<p>My daughter and her husband are vegetarians and they do not even eat poultry or fish. They have a 1 year old baby. I am unfamiliar with vegetarianism and am a little worried about the baby. Should she let her pediatrician know about the vegetarianism? She says she doesn’t need to.</p>
<p>They should probably see a nutritionist.</p>
<p>I don’t know the professional answer. I have good friend’s who have raised their children as vegans. They are all extremely healthy and strong athletic kids who have reached young adulthood unscarred. They also don’t eat sugar.</p>
<p>Is there any reason not to let the pediatrician know? It doesn’t seem like that could hurt anything. There have been a few stories in the media lately of parents, generally vegan ones, feeding their nursing babies soy milk instead of either breast milk or formula - which can lead to bad vitamin deficiencies. This is probably the really important thing.</p>
<p>I think it’s the meateaters (like me) who should worry about our kids.</p>
<p>Iron. </p>
<p>They should include their MD in on what they are doing. It’s not that they are doing something wrong, but an MD is only as good as the information given. An MD should be able to make suggestions (even everything’s fine) with the most information possible. A child’s diet should be part of that conversation.</p>
<p>Our family is vegetarian and my son has been vegetarian from birth as well. He turned out great! Don’t sweat it. However, he’s ovo-lacto-vegetarian, so he gets plenty of animal protein.</p>
<p>My question is do they not trust their pediatrician? How could they feel they were providing maximum history w/o basics such as diet? Sounds to me they should have “interviewed” for a physician who would support their dietary choice rather than hide such information. Why worry about something you cannot intervene in? You have no standing so don’t worry.</p>
<p>If physicians as a whole knew anything substantive about nutriton, 35% percent of the country wouldn’t be obese, with diabetes and hypertension at all-time highs.</p>
<p>The consumption of corn syrup and corn fructose went from an average of half a pound in 1973, to 73 lbs.-plus today. Did physicians not notice a change? In the main, haven’t they been part of the problem rather than the solution? Did they not notice that 11% of their patients are alcohol or drug dependent but only refer 2% of their patients to treatment? </p>
<p>(I’m married to a nurse, and am fine with my doctor - it’s just that as a whole they seemed to have made a point to know very little about much other than illness care.)</p>
<p>All valid points and as such many physicians are not great at taking history.</p>
<p>My 16-year-old D has been vegetarian since the age of 1 (when my H, S and I switched over). She’s 5’7" and 130 pounds and a good athlete. Hardly ever sick. We might have mentioned it to our family doctor (I can’t remember) but if so, he didn’t say anything, didn’t recommend supplements, didn’t raise an eyebrow. We gave the kids a multi-vitamin growing up (and even today) but that’s it. Wish we had been more firm on the sugar foods, including for ourselves, but alas…</p>
<p>My H, the pediatrician (former, anyway) would agree that MD’s do not get enough nutrition training (at least when he was in med school 20 years ago.) He would also agree with you, Mini, on the scariness of the bizarre increase in corn sugars in the American diet.</p>
<p>He’s also supports vegetarianism, though we are not now at present.</p>
<p>BHG–the important thing is that your family is well educated in how to do vegetarianism healthily–which is not hard to do.</p>
<p>Gosh, my vegetarian from birth niece just had a baby of her own, highly healthy. Nutrition is important, and I think vegetarians do a better job of it than most omnivores.</p>
<p>You never specifically said that the kid was being raised veggie. It’s possible that the parents have chosen to raise their kid with meat and let him or her choose for him- or herself later on.</p>
<p>If they are raising their kid veggie, they absolutely do need to let the doctor know. I am a vegetarian, and I always check it off on the forms I fill out for yearly checkups, and my various pediatricians have always talked to me about how I get protein, etc. Sounds like your daughter knows what she’s doing, but there’s no harm in telling the doctor what’s up. The worst that can happen is the doctor disapproves, but can’t change anything, and the best that could happen is they could learn something new about how to keep their kid healthy on their chosen diet.</p>
<p>HAZ your post #8 makes very good points - the pediatrician needs to be a part of the team when it comes to the health of ones kiddos. Many kiddos are brought up vegi/vegan - and are healthy kiddos. If the parents have a long history of vegi/vegan they are most likely very well versed in the dietary needs - and that can easily be transferred to their own babes safely. The doc/pedi should be at least informed of the families choices in order to work with that family effectively.</p>
<p>Because my son had a rare/potentially serious dietary problem at a very young age and when I had major difficulties with pediatricials at that time - I did search far and wide - high and low - for a pediatrician who ‘‘understood’’ those issues when my daughter was on the way - found just the right one and it made a huge difference when the time came to investigate whether she would also have those issues. HA - I actually fired my son’s pedi in this process - he would not even discuss the upcoming birth and potential issues - so GONE!!! he was.</p>
<p>I wouldn’t recommend being a vegetarian, but if you must, be sure to pay attention to protein intake. I suggest soy and legumes to make up for meats.</p>
<p>Why would you not recommend being a vegetarian, Ilove? Too crunchy and granolaish?</p>
<p>I have been a vegetarian for 20+ years, as has my DH. We have raised our children as vegetarians from birth, and they are extremely healthy, albeit thin. Occasionally, one child eats fish.</p>
<p>There are plenty of protein sources if people eat dairy, beans, soy. It has simply never been a problem. I do think it is important for the baby to drink milk.</p>
<p>Doctors are mainly concerned about children growing well, and as long as the baby is growing and developing normally, I wouldn’t worry at all.</p>
<p>Why does this thread remind me of the Southpark episode that was on last night about the hybyrd cars? :)</p>
<p>My wife has been vegetarian for 40+ and I have been for 20+. Our daughters are vegetarian as well. The community in which we live is largely vegetarian and on average lives 7 years longer than the average Californian.
<a href=“http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/feature1/[/url]”>http://www7.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0511/feature1/</a></p>
<p>hazmat and others;Thank you Hazmat. You are absolutely right. Do you have grown children? I think D just doesn’t think like me. Right now she says, “I’m giving him the little jars of Gerber’s with chicken, etc.” You and I know that is all going to change very soon. No, she is using whole milk, no soy. That’s fine. And giving him scrambled eggs, too. I think it is the sort of thing the pediatrican should know. I’m having a little hard time getting through to her.Of course she is raising the baby her way and she is doing an excellent job! You just can’t have the wisdom of 50 at 24. Yeah, I’m going to stress the importance of doctor being a part of the team.
Also, I’ve heard of the iron, too.</p>