Vegan Diet May Be Harmful For Children

Going vegan is currently a hit in Italy. Children are suffering and being hospitalized due to the vegan diet their parents are giving them.

Recently, series of kids have been rushed to the hospital in Italy after the vegan craze surfaced. A 14-month old baby was rushed to the hospital in Milan, Italy by his grandparents and the doctors were horrified with what they witnessed, USA Today reported.

The baby was severely malnourished that he weighed closely on what a 3 month old usually weighs. The calcium and iron levels of the baby were extremely low which led to him acquiring a congenital heart condition which resulted to him having an emergency surgery. 

The operation was successful and now recovering. The doctors found out that the parents of the baby had kept him on a strict vegan diet and did not provide him any dietary supplements which made him lack dangerous amounts of calcium and iron resulting to congenital heart problems. The staff of the hospital reported the incident to the social services resulting to the parents losing their custodial rights to their child. 

According to Luca Bernardo, director of pediatrics at the Milan hospital, "This forces us to reflect on uncommon feeding regimes, even if in this case it was complicated by a cardiac malformation, It is not a problem to choose different or unusual kinds of nutrition and we certainly do not want to enter into a discussion of the merits of the decision. But since birth, the baby should have had support in this case with calcium and iron." 

Five kids including a toddler have been hospitalized in the last 18 months. A 2 year old kid was hospitalized in Genoa for lacking nutrition and vitamins while another 11 month old baby was also rushed to the hospital for the same problem. In 2011, a French couple was charged with child neglect when their 11 month old baby died due to malnutrition. 

Almost 3 percent of Italy's population are now vegan.