There are many different diets that adults can get to do without putting our health at risk, at least in the short term, due to the fact that we are no longer developing.
This means that babies and children, who are growing at high speed and whose brain is increasing and with it their abilities, need a healthy and varied diet that makes it possible for them to develop in the best conditions. The fact that a baby or child suffers from deficiencies can be very dangerous and even affect for life, as we saw with the girl who was left with a mental disability for taking poorly prepared bottles.
The last scare that some parents have had, related to food, is that of 2-year-old daughter's admission to the Intensive Care Unit because of a poorly controlled vegan diet which caused him various shortcomings.
They suspected neurological damage
His name is Chiara, he is two years old, and as we read on ABC, he entered the very thin Gaslini hospital in Genoa a few days ago, moving slowly, with little vitality and with reduced stimulus reactivity. These symptoms made doctors think that could have neurological damage and decided to enter it into intensive care.
When doing the analytics they saw that he had very low hemoglobin values and one significant vitamin B12 deficiency. Both factors are dangerous for a child's neurological and psychomotor development, so they treated her as soon as possible to try to restore these values.
The parents explained that at home they wore a vegan diet and that the girl never ate any food of animal origin (remember that in the vegan diet the meat, fish, eggs and milk are suppressed). For a long time she was breastfeeding the little girl, but as we all know and we have explained on more than one occasion, from the year on, breast milk is a great food (the best there is, in fact), but it happens to be one more of the food that a boy or girl of that age has to receive to get all the nutrients you need.
Now the girl is better, out of danger, and evolves favorably.
It is not the first case and the juvenile court could analyze the case
The case of the girl has generated a great controversy in Italy, where in just over a year they have seen two more cases of children who arrived at the hospital in a serious situation as a result of a diet with diverse deficiencies.
For this reason, the juvenile court could analyze the case Well, although a baby or child can have a vegan diet, the requirements are very specific and evolution must be controlled by an expert pediatrician, or for a double of nutritionist and pediatrician, in order to supplement possible deficiencies that may appear.
In other words, it is such a restrictive diet at an age so compromised that it is advised that a child carry out routine checks to see if at any time it could be presenting a deficiency (usually of vitamin B12, zinc, iron and / or folic acid).
In this sense Alberto Ferrando, president of the pediatric association of the Liguria region, said the following to the newspaper "La Repubblica":
Veganism is a very rigid dietary regimen, which a child can only follow on condition that it is followed, with continuous checkups, by a pediatrician, so that he can intervene immediately when there are deficiencies of vitamins or other elements, deficiencies that can be Dangerous for the child's health.
Be very careful, because the development of babies and children is at stake
In addition to this case, and the one I mentioned at the beginning of the entry, I remember that in Spain a few months ago a baby had to be admitted with scurvy, because of a significant vitamin C deficit. On this occasion, the parents followed a recommendation from a doctor who, given a possible allergy to artificial milk, instead of recommending a hydrolyzed formula, told the parents that they should feed the baby with a liquid preparation that included milk and almond flour, sesame powder, brown rice malt, millet and probiotics.
The fact is that with our body we can do one or the other experiments because we no longer have to grow or develop, so we can survive temporary deficiencies, even if it is not healthy. But nevertheless, Babies need various micro and macronutrients, and a lack can make the difference between growing more or growing less, and between developing properly or having a deficit.
Update 07/02/2016
Italian Senator Lello Ciampolillo came out to explain his version of what has happened in the case of this girl. Apparently, the girl does eat cheese, so could not be considered completely vegan (maybe it's ovolactovegetarian). Dairy products are foods rich in protein and vitamin B12, and although in many cases it may be enough, in others, as probably in children, it may not be.
The girl was in weaning process (We understand that the mother was intentionally removing her breast, and not what we know as gradual weaning, which is what occurs from 6 months of age, when a baby begins to eat more and breastfeed less), and the senator ( and other publications), seem to blame at weaning.
Well, it is clear that we will not get very clear with these two versions, the newspaper and the senator, so I tell you what I think it is and then everyone who leaves their opinions: it is true that weaning in some cases is a bit complex, especially if by that time the boy or girl barely eats other foods. Take, for example, a 7-month-old baby who has started eating recently, who does not eat much, and whose mother suddenly blows her breast. Surely for a few days he will have a bad time and may have some temporary deficiency, but that will not affect his health unless it lengthens in time, and if so, it is certain that if the mother sees that it is affected in the least, he will return to Breastfeeding or seek a solution without letting you run the risk of entering an ICU. Come on blaming the weaning of a 2-year-old girl seems totally reckless, because at 2 years the tit is another food, and although it is a time to take a lot of breast, with 2 years a girl is very able to eat other things and replace the lack of breast milk.
Now, if I had cheese and other dairy products, why did I end up in the ICU? Well, despite these foods the girl must have lacks. Deficiencies that have been restored by supplementing in the hospital.
That's why I don't retract what I said yesterday: the girl's diet should have been controlled by some expert who would have recommended the necessary supplements not to end up in the hospital. And if in the end none of this is true and the girl is in the hospital for something else, the recommendation is the same for other children who have the same diet: that an expert will control it, because a vegan diet is ethically beyond reproach, but it is not a balanced diet.
