Recommendations for vegan friendly pediatrician
Reaching out to any fellow vegan parents raising vegan little ones. We're looking for a new pediatrician. Our son is 11 months old, turning 1 in a few weeks. He's eating solids but still primarily breastfeeding. We're looking for an awesome pediatrician who is pro-breadtfeeding (our current one doesn't seem to be!) and supports a vegan lifestyle (our current one doesn't seem to either!) Specifically, we're looking for someone who actually understands nutrition and doesn't try to push dairy as a source of calcium. Ideally this kind, patient, vegan and breastfeeding supportive pediatrician also takes Anthem Blue Cross and is based in El Cerrito, Berkeley, Oakland or Albany. Does someone like this exist?? Recommendations gratefully appreciated!
Parent Replies
Hi there, I recommend you give the doctors at Berkeley Pediatrics a try (hopefully your experience is not with one of them already!). While our family is not vegan, I recall our pediatrician (Dr. Lisa Kalar) often asking the question when we were introducing solids - and I didn't feel this would have been an issue whatsoever if we did tell her we wanted a vegan diet for our baby. We really love all the doctors at this practice - highly recommended!
I have vegan a vegan teen & a vegan tween now (and we recently switched to Kaiser) but for years they went to East Bay Pediatrics, who accept Blue Cross, in Berkeley & Orinda. Our doctor was Julie Damon and she was very supportive of their vegan diet. She still asked them (and me) about what they ate, but I think she would have done that to other clients, who were not vegan, as well. She expressed no concerns and certainly couldn't argue with the fact that we had 10 years of only well-child visits because they were so darn healthy all the time! I was very happy with her and East Bay Peds in general. Thank you for raising your child vegan. It's not always easy, but it truly is the best thing you can do for their health, the animals and the environment! You may want to join the Bay Area Vegan Parents group on Facebook too.