How ignorant is that comment you made! "You should eat what God put on the planet" and then to say that vegan diets are bad. What in the world do you think that diet is made up of??? EXACTLY what God put on this planet!!! Nothing bad is on this diet...does it include what all is needed, doesn't seem to, but certainly does include what God put on this plant.

The vegan diet is NOT unhealthy. I've known people who have raised vegetarian/vegan children and they are very healthy kids. These parents obviously had no idea what they were doing and were abusive and neglectful rather than looking out for the best interests of the child.

One other comment. This poor little girl is sick because, as the article states, she has a lack of vitamin D. This alone proves it's not because she was on a vegan diet but that her parents were intentionally starving her. Anyone who gets enough of the right vegetables and fruit and sunlight or even supplements, will get their vitamin D.

i think its sick that someone would do that to thier child diets like that are intended for people who have come about that decision themselves, not for children being forced to live a lifestyle thats not what god intended and as far as the girl who commented on that comment being ignorant... your ignorant if you really believe that a 12 year old girl would have made that decision herself...its people like you that end up in these situations

Please dont make uninformed comments like that.
I have been a vegan for 7 years and im perfectly healthy. But then again i know what im doing. I make sure my family and I get what we need.
As with any diet if you dont know what your doing serious health issues will arise.
I choose to pick a diet that dosent come with all kinds of added hormones,antibioticsand cruelty. And my diet is more ecologically sound. preserving "what god put on this earth" as you put it.
There are idiots prescribing to every diet. dont lump us all in together.

Yea, because my son wants to eat candy and Popsicles and cookies all the time and I should just let him!!!

I have one word for the parents, JAIL,,then they should be fixed so they can't have any more children!!!!!!!!!!!!

You're right!

I should stop, immediately, telling children that in our culture, cockroaches are not suitable food. Neither are dogs and cats - in our culture.

And, I should also stop telling them, in response to their query (and I honestly wish I knew where they got this from) that "That's right, we DO NOT eat poo-poo." (I think they ask because the response is funny. How funny it will be when I say that we can eat it after all!)

Rena, you know nothing about being a vegan. I've been one for 28 years, during which I was a competing body builder. How stupid today's youth are!!!!

It's not fair telling kids what they can and can't eat??!!! Okay, I'll let my kids eat nothing but cotton candy, chocolate bars and ice cream. That's what they chose to eat, and how dare I try to enforce my personal beliefs about having a balanced healthy diet on my kids!!!
Grow up and stop using your god as an excuse for your stupidity!

Lauren- the parents must be ignorant but not new to a vegan lifestyle if, as the article says, "her condition was caused by the strict vegan diet she was raised on since birth."

I am a vegetarian and have been for 17 years. Neither my husband or children are vegan or vegetarian. They (my kids) will make their own choices when they are old enough to do so. I am not a "veggie-nazi" for several reasons, but mainly because zealots detract from a cause not promote it. Nobody likes a holier than thou, in your face, maniac trying to educate him/her. It makes a person defensive and prone to do just the opposite. Simple psychology- tell me I can't do something and that's the first thing I'm going to do. But my daughter has a chronic, auto-immune illness and I'd bet $100 the medications she requires have been tested on animals and she still takes them and I'm the one giving them to her. My children's health always comes first!

Parents likes those mentioned in this article are ignorant and dangerous, and confuse "compassion" with "common sense." Even the PETA website cautions against an uneducated trek into veganism, and stresses nutrutional education when making the decision to become vegetarian or vegan. (From PETA's website "Vitamin D—Cow’s milk does not naturally contain vitamin D; it’s added later. Vitamin D-enriched soy milk provides this nutrient without the animal fat. A child who spends as little as 10 to 15 minutes three times a week playing in the sunshine, with arms and face exposed, will get sufficient vitamin D because it is synthesized in the skin when the skin is exposed to sunlight.(32)") There are other facts about sources for protein, B12, Calcium etc. and yes I know sunscreen isn't mentioned but again- common sense...

I can tell you most meat products make me ill when I ingest them (I've had burritoes made with lard and gotten violently ill. My own fault- I didn't ask if the beans were cut with lard...) But I don't let my concern for animal welfare interfere with my family's health- EVER! By definition, people are animals too, and that shouldn't be forgotten in the overall thread of the discussion on what constitutes animal cruelty. Thank you for reading....

I became a vegetarian after practicing Buddhism for several months. I stopped eating meat during a yearly visit with a senior monk and then never had the urge to start again. Its not difficult if there is a practice and sincere realization behind it. I live in the deep south, so I don't get any social benefit from it. I am much healthier than I used to be, but vegans have more problems when it comes to getting adequate nutrition.

WHAT DO YOU MEAN "YOUNG" PARENTS?!EITHER YOU ARE A FIT PARENT OR YOUR NOT! IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH AGE!

Just because parents are young, it doesn't mean that they are degenerates, Let's get that straight. How do you make an assumtion like that on this kind of information?

How ignorant, that diet isn't good for anyone, especialy kids. See what happens when you buck nature? Your body needs a little of everything. Learn from this.

I agree with you. The problem is not the vegan/vegetarian lifystyle in itself, but those pushing it on our society. I think that the major cause of all this is the impact that animal rights groups are having on kids and young adults. In elementary and highschool, I remember PETA handing out fliers on how animals were killed and that they should not be eaten. YET nowhere in that pamphlet did it have information on proper diet alternatives. I , and a few others stopped eating meat for a couple weeks but we didn't do any research or supplement our diets. We just stopped eating animals. That is what most kids do...stop eating chicken, meat, and living off of salad and pasta...then 1-2 years down the road have iron deficiencies, and others.

The fact is PETA, HSUS, and other AR groups push their rhetoric on our youth, overstepping their boundaries because nutrition should be left up to parents/physicians, NOT an AR group. I don't know how our government can allow such groups to do that to our children. If adults have made the decision to be vegan, after researching all the pros/cons etc then I applaud them for it. But realistically most children and teens WON'T do the research, and end up with health issues all because one AR grous had to show them photos of dead animals in slaughetr houses. There is a time and place for everything. Our schools should NOT be the place for AR rhetoric to be spewed.

Lauren, just because you were a victim of the lastest trend to become a vegetarian, doesn't mean everyone else who made the switch from meat to veggies had the same intentions as you -- to be cool. Be careful how you choose your words. No one likes to be categorized especially when their change of lifestyle was made wholeheartedly.

I have to say, to be "young" parents with a 12 year old -- she would have had to have been what...12 when she conceived her child? My guess is they are just uneducated, not stupid, just uneducated.