Mom is raising baby on a vegan diet, but is it safe? Experts weigh in
A mom on TikTok sparked outrage after sharing that she feeds her baby vegan food.
Natasha Callahan, who regularly posts light-hearted TikTok videos, received backlash after sharing with her followers that she is raising her child 100% vegan.
"There was people telling us I was being selfish and abusing my child because I'm not giving her meat," Callahan told "Good Morning America." "And then there was other people saying, 'Don't be silly, it's a great thing.'"
Callahan -- whose video garnered over 20,000 views in less than three days -- never expected that revealing her daughter's diet would lead to a mom-shaming onslaught.
While many have voiced their concerns over Callahan's diet choice for her baby, doctors say that when it comes to kids, especially infants, a vegan diet can be safe but parents should be cautious.
"It can be safe to raise an infant, toddler or child in a vegan diet," Pediatrician Dr. Wendy Sue Swanson, told "GMA."
According to a study conducted in Poland a published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, children who follow vegan or vegetarian diets had less body fat and a healthier cardiovascular profile than children who ate meat, but researchers warn that vegan diets may affect growth, bone mineral content and micronutrient status.
"I think with careful planning, with thoughtful additions to a vegan diet or plant based diet, it might be that you modify a vegan diet in early life and then move to a full vegan diet as a child ages out of those critical periods of development," Swanson said.
Callahan is currently breastfeeding and feeding her daughter solid vegan foods, but says when her daughter is old enough, it will ultimately be up to her whether she remains a lifelong vegan.
"If she comes to me and says I don't want to be vegan, then she doesn't have to be vegan anymore," Callahan said.
