Vegan breastfeeding has caused an 11-month-old baby to die and the parents are charged with neglect after an autopsy indicated the baby suffered from severe deficiencies in Vitamin B12 and Vitamin A. Both these nutrients are known to be critical to a child’s development and sorely lacking in a vegan diet. This is why doctors strongly advise against nursing mothers and growing children following a vegan diet (1).
Vegans have long been advised to take B12 supplements as long term veganism runs the huge risk of serious B12 deficiency as well as other nutrients only found in animal foods such as true Vitamin A. Â Beta carotene is not true vitamin AÂ nor does it easily convert to adequate amounts of Vitamin A in the body to sustain optimal health.
While charging the parents in this tragedy is questionable as it smacks of too much interference by government into private life, it does communicate a clear message to other vegans:Â abstinence from all animal foods is a danger to one’s health and most particularly, your baby!
It also sends a clear message that what a nursing Mother eats definitely DOES affect the quality of her breastmilk, particularly with vegan breastfeeding. Many breastfeeding advocates insist that breastmilk will include all a baby needs despite what the Mother eats, but clearly this is not the case.
Traditional cultures took great care to ensure that pregnant and breastfeeding mothers consumed ample amounts of animal foods rich in vitamins A, D, E, K2 and of course B12. These foods included grass-fed butter, pastured eggs, liver, seafood, and fish eggs. Notice that none – NOT ONE of these traditionally sacred foods is plant-based!
Incidentally, the 2017 vegan film What The Health was unable to cite a single successful vegan population group either. Why? Because there are none. Ever.
If you are pregnant and breastfeeding and would like to learn what foods will maximally support the health of your baby while nursing, please check this link for the complete listing of traditionally sacred foods for optimal fetal and baby development. These foods will also ensure the preservation of your own health during pregnancy and lactation which can easily deplete a Mother’s nutritional stores leaving her vulnerable to exhaustion.
Vegan Parents Convicted
The vegan breastfeeding mother and father whose baby died as described in this article were convicted by a French court to 5 years in prison due to the imbalanced vegan diet the mother ate which led to nutrient-poor breastmilk and a failure to thrive child who eventually fell ill from severe nutrient deficiency and died without the parents ever seeking proper medical attention (source).
For more information on how vegan breastfeeding and also a vegan diet devastate the health of children, read about how a 12-year-old vegan was diagnosed with the degenerating bones of an 80-year-old.  Dr. Faisal Ahmed MD, a pediatrician treating the child, said that the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet need to be publicized.
Unfortunately, vegan parents don’t seem to be getting the message quickly enough. The latest case involves vegans who nearly starved their 5-month-old baby to death feeding him potato mash instead of the doctor advised organic formula.
The child, who weighed just over 8 pounds and had sunken eyes and protruding ribs, is recovering but will likely suffer long-term damage from the experience (source).
References
Angelina Jolie says veganism nearly killed her
Supersize Me Girlfriend Quits VeganismÂ
Vitamin A Vagary
Vitamin B12: Vital Nutrient for Good Health
French vegan couple whose baby died of vitamin deficiency after being fed solely on breast milk face jail for child neglect
THE BABY DIED. Of course they would be prosecuted. If they we not it would be unfair to that baby. Omnivores pretending to be extreme herbivores are extremists. WHY ARE YOU ALL DEFENDING FUNDAMENTALISTS and not protecting the child, as the French government is trying to do???? WTF
Not that I agree with going Vegan while nursing/being pregnant. but, I have a hunch that there is much more to this story than the baby just simply died due to lack of nutrients. Coming from a place like Africa where most children go through a series of obvious outward physical issues due to a lack of nutrition before they simply just die – for instance, a child’s hair turning orange due to lack of proper nutrition, finger nails falling off, teeth decaying, developmentally slower, etc.. Just seems there may be more to this story that was not mentioned in this article. I would assume the child had to of suffered pretty hard prior to death? Although the children I am referring to lack many more essentials, yet many of them survive all the while. Which also confuses me about this article. It all just seems strange that a child would lack two vitamins, and look healthy all the way up until death? Unless it really was a total freak accident and the baby seemed fine all the time, but randomly died? Just a really strange article to me. Although, I agree with you all that it’s good to raise awareness in this area all at the same time! I just find this lacking great detail, and sort of odd in that sense.
When an omnivore pretends to be a herbivore then WTF. A human who chooses to be a vegetarian or a vegan when they have an omnivore gut and teeth, is a very self important person. They simply believe that they know better than nature – or God – depending upon their beliefs. Why be “politically correct” around these fundamentalists? The child is DEAD because of self important stupidity.
31% of Indians are vegetarians and others do not eat meat at the level or frequency I have seen in US. The population of India is 1.241 billion (2011). That large a population is I am sure does not have B12 or vitamin A deficiencies. I grew up eating vegetarian diet. I don’t digest dairy well so it was mostly vegan. I am healthy.
I love meat and eat it now but worry about eating it in US. It is horrible, processed and loaded with hormones. I do not understand obsession of Americans with meat. I absolutely do not understand American obsession with preaching vegetarians that they are eating abnormal. If you have been traditionally vegetarian, you will know how to eat balanced.
I wonder if the misconceptions about vegetarianism or veganism are based on the crazy diets newly vegan people follow in US.
http://www.vibrancyuk.com/B12.html
It is well past time that we begin calling a spade a spade:
Vegans and Vegetarians actually desire to be unhealthy, it is part of their persona. Poor health is a Vegans’ form of religious self flagellate penitence, much like the Shiite Muslims who abuse and cut their own flesh with leather whips, chains, and swords on holy days. The Vegans’ John the Baptist complex includes religious flagellate malnourished and this form of self mutilation is only one way that Vegans attempt to con the world as well as themselves into believing that Vegans are superior to you and me.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/apr/01/joel-sergine-le-moaligou-convicted
Plenty of vegan mothers have successfully breastfed their children. This child died of malnutrition because its mother wasn’t taking in adequate nutrients to meet the needs of an *11 month old*. Children should only be breastfed exclusively until about 6 months at which time the child’s diet should be supplemented with other nutrient rich foods. I’m sure being a vegan exacerbated the child’s condition, however, any exclusively breastfed 11 month old will be vitamin deficient, regardless of its mother’s diet.
I’ll have to admit I don’t know that much about how nutrients are transferred to breast milk…so I guess I could be wrong, but I thought that anything the mother took in goes to the baby.
Even toxins go to the baby which is why you don’t want mothers drinking or doing other drugs. Anything that could harm the baby you don’t want them to take in.
If the mother is taking in sufficient nutrients for her and the baby then they should both be receiving everything required. What exactly isn’t transferred if this isn’t true and what mechanism blocks those nutrients?
Absolutely right!
Also, every baby which dies from cancer should result in the conviction of it’s meat-eating parent for manslaughter by way of poison.
But eating McDonalds and KFC isn’t any healthier than a vegan diet. The typical American meat eating mother isn’t being any more nutritional to her baby.
It’s all about Paleo!