Can i breast feed my DD-to-be if i'm vegan?

[GrannyGrissle]

Recently turned to a full vegan diet and it suddenly dawned on me that it can't possibly be vegan to breast feed my baby when she is born in November? How did i not know/realise this?

Although I agree that this is a wind up, it chills me to think that people may really think this. Also from a farmer perspective, not all mammalian mothers can feed their young. Sometimes the mother can get mastitis or she rejects her young or the milk supply dries up. This is why some lambs are bottle fed. Mother's milk is best though. The bottle fed lambs never do quite as well.

Most formula milk is not vegan but if youre not wanting to breastfeed, then you have to use it. You cant feed a new baby on fucking plant juice

I'm ignoring all the ridiculous 'this should be banned' drama llamas and addressing the sensible folk here. As a mammal it just seems weird to feed my child my milk when i wouldn't drink milk from another species.

"As a mammal it just seems weird to feed my child milk" should go down as a classic MN quote!

OP - as others have pointed out, there is no vegan formula available in the UK. If you think it's weird to feed a baby milk (WTF?), what exactly are you planning to feed her?

Breastfeeding vegan here.

Laugh

As a mammal it just seems weird to feed my child my milk when i wouldn't drink milk from another species.

How do you feel about other mammals feeding their young? You'd be doing the same.

Bearing in mind the above quote, someone should call child services. Babies NEED milk otherwise they die. Feed her MILK. Good grief.

I’m a breastfeeding vegan by the way, but seriously your baby will die without mammal milk. Give her yours, or anyone’s, but give her milk. Bloody hell.

Weird to feed your baby your own breast milk?! That's what breasts for and why we produce breastmilk ... ?!??!!

Derxa - it's not quite the same is it though, I expect bottle fed lambs are fed commercially available pasteurised goats/cows milk, not either sheep milk or milk which a lot of research had gone into adapting to make it as similar as mothers milk as possible. It's impossible to tell out if a group of toddlers which was breastfed. Let's not add to the guilt formula feeding mums feel.

This is defo one for classics!

www.volac.com/agriculture/our-product-range/milk-replacers/product16/lamlac
Believe me there is a lot of research goes into this. Our seven wee pet lambs are doing very well but essentially they're orphans or have been actively rejected by their mothers. Therefore they suffer an emotional shock. I'm not placing guilt on human mothers and I did a mixture of breast and formula feeding myself.

OP, don't be daft, your baby is not another species, she is your new human. For whom you will produce milk as nature intended. Get over yourself and prepare to get your tits out.

Whether you can fuel all that milk production on a pure vegan diet and stay healthy is another matter, but there will be other posters here who can give you dietary advice. (as much iron and calcium and calories as you can get, I'd have thought?)

If you are truly vegan you should expect to be in it for the long haul, 4 years of breastfeeding or so.

This is practically a safeguarding issue, if the OP is for real.

This thread came up on Mumsnet Madness, I didn't bother reading it when it was active because like pps, I thought it was going to be a question about whether a vegan breastfeeding would have enough nutrients.

Can't believe how batshit it is. I hope OP doesn't try to feed her baby oat or almond milk.

This cannot be for real. Breastfeeding is the most vegan thing to do. Vegans (generally, if so for ethical reasons) believe that milk is for that mothers baby - eg the calf should be the only one drinking the mother cow’s milk. Removing that milk from the cow in an industrialised process and humans drinking it is what a vegan considers to be wrong.

I don't know if this is wind up or not. I've read very serious vegans explaining how the Serengti ought to be divided by a fence into prey animal and predator animal sides so the predators will stop eating the herding animals. Too many people thought that was brilliant. Also, every vet I know (four) says it's not uncommon for vegan pet owners to nearly kill their cats and dogs trying to force them on a vegan diet.

There's a subset of genuine, full-on nutters in every group, from religous, to dietary, to fashion, to national.

Vegans would be the first to die of starvation. So it figures that it's not a natural way of 'being'.

I don't know if this is wind up or not. I've read very serious vegans explaining how the Serengti ought to be divided by a fence into prey animal and predator animal sides so the predators will stop eating the herding animals. Too many people thought that was brilliant.

What did they think the predators would eat?

What on earth?!

Yes, you are vegan. Just like lots of other animals WHO FEED THEIR OWN YOUNG, as that's what you are supposed to do - use your milk to feed your young. That's why we make milk.

Cows are vegan.
Sheep are vegan.
You are vegan.

All of you happily breast/udder feeding as nature intended.

You are on the side of the angels, ok?

As long as you've got all nutrients needed, you're fine.

Surely you don't mean feeding your child milk would be un-vegan?