Lactating mothers on plant based diets?...

[Veggiesaurus]

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/ ... ther-dies/

Now i know the article is very vague, it isn't known if the mother was supplementing herself adequately with B12 or not, or what state of health she was in before, during and after her pregnancy. Nor if she was eating a sound balanced diet, as this child was also Vit A deficient.

But what perplexes me is if plant sources of Vit A are suitable in place of meat sources? Some doctors say yes, others say no.

What is your take on this?? I am so confused..

Below is an article by Chris Kresser, M.S., L.Ac
http://healthybabycode.com/why-you-cant ... vegetables

[blueberries]

I'm not sure why this article from two years ago has been making the rounds, but I've seen other articles posted about this case.

This poor baby died because he had pneumonia and his parents opted for homegrown herbal treatments instead of antibiotics. It could be he says B12 deficient, but perhaps his mother didn't supplement. It's pretty well known that vegans do need to supplement their diets with B12, nursing moms included.

As far as the article you posted, I don't take nutritional advice from a random acupuncturist off the Internet. I don't agree with a lot of things on his site and don't consider him any sort of authority.

[Jenna]

It is really interesting that you have asked this question in this way. I am a former Paleo/GAPS/WAPF eater who has been McDougalling for 5ish months. I am also nursing a baby who is almost 6 months old. With my previous baby, I ate paleo while I was nursing and I had a number of issues. I ended up consulting with Chris Kresser (which was very $$$, but he did help me figure some things out).

Anyway, I have been McDougalling for most of my nursling's life, and he is huge and extremely healthy. His growth has been almost identical to his older brothers' and I have had an oversupply of milk with all of my children. My diet seems to matter very little in terms of my nurslings' health and growth.

McDougalling has provided me a number of benefits that Paleo just couldn't fix, most especially the belly pain I was constantly having on Paleo, no matter what I did differently.

As for vitamin A, etc, I think the Paleo folks, Chris Kresser and many others, focus WAY too much on tiny details like that, and it doesn't usually help anyone. If you are concerned about vitamin deficiencies, get a blood test after a few months and see if there are any. Most people don't need to consume anything super special to get the necessary vitamins. I do take a raw food prenatal and b12.