Danielle Moore
A vegan diet is not for babies and toddlers – they can suffer serious health problems and developmental delays. In a statement, a top-ranking research institute in Belgium is now even calling for a prison sentence for parents who feed their children a vegan diet if it harms them.
The Royal Academy of Belgium in Brussels describes the vegan diet of children as “unethical”. The reason: This form of nutrition can cause health problems and permanent brain damage in growing children.
Bernard Devos, the Government Official for Children’s Rights, had asked the Academy for comment. The goal: is to make it easier for the state to prosecute parents if their child is underdeveloped, sick, or disabled due to malnutrition.
Opinion of Belgian medical professionals
From the point of view of Belgian experts, a vegan diet is also tolerable for children if they are under strict medical supervision (e.g. through regular blood analyses) and receive vitamin supplements. According to a report by the Belgian “Le Soir”, those who do not comply with these requirements risk two years in prison, fines, and the removal of the child from the family – if the child develops health problems caused by the vegan diet.
Is Vegan Diet “Failure to Help?”
“When we are children, the body keeps making new brain cells. This is accompanied by a higher need for proteins and important fatty acids. The body cannot produce these itself – they have to be supplied by animal proteins,” explains Georges Casimir. The pediatrician headed the commission that wrote the report.
According to Casimir, possible consequences of such malnutrition are inhibited growth, delays in psychomotor development, lack of nutrients, and anemia. These problems can last a lifetime and cannot be completely reversed by subsequent dietary changes.
According to Casimir, the imposition of such an insufficient diet by the parents falls under the offense of failure to assist – this is punishable in Belgium with a prison sentence of up to two years. Nobody can be prosecuted for failure to assist if they are not aware that the person concerned is in danger – but the public statement from the Royal Academy of Belgium now makes it common knowledge that a vegan diet can kill in extreme cases.
Children as victims of forced malnutrition
Bernard Devos’ initiative was based on cases such as that of a seven-month-old baby who died in Belgium in 2017 as a result of malnutrition. His parents only gave him plant-based milk substitutes to drink.
A case from Australia caused a stir last week, in which a one-and-a-half-year-old child was only as developed as healthy children at three months – here, too, the child’s strict vegan diet was the cause of the severe developmental delay. In Germany, too, cases of malnourished children, some of whom suffer permanent damage, occur again and again as a result of veganism. These are isolated cases – nevertheless, doctors in this country advise against a purely vegan diet for children.
That’s what German experts say about vegan nutrition for children
A major concern for many nutritionists when it comes to veganism is one nutrient—vitamin B12. This vitamin is necessary for blood formation. The body can only produce very small amounts of it and is dependent on absorbing the nutrient through food – and this is practically only possible through animal products.
Adults typically have a “store” of vitamin B12 built up in the liver that lasts three to five years. That’s why it can happen that vegans only notice deficiency symptoms a few years after changing their diet – namely when their vitamin B12 stores are depleted.
In a study published in 2017, scientists at the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment concluded that although a vegan diet makes sense for adults, it has many health benefits, such as lower average cholesterol levels and a reduced risk of diabetes. In addition, according to the study, adult vegans usually have a high-risk awareness and “nutritional knowledge” – that is, they are aware of the dangers of a nutrient deficiency and take vitamin supplements if necessary.
However, the experts advise against a vegan diet for infants and small children as well as pregnant women and breastfeeding mothers – because children do not yet have any stores for vitamin B12 and other nutrients. If they lack vitamins and important fats such as omega-3 fatty acids, the consequences can be neurological maldevelopments in addition to blood deficiency.
In 2016, the German Society for Nutrition (DGE) issued a position paper on vegan nutrition based on the current study situation: “Vegan nutrition is not recommended by the DGE for pregnant women, breastfeeding women, infants, children, and young people.”
