Pregnancy, Children, and the Vegan Diet

I thought this book is very informative in many ways and covers basic nutrition principles that many people have little or no knowledge of. I am working toward a degree in nutrition and feel this book is a very valuable source in my growing collection of books. As for the reveiwer who thinks vegan children do not grow healthy and strong he/she must have been doing something terribly wrong because I have not personally known a single vegan child who is small or sickly including my own. My children are vegan, have strong immune systems (not vaccinated either) and rarely ever get sick. My children are naturally slim and healthy but are not small for their ages and our family pediatrician comments on my children as being among the healthiest in his practice. I think a properly balanced vegan diet can benefit all persons from birth.

Vegan parents-to-be will be inspired and reassured by Dr. Klapers compelling, well-documented arguments in support of veganism during pregnancy, lactation, and childhood. For me, the most valuable part of the book was the extensive collection of parents' stories and photographs of healthy, happy children. Dr. Klaper provides not only helpful food guides (to replace the omnivorous "4 Food Groups") but also details food sources of nutrients which may be of greater concern to vegans (protein, iron, calcium, B12). I would have liked to see a discussion of how to cope with "morning" sickness (for me it lasted all day) and finicky toddlers. Why do books for omnivores say "don't worry if all you eat is soda crackers for the first trimester" or "don't worry if your toddler eats nothing but Cheerios for a week" but books for vegans make it seem like we must always eat a widely varied, perfectly balanced diet? Because this is an older book, some of the advice (e.g. breastfeeding, use of juices, introduction of solids) does not reflect current knowledge. This book is still definitely worth having on hand, but I would suggest supplementing it with the more recent _Becoming_Vegetarian_ by Vesanto Melina et al. Thanks to Dr. Klaper's encouragement, I resisted pressure to feed my baby meat. He is now a tall, intelligent, healthy, sturdy, lively, loveable two-year-old, and vegan!

This is a very wonderful book and very educational. Any one who thinks this book is child abuse (see other customer reviews) didn't pay much attention to this book and has listened too much to the "you have to drink milk and eat meat to grow strong and live and be healthy" stuff that we've heard all of our lives.It is truly a wonderful book, as is his book "vegan Nutrition: Pure and Simple"!