There has been a lot of controversy lately when it comes to what we should be feeding our infants and how much. More recently there have been moves in Italy to create a law against raising your child vegan and more specifically, you could spend time in jail if you are convicted. A couple of months ago two adults were placed in jail because they fed their infant a "vegan" diet who was then hospitalized for malnourishment.

There have been many cases like this one floating around social media and the internet that not only give veganism a bad name but lead others to believe that being vegan is not something to be celebrated but to instead be criticized. There are a couple of points that I would like to bring up that make articles like this untrustworthy and misleading.

Infants are expected to only drink breastmilk (and eat a very small amount of food) until they are at least two years of age. During this time all of their nutrients will come from breast milk and other food fed to them is only to help them learn how to eat more solid food. Therefore, any infant that dies before the age of two due to malnutrition has nothing to do with being "vegan" but instead to do with neglectful parents and odd eating choices. In this example, the two-year-old was fed a diet of mostly apple juice and soy milk with little-to-no breast milk. Again this has nothing to do with vegans or the vegan diet, this is strictly in the hands of the ill-informed parents who happened to be neglectful.

Also, it is important to notice the lack of articles stating, "Infant Dies From Being Fed A Standard American Diet." This happens far to often, yet is not spoken of because the idea of a vegan parent "killing" their child is just far too interesting to ignore. According to dietary experts, a child will be raised healthier on a vegan diet (if done correctly), then on the standard American diet which can lead to extreme medical problems and childhood obesity.

Another couple in France was charged with manslaughter due to the vitamin deficiency that killed their infant. This is once again a story based around the idea that veganism killed the child when in fact it was acts of the neglectful parenting that saw the child to the end.

Before jumping to a negative opinion of vegans after reading misleading articles such as these, do your unbiased research and get educated on the amazing benefits of veganism and what it can do for our health.