[Serious neurological compromise due to vitamin B12 deficiency in infants of vegan and vegetarian mothers]

Vitamin B12 deficiency is one of the most serious complications of vegetarianism and its variants. Infants born to vegan mothers are at greater risk of serious deficiency, being more vulnerable to their effects. B12 deficiency is not usually suspected by the pediatrician in healthy infants with neurological symptoms. The manifestations are nonspecific: apathy, rejection of food and loss of maturational patterns. A nutritional history of the mother, mainly if she is vegetarian, to estimate her reserves is fundamental to detect risk of deficiency of this vitamin in the small child. The objective of this work is to describe a group of infants, children of vegan mothers, with B12 deficiency and serious neurological compromise: central apneas, seizures, hypotonia, loss of connection with the environment and maturational patterns. Our purpose is to alert about the importance of supplying vegan mothers with B12 before conception until the end of breastfeeding.