The Vegan Diet - Special Concerns

Special Concerns: Pregnancy, Infants, and Children

During pregnancy, nutritional needs increase.

The American Dietetic Association has found vegan diets adequate for fulfilling nutritional needs during pregnancy, but pregnant women and nursing mothers should supplement their diets with vitamins B12 and D.

Most doctors also recommend that pregnant women
supplement their diet with iron and folic acid,
although vegetarians normally consume
more folic acid than meat-eaters.

Vegetarian women have a lower incidence of
pre-eclampsia in pregnancy,
and significantly more pure breast milk.

Analyses of vegetarians’ breast milk show that the levels of environmental contaminants in their milk
are much lower than in non-vegetarians.¹²

Studies have also shown that in families with a history of food allergies,
when women abstain from allergenic foods, including milk, meat, and fish,
during pregnancy, they are less likely to pass allergies onto the infant.¹³

Mothers who drink milk pass cow antibodies along to their nursing infants through their breast milk. These antibodies can cause colic.

Vegetarian children also have high nutritional needs,
but these, too, are met within a vegetarian diet.

A vegetarian menu is life-extending.
As young children, vegetarians may grow more gradually,
reach puberty somewhat later,
and live substantially longer than do meat-eaters.

Do be sure to include a reliable source of vitamin B12.

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12. Hergenrather J, Hlady G, Wallace B, Savage E. Pollutants in breast milk of vegetarians (letter).
N Engl J Med 1981;304:792.
13. Allergies in infants are linked to mother’s diets. New York Times, 30 August 1990.