Parents of ill vegan girl may face police (1 Viewer)

[HMD]

I know of a child that was brought up vegan and is a healthy adult now, i'd say most vegan kids are healthier than meat eating ones.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article4087734.ece

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl in Scotland brought up by her parents on a strict vegan diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old woman.
Doctors are under pressure to report the couple to police and social workers amid concerns that her health and welfare may have been neglected in pursuit of their dietary beliefs.
The girl, who has been fed on a strict meat and dairy-free diet from birth, is said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured bones.
The condition is caused by a lack of vitamin D, which is needed to absorb calcium and is found in liver, oily fish and dairy produce. Decalcification leads to the bones becoming brittle and can cause curvature of the spine.
Dr Faisal Ahmed, the consultant paediatrician treating the child at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, declined to discuss the specific case. He said, however, that he believed the dangers of forcing children to follow a strict vegan diet needed to be highlighted.
One leading nutritionist, who asked not to be named, said: “In most instances, the parents who are imposing this very restrictive and potentially hazardous diet are not themselves brought up as vegans. They are imposing on their children something . . . which we do not know enough about to know it is safe.”
Jonathan Sher, head of policy at Children in Scotland, an umbrella group representing 400 organisations, said social workers should intervene where a vegan diet was putting children’s health at risk.
Last year, an American vegan couple were given a life sentence for starving their six-week-old baby to death. In 2001 two vegans from west London were sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation after they admitted starving their baby to death.
Glasgow city council said the incident involving the 12-year-old girl had not been referred to its social work department.

 

[pete]

I look forward to newspaper reports of meat eating parents being prosecuted for raising fat bastard kids on burgers and chips.

a bad diet is a bad diet. being vegan is irrelevant.

 

[Jill Hives]

I look forward to newspaper reports of meat eating parents being prosecuted for raising fat bastard kids on burgers and chips.

a bad diet is a bad diet. being vegan is irrelevant.

Agreed. I always love people who say they are vegetarians but live on chips and frozen pizza. Then they claim the reason they don't feel well is because they are not eating meat. Eat poorly, feel poorly.

 

[pete]

i love chips and frozen pizza

yum

 

[Lefty Frizzell]

i love chips and frozen pizza

yum

Are you Kevin Keegan?

 

[Goff]

Under what law exactly are they prosecuting them for raising their child vegan? Seems to be more of a sensationalist newspaper story than a child abuse thing. Many children don't get the right vitamins. Some of them get more than they need.

 

[egg_]

Under what law exactly are they prosecuting them for raising their child vegan?

I'd imagine they're being prosecuted for neglect rather than for raising their child vegan

 

[Lolo]

I know of a child that was brought up vegan and is a healthy adult now

Me

 

[pete]

Are you Kevin Keegan?

nah. wouldn't have the willpower.

 

[therealjohnny]

Agreed. I always love people who say they are vegetarians but live on chips and frozen pizza. Then they claim the reason they don't feel well is because they are not eating meat. Eat poorly, feel poorly.

that reminds me, i think ill have that leftover pizza for breakfast

 

[Lolo]

I know of a child that was brought up vegan and is a healthy adult now

Me too.
I do agree that veggie/ vegan diets don't suit some people, and if this is the case here you think her parents might have spotted this before now....

Mind you, I was advised by a doctor that eating meat was the only way to stop being anaemic, but once I started eating more dark green leafy things I was absolutely fine, so medical opinions aren't always right.

 

[TrueLoveWaits]

Me too.
I do agree that veggie/ vegan diets don't suit some people, and if this is the case here you think her parents might have spotted this before now....

Mind you, I was advised by a doctor that eating meat was the only way to stop being anaemic, but once I started eating more dark green leafy things I was absolutely fine, so medical opinions aren't always right.

many of the dark green leafy things have more calcium and iron in them than meat, silly doctor. agreed that the purpose of the article seems to be to sensationalise and lay the blame on the vegan aspect rather than the poor parenting/bad diet aspect.

to be a healthy vegetarian/vegan means embracing the more unusual (to most people) foods...the tempeh, tofu, sea vegetables, chickpeas, various beans and pulses as well as a variety of vegetables outside of the carrot/broccolli/cauliflower triumverate are what makes it work. it's not just about cutting out meat, you need to replace it too. and sure it doesn't suit everyone...just like meat doesn't suit me, i just can't digest it

but yeah...jeez ricketts is something you'd notice before she hit twelve surely?

 

[flashback]

I would tend to think that its easier to become malnourished on a vegan diet if you have no clue about how to eat, compared than a more usual omnivore diet. As an omnivore its far easier to overdo certain things, and most people do. But children have some buffering capacity to do well while over eating.

If you are going to make your child vegan, you have to be educated about dietary requirements. Children have much less capacity to do well while being malnourished.

For a parent knows very little about food and who just rolls the dice with a omnivore diet they are much more likely to get away with it than if they just roll the dice with a vegan diet.
To live as a healthy vegan you must understand food, and if you bring up a child on this diet the need is absolute.

 

[Squiggle]

A growing child has very different nutritional needs from an adult too. What is sufficient for a healthy adult may not contain enough nutrients for a child, and that goes for any diet.

The way that this problem is being put forward it all a bit strange. Nobody has reported the parents but someone decided to write an article suggesting that they might be reported and focusing on the fact that the parents and child are vegan, rather than the salient point that they are neglectful parents who didn't take sufficient care to ensure that their child was properly fed.

 

[magicbastarder]

live on ... frozen pizza.

that has to be bad for your teeth.

 

[timbot]

Yeah, while the report does seem to lay the blame squarely on the vegan aspect you have to agree that this is terrible parenting and the parents probably should be bought to the attention of the authorities...

 

[egg_]

I once worked with a girl who was tiny, she claimed it was cos her Da had a heart attack when she was v young and so the whole family went on a low fat diet which meant she was malnourished.

 

[Lolo]

If you are going to make your child vegan, you have to be educated about dietary requirements. Children have much less capacity to do well while being malnourished.

Darn right, the mother of the aformentioned vegan-child-now-healthy-adult did some very intensive study of child nutrition before she made the decision.

I wonder is the tiny woman who was put on a low fat diet when her da had a heart attack less likely to have one herself now, despite unwanted result of being very wee?

 

[Buzzo]

I'd say the editor's a dairy farmer on the sly. That or some other megafunderdude is.

 

[D0njo]

Vegan couple were given a life sentence for starving their six-week-old baby to death. In 2001 two vegans from west London were sentenced to three years’ community rehabilitation after they admitted starving their baby to death.

Fuckin hell.. never really thought there was connection between infanticide and veganism, seems to be a reputable source though.... just goes to show the sort of evil that goes hand in hand with dietary choices.