Vegan kids

[etherspin]

an update .. we got the extra ultrasound and as predicted by myself and wifey .. its all her physiology inherited from her mum .. she is actually "showing" far more than her mum was at this point in her pregnancies ..as for the small baby undernourish baby the midwife was trying to scare us about ... its huge, 76th percentile , at 33 weeks its growth had surpassed 34 and like us both it has long legs and is energetic .

dumbasses

[Alistar]

Good going etherspin and your wife!! Don't listen to all the fear based bullshit

My 3 kids birthweights were 8lbs10 oz, 8lbs8oz(girl) and 9lbs11oz. All vegan since conception...
As you can tell all were obviously really undernourished

My 13yr old son is a lot taller and heavier than I was at the same age( eating meat all my life) so go figure...

[xrodolfox]

Congrats! That said, my kids have always been at the 50th percentile.

[DB]

My boy is about the 50th percentile, but my daughter is at about the 3rd. Then again, she hardly eats. We all but stuff food down her mouth, and all of it as energy dense as we can muster. She's just small. Was born BIG at nearly 5 kilos, but dropped slowly down from there. Plenty active though, lots of energy and does great in school. I guess we'll see if she gets a late growth spurt. My brothers daughter was the same way, on an omni diet and they even went to doctors to find out if anything was wrong, but just had a really late growth spurt. She's quite normal sized now. Hopefully she'll grow sometime.

[mabli]

I think my two daughters are shorter than they would have been if they's consumed cows' milk, both their Dads are tall and Im quite tall so geneticaly they should probably been above average height.

I dont think height relates to health but it does annoy them that they might have been taller but for veganism. Eldest is 5 foot six, youngest will prob be a bit taller she only 12, both were vegan from conception

Same with my best friend's kid who was vegan from conception and is much shorter than parents

[xrodolfox]

Yeah, but health =/= weight or size.

I can see how it is annoying, though.

[vegieburger]

I'm 5'4 and my daughter's father is 5'10, so both below average height and our daughter is tall for her age (has always been between 90th and 95th percentile) she is the tallest in her class and is the only vegan in her class. There are probably so many factors that can impact height, if a child is healthy I wouldn't be concerned. Also everyone grows at different rates, some people shoot up at some point in their teens and others have almost stopped growing by then.

[etherspin]

[quote="mabli"]I think my two daughters are shorter than they would have been if they's consumed cows' milk, both their Dads are tall and Im quite tall so geneticaly they should probably been above average height.

I dont think height relates to health but it does annoy them that they might have been taller but for veganism. Eldest is 5 foot six, youngest will prob be a bit taller she only 12, both were vegan from conception

Same with my best friend's kid who was vegan from conception and is much shorter than parents

[quote="etherspin"][quote="mabli"]I think my two daughters are shorter than they would have been if they's consumed cows' milk, both their Dads are tall and Im quite tall so geneticaly they should probably been above average height.

I dont think height relates to health but it does annoy them that they might have been taller but for veganism. Eldest is 5 foot six, youngest will prob be a bit taller she only 12, both were vegan from conception

Same with my best friend's kid who was vegan from conception and is much shorter than parents

[vegimator]

This is an interesting study about female height and dairy consumption-

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19505921

"Of the foods/nutrients studied, dairy protein had the strongest association with height growth. These findings suggest that a factor in the nonlipid phase of milk, but not protein itself, has growth-promoting action in girls."

[ObiWanKenobi]

Read this:
Too much meat, dairy raises breast cancer risk
..."Overall, we observed that there was a higher risk of breast cancer among women who ate foods rich in animal fat such as red meat, cheese, ice cream and butter during their 20s, 30s and 40s," Cho said. ...
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s903406.htm

Perhaps they grow higher because of the bovine growth hormones in dairy products, that trigger tumour growth too

[Alistar]

Yeah I would suspect that vegans would be slightly shorter than their omni counterparts, if you could compare a decent population of vegans (say 100,000 covering all demographics), with the same number of omni's etc.

However we'd be a hell of a lot lighter thats for sure! Mostly due to the fact that vegan diets aren't as energy dense and generally contain more fibre etc etc. Some of my omni cycling friends stop training and in no time at all have put on 5kgs. I slob around for half a year and I put on 2kgs which seems to be about my ceiling. Not that I'm complaining!

Maybe there is something in dairy that makes people grow taller than they otherwise would? A cow is 440kg (av NZ dairycow) and produces milk perfectly suited to their calves, which grow a hell of a lot quicker than their human equivalents! Or again is this just mostly due to milks calorie content?

Genetics is the main factor I would suspect. My partner is 5ft4 and her sister is 5ft10 Both had exactly the same diets etc. To look at them you'd hardly even think they were related.

I used to drink gallons of milk as a kid, as I refused to drink the local yukky tapwater and from the age of 5 would have consumed at least a pint a day. Didn't make me any taller unfortunately as at 5ft11 am the shortest man in my family. Both my Mum and Dad are tall...Damned brother is 6ft2! Grrrr! I feel duped!

Anyway will be interesting to see how tall my son gets. Theory versus reality and all that

[vegimator]

[quote="ObiWanKenobi"]Read this:
Too much meat, dairy raises breast cancer risk
..."Overall, we observed that there was a higher risk of breast cancer among women who ate foods rich in animal fat such as red meat, cheese, ice cream and butter during their 20s, 30s and 40s," Cho said. ...
http://www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s903406.htm

Perhaps they grow higher because of the bovine growth hormones in dairy products, that trigger tumour growth too

[Andrewc]

If I ever chose to have kids my biggest fear would be dealing with relatives. My parents have raised myself, my sister and spend a lot of time caring for my sister's children, and my girlfriend has four other siblings and between them they have about ten kids. So between all of these people there is a lot of experience in raising children and being the first to go against the grain and raise our child/ren vegan would be quite controversial. I know already which family members would be respectful and those who would be very against it and feed them non-vegan food to spite us. As young adults we occassionally still experience the "it's not healthy for you" even though we are the healthiest in our families, so I can only imagine what it would be like once kids are brought into the equation.

When it comes to doctors and veganism I don't even listen. I'm yet to meet a doctor who knows what a vegan actually is, so I have little interest in taking the advice of a concerned doctor who thinks that vegans eat chicken...

[Andrewc]

[quote="Alistar"]
I used to drink gallons of milk as a kid, as I refused to drink the local yukky tapwater and from the age of 5 would have consumed at least a pint a day. Didn't make me any taller unfortunately as at 5ft11 am the shortest man in my family. Both my Mum and Dad are tall...Damned brother is 6ft2! Grrrr! I feel duped!

Anyway will be interesting to see how tall my son gets. Theory versus reality and all that