And lets chat.
Vegan couple faces jail due to the death of their 11 month old.
The article states the baby was fed solely vegan breastmilk, "She was also suffering from deficiency of vitamins A and B12, which may have left her susceptible to infection. She died of a pneumonia-related illness."
I have an opinion and will post it later today. First, I want to hear your thoughts like SHOULD THE PARENTS GO TO PRISON?
You're on the jury, give me your arguments!!!
13 comments:
that just makes me sad.
That's just a sad story all around.
Hmmm, in this case, I don't think so.
I'm not sure about a STRONG opinion but prison seems unfair. I'm sure their hearts are breaking. And they were doing what they thought was BEST for the child, and I believe, if you love your children, you do the best you can with what you know. Sometimes we fail with the best we can. Also, it seems like she didn't die from being malnurished, she died of pnuemonia. I would think any sick baby would have deficiencies when they are not feeling good.
If you are asking modern medicine versus hollistic, I believe there can be a mixture. I am never too far left or right. There are reasons we live longer now, modern medicine, can save our lives. I like staying as natural as we can, but if my baby is sick I will use medicine to make them feel better. If a doctor is telling me my baby is not getting the nutrition they need, Im going to fix that situation or have them prove that they aren't healthy.
I know your doctor said you had small babies, and I'm sure I can guess where you stand on this from your experience from that. I wouldn't just start pumping my baby with formula because they were little. Babies come in all sizes too! But I would ask for blood work to see if there were deficiencies. To me, opinions of doctors don't mean as much as evidence. I like scientific proof. Don't just give my kid an antibioitic unless you do a culture and they NEED it. But I don't think treating your child with anything but mud is the best option either. We are not cavemen anymore and we live longer. Sometimes we do need to get back to the green earth, but sometimes we don't.
At the end of the day, we all want the same things for our babies, health and happiness. The means to get there may be different. If they throw these people in jail for this lifestyle choice, they would have to throw parents in jail who feed their kids fast food 7 days a week when they are obese.
Jenny: YES!!! Thank you! Love, love, LOVE hearing your side explained. Funny you brought up fast food because that is a good part of my frustration toward this news article.
Brandy and Stephanie: I agree it's sad but what else? Give me more!!!
I think they should both have to do 100 hours of community service. By that I mean they should have to attend vegan conferences and tell others how their vegan choices ended up killing their child.
WOW, I don't know. It's a delicate topic. Vegans have such strong beliefs.
Maybe not jail time. But Infant Nutrition classes if there is such a thing? I mean, I want to support their vegan beliefs, but a baby needs more when they're younger. Maybe there are additional options these vegan parents can take to ensure the safety of their baby? Vegan breast milk, maybe pumped and then mixed with some sort of vitamins and fed that way? Eliminates the naturalness of breastfeeding, but for a baby's survival you'll sacrifice things.
Could the mom have taken supplements that would have been transported through her breast milk?
Astounding, really. I don't think jail is the answer here. But Education is.
Their veganism isn't in question here. The fact that they refused doctor's advice is.
If they had had medical treatment of the child [well-baby check ups] the lack of vitamins would have been noticed and she could've been supplemented without the mother changing her diet.
I don't mean they had to change their idea of medical care, but a simple physical of an 11 month old would've shown she needed supplements. And I don't know any of my vegan friends that don't take vitamins. Heck, most people do - they aren't vodoo
Is it sad - absolutely. Was it preventable - more so.
That is sad... I guess I am curious if the parents felt that their child was progressing along ok... Being under-weight that much, I think, would be very noticeable...
Being eleven months old, she was obviously needing something more nutritious and sustaining than just liquids.
They, themselves, had taken her to a doctor and were told to take the child to a hospital.
I'm not sure about going to prison, but they obviously were flawed in the attention they gave this child.
That is a sad story... bless her heart.
~shoes~
If the only "wrong" here was having a vegan diet and breastfeeding their baby I would say no.
But ignoring doctor's advice to take the baby to the hospital after losing weight and coming down with bronchitis? I would say yes to that.
Just because someone doesn't believe they are being neglectful, doesn't mean they aren't.
Arrogant and misguided? Yes. Criminals? No. Arrogant because they ignore doctor's orders when the child is clearly sick and then "treat" the baby in their own way, and misguided because they clearly think their way is the right way (which obviously it wasn't because the baby died).
You know I am a fan of breast feeding. But SOLELY breastmilk at 11 months? You're kiddin' me. That baby needed food as well as evidenced by her weight. And vitamin supplements too.
Very sad story of a very preventable death from parents that should have known better.
This should not be punishable with a prison term. They need parenting and nutrition classes instead.
I think that some jail time is needed, along with a term of home confinement.
I don't have a problem with a person espousing a particular lifestyle whether I agree with it or not.
However it seems to me that the bulk of these cases involve people who jump in 1000% into the lifestyle without thinking through the consequences if they inflict on the children that young.
You simply have to find a balance between doing what you want and doing what is right.
I remember seeing a dog food commercial featuring a well known chef who was a vegeterian. However, he knew that he couldn't realistically inflict his lifestyle on his dog without severe nutrional consequences.
I know this is probably a poor example, but I wanted to point out that should want to jump into that lifestyle you have to think about the damage that you may inadvertantly if you don't think things through.
I definitely don't think they should go to prison. I'm guessing the passing of their child is hard enough to get through without the gov't getting involved!!!
I had big, chunky babies and we are not vegan but I'm gonna guess they're that way because that's the kind of kids we make. I'm glad my oldest was because when she was eight months old she got a brutal case of RSV and since she had a little extra on her they let her come home instead of having to stay at the hospital because of her reserves but that by no means mean a smaller baby would of been any worse off. I think we need to be aware of what our kids bodies need (ie protein, fats, vit D, etc.) but I don't think that was necessarily the situation here!
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