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?

And FFS a vegan diet is not inadequate for breastfeeding.

I'm vegan and bf my son and he's one of the healthiest kids in his class. Never off sick, physically strong, bright.

I figured this would be about worrying about deficiencies or something but this is just batshit. I don't understand what the problem is OP? It's not like you can exploit yourself. If you don't want to breastfeed and you don't want to feed your baby milk from another species what exactly will you feed her? The mind boggles.

Yes tried neocate, it's horrible. Their nappies should be classed as hazardous waste too. My little one agreed and went on a hunger strike until my milk was dairy free enough to go back to breastmilk without causing him to stop breathing. Dramatic little sod when he was born.

"Regarding B12, a lot of it is heritage.My B 12 levels are too high, and I am a vegan... B12 used to be in plant products, until we humans effed up the natural way of things."

Complete nonsense. B12 is not "heritage" - it's not in your DNA and you are not born with a lifelong reserve of it. Your body can't make it so you have to get it in your diet.

And B12 was never in plants. Ever.

I seriously thought that this thread was going to be about the concerns as to whether a vegan diet could provide all the nutrition through the mother's milk that the newborn needed. Which would have been interesting because I do not know much about veganism but I am always willing to learn.

That would have been a sensible discussion. This is just batshit.

Why would it not be vegan to feed an infant mammal the milk that nature intended it to have?

Cote, it was my doctor who told me that.

Bunch of meanies.

OP think about it. All milk is produced to feed the babies of that species. Cows for their calves. Sheep for their lambs. It's actually weirder that as humans we drink the milk designed for the babies of other animals. But that is life. If you are eating vegan then nothing non-vegan will contribute to your breast milk production.

I think the real issue is you don't want to breast feed and that is absolutely fine. The important thing is that your baby gets fed. So use formula. It's not vegan, but your baby isn't going care. Worry about making lifestyle choices for him or her later.

Congratulations btw!

Op you can feed your child however you like.

Breastfeeding is completely fine for vegans. Don't use this as an excuse.

Many vegans do breastfeed their children, the vegan diet is completely adequate for this.

What the FUCK!?

I have read it all now.

So what are you planning on feeding your baby??

Well youve got to feed it something so you either breastfeed it or give it formula, and advice is to avoid soya formula as it has a lot of added sugar in it.
If you want your baby to be vegan , your best bet by a country mile is to breastfeed.
If you cant breastfeed then your baby needs a cows milk formula and you can always do them a vegan diet once theyre over a year

WTAF??!! Oh blimey.

OP, lots of good advice here, all factual, but strange how you've not come back to acknowledge it....

Hairy palms and bridges?

Amazing! Did OP state what species she was in the end considering she's admitted she's not human like her baby? Following just to find out.

All animals feed their young ones with their own milk don't they?? ... you're being silly OP?

or hire a wet nurse, I'd be interested to know if any exist
and would OP require the wet nurse to be vegan I wonder?

or hire a wet nurse, I'd be interested to know if any exist

In the West it's... extremely niche, and outside the West it's a bit morally dubious.

U OK Hun?

Not a wet nurse in the direct sense of feeding another mother’s baby directly from them breast but when I lived in the states there was a very active local natural parenting Facebook group where swapping frozen donor milk was very common

*their not them

Although I quite like autocorrects colloquial turn of phrase “them breasts”

Surely having a wet nurse is not very vegan-it involves exploiting another animal -albeit a human animal- for gain?

OP, I'm not sure you understand what being Vegan is.

Bertrand no that would be fine because the other woman is able to give fully informed consent and decide whether they additional strain of feeding an extra baby would adversely affect her own health/milk supply etc. Although obviously it would depend on the relationship between the 2 mothers (eg equal friends or incredibly wealthy and living in poverty pairing - like how some people exploit poor women in developing countries for surrogacy)

Formula milk isn't vegan is it?

A wet nurse presumably would consent, and not be feeding her own child or be able to feed both. It's not the same as animals being bred and kept in captivity, their offspring removed and killed, in order to use their milk.