To think veganism is not for children?

[ohhhhlivia]

Yes, I am aware that it is perfectly possible to have a healthy vegan diet at any age. I know that.

However, it is more difficult and easier to get wrong if you want to be vegan. It still is restrictive (even with all of the new stuff coming out) as in you need to tell hosts, check menus in advance etc.

It's a barrier that has to be overcome. I don't understand why you would do that to someone who has no choice in the matter.

Lots of kids go through a fussy phase too, add veganism in and surely you're at a high risk of health problems?

I think what I'm getting at, is that childhood nutrition can be hard enough as it is, so it just feels wrong to make it harder for reasons that do not directly benefit the child.

I don't believe it's right to impose dietary restrictions on a young child, but that's just my opinion

For the last time - if you eat meat you are imposing your diet on your children. If you are vegan you are imposing your diet on your children. Its the same thing. Please stop being so narrow minded and try and understand this. It's not complicated!

@Boshmama completely agree

Long time lurker, signed up for this thread given some of the responses. Vegan family including young children. Some of the false statements and strange ideas have been responded to already, but not all.

@ohhhhlivia
When you first change it can be quite a lot of work - you need to think about food and meals in a different way. You quickly get over it and it becomes the new norm for your family - checking menus etc is now just standard practice for us.
We don't have any issues with getting our children to eat certain food groups - although appreciate this may change :)
Your statement that it doesn't directly benefit the child is contentious.

@Honeybee85
You mean humans are not fit to eat fruit, veg, legumes etc?

@rainingallday
Reporting vegans to social services? You've been called out by previous posters - you don't sound particularly well versed in nutrition or anything else for that matter.

@Adogwithabone
B12 does not come from animals. B12 contained in animals comes from eating from soil / water contact or B12 (or cobalt) fortified feed.
Example of B12 used in animal feed in scientific literature
So it's true, meat eaters may not take a b12 supplement but the animal that they are eating probably has.

Same with iodine - you get it in cow's milk mainly because it's given in cow feed and cow's teats come into contact with iodine during the milking process . Source -Scientific Journal

@NoIDontWatchLoveIsland
As above - the argument of 'you should never need supplementation or fortification' and 'I just eat natural food' does not hold - your cow's milk and meat is not just 'pure food'.

@formerbabe 'Veganism in children is a dangerous experiment imo.'
@Cam77 'It’s recommended by NHS etc that children under two are not fed an exclusively vegan diet'

Every major national and international health and nutrition body must be wrong then .
NHS
Association of UK Dietitians
Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics

@Crazyoldmaurice
I am still a ('scientific') academic and find it simple to understand why a mother breast feeding their child is vegan. The issue is when one is taken from the other and deprived of what it needs.

@poiuyt123 I think so many people have an emotive 'this is new so it must be wrong' response to us raising vegan children. Just a shame so many then spout off nonsense and stay so narrow minded. They don't have to follow suit, but there has been so much nonsense on this thread and there are so many similar threads on here.

Oh and everyone then brings up the one absolutely awful case of child abuse by the couple that just fed their child small amounts of almond milk from birth and social services got involved. Absolutely not indicative of most vegan children's diets.

@poiuyt123
Great post!

It’s not just one case. So many cases of malnourished babies in US and Europe.

Sweden , Belgium and Italy, All had very controversial vegan parenting cases. The Belgian baby sadly died, and in the others lost custody of their children.
The weird thing is the Belgian couple owned a health food store and fed their baby rice and Quinoa milk.
In these cases I seriously wonder why do they keep going on with a vegan diet when clearly the infant is not gaining weight and lethargic ?
Is it denial? Stupidity? Ignorance?

I'd say denial stupidity and ignorance!! The people that fail to feed their children properly are absolute idiots and it's child abuse. But these are not 'normal' vegan parents. My child is on the 85% centile and always has been. She is absolutely thriving as did I during my vegan pregnancy. The terribly sad stories of child abuse are just that - misinformed abusive parents that would have damaged that child if they were vegan or not

@ohhhhlivia At my secondary school we had a small farm with pigs, sheep, chickens etc. In lessons I witnessed both the castration of male piglets with a scalpel and no anesthesia (they scream and I walked out of class) and the butchering of sheep I had seen running around shortly before. I was also made aware of tail docking and other farming practices. Within a year or so, I was vegetarian and those lessons definitely set me on the path.

@queenofarles
All of the children that have died have done so not because of a vegan diet but because of a combination of an unhealthily restrictive diet and parental neglect.

Please don’t Conflate that with a well researched and healthy vegan diet, it’s ludicrous.

@crispycrisis, I think you're sadly fighting a losing battle with the absolute insanity in this thread.

OP claims to have killed animals in front of her kids and thinks this is ok, formerbabe doesn't know what ham is.

This thread is, as the Americans would say, a dumpster fire.

You take extra care in providing the right nutritions for DC Crispy
But not everyone are informed on raising vegan babies from birth that’s the thing!

In all of these cases the parents are forcing their diet and beliefs on their children regardless of their health.

Ok so I've recently turned plant based
My DD did not like any of the milk which is a must as it's fortified with everything she needs being on a plant based diet she also loves ham
I would not make my child follow a diet purely because I was
I let her try all the food I make which isn't always to her taste lol
I still give her a balanced diet but it contains meat and dairy
I think it would make it difficult when she went to birthday parties etc to have her on a strict vegan diet
But I must say I've changed for a healthier lifestyle and a bonus that it helps the planet
I am very well aware of how to have a healthy plant based diet and get all my nutrition and I could easy give my DD a healthy one if she was happy to eat it which she is not lol

@Ziraphale I agree haha. Lots of people disappeared from the thread embarrassed I think!

Pouiyt

How can wild food eg non farmed fish, game etc be eating b12 supplements?

@queenofarles lots of people don't feed their children correctly. Children have rotten teeth, are underweight or overweight and social services have to get involved. Some are vegan parents some are not. You can not blame a vegan diet for it. You can blame cruel stupid parents.

I find it quite disturbing that several people on here thought that non-dairy formula was a normal, everyday thing. That it could be simply bought at boots and used to feed a small baby.

And people are arguing the cases of malnutrition and child abuse we see in the press, are not representative??

This thread has actually significantly lowered my opinion of veganism.

It genuinely did not occur to me that anybody would be so bloody stupid. It's Darwinism in action and at its most brutal.

Newborn nutrition is vitally important- in the literal sense of the word.

I genuinely thought that most, reasonable vegan families either breastfeed or buy appropriate formula milk, which will be dairy based.

Genuinely shocked. Don't give a shit about the rest of the thread now.

In all of these cases the parents are forcing their diet and beliefs on their children regardless of their health

I’m not sure who you think you’re arguing with - no one on this thread is advocating for ignorant starvation of children. But conflating child neglect with a perfectly healthy dietary choice is ignorant scaremongering

I'm not embarrassed.

I was doing bedtime. With breast milk and cows milk. All are happy.

Quite disgusted by this thread though.

Veterinari
a non vegan baby wouldn’t need as much supplements as a vegan baby does .

All these people thought they were doing the right thing, they didn’t feed their babies soy, Rice or oat milk because they are abusive or restricting their food , they did it because that’s what they think is best.

Of course malnourished vegan children in the press are non representative that's why the WHO and NHS state it's a perfectly healthy diet for all ages.

You can not seriously claim that the majority of vegan children are malnourished. If you are stating that please back UK with data

I'm still here wondering why @Ziraphale didn't answer my question.

If we all accept breastmilk is best for a new born baby, then assuming no allergies, if breastmilk isn't available, what should be the next best thing the baby should have? Dairy based formula or non dairy formula?

a non vegan baby wouldn’t need as much supplements as a vegan baby does.

Untrue if they’re Both breastfed, which most vegan babies are.

All these people thought they were doing the right thing, they didn’t feed their babies soy, Rice or oat milk because they are abusive or restricting their food , they did it because that’s what they think is best
And there’s no accounting for stupid unfortunately. But they certainly aren’t representative if most vegan families as this thread clearly shows.

@crispycrisis

The NHS does not recommend anything other than dairy based formula or breastfeed milk, for babies under six months.

@ohhhhlivia Your strawman is waving in the breeze.

Literally nobody said any of that. Someone thought it was prescription only and someone else pointed out that you could buy it in boots. You then claimed that everyone who didn't feed their kids dairy would have social services involved and other people reasonably pointed out that babies who are dairy allergic might use it.

Out of curiosity, which type of animal did you kill in front of your kids?