Vegan baby- what’s ur thoughts?

[France2000]

Ok, so I’m a vegan. Hate milk and meat, in my opinion we’re not supposed to ingest it. But I know babies need milk, although I’m not convinced an entirely different species’ breast milk is the answer lol. Has anyone raised a vegan baby? Looking for advice on the subject, thank u x

Many of my friends are vegan. Vegan is NOT recommended for children. As far as I know.

Are you in France? I suspect it would be fairly tricky to find vegan anything in France. It's still very far from being a mainstream choice here.

You will have to breastfeed. If you have difficulties you'll have to persevere and pay for a lactation consultant if necessary.

There are no vegan alternatives to cow's milk formula. Hypoallergenic formula for babies with CMPA is expensive and difficult to get without a prescription, and I think it's made from cow's milk anyway (with the proteins broken down or removed).

My son has CMPA and he's been slow to get into food, he wasn't a fan of fish or meat at first and still doesn't seem to like eggs. So I guess his diet was more or less vegan for a while! He will now eat tuna, sausages and ham but that's about it.

If I were you I think I'd approach it from a "flexitarian" point of view (or flexi-vegan, not that it's a thing!) In other words, as and when you start offering solids you could prioritise offering a wide range of nutritious plant-based foods (including beans, pulses, nuts etc) but not completely exclude non-vegan foods. If your baby is an enthusiastic eater you might find that they will get enough nutrition from vegan foods but if they're picky and end up loving some non-vegan foods you will probably be glad to have the option of SOMETHING they will eat!

To the poster who fed meat to the vegan child-
I would never have fed someone else's child meat. I think you were really out of line.

He's thirteen! Parents can't expect to micro-manage their child's diet at that age.

With babies/young children you would need to be very careful to ensure they got the right balance of nutrients because they are growing and developing. Vegan diets often lack specific nutrients and while this might not be significant for an adult it could be damaging for a baby or child. Personally I think it is unwise to consider it for a baby.

"Hypoallergenic formula for babies with CMPA is expensive and difficult to get without a prescription"

I doubt that a medical professional would prescribe it because of a lifestyle choice made by the parents.

Follow the advice of your medical professional.

A medical professional has years (decades) of experience of what children do and do not need to eat.

They know better than you what you should and should not feed your child.

Do not refuse to feed something to your child based on "I think it's morally wrong". You child's body does not use that as a basis for deciding what it needs. It functions on biology, not opinion.

For the record while I think it's possible to raise a vegan baby, I only know of one mum who has done it, and her baby is a third smaller than every other child in the NCT group at the age of 2 years. I do not think this is coincidence.

I don’t want to impose my beliefs on the baby Except that you are. The baby isn't choosing to be vegan.

All the news stories that have been linked on this thread are of cases where children were fed very limited diets resulting in them being malnourished. This isn't exclusive to vegan parents, there have also been cases of children suffering from malnutrition after being fed very limited omnivorous diets. A well planned, balanced vegan diet is fine for babies and children, slightly trickier than vegetarian or omnivorous but certainly doable.

I haven't RTFT but I just want to mention that there have been some quite concerning findings regarding the affect of soya formula on hormones in both sexes but more severely in baby boys.

For various reasons I was brought up on Soya formula from a few weeks old and I believe it might play a part in my hormone issues. I'm convinced enough that I do not use soya as a milk replacement for my dairy free DD.

On the main question, I've only met one vegan child who really is not a good advert for it. They have an issue with their bones (I can't remember the name of the condition) and suffer from severe tiredness. Of course it may be unrelated but it's hard to separate the two.

I think it could work if you are dedicated to ensuring that the full complement of nutrients are eaten in abundance from plant based foods and don't rely too much on vegan replacement products (a lot of which seem to get their flavour from masses of salt).

Sorry another one who knows pale, exhausted looking vegan children (more than one). I don't think it's a good idea personally, but lots of people both meat eaters and vegan grow up slightly malnourished and seem fine x

I’m with @mooncuplanding

I think it’s irresponsible and unnatural to even attempt with babies, frankly. There is absolutely fuck all about our evolutionary traits to suggest that babies (or adults for that matter- but whatever, once you’re an adult, your nutrition is your personal concern) are intended to be vegan.

@LoniceraJaponica

Obviously a GP wouldn't prescribe it to a vegan. It's hard enough to get it for a baby with CMPA.

I wasn't advising the OP to ask for a prescription!!!

Also what @Sethis said is bob on “your child’s body functions on biology, not opinion”.

And keep that first and foremost in your mind whilst doing some proper scientific (not pseudoscientific) research.

I'd pay to see a private pediatrician to guide you through. It can be done but you need to be meticulous and it's exhausting to get right.

First steps nutrition trust are an excellent source of unbiased information on formula and diet for small children. I haven't read this but they have some information on vegan diets here www.firststepsnutrition.org/s/Eating_well_Vegans_Oct_2017_final.pdf

One of the best things you can do if you want to breastfeed is do some reading to find out about what's normal and also plan how you can get local support if you need it. I'd recommend The Food of Love by Kate Evans as a good starting point. Unfortunately there's still plenty of inaccurate information out there.

As some others have said there is no vegan formula in the uk, it either cows milk or non cows milk with animal ingredients (vitamin D is generally animal derived).

So if you want to raise baby vegan you have to breast fed.

My DS is vegan (6.5 month old), I’m aiming to do extended breast feeding as my breast milk is made for him where cows milk isn’t.

It’s really easy, babies don’t need any milk except breast milk till after 1yr of age and if you need milk to cook with you can use breast milk, oat milk, nut milk or coconut milk. All are fortified with B12.

If you breast fed you need to supplement vit D no matter what your diet is and iron stores deplete at 6 months, again vegan or not. You don’t need meat for iron, lentils, green veg, coconut milk ect are all great sources of iron.

Ethically it’s better to raise vegan until child is old enough to decide when faced with the facts. You can’t undo feeding them dead animals, it’s morally wrong to force a human to consume flesh without their consent.

I don’t know anyone who is vegan that would consider feeding their child animal products unless they had too (ie couldn’t breast fed then totally do what you gotta do).

I know a few vegans who are raising DC as veggies leaning towards vegan diets. They have all have BF though.
I think one of the reasons they have done veggie is it gives them slightly more flexibility especially eating out. I suspect they will go fully vegan when they are older.
I can’t say it would be my choice (esp as DD was very fussy when younger, she’s mostly veggie through choice now). No way would I be feeding a baby soy milk though.

Just to add I’m vegan, had a vegan pregnancy and baby has been consistently on the 91st percentile for weight and length since birth. The power of knowledge to give good nutrition is what you need.

Eating meat or dairy will not give you that

You can’t undo feeding them dead animals, it’s morally wrong to force a human to consume flesh without their consent.

I pity your child. You are attempting to reverse the biology of a human body that has evolved over millions of years of evolution because 'cows make me sad'.

It is totally irresponsible. Grow up and face the reality that human infants require nutrition from animal protein and fats to thrive.

tbh I think a diet that requires supplements or highly processed fortified foods to be sustainable can't be ideal

@KittenCamile

No your baby isn’t vegan, your baby is an omnivore, as are all humans if we look purely at the biology. Veganism is a lifestyle choice. Your baby has made no lifestyle choices. You have imposed your veganism on your baby- to be clear- your baby is not vegan.

I have a child who is severely allergic to cows milk, allergic to eggs, soya and a few other things. He’s also really fussy when it comes to meat, and usually refuses to eat it, so he’s essentially eating a vegan diet majority of the time.
He is very carefully monitored by a paediatric dietician, and is supplemented with a special amino acid-based prescribed toddler formula. If we didn’t have that support, I’d be very worried about correct supplementation etc
It’s not something I’d do by choice.

Our 15 month old has been vegan from birth. Yes babies need their mothers milk. If you can't breastfeed you'll have to cross that bridge when you come to it I suppose. I still breastfeed a couple of times a day but dc has oat milk at bedtime or if with dad/grandparents.

Mooncuplanding people have lived for millennia without meat, it is not needed.

The only supplements you need as a vegan is B12 and the reason meat eaters don’t is because the animals they eat are given B12 supplements.

You realise most food we buy that isn’t a single ingredient food is fortified with something right?