The 2016 position says

>[Vegetarian and vegan] diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes.

Though I normally encourage vegetarianism and admire vegans, I wouldn't stick to strictly a vegan diet during pregnancy.

From an economic/environmental perspective, severely limiting your intake of animal products is nearly as good as avoiding them completely, and nutritionally you're on much more solid ground.

My son has been vegan for his entire life. He’s 4 now and very healthy.

I was vegan for 5 years and about 6 months ago started eating meat and dairy again for reasons unrelated to food. I was raised in a household that ate meat with almost every meal. I have personally experienced pros and cons to both lifestyles, but would argue that in practice, a vegan diet is healthier for most people due to the nature of food options available to them.

Including animal-free "milk" as an infant?

Yep, mainly coconut or almond milk. He was breastfed until he was about 22 months old.

Isn't consuming human breastmilk and being vegan/animal-free a contradiction?

Thanks for sharing & best wishes for your family's health. I hope you have allowed for proper vaccinations.

To be honest I haven't put much thought into that perspective, it's a good question. Breastfeeding was never a question for us, even on a vegan diet. I wonder what other vegans think of this question.

As I continued being vegan, I realized that the spectrum which is actually important is raw vs. processed foods, and less so meat vs plants. I think a lot of people who "do vegan right" end up just eat less processed crap in general and end up being healthy, not necessarily because of eating less/no meat. However, there are vegans that get on the "oreo diet" and just eat junk food 24/7 - those are not healthy vegans.

Thank you for the kind words, and likewise.

"I think a lot of people who "do vegan right" end up just eat less processed crap in general and end up being healthy, not necessarily because of eating less/no meat."

I agree 100%. Some of the biggest benefits of any diet are obtained by getting back to simple foods and away from highly processed foods/carbs mixed with seed oils and sugars. Ditch that stuff and you'll likely do well on just about any diet.

As long as your baby is an ideologue.

This does not answer the question, but the fact that even ruminant offspring rely on milk to supplement their nutrition I think should at least create skepticism

Vegans aren't against breastfeeding.

Ruminants are by definition able to produce all necessary nutrition in their gut. That was the point.

And animals frequently eat other animals.