Flouting warnings from doctors that their child was suffering from malnutrition, vegan parents essentially starved the baby with a strict “fruit diet.” However, despite causing the baby irreversible brain damage, they won’t be heading to jail for their crimes.
With the accepted science continually updating, trends in fitness and lifestyle are constantly evolving. Recent health fads have brought about the rise in vegetarianism and veganism, suggesting partakers cut out a wide array of nutrient-rich foods in an effort to become healthier and more environmentally friendly.
Of course, it’s one thing if a consenting adult opts into such a restrictive diet. However, this rigorous health craze has also led some participants to force their developing young children to abide by their own risky rules of consumption.
In a disturbing case that shows the dangers of such trends, a vegan couple in Australia has caused irreversible harm to their toddler after constraining the child to a diet comprised solely of fruit. According to Newsweek, the parents of a 12-month-old girl were charged with the abuse of their daughter after she nearly died from the plant-based diet.
The parents, whose names were protected for legal purposes, pleaded guilty in the County Court of Victoria to causing serious injury to their child through negligence. The pair were brought before a judge after the baby was left with “devastating” injuries due to malnutrition caused by her limited diet. The child suffered severe brain damage, which included the permanent disability cerebral palsy.
Incredibly, despite the seriousness of their crimes, neither of the parents will even step foot inside a prison cell. In fact, Judge Claire Quin decided that each of the parents will only be required to serve a 12-month community corrections order of community service. They must also undergo treatment at a mental health facility.
Although the child’s abuse began much earlier, the 12-month-old baby was only taken to the emergency room by her 34-year-old father when she was approaching death. Staffers at Geelong hospital recorded bruising, gaping wounds, severe rashes, and skin discoloration, giving them a hint at the child’s dietary restrictions. It wasn’t until later that they discovered just how serious her condition was.
Medics discovered that the baby was bleeding internally and had blood in her stool. They quickly determined that the child needed life support in order to save her. Experts also testified that the baby girl had severe protein-calorie malnutrition known as “Kwashiorkor,” which is typically only seen in children suffering from famine in third-world countries. In essence, the baby was starving to death.
A week before her father took her to the hospital, he had written an email to a U.S.-based herbal health club to seek advice for her failing condition. After the pair separated, the 32-year-old mother sent the father an email asking if he could address the issue of their child’s “weight loss and floppiness of her body” with the health club consultant.
“Hi my 1-year-old has stopped wanting to drink/eat and when she does, it’s not staying down or she starts to cough,” the email read. “What can I do to help her keep it down and allow her to drink? She doesn’t have a temp. She is on a fruit diet. Please help asap.”
Disturbingly, instead of directing the father to take the child to a hospital or even a general practitioner, the consultant for the health club advised him to offer the baby a “stomach tea.” The child reportedly weighed just over 13 pounds, which is less than two-thirds a normal body weight for her age, when she was admitted to the emergency room. As a result, the toddler had to spend a month in intensive care.
The father admitted that the mother had stopped breastfeeding the child when she was an infant and had substituted coconut water and powders instead of formula. A nurse expressed her concern to the parents about the baby’s growth and warned them that coconut milk was nutritionally inadequate for a baby. Still, the couple continued with their plant-based diet.
The child is continuing to improve but still faces a long road to recovery. Even then, she isn’t expected to ever fully recover from the serious effects of the brain damage, which has left her with cerebral palsy.
Sadly, the only person who will suffer the consequences of this heinous abuse and negligence is the innocent child. Unbelievably, her abusers have avoided jail, despite medical experts repeatedly warning them of the known repercussions of such actions.
Source: Tap Worthy Happenings
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