Should baby be vegan

[Confusedmaa]

My daughter is vegan and currently pregnant. What do other vegans do in terms of bringing up their children. Should the baby be strict vegan or would being brought up with mainly plant based diet but some non vegan elements be ok. Would the baby need extra vitamins once fully weaned? Would intolerances build up if they aren't introduced to all food groups? I feel that she should explore all of the options. On more of a social point, I had a vegan friend growing up and they were never invited to parties or to anyone's house for tea. They always seemed so upset when treats were offered at school or birthday cake shared out as they weren't allowed any. This was in the 80s so not much understanding back then. I know that's not the end of the world and I really don't want to come across as ignorant but I'd just feel like I want to hear peoples experiences.

Babies eat breastmilk.

Those numbers are just very early phase, need far more wider and broader research - which IMO would be really good to see what can be garnered from
Multiple diets

Like East Asia where a lot of people are dairy intolerant, or west and central Africa where dairy is not a staple, grains legumes and vegetables are.

That's peculiar. That's suggesting eating animal products is the norm and one has to choose to be vegan. Why wouldn't vegan be the norm and they can choose later if they want to eat animal products.

Perhaps eating meat is a choice that one should make when they are older

@gamerchick

Because introducing a new food into your diet later on might not be a comfortable experience. Better to let the body know what's what and then decide later on if you want to cut something out.
So presumably you would be feeding your dc insects, larvae and fermented fish then.

I wonder how the billions of vegan Hindus, Buddhist and Jain children cope

I know right 🤣 shovelling that ultra highly processed formula and baby food into their precious offspring. Then moving on to chicken nuggets and cheeseburgers

My toddler’s probably eaten cochineal, the odd worm in apple sauce and fish sauce. I definitely have.

Eventually they tend to move on …

They wouldn't be babies then though would they.

No but they don’t move immediately to an adult intake. There’s a lot of years in between. That’s why restaurants have child portions.

Edited to add I have a couple of close friends show re vegans and the reality is they have to make a real effort to get sufficient nutrients. They have both had nutritional advice and the piles of lentils etc you need are quite something.

Makes you wonder how the skeletons of the dairy intolerant and half the eastern world aren't crumbling with all these rules that they don't know about.
Lentils are protein, not calcium.

Who said lentils were calcium?

Your whole tiny baby tummy thing was a bounce off from that woman with her "science head on" talking about absorbing calcium from dairy.

Vegetarian and brought our kids up the same.We use lots of cheese, milk and eggs, quinoa with plenty of healthy carbs and veg.
We did try vegen but didn't go great so just sticking on the vegetarian path.
As others said, it's no different to starting a different position to eating meat is normal

Oh I see where you got it. I was really picking up on the idea that certain nutrients, while available in vegan foods, can be much harder to get sufficiency. I was actually thinking in particular of iron.

Perhaps.
Education is still better than rudeness.

Honestly?
Meat eating is 'the norm', in western society at least.

Perhaps.
I gave my opinion, you're entitled to yours. As already stated, there's probably no 'wrong' as long as the diet is balanced and age appropriate.

How can you possibly say someone’s actual experience isn’t right?! Just because you haven’t had that experience, doesn’t mean you should act like no one else has. This particular poster has said her daughter has found it difficult for whatever reason- it’s very arrogant to brush over and dismiss that.

Fab, thank you!

Iron is actually pretty easy. My iron levels have been tested multiple times including in pregnancy and have always been good. Most non vegans are probably unaware that they are getting iron from bread- it is fortified with it due to the general population not eating many dietary sources of iron. Ditto most cereal. One of the main points as a vegan is absorption, but that can be improved by consuming with a source of vit C, which vegans tend to get in abundance.

Many also don’t know Cow’s milk is fortified with vitamin D.

@Hucklemuckle - mainly because humans are omnivores, start with all food sources then remove some if you chose to when you can chose to

Don't be combative, this is a discussion not somewhere to attempt mocking people ... and lentils DO contain calcium by the way