Newborn baby vegan

[starflake]

I'm due in December and I'm contemplating raising Baba as vegan. I'm vegetarian years & only eat a minimal amount of dairy, if Baba is vegan I'll go down the vegan route also. I'm contemplating this as I know the benefits of not consuming dairy or meat but I've never raised a baby vegan! My other DC are meat eaters bar one who is veggie like me. I'm looking for advice on formulas & how difficult it will be weaning etc. I'm planning on breastfeeding with some combi feeding so maybe one or two formula feeds a day after supply comes in. I'm not posting this in pregnancy section as I'm not up for a bashing on how harmful this will be for baba. TIA

Many people around the world have been prosecuted because their vegan baby died (or nearly died) of malnutrition. Google it.

Sure the whole point of veganism (Well one of the points) is that cow's milk is for cows (not humans), goat's milk is for goats, and so on for all animals... ergo human milk is for HUMANS!

So if you're vegan and you want to bring up your child vegan, you have to exclusively breastfeed. It goes with the territory.

When it comes to weaning I don't think it would be a massive issue, plenty of babies have dairy and egg allergies and meat is an acquired taste - but I do think it would be difficult to get a varied diet into a fussy toddler if you also kept to a strict vegan diet. Personally I would relax the rules a bit. Maybe mostly vegan with occasional non-vegan food.

You can get dairy free formula in the UK. It's highly expensive and usually only given on prescription for babies with CMPA. It is not vegan, however. Unless you are breastfeeding, then a newborn baby needs certain nutrients that can only come from animals/fish in order to grow properly - brain development in particular. The only known safe way to avoid animal products, that don't include human products, is to breastfeed or use donor breast milk. You would need to be on a vegan diet yourself, otherwise dairy and egg proteins will pass to your baby in your breast like (albeit very processed and broken down - this is why some mums (like me) have to cut out such allergens from their diets, if their baby is allergic to them.

You can get dairy free formula in the UK. It's highly expensive and usually only given on prescription for babies with CMPA. It is not vegan, however. Unless you are breastfeeding, then a newborn baby needs certain nutrients that can only come from animals/fish in order to grow properly - brain development in particular. The only known safe way to avoid animal products, that don't include human products, is to breastfeed or use donor breast milk. You would need to be on a vegan diet yourself, otherwise dairy and egg proteins will pass to your baby in your breast like (albeit very processed and broken down - this is why some mums (like me) have to cut out such allergens from their diets, if their baby is allergic to them.

You can get dairy free formula in the UK. It's highly expensive and usually only given on prescription for babies with CMPA. It is not vegan, however. Unless you are breastfeeding, then a newborn baby needs certain nutrients that can only come from animals/fish in order to grow properly - brain development in particular. The only known safe way to avoid animal products, that don't include human products, is to breastfeed or use donor breast milk. You would need to be on a vegan diet yourself, otherwise dairy and egg proteins will pass to your baby in your breast like (albeit very processed and broken down - this is why some mums (like me) have to cut out such allergens from their diets, if their baby is allergic to them.

Vegan babies are fed with human breast milk OP, unless there are extenuating medical reasons.

A vegetarian planning on bringing up their baby as 'vegan', but not exclusively breastfed is not a thing.

Have you considered what approach you will take if breastfeeding is unsuccessful?

Have you considered what approach you will take if breastfeeding is unsuccessful? Also if your a vegetarian what does baby need to be vegan?

A vegan diet is appropriate for all life stages including babies. I know lots of super healthy, bouncing vegan babies. YouTube is a great resource for this as there are lots of vegan families who do what we eat in a day videos and there are many discussing having a vegan pregnancy and baby.

Those who are saying it’s restrictive etc how long have you eaten vegan for? Because I’ve done it for 6+ years and I guarantee you can get everything you need and more. It’s a very nutrient dense way to eat!

Just as a warning... EVERYONE becomes an expert in nutrition when you go vegan. Protein this and B12 that. Do your research and you won’t go wrong.

Behold nommy vegan burger, we don’t miss out on a thing!!

Excuse the multiple posts. The site said it hadn't posted!

Human beings are animals, basic biology.

Those who are saying it’s restrictive etc how long have you eaten vegan for

No-one is saying this - we're taking about EBF of a newborn?

Meanwhile you're full of SPAM.

@bwekfusth thing is you are making a decision either way.

Most kids I know don't want to eat an animal on seeing it. I've witnessed a few awkward conversations where parents dislike telling kids the truth about where their food comes from.

We force our views on them whatever we feed them.

Why make life so bloody difficult for yourself OP?

Of course humans are animals but the human mother produces milk FOR her baby and chooses to give it to her baby. Therefore this is vegan. There is no exploitation, no consumption of animal products. Veganism isn't defined by consuming nothing that comes from an animal source; as long as the animal source is a human female then that's vegan.

Vegan or non-vegan aside, choosing to deliberately raise your DC differently to each other (unless absolutely necessary or old enough to make their own choices) just doesn't sit right with me.

@BillywilliamV if you see what goes on behind the scenes in farming in this country you might decide you don't want to support it either.

I never planned to be vegan, once I saw what I was paying for people to do to sweet, innocent animals (completely unnecessarily) it didn't feel like a hard choice to stop doing it. It's slightly more complicated, you're right, but it's well worth the effort for how much better I feel.

@skittlenommer completely agree! It's so amazing the vegan options now, even in rural places.

My diet has expanded massively since being vegan and I just love the effortless way we seem to eat tonnes of good food. I hate to think about my previous diet. I'd def be the size of a house now if I hadn't gone vegan.

I know someone who was raised vegetarian and decided as an older child/teen that they wanted to eat meat and weren’t able to because they physically could not tolerate it and it made them very ill no matter what they tried to overcome it. They weren’t happy about it and felt their choice had been taken away and restricted as a
result. It does cause them issues as even shared cooking surfaces can make them poorly. I have no idea if this is common or very unusual but just thought i’d share as you mention your other dc do have meat so it maybe worth looking into the chances of potential future intolerance.

Just shared this in case it is of use/interest. I don’t want to have an opinion on what anyone else should do! I’m sure it is possible to be very healthy on a whole range of diets including solely plant based and every parent makes choices for their family based on what is right for them (as they should).

Meat allergy is really rare and tends to be serious - causes anaphylaxis rather than a tummy ache. It's also not caused by being vegetarian.
Vegetarians can redevelop the capacity to eat meat.

Paediatrician here and my advice would be to keep it flexible so baby has diet similar to yours - veg with minimal dairy. As others have said, dairy formula is much more palatable if breastfeeding doesn't work out. If it does, ideally would aim to breastfeed for first year before switching onto a milk like oat milk. You need to ensure the milk you switch to has sufficient calories as most plant based milks are too low in calories for toddlers.

With regards to weaning, it is completely possible to have a balanced diet while being vegan but you don't know how fussy your child will be which is also why I wouldn't completely rule dairy out.

My one request would be to please not be fussy about medicines and supplements if your child needs them for any reason. I have spent endless time in the past searching for a vegan iron supplement for a severely deficient toddler who's parents refused to consider anything with animal origin plus a list of additives they did not want their child to have. It took weeks and endless research by our pharmacist to find a suitable one (weeks that the child really needed some iron replacement to commence) and also then required a high volume of a disgusting liquid which was difficult to administer so he refused it after a few days. Final result was a completely unnecessary hospital admission with IV

@riddles26 great to hear your view on it.

I completely agree about the supplements and medicine. I think everyone has to find their own path with things but I always think if you are predominantly vegan think how much less harm you are causing generally and would it actually save any animals to reject a medicine which has already been tested? No, I really don't think it would send a strong message to big pharma. I would never reject medicine for my kids on vegan grounds. I may ask if a vegan alternative is available I guess.

I was surprised at the support I got from NHS when telling them I was vegan. I'm glad it's beginning to be more accepted.

Yeah it’s possible but vegan milk isn’t in the UK

I had to have cows milk free formula for my ds who was CMPA and it was awful stuff. Smelled so bad compared to normal formula

Also stupidly expensive so I was relieved to get it on prescription

You will need to breast feed if you are committed to this

And don’t buy soy formula either. It isn’t healthy, especially for a boy

@Clayplease all health professionals should respect your choices without judgement and for some medicines - for example vitamin d supplementation in adults - we often get requests for veg/vegan alternatives to the standard which is no issue as it is your own health and is not life changing whether you take it or not.

I would also encourage to ask for a vegan alternative as if there is one and we can source it, we are happy to provide it

However, denying a child a medicine they crucially need when they are symptomatic and suffering will be seen to be harmful towards them.

Firstly you don't need to combi feed as you will produce as much as the baby needs yourself. People who say "ohhhhh the baby will lose weight or you're not giving him/her what they need" are wrong. That's not how the human body works. I fed my son till four years old and will do the same with subsequent children. The body meets demand. Therefore the first year of your child's life they will be vegan if you are. Also weaning is easy as they only eat the food you eat but that's not till they're one-ish anyway as food is play before then. My son didn't eat a meal till about three year old and even now often just shares mine because he doesn't finish a meal (especially out).

So just relax with it all and feed him/her as nature intended!