Raw Fruitarian Diet for a Child

[Rawfruitarian]

I have a friend who feeds their child a raw fruitarian diet, they feed the child only raw fruit (a mixed of various fruits) and different type of nuts. The child is quite small for their age, but they explain this as one of them was very small as a child and that the child takes after that parent. The child was fed this diet from birth and he was breastfed until around 3 years old. Apart from being small, the child seems to be developing fine, in speech etc..
Is this considered child abuse? I have tried to talk to my friend, but they do not even want to engage in the subject, they do believe that this diet is the best and they (the adults) mainly follow it too, which a few exceptions here and there (as in they will rarely have some cooked food). Is there anything I can do or should I stay out of it?

Not in sufficient quantities and the high fibre intake will limit absorption. Overall there just will not be sufficient carbs, protein, and fat in this diet, especially considering the smaller quantities a child consumes (they need nutrient DENSE food) and the calorie intake will be way too low.

This is not an adequate diet for a growing child.

How old is the child. I expect that his nutritional needs were being (more or less) met for the first three years if he was being breast fed so there may not be any signs of malnutrition yet. I do think you should report to SS so that the parents can receive some support before they do too much damage.

No, you absolutely should not "stay out of it". This is child abuse and you have a duty to report it.

Skin and teeth can be a good indicator of malnutrition

Vegan Florida mom starved toddler to death with raw diet (nypost.com)

I would consider it abuse. Poor child! Does the parent eat the same way?

Tik Tok influencer Zhanna Samsonova died after years of a raw fruit/veg diet. Basically she ended up with malnutrition and starvation. That's an adult who presumably grew up on a normal diet then made the decision to eat that way. I hate to think what this sort of dietary restriction would do to a growing child.

https://news.sky.com/story/vegan-influencer-zhanna-samsonova-dies-of-starvation-after-decade-of-only-eating-raw-fruit-and-vegetables-12932232

Feeding such a young child only raw fruit is wrong and dangerous. You don’t need to check anyone’s skin or teeth to know that. Moreover, by the time their teeth and skin are damaged they’ve undergone a long period of malnutrition. Your statement implied if their skin looked nice the diet was fine. It clearly isn’t fine at all.

It's abuse. You know it's abuse. It's the kind of batshit crazy wrapped up in hippy middle class vibes that means everyone talks about how nice and normal the parents are at the kid's funeral.

I’m really not sure if a fruit and nut diet is adequate or not. Most people don’t do that so we wouldn’t really know

I believe this is child abuse. Children need a varied, well balanced diet to grow healthily.

Thank goodness this child has been breastfed because if they hadn’t been, they would be severely malnourished. I’d be curious to see what happens once that stops, and the raw fruitarian diet continues.

Actually, scratch that. You need to report her. Let’s not find out what happens when you purposely malnourish a growing child.

raw food diets are unsustainable, byw.

Google 'fruitarian baby died' lots of news stories where multiple children in different countries have died because of this abuse .

I would report to the social services too. Does the child seem hungry a lot?

Complete raw food could be sustainable if done carefully (including raw protein sources including fish, Essene bread etc). But only fruit and nuts, no.

I doubt a child on such a diet will have any healthy teeth left by the time they are 8 or 10 years old. So nuts will be out of the diet at that stage.
Fruit is very acidic and it also contains sugar.
If this is true, the child will never grow up into a healthy teenager or adult.
Child abuse 100%

Please raise this the safeguarding team via the children’s service at your local authority. It is not safe or appropriate to fed a child this level of limited food!

Dieticians and paediatricians know what nutrition growing children need.

Read what a specialist paediatric dietician had to say, even about a diet less restricted than the one imposed by the OP’s friend :
https://amp.theguardian.com/society/2008/apr/13/children.health

And you could always Google the deaths of children and adults who have tried it.

There have been reported cases of children dying after following this diet and the parents were prosecuted.

Are you actually going to do something about it OP or are you just going to titbit your thread upsetting everyone with child abuse tales? If it's you then feed your kid properly.

Or be one of those people who wish they had done something

One of those times I'm hoping for a troll.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11158971/amp/Vegan-mom-gets-life-murdering-18-month-son-weighed-17lb-died-strict-diet.html

I’m vegan and I plan my own diet carefully and take multivitamins just in case.

There is no way a raw fruit diet is good for anyone at all, but a child 🤯

Please report, there could be a lot of complications from nutrient deficiencies in a child of that age and even if there is nothing to worry about then it’s better to be safe than sorry.

Definitely abuse. I would contact social services or your local health visitor. I came across an interesting article from bbc futures yesterday that had lots of shocking information about the effect of vegan diet on children’s brain development and this child’s diet sounds even more extreme 😔 https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200127-how-a-vegan-diet-could-affect-your-intelligence

Well as some of you have already mentioned, the teeth are not great, he had to have a new set of teeth (and i do not know why the dentist did not flag it up??). However they explained this by being hereditary in some way as the parents have had issues with the teeth too (even before starting this fruitarian diet). The child is pre-school age, I do not want to say exactly in case she reads mumsnet and no, he does not attend nursery. He will start some form of childcare soon but it is more or less following their ideas and I do not know if they would report anything and I would not be surprised if he will be home schooled when he gets to school age.
Thank you everyone, I will call NSPCC and ask for advice. It is not easy because she is a friend and I know she is not doing it on purpose, she actually believes this is the best for them and their child. While I have read about fruitarian kids who died, if you google ,Is fruitarian diet child abuse', there is nothing specific online.

Do they give them vitamin tabs to help top up nutrients? I do think they're not being given en the best start in life, diet needs to include all groups for healthy growth. X

@Rawfruitarian, using the tem child neglect would probably be more accurate (she's not intentionally harming her child). If you search "is vegan diet child neglect" you get plenty of results including some horror stories in the news. There is also plenty online about child nutritional neglect.