Vegan baby

It’s horrible to force it on an infant. Vegetarian is bad enough. Vegan is asking for a whole host of issues.

Surely dairy just covers any product that is bottled/made in an actual dairy?

The word dairy has started to sound weird to me now ..

Maybe in combination with extended breastfeeding on demand. I would want to be sure to breastfeed until at least age 3. You want to make it until the point the child is old enough to start getting to make choices in their diet. A child of 3 or 4 might be vegan at home, but could start to make different decisions at nursery or reception.

After my first vegan pregnancy, I had this debate too and arrived at the opinion that it's perfectly possible but it's harder to do and takes a lot of effort and consideration to make sure they're getting enough iron, B12 etc. and they need a lot of breast milk. We did baby led weaning which was harder I found as a lot of recipes use dairy/eggs to bind stuff together. We ended up with a plant-heavy vegetarian diet but then my DH wasn't vegan so we were already buying those things anyway. As with all parenting stuff, do your best and be prepared to adapt as you go and you'll be alright. Good luck!

Thinking logically, s human is mammal so breast milk would obviously be dairy.

Wouldn’t it?

Yes to calves.

It’s definitely possible (my nephew has been vegan since he started solids), but you really need expert nutritional advice. B12, iron and vitamin D need to be supplemented, otherwise there’s a chance of lowered bone density (higher risk of fracture). My nephew has been absolutely fine and is very healthy, but it took a lot of research and planning.

I'm puzzled because I thought all babies were made out of meat. 🤔

Oh dear.

You really don't seem to understand that you imposed your choices on your child just as I imposed my choices on my child.

My dd was vegan from birth. When she was 7, I told her that she was old enough to choose for herself.

When your dd was a baby or toddler, she wasn't able to choose to be a vegetarian or vegan any more than my dd could decide to be an omnivore. You gave her meat and she ate what she was given.

That's fine. I don't think that you were wrong to bring your dd up like that. Parents make decisions on behalf of our children all the time. It's an essential part of parenting.

But I really wish you would stop pretending that you didn't make choices as a parent and then impose those choices on your dd.

Yes, my child is allergic to dairy. But he gets eggs, meat and fish.

It’s fine, just pay particular attention to b12 and iron. Ignore the people saying breast milk is dairy 🙄

Your duty is first and foremost to your baby's nutrition and well-being. You need to ensure she gets the protein, fats, iron, choline, all the things she needs in order to thrive.

Your views on the environment or animal cruelty take a back seat.

You might be in the minority of vegans who cook well and healthy and balanced and I really really hope you are that person, for the sake of that defenceless baby.

I know a few vegans and their diet is absolutely dire. All carbs and processed shit.

No I don’t think a vegan diet is healthy for a baby/child

An awful lot of babies are allergic to dairy.
Afterall, cow milk wasn't designed for humans.

Don’t be ridiculous. Babies need dairy. Let your child make the decision for themselves when they’re old enough!!!

I chose to give her all of the options. As opposed to restricting any. Health wise as well. Yeah, this vegan child in question will eat what they’re given unquestioningly too.
“Giving children meat, dairy and/or eggs is imposing dietary choices just as much as bringing up children as vegetarian or vegan is imposing a dietary choice.”
Now that’s ridiculous. You could throw that at any parent who lets their child eat any given example, completely missing the point! The point being let them be old enough to choose. You think that’s so bad?
I mean I could have fed her exclusively on leaves from the back garden if I wanted to, to impose on her choices. Again the point you missed was giving her a choice, and now at the age of 14, knowing her own mind and preferences she’s more than happy to continue eating meat, she’ll eat my vegetarian cooking just as much. My point, again, let the child choose when they are old enough to understand. Is that so hard to process? 😂

But by the same token you made a decision for your DD that she would eat meat? I don’t think the OP ever said that they would be opposed to their child eating meat when they could make the decision for themselves? So how is OP’s decision any different than yours?

Meat is not the norm for all humans and there's no reason it should be.

I don't think there's anything wrong with your choices by the way. I was pointing out your hypocrisy in applying the notion of choice/consent vs 'shoving down throats' when you are clearly very opinionated yourself and have acknowledged that you have made choices for your child. As we all do.

Humans are animals not plants

Of course, I wouldn't expect a vegan/vegetarian to raise a baby outwith their own diet

Because that is the norm for humans. Vegetarianism isn’t. There are many healthy things my child can eat that I can’t. You see a problem here? As for opting out of religion, I give her her own choice when she’s old enough to make decisions for herself. What’s wrong with that?

Classified by who? Of course it's dairy, it's milk.
I'm really not trying to make an anti vegan point btw. I think veganism is good and I also think a breastfed baby is vegan for the same reason others said - human milk is for humans.
But breastmilk is dairy because it's milk. Dairy isn't a word for industrial farming practices. For example my niece has PKU so can't safely have a number of food groups without a supplement. One is dairy and that includes breast milk.

Also OPs breast milk isn't vegan because she's vegan - otherwise a cow's milk would be vegan! It's vegan to feed it to her own baby because it's ethically compatible with veganism, imo.

But you did choose for your child; you chose to give them meat. When they were very young, they would have eaten it unquestioningly.

As parents, we make choices for our children all the time until they are old enough to make decisions for themselves.

Giving children meat, dairy and/or eggs is imposing dietary choices just as much as bringing up children as vegetarian or vegan is imposing a dietary choice.