Vegan baby

[Expecteddeclathon]

In your opinion, is it ok for a baby to be vegan from weaning (6 months)?

I've heard some daft and desperate attempts to frame people as 'not really vegan' in my time, but 'breast milk isn't vegan' has got to be a new low. Why do people who clearly have nothing to do with veganism feel the need to spread (in this case dangerous) misinformation?
Personally OP I think you'll struggle to go 100% unless you EBF. But I echo the posters who've said consult with a professional. The anti vegan brigade are just going to flood the thread with misinformation and it's too important to rely on emotionally driven responses when you need facts.

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You mention not enough protein and then in the next paragraph say children don't need red meat. Red meat is natural and very healthy and a fantastic source of highly concentrated and bioavailable protein. I think you are confusing it with processed meat which is pumped with nitrates.

I'm a vegan but this isn't true

It could probably be done but would need very careful planning around nutrition. Great that you are breastfeeding - agree with the others you should aim for extended breastfeeding beyond infancy.

One thing I would say to consider though is allergies. There is increasing evidence to show that early introduction of allergens can help to prevent children developing allergies. Especially egg there is research to show this, but I believe cows milk too. If you don’t do allergen exposure for these before age of 1 then you will possibly increase risk of allergies later on. Worth considering as your child may later decide not to be vegan and this could be an issue.

Choline as well, need it for brain health, has an impact on memory and information processing, available in cauliflower. Honestly no a diet that needs constant supplementation isn’t particularly healthy. It’s fine if people want to eat a particular way for religious or moral reasons but it is not that nutritious, you can’t actually milk an almond.

DD had a horrible lactose intolerance as a toddler and we swapped out to oat milk etc, there are very few calories and fat and you are relying on fortification (you need fat for some vitamins to be soluble). It wasn’t great, she’s always been 99th percentile on height and she actually stopped growing for a few months, her paediatrician had as slowly reintroduce milk into her diet and she was fine again.

There's no such thing as a vegan baby.

There is absolutely such thing as a malnourished baby.

It's a no from me on the basis the amount of work needed to ensure your child is correctly nourished is so intense 98 out of 100 probably wont consistently manage it.

It doesn't really need 'careful planning'. People always say this as if the vegan parent doesn't already 'carefully plan' all the food they buy and eat. It goes with the territory of being vegan. It takes a non fussy child and a lot of luck IMO to raise a healthy vegan child.

That is categorically untrue. Personal example, I have a friend who has had to come off a vegan diet several times and now permanently because she cannot maintain healthy levels of nutrients, particularly iron, even with supplementation. Her doctors have said she cannot thrive on a vegan diet and will have irreversible organ damage if she goes back on one.

My son was allergic to cows milk so he drank oat milk when weaned from formula, but I'd say perhaps remember that feeding a baby and toddler isn't straightforward, they refuse certain foods in phases so sometimes you might find them deficient if not having a general balanced diet. As you're a vegan I guess you're very aware of a healthy vegan diet.

My son is on a vegetarian diet as my husband and I have been vegetarians most if not all of our life so its stressful when he begins refusing certain foods to make sure he's getting enough iron and protein. We also make sure he's getting supplements he needs, like omega 3 etc.

I did this with my now 13 yo, she was breastfed till she naturally weaned at about 15 months. I was a mega vegan hippy at the time so everything was ultra healthy, organic, unprocessed. When I started reintroducing dairy and eggs back into my diet, I did hers too. She hates eggs now still to this day unless they’re dippy eggs. Hates the texture of egg white. I always put it down to not having them as a baby.

Both of my children have been vegan since birth. No health issues at all they are both thriving. I do be careful to include all the necessary nutrients and have continued to breast feed alongside weaning. We did give some milk and egg at 6 months for a while to reduce risk of allergies.

We do supplement as well but advice is that all kids should have some supplements as most people are deficient in some nutrients, not just vegans.

I think my kids now have a much healthier and more varied diet than a lot of kids I know. Lots of fruit and veg, wholegrains, beans, pulses and tofu. It does take some effort to plan though and I cook from scratch.

Also for everyone saying breast milk isn't vegan, please look up the definition of veganism. It is about not harming or exploiting animals. Human milk is definitely vegan.

Human milk is made for human babies.
Cows milk is made for baby cows.

Of course BF is vegan, unless the mother has her baby stolen from her and is forced to produce milk for other species...

Obviously take advice from a healthcare professional, as others have said. I don’t know the current advice. It constantly changes.

All three of my DC were weaned vegetarian (rather than vegan) 20 years ago and never ate meat until teenage years (when eldest two tried it themselves). They’re all v healthy and 6 foot tall! They were all breastfed for first few years.

You start off vegan anyway (rice, vegetables and fruit). When I started to introduce other things, although I gave egg, cheese, yogurt etc, most of what they ate was vegan, e.g. mild dals, risottos etc. And still is!

I used ‘Baby & Child Vegetarian Recipes’ by Carol Timperley, which I thoroughly recommend if still available. It gave me some great recipes. I’d cook them in batches and freeze in baby food-sized pots, so I always had home cooked baby food for nursery, for busy days and for taking out.

By about 12-18 months, they ate the same food as us.

I think you'll find that it's actually the vegan brigade that are flooding the thread with misinformation. Everyone else is much more reasoned and balanced in their input!

But they carefully plan to avoid the things they don't want to support, which is fine but not the same planning as ensuring your child gets the right stuff.

Omnivores/Carnivores have a better chance of this because there's more sources for everything. If there's a particular source of protein your child won't eat, you've got other options with meat/dairy/animal products.l alongside the plant based. Less so with just plant based. It's about giving your child the right nutrients, which IMO is much more important than chosen principles while they're tiny.

Have all the principles you want for yourself. One of them should be to make sure your child is getting what they need though. So either feed the wide range or consult professionals if you absolutely HAVE to exclude things.

Dairy doesn’t refer to agriculture…….it refers to products containing milk. Milk from anywhere, not just cows

First steps nutrition have specific advice about optimising nutrition with a vegan diet.

www.firststepsnutrition.org/eating-well-infants-new-mums

Ill respectfully disagree with you there. There are better sources of protein than red meat. We're not vegan or veggie, but we dont eat red meat....the veggie sausages we eat are healthier and contain plenty of protein. If I want protein from meat we will have chicken. But we also eat tofu and other vegan foods too.

Dairy literally just means 'containing or made from milk or milk products', and milk is, 'an opaque white fluid rich in fat and protein, secreted by female mammals for the nourishment of their young' so saying breast milk isn't dairy is like insisting a tomato isn't a fruit. Sure, it might not normally be used like a typical fruit, but that doesn't mean it isn't one.

Of course, breast milk can be both dairy, and vegan - as I've already acknowledged.

And If people made a habit of consuming mouse or elephant milk in the same quantities as babies do breast milk, then yes, it would make sense that they would be referred to as dairy products.

Babies have different nutritional needs from adults though so a vegan adult that plans their nutrition cannot automatically apply those same diet principals to a developing baby.

That’s actually completely untrue

You can do it, but you need to be carefully thinking about the nutrient intake of the baby, being aware that their rapid growth rate means they need greater amounts of some substances, especially calcium and protein which are both found in the largest quantities in animal products. I'm not a dietitian and I would consult one if I were in your shoes, but I think the difficulties for vegan babies, are usually because non-vegan adults generally consume more protein and calcium than they need, so if the baby is being fed what their parents eat, with extra milk as well, they will naturally get enough protein and calcium. A vegan adult won't get nearly as much extra protein and calcium, so they need to gear the baby's diet to be especially rich in these things.

This is not only untrue, but potentially dangerous, since it's well known that a vegan diet can cause nutrient deficiencies.

I have a meat eating friend with a vegan husband. They decided their daughter would be vegan. She had such severe growth issues that by the age of 5 they introduced meat and dairy, and the difference in her health was quite remarkable.

One other friend decided (with absolutely no evidence or basis) that her child was allergic to dairy, so she never introduced it into her diet at all (along with very limited meat). The child had very little hair until she was around 4 years old - I'm guessing it was the lack of calcium, but I'm not an expert - and broke bones a couple of times.

Please think very carefully before cutting out whole food groups.