing about a baby being dead. This is not a funny story but a very serious one that warrants attention to why it happened in the first place. This is what this article is all about. It appears in your quest for humor, you are missing the point completely.
theyre laughing at you people, not the article…im laughing too haha did anyone actually bother to read the REAL article not Mrs. Nutjobs version of it? the Real article says that the parents were total nutjobs too….it doesnt blame the veganism just the idiocracy…..just sayin
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/29/vegans-trial-death-baby-breast-milk
the link for any sensible people
On that point we most definitely agree. The parents were definitely whack jobs .. obviously sucked in by the cult of veganism which tragically resulted in the death of their baby because they couldn’t observe the obvious .. their baby wasn’t growing or thriving on the nutritionless breastmilk of the poor mother.
I don’t want to get heated, offensive, or arguementive but you’re generalizing all vegans based on the decisions of people we are all aware are total whacks. The baby was thin and sickly because it was riddled with diseases due to the parents ignoring doctors advice for things they learned in a book. I just don’t think it’s right for you to attack all vegans based on the actions of 2 idiots. Attack the parents all you want, but they are a singular, outstanding case that bears no connection to anybody else.
I see your point but I don’t feel I am generalizing. The child may very well have died even if not sick. Breastmilk from vegan mothers is inferior to the breastmilk of omnivore mothers. The sickness perhaps hastened the inevitable as these parents weren’t feeding any solid foods and this child was subsisting on nutritionless breast milk that was not allowing growth or development in any way.
BOOM! That has to be the most level-headed comment on this page! congrats! (in all seriousness) You involved every element of the story; idiocracy, a diet that wasn’t correctly supplemented, actual fact, and you acknowlegded another’s view! And I looked back and I was wrong, you haven’t been attacking vegans, that was everyone else, my bad, I apologize.
One good friend that I care very much about happens to be a vegan. I have nothing against vegans personally even though I regularly bash this manner of eating on this blog as it can lead to nothing but ill health in the long run. If someone wants to make themselves ill eating this way that’s fine, but when a child dies because of it, that is really bad which was my motivation for writing this post in the first place.
How long is the “long run”- I’m still waiting to get ill from being a vegan. I’m 32 and have been vegan for 18 years and vegatarian before that (I’m actually horribly allergic to dairy- it’s like ingesting poison). I’m fit and healthy. I also know quite a few well-read lifelong vegans who come from a line of vegans- they all seem to be flourishing with good health- perhaps we’re just flukes huh, or living off the stores of the wild boar consumed by our great great great grandparents?
Dairy is not poison. It meerly gives some people gas, say like SOY BEANS do.
However it has long been a debating tactic among those without “a logic” to stand on to accuse the other side of the sins of which your side is guilty.
We see this tactic at play here when those (in their words) poor, persucuted Vegans say they are pulled from pillow to post by us nasty and crual omnivors. It is the Vegans who do all the pulling, disapproving and looking down on. AMW, just wolf down a cheese burger with all the fixings, it’ll improve your outlook on life.
In a recent census, countries with the highest rate of osteoporosis were United States, England, Sweden & Finland. Countries with the highest consumption of milk? United States, England, Sweden & Finland – in that order. Coincidence? Well no, because the fact is that any acidic diet is unhealthy. Dairy is extremely acidic. So acidic, the body leaches nutrients out from the bones to balance the PH. Strong bones come from calcium – not dairy. In fact, broccoli has far more calcium than milk. And broccoli won’t summons things like hyperthyroidism, hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, and lupus.
So uh, yeah, dairy is pretty poisonous … perhaps more to some than others … oh and, if it’s not organic, it indubitably contains puss. Heard that from a milk farmer myself and further researched it.
Shane, scientific proof please for every statement that you made.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/24/health/24brod.html?_r=0
There are many studies that have shown a few of these things, however, many are suppressed or similar results avoided by the meat and dairy industry. Dr. John Mcdougall would be a good place to start.
I laugh at this. I have MS and it’s NOT from eating dairy……. get your facts straight
Think about it. I’d like to hear from the mother’s doctor, and the babies pediatrician. I would certainly hope that both of them knew she consumed a vegan diet. If she is going to be charged with neglect, so should both her doctors. This problem starts with the training of doctors, how many doctors do you know that are TAUGHT ABOUT NUTRITION?
Keith, you have obviously never known someone with actual lactose intollerance. If you are actually badly lactose intollerant, dairy products do not just cause gas! It causes you to poo yourself.
AMW- but you may not have started out completely vegan? (I am asking- not telling). Not all people start out vegan- most (not all) start out life eating some type of meat products, and later make a conscience decision to become vegan. (Correct me if I am wrong- this is my personal observation.) It could have been (with this woman’s life and her baby) that there was a deficiency with her milk is all. The baby could have had problems digesting properly within it’s own body. I do feel for this mom. Personally- I bf’d y oldest for 4/5 months, and then he went to formula and solid foods along with breast milk. (This was because he was eating more than I was producing- and I produced a lot- I also worked, so was unable to keep up the pace that way. He is actually the only one who doesn’t get sick- and our family are omnivores. I make sure my children eat more veggies than meats, but they still eat both.
You have still entirely avoided the requests of at least three people for evidence to support your claims, so I am going to assume that you cannot. But if you might consider this again, here is my original request “Can you please cite the evidence, grey literature or actual studies that support your statement “breast milk from vegan mothers is inferior to the breast milk of omnivore mothers” and “.. this child was subsisting on nutritionless breast milk…” I am very interested to see the scientific proof to substantiate your comments. Thank you!”
I was waiting for this as well
I’ve heard about a lot of vegan cases where the baby dies so most vegans don’t take self responsibility in what they eat. A lot of babies come out mentally retarded because of vegan parents which I’ve heard from some professionals. The dietary cholesterol which you can only get from meat, dairy, fish, and eggs from the fatty portions of those foods also have a lot of important factors for the babies’ growth. Veganism isn’t healthy and people that follow that lifestyle are very unhealthy mentally and physically. It also slows down your brain and they can be very incompetent and slow because they aren’t getting the dietary cholesterol and many other nutrients. Dietary cholesterol speeds up the brain synapses so you can think at a much greater rate. If a person is one of the rare vegans that are actually intelligent there’s a thousand people in their class of intelligence that are far above them because those people eat meat. Vegans tend to give up at their level and are very mediocre at that level even if they have a “reputation” of being good at that subject which they aren’t if you notice all of the flaws and inaccuracies of how they think which is just common sense stuff they don’t get.
Breastmilk from vegan mothers is inferior to the breastmilk of omnivore mother => Source?
Yes, I would like to see an actual study comparing milk samples. People keep asking to see the evidence but none is forthcoming.
I would guess there was evidence at their trial- but no one is presenting a case here, so no one is going to provide evidence, this is all opinion.
Surely, you hold many degrees in medicine and nutritional science to boast such an ignorant claim as that.
It seems to me that these vegan parents were very likely well-intentioned and loved their child. I do not believe they should be criminally charged as losing a child is punishment enough. However, it is obvious that their judgement was greatly impaired and that is ultimately what brought about such a tragic result. I can attest to the vegan diet being insufficient as there was a period of time that I ate vegan. My own judgement was greatly impaired as it can be anytime one is deficient in certain nutrients. While I seemed quite healthy in many other ways (lost weight, had decent energy, etc.), I now realize that some of the detrimental effects of a poor diet are not always so obvious. I think Lierre Kieth makes great points when she talks about how a vegan diet can greatly effect one’s judgement and mental health. Also, I noticed someone on here said that Weston A. Price promoted vegetarian diets, but can we just clarify that vegetarian and vegan are very different nutritionally. I know of no high performing athlete that has thrived as a vegan, but plenty live as vegetarians– that consume dairy, eggs and even fish. Anyway, just thought that needed to be pointed out.
I would normally agree with you Sally. However 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 they need to thrown the book at this pair to serve as an example to others. By making this unfortunate pair pay the highest possible price under the law for their foolishness, perhaps other children may escape a similar fate.
Besides, people with a Vegan world view are always making foolish statements about wanting to see humans become extinct etc. The parents of this poor child would be a good place to start decimating the human race. Make em, either put up or shut up. This child’s parents tortured it for 11 long months. Even that 20 year old crazy A hole in Connecticut didn’t force his shooting victims to suffer so long.
There is nothing foolish about following a more compassionate lifestyle..Open your mind and stop making sweeping claims. It seems to be that vegans are the ones who always have meat shoved in their faces!! meat is everywhere! ads etc…so who is being brainwashed here?
I disagree. Most Vegans, and Vegetarians, are horribly misinformed about their health. Just look at all the logical fallacies in ‘modern nutritional science.’ The myth that eating a high fat diet causes diabetes. I have no clue where this came from, but you read about it everywhere. However, it simply isn’t true, as you can learn from just about any High School Biology text book. Saturated fats and animal proteins break down in our bodies as fatty acid chains and proteins. These are essential for a body to function, and don’t spike Insulin levels. However, then you have the ‘informed’ nutritionists and doctors claiming to base your diet on grains. These empty carbohydrates break down as simple sugar (which in high enough amounts in your blood is toxic) and this spikes your body’s insulin. Since blood sugar is toxic, your body tries to get rid of it first, causing the rest of the calories you consume to be stored as body fat. And oh yeah, those high insulin levels, they tend to be what leads to diabetes. Who was it on here that said we need to listen to ‘Doctors and Nutritionists’ instead of bloggers? Cause they don’t know jack. Some of us actually paid attention in science class. Our bodies run most efficiently on fats, supplimented with simple, natural sugars like those found in things like apples, and other fruits and veggies, and the only animal EVOLVED to handle eating grains? Birds. Not people.
Your so right, hence the protein diets, I’m diabetic and there are not alot of foods on a vegan diet that are recommended for diabetics, lots of vegetables, like carrots have a ton of carbs in them and “most” fruits are incredibly high in sugar. I am at my healthiest when I stick with a low carb, high protein diet that has mostly low fat meat like fish and chick at it’s core. I love fruits and vegs but i have to eat everything in moderation. Also do beans and nuts, avacados not have protein in them, is there not foods that a vegan could eat that have protein. I think if your going to do this kind of diet then be better informed.
Very interesting as I have heard of a handful of people
who had gotten rid of their diabetes by going on a balance vegan diet.
The amount of truly unhealthy, pale, deficient vegans suffering for their moral choice is fairly astounding.
Punishing their body on the alter of anti meat hipsters.
Anti-meat hipsters? Wow how ill informed are you?
Also, just as a said point, all the vegans I know are very healthy
An ad hom attack. One more and I’ll win at logical fallacy bingo.
Oh my goodness. Where are these Vegan making these foolish statements about wanting humans to become extinct. This is the most absurd statement ever. That is like saying Christians are against medicine because god should heal them!
Sorry, egg is not a vegetable. If somebody eats an egg and fish, he’s not a vegetarian.
No, vegetarians don’t eat meat. Eggs might not be a vegetable, but they aren’t meat, just an animal product, like dairy or honey (unless the egg is fertilised, which commercially produced ones usually aren’t).
you obviously have not looked into it…http://www.greatveganathletes.com/bodybuilders
i have been vegan for over 20 years vegetarian for 27..i am an athlete. your experience does not speak for all!
Should we assume there have been no healthy babies raised on the breast milk of a vegan mother? That is highly suspect. It seems on odd case and I would imagine there’s more to it.
Vegan breast milk is the best for babies with a long, herbivorous digestive tract, like ours. If you say it’s better by eating animals, then you are saying that animals are the only creatures capable of digesting and converting plants into bio-available minerals and nutrients…so the only way to get those is by eating the animals… who ate those plants. Then why do you need to eat plants too? Do you believe people began on this earth trying to gnaw their way through raw flesh with flat teeth? Or do you believe fire randomly sparked and they knew how to cook? LOL
i like you. you are quite right.
Humans have been using tools and fire for quite awhile. There are people that eat raw meat right now. Humans can handle raw meat. Using tools to help cut is perfectly logical. Also humans on the ocean could have gathered sea creatures that weren’t all that hard to eat.
Opening oyster shells and that sort of thing would be possible. Even monkeys will use rocks to do things. Ample seafood is available with simple tools.
The herbivorous animals all derive most of their energy from short chain fatty acids converted in their digestive tract from fiber and other plant matter. Our digestive tracts do not have the capacity to do this. If we eat a large amount of plants we end up with a ton of energy from carbohydrates not fats.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qamxC3fV870
The whole video is good but starting at 3:30 is the Herbivore SFA explanation.
We are not naturally herbivorous as we don’t have the capacity to do this conversion to enough of an extent to provide most of our energy needs.
We can get most of them from carbohydrates, but considering all the other animals don’t work that way I find it highly unlikely that we are different than every single other one.
Carnivores eat mostly meat with fat and get most of their energy from fat and use protein for rebuilding the many things in the body which need amino acids. Herbivores eat mostly plants, but the plants are converted to short chain fatty acids resulting in a majority of their energy coming from short chain fatty acids.
Gorilla’s cows etc…
do you have a resource to prove that the two types of breastmilk have been studied and that one is superior to the other?
No where in this article did I see any mention that the child was being soley breast-fed with absolutely no other nutrition being given to the child. If that’s the case, then it wasn’t the breast feeding that was the problem. It was the fact that the parents weren’t properly feeding their child and making sure it was properly nourished.
When I see things like “exclusively breasted” to me, that means no formula or bottles.
Not true…profoundly not true actually. What a ludicrous generalization.
The article mentions a deficiency in two area’s: B12 and Vit A.
B12 and Vit A are not the ONLY nutrients in breastmilk so saying that her milk was ‘nutritionless’ (not that that’s even a word) is misleading, nay, LYING.
There is more to this story that you have conveniently left out. Not to mention that this article was sponsored by a formula company.
‘Healthy Home Economist’:
There is nothing healthy or economical about formula, so the fact that you are writing an article sponsored by an organization with a vested interest in decreasing breastfeeding rates in order to increase it’s profits is a huge conflict of interest. I know for a fact that you were approached with a host of information on why your article is a lie, and you chose to ignore it.
I hope you enjoy your pay check from WAPF.
Can you please cite the evidence, grey literature or actual studies that support your statement “breast milk from vegan mothers is inferior to the breast milk of omnivore mothers” and “.. this child was subsisting on nutritionless breast milk…” I am very interested to see the scientific proof to substantiate your comments. Thank you!
Can you please give research supporting the statement about quality of breastmilk?
In India we have a very special diet for breastfeeding mothers. Has that research taken into account these vegetarian practices or just the uninformed newly vegan American subjects?
linked to many places!! all sent here to laugh at the insanity of her answers and things she is quoting as “facts”. has nothing to do with people being vegan or not, as many non vegans are getting just as much fun out of reading this now too. 😀