Mom jailed for refusing to feed her infant proper formula

Specialties Ob/Gyn

Published

Specializes in Maternity.

Vegan Florida mom charged with neglect with refusing formula for sick newborn - NY Daily News

What do you think? Should she be in jail for not wanting to feed her 2 week old formula with animal by-products?

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Better in jail temporarily where she could bond out and the baby got treatment vs the other potential outcome. Ill vegan baby dies from starvation and dehydration would have been a tragic headline and outcome for baby and mom.

I believe in respecting wishes and beliefs but struggle to understand parents' decisions when failing to treat a very young child (in this case feed them) would almost certainly cause death.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.
Ill vegan baby dies from starvation and dehydration would have been a tragic headline and outcome for baby and mom.

I've personally never heard of a baby die of starvation and dehydration who is being freely given soy formula.

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I've personally never heard of a baby die of starvation and dehydration who is being freely given soy formula.

Klone, you are correct that if the baby was taking soy formula freely, dehydration or starvation should not be a problem.

I was under the impression the child was already on soy formula and the MD determined the child was not gaining weight and had lost 10% of his body weight. Primary MD had requested kid be seen for dehydration at the hospital and be given protein formula. I wondered if the baby had some underlying illness other than simple weight loss. They arrested mom after she failed to show up at the hospital.

With the mention of dehydration, I was thinking hospitalization and IV fluids too, not just formula change. Maybe I read too much into things but I was wondering since the kid was losing weight and already on soy, did he have a soy intolerance? Too many unanswered questions to know what exactly was going on with this kid.

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Specializes in Neuro, Telemetry.

If she is a natural and holistic vegan, theni wonder why she wasn't breastfeeding. I know the choice to breastfeed or formula feed is each parents choice, butthis tyoe of person seems like they would have chosen breastfeeding? As far as if taking her child was fair or not, I can't say because the story is very ine sided and lacks a lot of needed info. Was she feeding the soy formula all along, or not enough, or what? If she went and got formula, then it would appear she took the ped serious enough about the weight loss to get the formula for her baby. Why did the ped diagnose dehydration to the point of needing to be hospitalized? If it was mainly because of the weight loss, the mohers life style could be feeding into that, but she ourchased formula. I would assume to feed the baby and help them gain weight? Were their other symptoms? There are just too many questions left unanswered to go purely on the negative image pirtrayed of this mother. when a religious parent refuses treatment for religious beliefs they are not charged with neglect. The hospital staff can get a court order to treat and then eventually the xhild goes home with the parents. Just seems unfair to charge with neglect for one belief but not for others. Glad the baby is ok though.

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Specializes in OB-Gyn/Primary Care/Ambulatory Leadership.

My impression from the article is that she was perhaps breastfeeding, but for whatever reason, infant wasn't getting enough, and ped told her to take baby to hospital, where it would be fed regular cow milk formula, but instead she took baby home and gave it soy formula, because of her vegan lifestyle, not wanting the infant to get cow milk. Ped got upset that she didn't follow his instructions and take baby to hospital, and called CPS.

I could be totally off-base, though.

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She could have discussed the issue at the hospital instead of avoiding getting the baby rehydrated. Obviously the doc thought the baby was bad enough to send to the hospital. Maybe she didn't discuss the formula with the doc but she could have discussed it with the hospital. Or even taken the formula of choice with her. There's more to this story.

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My impression from the article is that she was perhaps breastfeeding, but for whatever reason, infant wasn't getting enough, and ped told her to take baby to hospital, where it would be fed regular cow milk formula, but instead she took baby home and gave it soy formula, because of her vegan lifestyle, not wanting the infant to get cow milk. Ped got upset that she didn't follow his instructions and take baby to hospital, and called CPS.

I could be totally off-base, though.

I got the exact same impression.

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doctor with a god complex?

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I gotta wonder, how different, really, is feeding cow milk based formula from breastfeeding, from an ethical perspective?? Breast milk is "animal protein" just as much as cow milk is. Or maybe that's part of the problem -- she's so strictly vegan that she's not breastfeeding?? (I could at least respect that as being logically consistent ...)

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Specializes in Complex pedi to LTC/SA & now a manager.
I gotta wonder, how different, really, is feeding cow milk based formula from breastfeeding, from an ethical perspective?? Breast milk is "animal protein" just as much as cow milk is. Or maybe that's part of the problem -- she's so strictly vegan that she's not breastfeeding?? (I could at least respect that as being logically consistent ...)

I thought the one article stated it was not a traditional formula but essentially straight soy milk which is not nutritionally sound for newborn/infant. Traditional commercial soy formula is not vegan because of additives to complete the nutrition. Most use dha/ALA sourced from fish oil and lanolin (from sheep) for vitamin D3.

Several infants have died from dehydration and malnutrition if mom couldn't breast feed and used a non-traditional vegan soy formula (sometimes recommended by a "naturalist nutrition" but clearly marked not safe for infant feeding/not to be used as a substitute for infant formula

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Specializes in Critical Care, Med-Surg, Psych, Geri, LTC, Tele,.
, how different, really, is feeding cow milk based formula from breastfeeding...Breast milk is "animal protein" just as much as cow milk is. Or maybe that's part of the problem -- she's so strictly vegan that she's not breastfeeding?? (I could at least respect that as being logically consistent ...)

One reason a vegan may feel she can breastfeed but will not feed her child cows milk is because many vegans are concerned with the animals inability to consent. A human can consent to give breast milk, but a cow can not.

On another note... I don't know what really happened with this story, but it saddens me.

I hope her baby wasn't taken from her due to weight loss.

I hope her baby wasn't taken from get because she has an alternative lifestyle.

Provided she is not a true harm to get baby's health, I hope she is able to get her baby back and her child is able to maintain his health.

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