Parents of 12-Year-Old Vegan Girl Who May Face Charges - Page 2

I have vegan friends who are raising their 1 year old vegan, and he's a healthy kid. A vegan parent has no excuse for not giving their child a balanced diet, just like a non-vegan parent.

IMO that family were not well informed about a non-meat diet.

I am vegetarian and have been for about 6 yrs or so.I eat some dairy and LOVE my cheese,chocolate,cake...etc! I could never be vegan.I do not eat ANY meat,poultry or fish.I did it because I am very against slaughterhouses.So I didn't really do it for health,but I know that vegetarian diets are very healthy when done right.You don't "live off of" vegetables.We can eat just as many foods/dishes as meat eaters,we just subsitute with tofu,soy,TVP or TSP.

I do take multi-vitamins and other supplements too,because aside from being veggie..I am also extremely picky and dislike ALOT of foods.But I am pretty healthy everytime I visit the doctor.

Now I may sound hypocritical,because my 4 yr old daughter is still eating meat.I am waiting until she makes her own descision to be veggie or not.I cook her meat sometimes,but usually not.And I have no problems feeding my pets meat.

That would do it for me - I hate anything soy and tofu

Probably nobody's ever made it for you right then. A chunk of tofu is gross, I agree.

I don't think it's hypocritical at all. I think it's being very respectful of her ability to make an intelligent and informed choice when she has the cognitive ability to do so, just like you did. In the meantime, I'm sure you're making the choice for her to eat meat (at home) that is as mindful of animal welfare and the environment as you can. And you are also respecting the natural eating habits and requirements of your pets. Personally, I applaud you for not forcing your moral decision on others' lives.

I love soy products,but tofu...I can only eat it sometimes.It depends on who makes it and how.I have no idea how to make tofu myself.And just to let you know alot of the soy products taste like meat.

Honestly I don't care if someone eats meat,to each their own.But what gets me pissed is when someone thinks they are better then me for eating meat (not saying you or anyone here is like that - just saying).I have encountered so many people who mock vegetarians and make fun of us and stereotype us.That drives me nuts.

Thank you.


I do give Chloe alot of veggie meals,but she does get meat too,as I mentioned.And yes,I do my best with it.I do cook it for her and buy it for her,but I do not eat it myself.I assume when she is older she will probably follow in my footsteps,afterall she is an animal lover like me! But again,I am leaving that up to her.She is 4 now and if she suddenly wanted to stop eating meat,I would make sure she still got everything she needed.

And I am actually very against vegetarian cats and dogs and other animals that are meant to eat meat.My cat gets meat and so do my pet rats sometimes,my foster dogs and other animals I take in that need it in their diet.

I just wanted to say,I am far from the preachy type vegetarians!
To each their own,thats what I say.

It's when children -- especially girls -- make the connection between the animals they love and the meat they're eating that the usually think about becoming vegetarian.

When my daughter was three, one of her favorite books was The Little Red Hen. One day when I got a package of chicken out for our Sunday fried chicken dinner, she saw the blood in the package. She questioned me about it and when she realized we were eating a chicken just like the little red hen, she became vegetarian.

Peer pressure made her want to eat at McDonald's when she was five. That lasted until she was 9. Then she told me she wanted to be vegetarian again. She's been vegetarian ever since. She doesn't even try to be vegan. She leaves me to struggle with that alone! I tried very hard to make sure she got all the nutrients she needed. Of course, the field of nutrition is changing everyday. Remember for a long time eggs were bad? now they're okay again.

I agree with everything you said. A lot of people, I think, feel like being vegetarian is somehow an affront to mainstream culture. It's kind of bizarre, but I've met a lot of people like that, who feel like you can't be a "red-blooded American" without eating a bloody piece of cow at every meal.

Cats are obligate carnivores, and while dogs are omnivores like us and might be able to get by on no meat, well, they aren't making that choice for themselves.

I hope everyone who can will realize soon how ecologically destructive it is to just stomp their way through life eating meat at every meal, but the way for that to happen is not by forcing it on anyone. Most people don't respond well to proselytizing of any sort.

My boyfriend quit eating a lot of meat, and hasn't had any red meat in months, and his friends/family gave me the sideways glance like I forced him into it. He didn't even tell me he was planning to quit eating red meat until three days after he did it, and I never said anything but that I didn't mind if he ordered it when we were out, I'd just rather not have to cook any .

well, those people are just ignorant boobs!
i have many, many food allergies/intolerances. protein-wise, chicken & fish. got a bunch of veggie/fruit ones, too. so i have to tailor my diet to suit those issues.
that said - i don't have meat at every meal. i usually have it at least once a day, but i'm very limited on my portion size, so i don't eat vast quantities, even when i have it.
and there are days when i have cheese or eggs instead. just depends what i'm in the mood for. but eating out - always order beef or pork! since the portions in restaurants are so HUGE, tho, a restaurant meal usually lasts me 2-3 additional days [not including what i eat there].

A vegetarian friend once said to me "To be as strong as an ox, you don't have to eat the ox, you just have to eat what the ox eats." I know that it's not exactly true, but I got the point.

As far as the vegan parents - NOT because it was a vegan diet, but because it was a poor vegan diet NOT nutritionally fit for a child, IMO, they have abused her.

Im not buying that this girls condition was a result of the vegan diet. Article said she was suffering from severe rickets, which is caused by vitamin D deficiency. I know enough to know that dietary vitamin D is NOT your body's major source of Vitamin D - sunlight exposure is. A complete lack of vitamin D in the diet, will not cause vitamin D deficiency unless coupled with profoundly inadequate sunlight exposure. Also, vitamin D is not found in most meats, its only at significant (and even still largely bio-unavailable) levels in fish, and is at highest levels in mushrooms harvested after sunlight exposure. It is also fortified in most grain and cereal products, many of which are ok for a vegan diet. I feel that this article has been published to put a vegan lifestyle in a negative light, and not so much to point out how horrible these parents are. If shes been strict vegan for 12 years and had no developmental problems except the rickets....I dunno. Doesnt seem like a causative situation no matter how I look at it. Correlative? Sure- if mom and dad werent letting her outside, denying her mushrooms, and refusing any fortified products, it could certaily be part of the answer for the girls health.
Still what about all the people who ARENT vegans who come down with rickets?

disclaimer: the parents of this girl should have made sure she had adequate nutrient levels through regular medical visits. They were not acting responsibly in this case and I dont want to come across like I feel they were. Im just skeptical that vegan diet= 100% cause for this girls problems....

A poor diet's a poor diet, vegan or not. I don't think it's impossible to raise a child on a healthy vegan diet but, as others have stated, you need to know what you're doing. A variety of plant based foods plus some fortified foods or supplements can be perfectly healthy. Almost certainly healthier than the diet of many children these days who eat loads of junk food and hardly any fruit/veg (I forget the figures but I read something recently that gave a frightening proportion of children eating fewer than 5 portions of fruit/veg per day, with many eating none at all).

I was a vegan in my late 20's and 30's for about 8 years. I have more of a problem with eating dairy than I do meat. No other mammals drink milk once they're weaned, and I'm of the opinion that cow's milk is for calves not humans. But like most humans, I grew up eating chocolate, ice cream, cheese etc and there is a comfort factor in those kind of foods which is a hard habit to break (and the only reason I eat any dairy these days).

My suspicion is that the 12-year-old may have an absorption problem with calcium, Vitamin D. or another nutrient necessary to bone health.

I had rickets when I was a child and it wasn't for lack of sunshine because I grew up in Miami. It was lack of calcium because I couldn't drink milk. My mother just didn't realize the consequences in those far-away days.

I actually believe this too.Cow milk is for calves,not humans.I actually cut out milk consumption for awhile,but I still ate cheese and other dairy products.I found when I would drink milk,I became violently ill.

However recently I started having the odd chocolate milk and no longer get sick.But I do drink soy milk more so tho,because I do think we should not be drinking cow milk.

Although I'm not lactose intolerant, when I quit drinking milk the feeling was extraordinary. It was like I had been on mild sedatives all the time before and had snapped out of it. My physical performance also improved.

Also, I have a friend who suffers from extreme hair loss. She loved to drink milk and when she experimented cutting that down heavily, her hair began to grow. She still has to wear a wig, though.

I'm of the opinion that eating poultry, fish and eggs in modest amounts is ok healthwise, but not necessary. Milk on the other hand is not totally suitable for adult mammals, nevermind necessary. Harvard School of Public Health pretty much agrees with me on both stands.

well, as someone who's allergic to chicken [i can have other poultry] & fish, as well as lactose-intolerant [since my surgery] i can attest that one can be healthy w/o eating any of those items.
i do take calcium & vitamin D to make up for my lack of fresh dairy products [i can eat most cheeses ].
besides - there's more calcium in broccoli than milk ['course, i'm allergic to that, too ].

Oh I just wanted to add something...

Today me and my family were having pizza.There was a veggie one for me and my sisters and a meat one for my daughter and my mom.Chloe (daughter) looked at the meat pizza and said "I can't eat that,it has meat on it".We were shocked,hehe.None of us have really been teaching her about meat yet...but she probably hears us talking about amongst ourselves.

I just thought I would share.

Just cause you are an animal lover, doesn't mean you won't eat animals. I've probably read every children's animal story, and it didn't stop me I will not eat rabbit or deer as I raised rabbits for Easter pets and bottle fed a 3 week old fawn doe, so I can't eat them.

Am I the only one who feels more guilt eating animals I don't "know"?

I have slight twinges of guilt over my supermarket meat when I overthink it. I ate my own chickens without a shred of guilt. In fact, getting my own chickens is what got me started eating meat again after being a vegetarian for two years.

I seen another article that said the family were being investigated not because of the actual diet but because she had suffered so many fractures because of the bone density and the vegan diet was not helping

That's upsetting.
My son is a Vegan but he chose to do this himself.