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

Tbh unless you are well versed in infant nutrition I wouldn’t make a young child only eat vegan food, unless you are absolutely certain you are meeting all their nutritional needs.

And

My one request would be to please not be fussy about medicines and supplements if your child needs them for any reason.

Both good advice. I'm vegan btw.

To be clear, the formula available for babies with dairy allergy/CMPI is explicitly NOT vegan. It's made of cows milk like normal formula, which has been hydrolysed/"broken down" into smaller pieces or into its constituent amino acids so it doesn't trigger the baby's intolerance. So it's still using/exploiting cows' milk - and I haven't used these formulas but the general feedback is that they don't smell great and are unappetising. And soya formula is not recommended as a baby's exclusive food.

But with good support hopefully you can EBF.

CmdrCressidaDuck While you are partially right about the hydrolysed formulas for CMPA babies, there are a few available which are explicitly vegan - they are amino acid based. An example of this would be Neocate LCP/Neocate Syneo. Manufactured in a completely cows milk-free environment, and prescribed to babies with particularly severe dairy allergies like my DS. He has an anaphylactic dairy allergy, so even trace amounts of cows milk protein could kill him. He’s 2 and a half and is still prescribed the toddler version of Neocate LCP, called Neocate Junior. You can buy them online, but they are very very expensive! Last time I checked when we thought a prescription wouldn’t be ready on time, a single 400g tin was £37 on amazon

I don't think they are vegan as the vitamin d is sourced from sheeps wool

I've also been pondering this..

I'm vegan, as is my oldest DC (their decision). DC2 is an omni like DH.

I'm hoping to be able to breastfeed for a year, to avoid the need to give formula, and make a call after that. I have done some research and there isn't an alternative formula option that I'm comfortable with from a nutritional perspective. I'm not entirely comfortable with dairy-based formula from an ethical perspective but if it comes to it and I can't exclusively breastfeed as long as I'd like I'll go with what is going to be best health-wise for the baby which does seem to be regular formula.

dementedpixie That’s interesting!! I actually might email the manufacturer and ask just out of interest!
To be fair though, sheep’s wool is one part of hardcore veganism that I can’t get my head around If farmers don’t sheer their sheep, it has horrendous consequences for the sheep does it not? I’ve seen images of sheep that haven’t been shorn (shorn? sheared?) And they were practically crushed under the weight of their fleece as well as struggling with being too hot etc.
So surely shearing sheep is essential to their welfare? Whether the sheep are pets or actual livestock, it has to be done doesn’t it? So surely it’s better that the wool is used and not just wasted?

I sit corrected, Valhalla although the point remains that that would be a pretty silly extreme to go to in order to have a vegan neonate.

It’s incredibly easy for your baby to be vegan for the 1st 6 months if you exclusively Bf. Both mine were! Millions are lol. You can’t formula feed and keep your baby vegan as others have said. No reason why you can’t BF though, and if for any reason this isn’t possible (ie you’re physically separated) the hospital should be able to point you in the direction of donor milk from other women.

CmdrCressidaDuck indeed!! There was a national shortage of DS’s special formula a while back, and when I checked the price of buying it online I panicked The child benefit I receive for 2 children in a month wouldn’t have even covered a weeks worth of his formula had I have had to buy it
(Plus it smells and tastes like rotting potatoes, so I definitely wouldn’t have fed it to my child had it not been a medical necessity!! One little bonus to the rank taste though: our dietician reckons that babies who’ve been used to it from a young age are often more open to eating more bitter tasting vegetables when it comes to weaning! Which is definitely true for my DS!)

Just gotta say, I was sceptical this thread would be sane all the way through and it's mostly really good advice! Amazing. I'm a couple of years of motherhood yet, but have been slowly getting nearer to being a vegan relatively recently and have been pondering bringing up little ones similarly!

As for the "vegans don't get enough iron" twaddle... I got severely anaemic as a meat eater twice, but as a veggie/beginner vegan I'm concentrating more on what I'm eating and my nutrition is so much better. Iron levels doing fine!

This is what the NHS has to say about vegan babies and children.

I'm not trying to be harsh here but at the end of the day, I'm going to take the advice of professionals over some random people on the internet 😏.

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.

But we are omnivores. And as many non-vegans like to argue; we are designed/have evolved to eat meat so it is not logical for someone to be unable to digest meat purely because they were raised vegetarian alone. What you have described above sounds more like a meat allergy (yes it's a thing!) rather than simply being unable to digest it.

@HugsAreMyDrugs do you not think it's weird their body rejected the meat? Unless you are allergic to a particular type of fruit or vegetable your body would never reject it!
I cut out dairy completely about 2 years ago for 6 months. About 5 weeks in I ended up in my doctors because I had constant diarrhea for about 3 of the 5 weeks. He asked had I changed anything in my diet, as medically I was fine, I told him I gave up dairy 5 weeks prior, he said he had come across this before, it was my body's way of getting rid of all the toxins left in my body from the dairy because I wasn't eating it anymore my body was clearing it out!!! I'm still amazed that it took 7 weeks in total for that to stop!

@HugsAreMyDrugs sorry you were copying & pasting from someone else! Sorry!! Our points are the same.

I think you're better off raising baby on a balanced, healthy diet that contains moderate amount of everything as suggested.

Then explain to baby when their old enough to understand, and without scare mongering, so that they can make their own decision.

They can always go vegan or veggie from where they are, but if baby doesnt want to be vegan you're opening them up to a whole range of digestive and intolerance/allergy issues.

Your body is better at cutting things out than it is introducing them.

I would consult a registered dietitian before putting a baby on a vegan diet. Baby’s and children need far more nutrients than us adults and there is only a limited amount of time for the to develop properly as your baby will grow so fast. It’s very easy to be deficient as a vegan (I know from personal experience). There are fantastic ethical and environmental reasons to go vegan but please don’t get too wrapped up with vegan ‘nutrition’ a lot of it is propaganda as vegans who discuss nutrition obviously have an agenda.

Meat, fish and dairy are full of incredible nutrients that will help a baby/young person develop, they are not bad for you as part of a healthy diet. Some of these vital nutrients are very very hard to get in a vegan diet such as iron and vit b12 amongst others. Vegetable are fantastic and essential but our body’s are poor at absorbing nutrients from vegetables and pills and processed fortified foods are a poor substitute.

Put your baby first and get proper clinical advice. Stay away from vegan you tubers, blogs and nutritionists.

“As for the "vegans don't get enough iron" twaddle... I got severely anaemic as a meat eater twice, but as a veggie/beginner vegan I'm concentrating more on what I'm eating and my nutrition is so much better. Iron levels doing fine!”

To be fair @Momniscient that’s only because you chose to have a bad diet whilst a meat eater. It’s not up for debate that iron is available more plentifully and more easily digestible in red & organ meat than anything else. That’s just a fact.

It’s disingenuous when people indicate that a vegetarian diet improved their iron levels. You simply chose a healthier vegetarian diet than a meat one.

The three reasons I would be wary about this are that:

a) you are removing your child's choice. They may not thank you for that.

b) dairy free formulas are not ideal. They are a blend of oils and sugars and added vitamins/minerals. I was brought up on dairy free formula as I was wrongly diagnosed with a dairy allergy. I now have osteopenia and other medical problems which may have taken root during these years. I don't think it's the being dairy free that's the problem; it's what you replace it with. I have a very sweet tooth, probably partly down to the fact that all of my dairy replacement foods tasted very sweet.

c) Current advice is that babies should have common allergens introduced into their diet early to avoid allergies. You may think that them being allergic to dairy wouldn't be a problem given your plan for them to be vegan, but mistakes happen and people with allergies are fairly commonly inadvertently exposed to foods they're allergic to.

I think you would be better off waiting until your child is 7 or 8 before discussing with them whether they would like to be vegan.

Passthecherrycoke everyone’s body is different though and has different absorption rates, also certain foods mixed with iron rich foods can inhibit iron absorption so perhaps your diet as a meat eater wasn’t optimum for this . I was severely anemic as a vegan, put on pills that didn’t work, iron infusion etc. Within two weeks of eating red meat again I was back to normal levels. Unfortunatly iron in things like spinach is very hard for our body’s to absorb. I didn’t know as a vegan but there are two types of iron, one from veg and one from animal products. Our bodies recognise the iron from meat so absorb it far more efficiently we’re as it’s hard to get from vegetables. Being a vegan is great for so many reasons but unfortunately it’s not a healthy diet for everyone x

Sorry @Passthecherrycoke I was meant to tag @Momniscient for my post!

Also another thing is forcing your views onto another person. My niece was raised veggie from birth. She’s now the biggest meat eater I know, so kids don’t always want to follow in your footsteps. she also really struggled with iron deficiency as a young girl, she’s now got the colour back into her face!

My sister is vegan and so is her baby. She’s breastfeeding until 2 and since introducing foods she’s had to be really on it in terms of making sure baby receives a wide range of foods. Her health visitor wasn’t so clued up around veganism so I think she’s found it hard at times, she’s felt a bit judged. There’s loads of great groups online for support if you really want to do this.
I personally think this shouldn’t be inflicted on a baby who has no choice on the matter, which I am prepared to be flamed for.

So if you feed your kid vegan you are removing their choice? But if you feed them meat then you are obviously also making a choice!! Makes no sense.

I know 3 sisters raised vegetarian, now one eats meat the other two are very strict veggie and have mentioned how grateful they are they weren't forced to eat meat. What's the problem? The case stated before is prob meat allergy- not very common.

I have yet to meet a child who wants to slaughter a lamb rather than cuddle it. Shouldn't we be listening to them and encouraging this?

@Clayplease this is about optimum nutrition for a baby/child not about ethical choices. We are omnivores who thrive on a balanced diet that includes a small amount of animal products. This about what is best for a child’s development not about a vegan agenda x

@Wiltshirelass2019 optimum nutrition for a baby is not necessarily obtained from the milk of another species. Optimum nutrition for human children is, and always will be, human breast milk. In the event that this isn't possible, there are NHS run milk banks, private breast milk suppliers and mostly plant-based formulas, all more natural than stealing the milk from a species unrelated to us - not to mention the cruelty that goes on in that industry. There is such thing as a balanced vegan diet, if you're sensible and plan ahead. There are more cases of malnourished omnivorous children than there are vegan children - this is coming from someone who has previously worked for many years in children's services.

Pp who mentioned "dangers" of male children consuming soy products - this is utter rubbish spread by irresponsible tabloids. The oestrogen in soy interferes with the hormones in other plants, not humans. So unless your child is part flower, you'll be fine.

If soya isn't a problem, why have the NHS removed soya formula from the list of recommended dairy alternatives?