Vegan baby dies at 6 weeks old

[lyrabelacqua]

I was shocked to read in the Mirror this morning about a baby who died at six weeks old weighing just 3lbs after his vegan parents fed him just soya milk and apple juice. Apparently they didn't want to compromise their vegan principles by feeding him formula. Would breastfeeding that poor child have compromised their principles?
I have a vegan friend who has never fed her children animal products but she breastfed them till they were two and they're perfectly healthy and happy.
The stupidity of some people is astonishing.

Agree with Blu, there must be more to this. They can't just have thought 'hey ho, let's not feed our baby b/milk OR formula'. Surely?

Some people just should not be allowed children. I (and everyone else on here) would do anything for my child, unfortunately, there are some evil bastards out there and I don't think ignorance can be blamed for this one, neither can mental health - it's not like one parent did this - it was both and the grandmother asked the court to show them mercy - where the hell was she whilst they were starving this poor little one?

If I starved my DD to death neither of her grandmothers would ask for mercy for me - they'd want me hung!

Sorry - this has really upset me, so I'm going to get off my soap box and step away before I offend someone unintentionally.

it said the baby died not because of what he was fed but because of the amount he was given

to me that says he could've survived on soya milk and aplle juice but they were giving him so little that he starved to death.

thats got nothing to do with veganism - thats just cruelty and murder!

poor baba

that looks like i was saying feeding him soya milk & apple juice was ok as long as they gave him lots, i didnt mean that - i meant the baby didnt die because of the lack of nitrients in those particular foods - it seemed he was just given so little he starved if that makes sense?

Very poor reporting by the Mirror

Full story from the local paper in Atlanta here - sounds more like a case of actual neglect than of misplaced ideology.

DD1 was born in the US. Once you leave hospital you are on your own - I tried to breastfeed her but there is no NCT there, no home visits from midwives, no HV, no network of help at all. She was 5.11 at birth and by 3 weeks she was 5.2, sleeping a lot of the time, and she was starving but I honestly didn't know it or see it.

We saw the paediatrician at that point for a routine check-up and were told she had to have formula. I look back now and shudder at how close we came to this happening to her.

These people were ignorant and I don't see how this can be called murder unless there is more to it.

Kittylette, it was probably a combination of both. Surely (non-formula) soya milk can't contain all the nutrients a newborn baby needs?

the baby was born at home and never seen by a dr apparently

why couldn't he have soya formula? That stuff saved my DS1 (was before the fancy anti allergenic ones were so available) Bloody amazing stuff when you need it!

Lose your baby but save a fish eh? Fuckwits

i read somewhere that apple juice can prevent adsorption of nutrients

you're not recommended to give exclusively carton soya until after 2, my GP preferred to prescribl;e formula which we still get at amost 4 as ds3's diet is so limited.

in mrs badgers link it says

he also had formula soya milk AND breastmilk

apple juice is used as a standard sweetener in soya milk cartons

well if he had formula and BM, why were they supplementing with stuff not suitable?

Thats not principled paenting, thats shit parenting

Bizarre comments in that Atlanta article though - the woman who said "how many of us made errors raising our first born?"

Failing to feed a baby is hardly like forgetting to put on a vest is it?

It sounds like these people were scared of everything and generally very very deluded.

kttylette it was just their word against the courts tho

she says he was bf

and there was soya formula in the house

but the court said he was fed soya milk (not suitable for babies) as opposed to soya formula, and apple juice

dman, that link didn't work

Look, everyone, please read the whole story here , or Google for it, before getting worked up about their ideological stance.
These were not vegan parents, they were neglectful parents.

it's good to see we are trying to get the facts before slagging them off..

im just telling you what the article said, im not saying whether its true or not.

I think if your baby is heading for 3lbs in weight alarm bells would start ringing

wouldn't they?

Its very simple (and like Wendy I nearly lost ds1- born at 5lbs 5 oz, was well under 5 lb sue to milk intolerances and intolerances to casein in my BM)

if your child doesn't gain weight

see a GP

If he still fails to gain weight (and ds2 and ds3 did) see a paediatrician

Now, it turned out with all mine it was genetic programming for slow growtth- ds3 fed until 16 months- but FGS anyone surely realises a baby who isnt griowing needs to see a GP?

The parents sound very very strange. I guess from the facts reported in the press, none of us will ever know whether it was plain stupidity or cruelty.

Whatever the case it is completely tragic on many levels, and unfortunate that is has been attached to veganism in some way. It seems a bit like reporting that 'omnivorous baby died of neglect'?

You don't see it though, NB - please read my post at 10.15.

It's such a gradual process - DD1 got very skinny and we didn't see it, she didn't cry much and slept a lot and we had nothing to compare her with. If we had had a thing about hospitals maybe she would have died too