Guest post: "I'd never raise my children as anything but vegan"

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I have been vegan for almost nine years. My four-year-old daughter has eaten a plant-based diet since birth (yes, breast milk is vegan) and my second baby, due shortly, will be joining her. It was never something we questioned. We knew that children could grow up strong and healthy on a vegan diet, so why would we introduce foods we wouldn't eat ourselves? My grandma thinks it's a shame she's never tasted a pork sausage, but other than that our choice hasn't attracted much criticism.

Last week, however, an Italian politician proposed a law that would allow the state to prosecute parents who choose to raise their children vegan. The proposed law has come about after a number of high-profile cases of severe malnourishment as a result of parents imposing inadequate vegan diets, and has opened up a debate about whether it's ok to raise children on a vegan diet.

A vegan diet needn't be restrictive. While veganism means avoiding animal products - cheese, meat, gelatine, to name but a few - a rich and varied diet is easily achievable. My daughter eats fruits and vegetables, lentils, tofu, grains, beans and nuts, cereals fortified with vitamins and she also takes a daily multivitamin specially formulated for vegan children. However, she can also hold her own when it comes to chocolate, chips, ice cream and all the other junk foods four-year-olds love to eat. I don’t want her to miss out, so I plan ahead for birthday parties or nursery celebrations so she can have sweets and cake with the rest of the children. She might grow up and decide she doesn't want to be vegan any more, but I don't want that to be because she felt left out growing up.

The NHS says that a vegan diet is fine for babies and children as long as it includes all of the necessary vitamins and minerals. The vegan parents I know are clued up when it comes to nutrition. I think being vegan actually encourages parents to be more critical of their family's diet than they may otherwise be - and that can only be a good thing.

Perhaps, instead of looking to prosecute vegan parents, it would be better for Italy to introduce measures to educate all parents about the importance of a varied diet in childhood. Italy has one of the highest rates of childhood obesity in the world - it’s clear that there's a pervasive lack of understanding about nutrition. Rather than vilifying all vegan parents for the mistakes of a few, resources would be better used educating people about how to achieve a healthy diet - whether this includes animal products or not.

I went vegan after years of being vegetarian. I found out about the cruelty involved in the dairy industry and decided to take the next step to reduce animal suffering. For me, veganism has always been about animal exploitation. The health and environmental benefits of the lifestyle are a bonus, but they're not the reason I choose to be vegan. I am raising my daughter to consider the needs of other people and animals when making decisions. She may not always be vegan. She might grow up and decide she loves beef burgers. I have no idea what the future holds, just like other parents don't know if their children will grow up to embrace the family's love of the outdoors, jazz music or the Labour Party. All I can do is try to teach her compassion now and hope that it sticks. And if it doesn't? Well, she's my daughter and I will love her unconditionally, no matter what.

Nothing difficult or weird about a vegan diet at home but I think those who are flexible about food out of the house are playing a blinder. I help run a youth group and communal meals are always vegetarian because that solves quite a few dietary issues, but given the nut allergies, the children who are allergic to pulses, the one who's allergic to soy, the two who are lactose intolerant and the group who are so gluten intolerant that they can't be in the same room as wheat flour, and it really is tricky. People who can stretch a point really do help.

The thing that worries me is how restrictive it is. My child is coeliac and it's hard to eat out and I worry that when she is older she won't have the freedom of others particularly to travel freely.
I know a few vegans who are very sensitive to any trace of dairy in their food (and a vegetarian with traces of meat) and have been hospitalised with contaminated food - I don't know how easy it is to come back from that - are these children able to start eating dairy later in life if they want/need to.
I had a friend who was brought up vegetarian who went through a meaty phase in her early 20s, now is a very committed vegetarian - but I think the experimenting and making a choice was important for her. Will vegan children have the same option?

Not all humans are evolved omnivores - lactose intolerance is a natural state for humans not evolved to consume dairy. Anyone that thinks a few pointy teeth mean we're natural meat eaters has clearly never seen a gorilla's dentition, so the whole natural/evolutionary argument is a red herring. As is the 'free choice' nonsense. Parents make choices for their children all the time - what they wear/eat/how they spend their time etc. The role of a parent is to make those choices for their children until they're of an age where they can make informed choices for themselves.

Choosing to raise your child as a vegan is normal in parts of the world - it's just not a western cultural norm which means it's more likely to be criticised by the majority who like to judge the choices of others

Anyone that thinks a few pointy teeth mean we're natural meat eaters has clearly never seen a gorilla's dentition, so the whole natural/evolutionary argument is a red herring

Humans are omnivores - we are able to digest a wide variety of foods. Gorillas have those big teeth for fighting - I think male teeth are larger.

Not at all bring goady - just genuinely curious - hoe can breast milk be vegan?? Surely if vegan means no animal products then breast milk can't be?

Sorry - damn auto correct!! Being not bring & how not hoe!

are human beings no longer classified as animals then?
While veganism means avoiding animal products - cheese, meat, gelatine, to name but a few
breast milk is vegan

Oops cross post with effic!

lactose intolerance is a natural state for humans not evolved to consume dairy are you suggesting some humans are more evolved than others then?

I had to severely limit my child's diet due to dairy and egg allergies. It was awful and thank god he eventually grew out of them.
It was constantly stressful and hard work. Why you'd impose a restricted diet on your child voluntarily I don't know

Effic
Because it doesn't abuse an animal for a baby to drink your own breast milk. That milk is designed for human babies and the mother is feeding it to their own child.
A cows milk is made to feed a calf not humans.

lactose intolerance is a natural state for humans not evolved to consume dairy
are you suggesting some humans are more evolved than others then?

Some humans have adapted to the presence of dairy products and can now digest it, while other humans (who did not have dairy in their diet) cannot digest it. 'More evolved' is the wrong phrase - it's more that some humans have the genetic adaptation for lactose digestion while others do not.

Different ethnic groups of humans all over the world have evolved slightly differently according to their environments, but it would be nonsense to say one group is more evolved than another.

melonribena it's actually quite simple to exclude meat, dairy and eggs from one's diet if you actively want to do so (i.e. not forced into it due to allergies). I think it can be more difficult to exclude such things in countries where meat/dairy/egg consumption is the norm though (like in the uk). In India/Thailand I honestly believe it would be far easier, as their cuisines don't rely on that trinity to the same extent.

I think people who wax lyrical about how healthy their children are on a vegan diet take enormously for granted that they have been blessed with good eaters. And that they have the time to provide a balanced vegan diet.

DH and I are vegetarians and would have liked our DSs to have stuck to a vegetarian diet until such time as they were able to choose for themselves, but despite both boys being exposed to a wide range of vegetables, fruits, tofu, nuts, grains etc etc from weaning onwards, they are the pickiest, fussiest eaters in the world and there is no way they could sustain adequate nutrition on a plant-based diet.

We're also both full-
time WOHPs and nursery's idea of vegetarian options is Quorn and cheese. When both boys became lactose intolerant as toddlers, that ruled out the cheese, and for obvious reasons, nursery won't have anything with nuts in the building. I do NOT have the time to make and provide more suitable options, so I gave up and they've been omni ever since and I'm still banging my head against a brick wall offering a wide range of vegetarian options at home and crying when it gets refused again.

Thanks LaContessa that's exactly what I meant

SageThyme you're clearly not familiar with the theory of evolution - divergence is not equivalent to 'more or less' 'superior or inferior' or whatever goady inference you were trying to make

ElphabaTheGreen - excellent username for this thread!! I sympathise, and to an extent that's why my DC are still omni; they are as fussy as hell and would probably be malnourished if I banned meat. Oddly, they rarely eat cheese or eggs anyway - just meat and milk-containing items. Their favourite items are, ironically, vegan

I have the frustration over refused food too. Ds1 has got better now that we bribe him with pudding though!

And my point was that no all humans are not omnivores - and no we're not all evolved to digest a range of foodstuffs - there's a lot of variation - so those making the 'natural omnivore' argument - it's incorrect. A vegan diet is no more unnatural than a blood and milk Masai diet or a meat and fish Inuit diet - human diets are incredibly varied and outside of the western world, often necessarily restricted

The number of people actually intolerant or allergic to dairy has been estimated to be tiny compared to those who actually are though.

It's like people on here who claim you can get sick from eating meat after years of vegetarianism- load of rubbish

And my point was that no all humans are not omnivores - and no we're not all evolved to digest a range of foodstuffs - there's a lot of variation - so those making the 'natural omnivore' argument it's incorrect

Humans are a very good example of omnivores. Yes there is some variation regarding ability to digest lactose. It's pretty rare to find an individual who is unable to digest meat though.

Just because someone chooses to be vegan that doesn't remove their bodies ability to digest animals and animal products.

I agree with you that it's not a problem for someone to decide to follow a vegan diet - but I don't understand your arguement that humans aren't omnivores.

Dontyoulovecalpol think what you like, but if I accidentally ingest dairy these days then my bowels go mad! I think I never digested it that well anyway but a prolonged period of abstinence has pushed my body over the edge.... admittedly it doesn't make me terribly ill but it definitely has a digestive impact.

I think it's very easy to have tunnel vision with regards farming methods. There are people who have never set foot on a good farm, who will preach about the cruelty of 'factory farming'. Not all farming involves industrial-scale methods. In fact, I believe that for many farm animals, producing for us is a natural state. For example, free-range chickens will lay eggs whether we demand it of them or not. you will find them in plant pots, under the wheel arch of your car, in the dog's bed, despite asking them not to!

Meat is not unhealthy. It becomes unhealthy when people consume it daily, hourly! When it is processed and padded out with god knows what. We need to look to our grandparents generation and their parents. Meat was a treat, something to be savoured, two or maybe three times a week.

If every single meat-eater in the country refused to buy cheap meat, and stopped eating it on an industrial scale, things would change. As it is, people are not willing to pay a fair price for anything, and they want massive quantities of it. There is very little room for the compassion and respect for livestock that I witnessed growing up.

For that reason, I understand why someone would choose vegan, and I say fair play.

You're probably right Coconutty, although I imagine it is not by design! Ketchup has a certain percentage of fly eggs, I once heard - this is an interesting read.

Also, dairy milk has a certain percentage of pus (although this article explains that it's not that high).

Basically if you sign up to eating processed food (or industrially produced food) then you tacitly sign up to the risk of eating any old shit. I do try not to, in addition to being vegan. It's all just a bit.... yuck.

People who are worried about kids being vegan outside of the house...I am well practised now at the 'party pack' which my 6 year old vegan takes to parties, containing vegan sausage rolls, cake, treats etc. (No it doesn't take loads of extra time to do this, I work full time!) I always have snacks in my bag for when we're out, just in case we can't find something, although I don't think that has ever happened, it's really not that hard. He has a pot of 'swap treats' for when people bring in sweets for birthdays at school. There's even vegan options in McDonald's so it's not like he misses out in any way! He never ever chooses anything vegan outside the house, he understands what meat and dairy are, where they come from and he thinks it's cruel and doesn't want to be a part of it. He says it's more fun being vegan! I wonder how much information parents who are raising their children to eat animal products actually give them about what it is, how that animal was killed, the environment etc. when they let their child make the choice?

If every single meat-eater in the country refused to buy cheap meat, and stopped eating it on an industrial scale, things would change. As it is, people are not willing to pay a fair price for anything, and they want massive quantities of it.

I completely agree BeBop - this is the problem!! I'm unusual amongst vegans in that I think we should encourage better meat production values rather than doing away with it altogether; realistically a proportion of people will always want meat, so if we can make the standard of production better for the animals then that is at least an improvement on the current set-up.

Oh and up until this point, he has been the fussiest eater imaginable, and has still thrived on a vegan diet! He's only just now, at 6 started trying more foods