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.

Fairly sure there are some serious issues that OP and formerbabe need to be looking into...and I'm not talking about anything related to veganism

@Boshmama @crispycrisis I think I love you both ❤️

I think feeding your children food that is proven to lead to cancer, heart problems and which destroys the planet through its journey to the plate is abusive.
Vegan children on the whole lead much healthier lifestyles than those forced to be carnivores- having their parents POV forced into them. It’s so selfish.

I am an ex vegan and have a lot of time for the diet but it's the "people know we are right" comments that puts people off.
So in many ways you are right...to eliminate animal suffering is a great thing but to condemn meat eaters is not on.
I used to only want to associate with other vegans and thought we were better than omnivores etc but then i was being a bit of a twat.

Dd loves meat...i dont force her...she asks for it while i eat my veggie option.

This entire thread is OP and their mate arguing that breast milk isn't vegan. Borefest.

@OhMyDarling - parents POV?! You do realise the human race are omnivores 🙄

You do realise the human race are omnivores.

Actually, the human race are frugivores.

@MeganTheVegan - say whaaat ?

@custardbear
I took comments against the vegans from several threads and turned them round to use against the flesh eaters. Demonstrating that it works both ways.
All parents enforce their beliefs and values into their kids until the kids are old enough to make their own decisions- for example:
-following a religion
-political viewpoints
-even whether father Xmas is real

I really don’t get why people get so judgy about vegetarians and vegans-
Hospitals are not bursting at the seams treating vegans for vitamin deficiencies- it’s the heart attacks, cancers, diabetes, strokes- all time and time again linked to carnivorous diets not vegan ones that the NHS largely deals with
Have you seen the crap that goes into a hamburger? The same people spouting misunderstood nonsense will think nothing about feeding their kids tumour riddled sheep testicle and cow brain mashed up to look like a burger——- I just don’t get it!

Most people feeding their families vegan will have planned a well balanced diet across the week to ensure their kids get all the nutrients that they need. They would have research led and have a much better understanding of what fuel bodies need and as a result provide a much healthier lifestyle.
So so so many carnivorous families wouldn’t know where to start!

Just because you don’t like the idea of changing your mindset, just because you don’t want to give up your steaks, just because you can turn your back on the environmental devastation, brutalisation and suffering of millions of animals every year, just because your mum always did a roast on a Sunday.... doesn’t mean that your way is right.

We are supposed to be intelligent, we are supposed to be the guardians of our planet, we are supposed to have morals, empathy, a collective consciousness that protects the most vulnerable- this should include those without voices.

If slaughterhouses had glass walls...

@Louu99 thanks haha this thread has been a guilty pleasure

Kills animals in front of her kids, gets slated throughout the thread from sides for saying a fish is a mobile vegetable, is obsessed with formula and believes breastmilk isn't vegan and I'm the truly twisted individual... sure

@OhMyDarling excellent post

Hospitals are not bursting at the seams treating vegans for vitamin deficiencies- it’s the heart attacks, cancers, diabetes, strokes- all time and time again linked to carnivorous diets not vegan ones that the NHS largely deals with

Good point

Gosh, and there was me thinking that Type 2 diabetes is linked to obesity, not meat.

As for the claim that we're frugivores... Yes, well, technically speaking so are chimpanzees, but they also raid nests and will hunt other animals to eat them. Also I can think of many hunter-gatherer groups that traditionally ate meat (Australian Aboriginals, Native Americans in both North and south, the KhoiSan, the various Orang Asli groups in Malaysia) and not a single one that was vegan.

Crap diets of any sort are not good. Being obese is not good for you no matter what you eat. Be vegan if you want. But try to get your facts right before you start preaching the plant-based gospel.

Am i the only person who dosn't think that tumour ridden testicles get put in beff burgers or am i incredibly naieve? Sausages on the other hand...boak! I dont eat burgers either but there are some safety standatds you know...especially after cjd. Flesheaters!! Sounds like a giant from the BFG!

Beef

Errrr most obese people are carnivores??
It is a fact?? Maybe you are confused about your facts??
Something like 3x as many as vegans I’m sure.

Will find a link later if you can’t find your own, but I’m short of time and need to make up my children’s vegan lunch boxes.

My God this thread is terrifying proof of extreme hardness of thinking.

Thank God for @crispycrisis @LaurieMarlow @VeganCow for words of sense!

@ohmydarling you hit the nail on the head with that post.

What I find so frustrating about the vegan debate is that meat eating parents start threads criticising parents for decisions which are really personal and important to them and then get unbelievably defensive if someone dares to criticize their way of feeding their kids (such as the formula feeding issue that briefly arose).
It's not nice is it? When someone criticizes the way you choose to feed your baby/child. That's exactly what happens on these threads. If vegans take the bait and bite back they are accused of always 'thinking they are right' well obviously they think they are right otherwise they wouldn't do it. No-one would intentionally feed their child a diet that is nutritionally deficient.

Like a poster up thread said, the health issues that have arisen from the modern omnivorous diet are horrendous and are crippling our NHS, but people will choose to focus on one anecdotal story about a malnourished vegan child. It's insanity.

extreme hardness of thinking it certainly is.
There is science behind the documentary The Game Changers and plenty more but I doubt the hardened ones want to watch it for fear of becoming educated, enlightened and therefore feeling they have to make changes.
That is just health and science, before we even start on the violence and utter hell that are the meat and dairy industries. But there are plenty of 'plant based' eaters who are not vegan, they do it for their health and their driving force isn't what mine is. So are they wrong as well?

One thing that baffles me is this - people on here discussing whether oysters are sentient beings, whether they have a central nervous system...why choose oysters as an example, hardly mainstream diet for kids is it (and this thread was started about kids diets).
why are we not discussing cows and pigs here? I'll tell you why not. Because if people who eat them thought about the animal that was tortured and killed after a life of utter hell, to become their sausages and steaks, they would end up in that state I have mentioned upthread - cognitive dissonance. Cows and pigs are just like dogs but most people really don't want to have to address that or think about it too deeply. So it's easier on their own feelings to attack vegans and talk about oysters having feelings. Its a step up from what I normally hear though, "what about the carrots though, they feel something when puled out of the ground"

What people here are forgetting is that for those of us not brought up vegan or vegetarian, myself included, we have been where you are. We have eaten meat, we have educated ourselves and we have moved away from it to eat a diet that sits well with us on a moral level. It isn't a fad diet, its a way of life that means we, as much as we possible can, will play no part in harming other living things.

Its all very simple really.

Agree completely veganCow.

Where did I say that breast milk isn't vegan? It's indicative of the nutritional benefits of animal products, as is the point that young babies need an animal product before six mothers. Either from their mothers or from a cow. Saying that babies do not need cows milk is completely disingenuous as quite a few women or babies cannot breastfeed. Formula is not always a choice. Veganism is a choice is the majority of cases.

But then formula feeding is deeply shameful in your eyes, isn't it, @crispycrisis? If you were a adult, you would know how deeply offensive that it is. All you have is insults though.

My little boy thinks that I think that dinosaurs breath fire. We had a discussion about it. You think that I genuinely think that fish are, in fact vegetables. Same situation by the way.

This thread describes a cult- it's all about morales, custodians of the planet, being "enlightened".

In reality, veganism for young children is an experiment. A largely ignorant one at that, given the stuff about Jains and Buddhists (bit of orientalism) nonsense about frugivores, soy formula.

It's mad, evangelical, offensive, vile nonsense.

I think it is perfectly possible to raise healthy children on a vegan diet but it does require a lot of thought and research and almost certainly some supplements to ensure they get everything that they need. I’m not sure it is possible for young vegan children to get everything they nutritionally need without some supplements or artificially fortified foods despite very careful meal planning.
I’m sure that there are lots of children who are vegetarian or omnivores who don’t get everything they nutrionally need from their diets because young children are often fussy eaters and like beige foods.

I really don’t give a shit about what other people feed their kids as long as the children are getting enough food and vitamins and minerals from whatever source to maintain a reasonable level of health.
But aside from mumsnet I do notice that the people trying to force their food choices and views about food consumption on others are primarily those who follow a vegan lifestyle. I can’t ever remember seeing anything on my social media feeds from omnivores telling people what they should eat but I see plenty of posts from vegans telling people that they shouldn’t eat meat or drink milk etc and lots of video posts showing animal cruelty and trying to guilt people into not eating meat or drinking cows milk.
People should just eat what they want and feed their family what they are happy with and stop trying to demonise others for their food choices.