Article: Death by Veganism - rebuttal?

[Guest guest]

Here is my input on this topic, which I know has roused many emotions in

the vegan world:

 

Any pediatrician or alternative medical provider would tell us that you

can't feed a newborn infant apple juice and expect that baby to grow and

thrive. Ditto coconut milk or wheatgrass juice. That article does not

tell us the proportion of soy milk vs. apple juice, but a lot of young

parents start those babies right out on apple juice, which must be

diluted, depriving the baby of needed nutrients for growth. Or they add

cereal to the formula bottles, again, diluting the nutrients, and

filling the baby so he/she doesn't want to eat as much. A newborn

infant's best source of nutrition is exclusive breastmilk fed on demand,

which is every 1-2 hours for a newborn, which tries the patience of many

new mothers. The (far) second best source is a processed infant

formula, cows milk or soy-based. Anything outside of those two foods

will not be adequate for the infant's growth. As for the older baby or

toddler, they are not intended to be weaned yet!! They should still be

breastfed, which would continue to ensure good growth and development.

The rest of the world historically has breastfed their babies until they

are 4-5 years old, and that is NORMAL. It's only our society that has

declared a woman's breast to be " sexual " and therefore " dirty " and the

act of breastfeeding to be something shameful and to be hidden and

minimized.

 

A vegan mother can certainly provide adequate (breastmilk) nutrition for

her baby, I've seen babies who were born to vegan mothers do just fine.

Of course, it depends on the quality of her diet, just as the quality

of the omnivore mother's diet is going to affect the quality of her

breast milk. People can make good choices, or poor choices, regardless

of their dietary leanings. (Where are the verdicts against the parents

who feed their kids nothing but junk food and McDonald's, causing the

kids to balloon up into the 3-digits of weight well before their 10th

birthdays, thereby condemning them to a lifetime of illness and

suffering??)

 

In these news articles, I never read the other details: Why did the

mother not notice that her baby was not growing properly?? Where was

the grandmother?? Where was the the midwife; the physician, mainstream

or alternative?? Sorry, but, a person's dietary choice is irrelevant

here, that's just being made a selling point to grab peoples' attention

and shed doubt on a healthy lifestyle. To feed a baby nutrient-poor

foods and ignore the obvious signs of failure to thrive and not seek any

kind of medical intervention is, pure and simple, neglect. Sorry, it's

not about the lifestyle, it's not about the dietary choice, it's about

paying attention to your baby, and getting competent guidance in his/her

care and feeding.

 

 

So, that is my two-cents worth. I wouldn't expect it to change the

opinion of the author, nor those of the multitude of SAD folks who we

see in Safeway or Walmart. Remember that anybody can write a book about

anything they want to, get it published, and sell it. Just because

something is in print does not necessarily mean that it's true or

accurate. It also doesn't necessarily mean that people are going to

pick it up and read it, nor remember it 5 years hence. (Which brings up

another topic - how many books are published every year that have no

merit whatsoever, are merely published because somebody writes them,

they sit on the shelves, becoming " bargain books " , until somebody buys

them, only to sit on their shelves at home, and eventually ending up in

the trash? How many trees are lost every year to feed this industry??)

 

Blessings -

 

Sue

[Guest guest]

I am not yet raw and currently nursing a 10 month old VERY healthy very

round baby girl...

I had an almost vegan pregnancy (a few bites of cheese here and there and an

occasional egg and occasional fish). I avoid processed foods- no soy

sausage for me thank you very much. I eat tons of fruits and veggies

organic if possible. I no longer eat dairy or eggs (allergic kids including

the baby) and I still have rare fish. I eat plenty of good fats-

avocadoes, VCO, flax seeds, walnuts, almonds, etc in their raw state. My

other 2 children were conceived and nursed on an omnivore diet (my other

daughter was the catalyst to becoming vegetarian and our home is/was dairy

free). This last baby, while genetics does play in, is by far my largest

baby (she was the smallest at birth). She grew 18 ounces in her first 13

days, did it again 3 more times for the next 6 weeks. She has consistantly

been in the 95% for length and 75% for weight. She is very happy, very

healthy, and very active. She is still 99.9% nursed. That .01% is whatever

she happens to swallow when she is playing with food I give her (broccoli

spears, whole cooked beans, jicima spears, zuchini spears, apple without the

peel spears, avocado chunks, or frozen peas) to keep her occupied during

dinner. She really doesn't want to eat food yet and is content to get all

her nutrition from me. So, death by veganism? Don't think so. Try death

by idiots! Who on earth thinks that apple juice and soy milk is good food

for a 6 week old baby!? And, like was mentioned before, how could they not

see their baby was wasting away? I had a baby who didn't grow (my other

daughter mentioned before was 7.5 months old and 14.5 pounds) and it took

6.5 months to get her to figure out nursing well, HOWEVER, she never ONCE

looked unhealthy. She was hitting developmental milestones ahead of the

curve (rolling at 2 months, fully mobile at 4 months, pulling up and walking

around furniture by 6.5 months etc) so we never worried about her size or

lack of growth. She is now a very healthy 3.5 yr old who is actually fairly

normal sized... she just needed 2.5 yrs to catch up to her age.

Marisa