Vegan mums vegan baby

[Freshermums]

We are Vegan and intend to bring our baby up vegan too, have any other vegan mums felt supported by midwives / health care professionals on this?

If you mean restricting heart disease, cancer and a whole host of other diseases, then yes, veganism is restrictive.
I'd say a meat and dairy diet needs to be researched. Just because it's the norm, doesn't mean we should just accept it. Indeed, if everyone did research meat and dairy and their effects on health, we'd all eat plant-based.

Fekko, I was referring to:

"It's not an optimal diet for a young child and you will need to seek out good advice to make sure all your child's nutritional needs are met.

You will also need to breastfeed to natural term i.e. 3-4 years."

"Make sure you see a nutritionist. Most vegan /vegetarian (I know a lot of milk but no eggs vegetarians) children I have met are stunted-we're talking five year olds no bigger than my three year old. I'm sure it's possible to raise healthy vegan children but children's nutritional needs are very different to adults so you can't just feed them what you eat, get some professional advice."

"That is not a good idea. A young child after weaning from breastmilk, needs vitamins that are not easily obtainable in a completely vegan diet. Don't compromise your child's health for your principles."

"You need to be very well informed indeed to raise a vegan child. Breastfeeding essential till 3."

I recommend people watch What The Health and Cowspiracy, both on Netflix last I looked. And avidly research via NutritionFacts as linked to above.

What really winds me gears is those who blatantly eat meat (and even red meat of all things!), then proceed to comment on Vegan nutrition

I eat meat and eat a lot of vegan food. I embraced veganuary this year (admittedly I did struggle with not having cow's milk in tea).

DD and I go to a lot of vegan festivals and even her boyfriend likes a lot of vegan food.

I don't judge people for being vegetarian or vegan and as I am such a foodie and am interested in all types of diets and cuisines I have found that the choice and quality of vegan food has improved immeasurable over recent years.

FWIW I was vegan for eleven years back when there were very free specialist products, no-one had heard of it and waaaaay before it was cool ;) I've been exclusively veggie since and haven't eaten meat since my teens. Oh and my toddler ds is allergic to dairy, eggs AND soya and I expect breastfed dd will be too so I'm currently non-dairy again.

It's fair to call my family's diets restrictive because we place restrictions on what we eat, either for ethical or medical reasons. It's also fair to point out the need for research for several reasons. Firstly there meat and dairy diet is indeed the norm, so the pitfalls are more widely known and acknowledged than with any specialist diet. And secondly the nutritional requirements of babies and young children are very different from those adults, so even if you know a lot about meeting your own/other adults' nutritional needs that may not be adequate information to meet the needs of an infant.

I think it's good advice to say "do your research and bf as long as possible", so I stick by it! Oh, and we had a professional on hand in ds's nutritionist to support us giving him a suitable diet with all the restrictions so I think that's extremely good advice as well!

It absolutely can be done but I don't see what's negative about saying you shouldn't make the decision lightly.

Some interesting points Rat. It's fair to say that usually being vegetarian or vegan is a lifestyle choice in most cases, and one which I have no issue with.

No such thing as an ex-vegan. At best you adhered to a plant-based.

Is an omni's diet restrictive because they choose not to eat humans?
I certainly don't feel restricted. I simply don't consider animals to be food.

The word "restricted" isn't a derogatory term Vegan, and of course it refers to restriction relative to the norm. And relative to the norm you and I have more restricted diets. HRH.

*HTH - silly typos

I know some very healthy vegan children. Their parents are very well informed and eat an extremely healthy diet, with a huge variety of vegetables, grains and pulses, and very little convenience food or sugar. They are macrobiotic though, so quite idealistic and educated about veganism.

"No such thing as an ex-vegan"

Why not? Not being belligerent, just curious.

As long as you breastfeed, the first year will be easy. Most babies eat veg food the first few months after weaning onto solids begins (at 6mths). Thereafter, continuing bf will be desirable so you don't have to use milk type substitutes.

In order to prepare for bf, I'd recommend a book called the womanly art of breastfeeding.

No such thing as an ex-vegan

How's that then? Do you get a different name if you were vegan and then stopped being vegan?

The word for this ex-vegan is, er, vegetarian. Vegan is just a descriptor of a person's diet, and if it's meant to mean more than that these days then it's been co-opted somewhat since my long-past vegan days.

Of course veganism.can be perfectly healthy for babies and children! Some of the comments on here are ridiculous. You do need b12 as a supplement but that is really it if you apply some basic nutritional knowledge.

And I say that as a life log enthusiastic omnivore.

I think we would do far better to worry about the level of things like ham, sausages and red meats in most chidren's diets.

Or life long even...