Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Child-safe in minutes.

Meet the Other Phone.
Child-safe in minutes.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk
News
Original poster

Vegan baby dies at 6 weeks old

83 replies

lyrabelacqua · 03/05/2007 09:44

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.

OP posts:
Original poster
lyrabelacqua · 03/05/2007 10:25

The Atlanta article is a bit more detailed than the Mirror one. Looks like they were using veganism as an excuse for their neglect.

OP posts:
PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/05/2007 10:26

I would agree coludhopper, soya milk isn't suitable for a newborn but then neither is cows milk (son'y know if a babay would starve on that or no, I do know soya milk is almost fat free)

Poor child

WendyWeber · 03/05/2007 10:26

If DD1 had died it would have been "died from breastfeeding"

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/05/2007 10:27

Didnt they have weighing clinics where you were ewndy? Anyway you DID see a Paed! You did get it sorted!

I agree you dont see it at first, but I mean, I relaised rather quickly that he wasnt supposed to be going down the clothes sizes the way he did.

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/05/2007 10:28

No Wendy, if she had died, it would have been died from inadequate support with BF- quite a different thing

WendyWeber · 03/05/2007 10:30

No! No clinics, no midwife visits, no HV visits, no healthcare network!

We belonged to a HMO insurance scheme which meant we had paed appts at regular intervals, but the first one was at 3 weeks and if we'd missed that one...

Pruni · 03/05/2007 10:31

Message withdrawn

NadineBaggott · 03/05/2007 10:31

ah Wendy, yes I see, well I think I do!

3lbs is awfully small though!

more

and yet more

WendyWeber · 03/05/2007 10:32

And we really didn't see what was happening to her. It is very very scary now.

kittylette · 03/05/2007 10:33

Nadines link says ...

The couple is also facing four charges of neglect related to their other children.

WendyWeber · 03/05/2007 10:34

That's a different case.

kittylette · 03/05/2007 10:34

hang on that 2nd link says she was 5 months old when she died

kittylette · 03/05/2007 10:35

oh right

PinkChick · 03/05/2007 10:35

why not cooled boiled water??, why apple juice?, and why when she had a hospital on her doorstep did she not once take that tiny baby to be checked up?, bugger being worrried about the germs that poor baby was being brought up sorry, not even brought up..slowley being killed by two pieces of scum, she have been far far better off in there and away from them...and they STILL stand by their descision!!

Aloha · 03/05/2007 10:36

Different couple, different cases.

themildmanneredjanitor · 03/05/2007 10:37

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

WendyWeber · 03/05/2007 10:37

Pruni, they probably didn't notice either. My MIL came to stay when DD1 was about 6 weeks and getting a bit fatter, but even so she looked quite shocked when she saw her - but that was the first time she'd seen her, without the gradual decline.

You just don't see it. Honestly. Her clothes were too big from the start (size 60, flapping sleeves and feet) and her not filling them didn't strike us as wrong.

Enid · 03/05/2007 10:38

Mrs Badger thank you for that link

the Mirror should be ashamed of themselves

what a disgusting piece of poor reporting

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/05/2007 10:38

Its not your fault though wendy, its the system over there- there should be more support for new parents. Don't blame yourself- we were after all just lucky to be in the UK. Not one of the grandparents was bothered- only Dh and I seemed to notice! We were runninga round with this baby weighing 4lbs 9 oz, at four weeks or so old, screaming this isn't right- I had to sit there and work out the problem myself and go to Mothercare of Millenium Eve to buy soya formula to see if that helped- it did, and very quickly. But HN had been monitoring him for his weight, and so we weren't unaware

NadineBaggott · 03/05/2007 10:39

whoops!

you mean it's happened twice?

GreebosWhiskers · 03/05/2007 10:39

This is horrible. Absolutely horrible. From reading the articles I can't see how it could possibly be anything but neglect at the very least. Everyone knows that babies have very specific nutritional needs ffs. Surely someone, somewhere could have taken a look at that baby & thought 'wait a minute, something's not right here'?

I do understand that the parents might not have noticed to begin with. I bf dd2 for the first few weeks without realising that I'd developed an over-active thyroid (that only got diagnosed when she was about 6 months). My metabolism was so hyped-up that I was burning off everything I ate immediately so my body didn't have anything to make milk with. Poor dd got skinnier & skinnier & I didn't see it at first (I was taking her to get weighed weekly & she was only putting on 1oz a week & the HV was saying it's okay some babies are like that). It was only when my mum saw dd after a couple of weeks on hols & she was shocked at the state of her that I put her straight onto formula & she never looked back.

This is just so very sad

PeachyChocolateEClair · 03/05/2007 10:40

I'm not sure but when they say soya and apple juice I think they mean the standard soya sweetened with apple juice, which is what you buy in supermarkets.

speedymama · 03/05/2007 10:47

This article undermines for me why we need the NHS - antenatal and postnatal care is free and available for all.

DT2 was 3lb 1oz when he was born and he was skin and bone. I don't understand why the parents, grandparents etc did not show any concerns about the baby's lack of growth?

Very said. Definitely neglect but not intentional murder.

speedymama · 03/05/2007 10:52

This case has raised an interesting question in my mind?

What if all the children were overweight for their height and heading towards obesity? Would the law become involved then?

NadineBaggott · 03/05/2007 10:53

well there was a case recently in Britain wasn't there about an obese boy who was going to be put into care?

Swipe left for the next trending thread