As I covered in my last video, the American Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics considers plant-based diet suitable for pregnancy, as well as during lactation, infancy, and childhood, when they are well-planned.

So what goes into planning a well-balanced plant-based

diet for infants and kids? For infants, breast milk is the basis of nutrition, consisting not

only of critical nutrients, but also immune-boosting compounds providing both short and long-term

benefits. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding exclusively for the first six months of life, and continuing withterm benefits. The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding

exclusively for the first six months of life

and continuing with the introduction

of complementary foods.

What do we know about the breast milk composition

of plant-based moms?

Vegetarian and vegan mothers provide breast milk

with comparable nutritional value,

with a couple important caveats.

In a direct comparison of breast milk from

omnivore and vegetarian or vegan moms, the notable difference was lower DHA, the long chain

omega-3, and the milk from plant-based moms due to their avoiding fish, which is probably a good

thing given how contaminated the aquatic food chain is. Thankfully,

ensuring proper supplementation with pollutant-free sources can bridge this gap, just like

when there's proper supplementation with vitamin B-12. So provided that women are eating enough

to cover their nutritional requirements and supplementing with DHA and vitamin B-12, vegan

moms can produce nutritionally similar milk.

But what about case reports like this,

...