Infants in vegan households start underweight but catch up: JAMA study
Differences in growth outcomes such as length, weight and head circumference between vegan and omnivorous infants became clinically insignificant by age two.
Infants raised in vegan households are more likely to be underweight in their first 60 days, but the difference mostly disappears by age two, research suggests.
The retrospective study, led by researchers from Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel, included almost 1.2 million singleton infants born between 2014 and 2023.
In their first 60 days, infants from vegan households were 37% more likely to be underweight than those from omnivorous households, the researchers wrote in JAMA Network Open.
Infants in vegetarian households were also 21% more likely to be underweight than infants from omnivorous households.
