Stop Blaming Bad Parenting On Vegansism!
Please. Stop saying parents that deprive their children of food is caused by a vegan diet. We have another case of bad parenting blamed on veganism and it really makes me mad. I know that our website is mostly about vegan recipes and vegan health information but I feel like I need to speak on this.
Several times in the past three years there have been stories of women arrested for mistreating their babies with a vegan diet. What has always turned out to be true was the the parents were starving their children or depriving them of certain nutrients. That’s not the fault of a vegan diet, that’s the fault of bad parenting.
The diet you feed your children is the same as the diet you feed yourself in regards to nutrition. It’s up to you to know and prepare on how to get the nutrition that you need. You can’t just guess at it and hope it turns out alright. But that doesn’t just apply to a vegan diet, that applies to any diet.
Now law makers are wanting to make it a crime to feed children a vegan diet. Yes, you read that right. If these lawmakers get their way, you could be put in prison for feeding your child a vegan diet. No matter how healthy they are and no matter the research, some elected morons would make the decision about your future.
According to CBS News, A Pennsylvania mother claiming to be vegan was charged this month with child endangerment for feeding her baby nothing but small amounts of nuts and berries. In Italy, after a number of vegan babies required hospitalization for malnourishment, a lawmaker this summer proposed a bill that would make it a crime to feed children under 16 a vegan diet.
This is outrageous! There are already laws on the books for parents who neglect their children and leave them malnourished. We don’t need a completely separate law that targets vegan parents. It’s pretty simple. If a parent is neglecting their child and starving them, that is a crime. Period. It doesn’t matter what “diet” they are using.
Just like you need to research your own diet, it’s even more important to do the research on what you feed your children. The fact is, children can thrive on a vegan diet if it is well planned with the correct variety of vegan food. The American Academy of Pediatrics confirms this in their own literature according to CBS.
The American Academy of Pediatrics’ book “Pediatric Nutrition” devotes a chapter to vegetarian and vegan diets. It describes how, with sound nutrition and dietary planning, “it is possible to provide a balanced diet to vegetarians and vegans.”
“For children in general you can have a safe vegan diet, but it has to be in consultation with a pediatrician or health care provider,” said Sheela Magge, an endocrinologist at the Children’s National Health System and a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ committee on nutrition. “These are critical times in brain development, and it has to be done carefully.”
Please contact your congress persons and senators on the state and national level. Let then know that these cases all have the same thing in common. It’s not the vegan part of the diet that is the problem. It’s the inadequacy of the diet that’s the problem. If you want to read more check out this article on CBS News.
