How a strict vegan diet made my children ill

[Heated]

It's sensationalist, interviews someone with half a brain cell - well it is the DM - but is there any 'grain' of truth in it?

It seems obvious to me that if you cut out all meat and dairy - or all carbs - it's going to be very hard to get all the nutrients you need, and more so for a child as they need a lot of calories. I'm sure it can be done but you'd have to be a very good nutritionist and menu planner.

I actually know a lot of people who are convinced sugar and fat are bad for their children per se. Of course they shouldn't have loads, but they need the energy and good fats. (Breastmilk is full of sugar and fat!) What worries me about that, as well as the lack of calories, is that people end up thinking it's a great idea to give their kids as much "sugar-free" stuff as they can - which means it's full of things like artificial sweeteners which could actually be really unhealthy.

I think you will find that any restricted diet is risky unless you are very very careful. Especially with growing kids who need things that adults don't.

Some people see certain foods as evil and some as good when it's never as simple as that.

I am not a vegetarian/vegan but I do think that children can eat healthily this way. But this woman does sound a bit thick (sorry) children do need to eat calorie dense food as part of a balanced diet. They have different nutritional needs to adults and a raw food diet just would not have the correct balance.

There have been a couple of cases in the US where strict vegans have killed their children. I think you really, really have to know what you're doing to avoid malnourishment

snowleopard - I have a friend who was feeding her daughter a very low fat low sugar diet (not processed) and was told by her GP she was undernourishing her.

I try and avoid sugary snacks for my DS but he gets things sweetened with fruit juice instead. I don't eat refined sugar but I would never give him artificial sweeteners

is it not odd that she says something like

• and when my child smiled I noticed all the black teeth

honestly how long does she go without looking in the kids mouth? surely some other sign before then

I can't believe that any restricted dirt is good for children. I suppose it could be possible for a child to thrive on a vegan diet but you'd have to know a lot about nutrition. Where do you get calcium, iron etc ?

People like this are harming their children as much as the people that feed them nothing but chips and other crap food.

Surely giving a child a balanced diet isn't terribly difficult???

I think the daft mare didn't know the first thing about nutrition. If you want to be a vegan, you have to read up and get info from reliable sources. And any idiot knows that the nutritional needs of children are different from adults.

Main source of vitamin D in this country is sunlight - just takes 15 minutes a day exposure with no sunscreen between April and September to make enough to last you through the winter.

And I think the issue here isn't so much being a vegan (although of course you need to think carefully about your diet) but the raw food stuff. She's a very faddy woman who couldn't be bothered to find out what she was doing.

I am a vegetarian - so are my children - they eat eggs cheese and milk and i keep an eye on iron intake - they are huge healthy and I have no concerns about their nutrition.

I would never have considered such a restrictive diet as vegan/ raw food - not going to work well for the growing child - so am not surprised theses children were adversely affected - but this is not exactly an epidemic so not really worthy of much concern.

You can get calcium from some veg - although you need to eat a lot of them to get the same calcium you'd find in 1/3 of a pint of milk - and iron from dried apricots, for example. You also need vitamin D to absorb calcium, so exposure to sunlight is important. Or fortified foods such as breakfast cereals. Which I bet the daft bat banned.

Wasn't there recently the case where a child was admitted to hospital with rickets because they were following their parents vegan diet?

I have the line of everything in moderation with regards to food for my daughter. I do send a stick of cheese, a banana, a yoghurt and some raisens / a mango with her to the childminder as "snacky" type foods, the childminder gives her balanced breakfast and lunch, but I like to know that she's getting some calcium / fruit & veg daily without worrying what she has eaten at the childminders iyswim

The article seemed conflate normal dietary choices (e.g. vegetarianism) with raw food, or salad-and-meat-and-fish, both of which are, imo, not suitable for kids, and probably not for adults either.

i dont think this about being vegan i think its the fact she didnt replace things with other foods that were suitable.
were veggie but ensure we have a suitable diet.i get cross when people tell me my children are missing out and its unsuitable to have veggy diet for children.
i know were talking vegan not veggie but i think that can be fine too,so long as they are getting everything they need where ever its from.

I dont enforce meat on my daughter, she's not a big meat eater, she will only eat ham, sometimes some chicken. I'm not fussed, but I do make sure she eats fruit, veggies, pastas, rices, dairy etc.

My sister went veggie when she was about 18, though she did get really poorly for a while she sorted her diet out

I don't think there's anything wrong with a veggie diet for kids - my DS is almost veggie because he won't eat meat and he's extremely healthy.

I do think there's a vast gulf between veggie and vegan and you really have to know your stuff to raise a child on a vegan diet

Oh fgs. It's not rocket science is it?

Although undoubtedly she read about the diet first in the DM....

i cant believe she let her childrens teeth go brown and only then worried - wierd woman..

a proper vegan diet is NOT restrictive
it contains a variety of grains, pulses, fats, vegetables, fruit, nuts and seeds and is fabulously healthy

people who make their children ill with strict oddball diets aren't vegans - they're just stupid

well said FrannyandZooey

Just read that article. Those people aren't that bright are they?

F&Z - well it is restrictive in the sense that it cuts out meat and dairy. Doesn't mean it can't be healthy

Well it is restrictive Franny, there are many things tht you cannot eat. It is not healthy for children. They need a much wider variety of proteins and dairy.

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The fact that the diet was a vegan diet is a red herring imo. The issue here is that the diet - vegan or otherwise - wasn't suitable for a child. IMVHO a person would have to be really, really stupid to remove dairy from their children's diet without replacing it with a proper substitute. Calcium-enriched soya alternatives to dairy products are not very difficult to find. To feed a growing child on fruit, veg, nuts and seeds alone is just ridiculous. Poor kids

You don't need dairy. there are huge swathes of the world's population that don't do dairy and have managed not to become extinct. Dairy is a western myth.