Medical scientists at Mohammed V University (جامعة محمد الخامس‎) in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, have reported the case of a 9-month-old exclusively breastfed vegan baby girl with severe vitamin B12 deficiency. This case was reported in June 2018 in the Pan African Medical Journal, but only added to the PubMed library today.
The baby girl's vitamin B12 deficiency was caused by her vegan mother not consuming vitamin B12 – i.e. no B12 supplements, no B12 fortified foods (or not enough) and, of course, no animal products.
All humans need to consume vitamin B12.
All vegans need to consume enough vitamin B12. We don’t need to eat animal products. We can obtain all the vitamin B12 we need in a vegan way from vitamin B12 supplements and/or vitamin B12 fortified foods.
Consuming enough vitamin B12 is extremely important for vegan pregnant and breastfeeding women.
Babies should NOT be exclusively breastfed (= no other food except breastmilk) for longer than 6 months. That means: At the age of 4 to 6 months (6 months at the latest) every baby should receive their first foods in addition to breastmilk.
Vitamin B12 injections cured the symptoms, but possible long-term damage cannot be completely ruled out.
The pregnancy had been normal. Normal weight, length, head circumference and no preterm birth.
Bousselamti, Amal; El Hasbaoui, Brahim; Echahdi, Hanae; Krouile, Yamna (2018): Psychomotor regression due tovitamin B12 deficiency. In: The Pan African medical journal 30, S. 152. DOI: 10.11604/pamj.2018.30.152.12046.