Vegan parents arrested

Nurses General Nursing

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Would someone please explain this to me? I don't really have a full grasp of what a 'vegan' is...I think it's the most restrictive vegetarian, but then, this couple wouldn't let their kid have breast milk? Why not? Link to the article:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,51494,00.html

Originally posted by hogan4736

I'll name my next child "Swizzle Stick"

BAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!!!! :rotfl:

Blatant ignorance! If they were vegans they should seek some reference in feeding their child appropriately. I hope they get convicted! Crazy!

Specializes in Clinical Risk Management.

:angryfire Those two excuses for parents ought to be, at the very least, Horsewhipped! Every vegetarian and vegan whom I've ever known are tremendous advocates for breastfeeding babies. What they've done is criminal. Whoever gave them their ideas on nutrition needs to be prosecuted as well. As I read this article yesterday, I also noted that they fed their child flax seed, another laxative. Their idiocy and arrogance is appalling!

When I was in nursing school, some of my fellow students & I came up with a creative idea for dealing with the moms who gave birth to crack babies & abused their other children: an open TAH/BSO without anesthesia. I think these parents have earned similar surgeries.

I'm an understanding person...kind, considerate, etc...until a child is abused. The mama lion begins to roar!

Joy

Here's an update from someone who has met Ice and her nutty family. She was placed with a wonderful foster family. Within two weeks of admission to the rehab hospital she was sitting up and eating like a horse. This is why I love peds; kids are just so resilient.

If you want to go the all natural route, try feeding them plain old dirt and rain water... The stools are a little muddy, but my boy grew up to be a "mountain" of a man!!

George

Specializes in jack of all trades, master of none.

Oh, JMJ (Jesus, Mary, & Joseph) help these idiots never conceive again!!!!!!

Frightening that someone didn't notice this sooner.

What is TAH/BSO?

You know Angus I agree with you. My beloved brother that I was close with during my child hood has flipped the script with his religious beliefs to the point our family is separated. I love my brother and his wife is a joke. It is tearing my mom and dad apart they feel responsible I told them nonsense he is just caught up. I hope things work out for them but people take a simple concept and blow it for everyone!

Specializes in Med-Surg, Long Term Care.

TAH = Total Abdominal Hysterectomy

BSO = Bilateral Salpingo-oopherectomy (Excision of ovaries and fallopian tubes)

Hope this helps, Agnus!

How bout a bilateral lobectomy? That is if they determine there even is some semblence of brain tissue present.

I've been looking for more info on this story...I found a pic of the parents...

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/newyork/ny-veg.photo?coll=ny-nynews-span-headlines

Here's another story...couldn't get the link to work, so I copied/pasted...

She Went Hungry

DA: Improper vegan diet left baby severely malnourished

Vegan Diet OK, But Nutrients Needed

Apr 30, 2002

By Herbert Lowe and Bryan Virasami

Staff Writers

April 29, 2002

A strict vegetarian couple has been accused of starving their baby girl of essential infant nutrition and neglecting to seek necessary medical attention, Queens prosecutors said yesterday.

Authorities said Joseph Swinton and Silva Swinton, both 31, failed to feed their child breast milk or infant formula. Instead, the couple gave her a vegan diet of ground nuts, fresh squeezed juice, herbal tea, beans, cod liver oil and flaxseed oil.

"This case is heartbreaking and among the worst cases of child neglect I have ever seen,Â" Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said in a statement.

Severely underdeveloped, malnourished and at risk of death, the baby was taken to a hospital at the insistence of city social workers on the day they showed up at the Swintons' Queens Village home in November, acting on an anonymous tip to the state's child abuse hotline, according to authorities.

The girl, whose name is Ice, was 16 months old at the time. But she was so tiny that she resembled a 2- or 3-month old infant -- half the average weight of a child her age, authorities said.

Ice was born at home on July 31, 2000, with no medical assistance. Her parents had not sought pre- or post-natal care.

Now almost 21 months old, the baby spent three weeks at Long Island Jewish Medical Center-Schneider's Children's Hospital, then four months in a rehabilitation center.

On Mar. 6, she was placed in a specially medically trained foster home, authorities said.

Today, Ice weighs 20 pounds, the average weight of an infant 10 to 12 months old. She is unable to walk or talk and she faces major developmental problems, prosecutors said.

Both followed vegan dietary practices, prosecutors said, meaning the couple ate no meat, dairy, fish or eggs.

The couple was arrested Thursday and arraigned the next day on charges of first-degree reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child.

If convicted, they would each face up to 7 years in prison.

The Swintons, who lived on Murdock Ave, are being held in lieu of $20,000 apiece and must return to Queens Criminal Court on May 13.

Prosecutors said the Swintons have yet to talk to them, and all of the information on the baby came from doctors who treated her. Assured the baby was properly being cared for, investigator took the time needed to untangle medical and legal issues before filing charges.

In an interview with Newsday yesterday, a relative of Joseph Swinton, a self employed artist, said she tried to persuade him to take better care of the baby, but he usually deflected her suggestions.

"You couldn't talk to him about it,Â" said the relative, who asked that her name not be published. "He's in his own world.Â"

The relative said she called authorities months ago, but was told the situation did not then warrant a visit from city social workers.

According to authorities, the tip to the hotline prompted a visit to the Swinton home from the city's Administration for Children Services.

An ACS worker insisted that the child be rushed to a hospital. The parents complied and called for an ambulance.

According to the police complaint, the baby was brought to the hospital suffering from, among other things, "low muscle tone, decreased strength, difficulty moving her arms and legs and no ability to verbalize other than through soft crying.Â"

ACS took custody of the child three days later, on Nov. 19. As of yesterday, the parents still had visitation rights, said MacLean Guthrie, a spokeswoman for the agency. A law guardian has been assigned to the child.

James Pizzirusso, executive director of the Vegetarian Legal Action Network in Washington, D.C., said he has heard of similar cases.

"I think it's from misinformed but good-meaning people,Â" said Pizzirusso.

"Numerous studies and medical doctors have affirmed that a healthy child can be raised on a strict vegetarian or vegan diet,Â" he said. "If the child was in very poor nutritional condition and needed help, then hopefully the child would get it. But generally a child can grow up very healthy and fully on a well-planned vegan diet.Â"

In 1999, a Bronx woman was convicted of criminally negligent homicide in the starvation death of her infant son. Tabitha Walrond was sentenced to 5 years probation even though her lawyers argued at trial that she did not know her surgically reduced breasts were producing insufficient milk.

Walrond's attorneys also argued that her mother misguided her and that when she sought help for her 2-month-old son, she was rebuffed by the health care system because he had no Medicaid card

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