Mom jailed for refusing to feed her infant proper formula

[RNIBCLC]

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?

[KRVRN, BSN, RN]

I would say baby was dehydrated and needed hospitalization and when Mom didn't do that she endangered the child (formula choice irrelevent).

or baby had a medical/metabolic condition that needed specialized formula that Mom didn't use (newborn screen showed something?)

or Mom used a non FDA approved or inadequate soy milk mixture and that endangered the child.

Normal commercial soy formula should be appropriate medically, though I have no idea what vegans think of it. Too bad she didn't/couldn't strictly breastfeed. There's certainly more to this story.

[NicuGal, MSN, RN]

I don't think we have the whole story. We did have one of our kids come back sick and in the PICU because the family was feeding the kid hemp milk instead of Elecare. DCFS took custody and they had to go to court for neglect.

But vegan or not, obviously the kid wasn't getting enough...I've seen 2 kids that were dehydrated and kernicturious....bad bad bad

[SmilingBluEyes]

Education is key. She must learn that depriving the baby of formula or breastmilk will kill him. Once that is documented, if she complies, no problem. If not, then the kid should be removed from her care for negligence.

[motherof3sons]

We had a case last year in our state where the mom was giving the infant a home-made formula using goats milk and had documentation of how she made it, what was in it including all essentials vitamins/minerals....infant was thriving, gaining weight,ect no case for neglect. Dr reports her to DHHS for neglect due to not using commercial formula....DHHS made the infant be admitted to hospital. Dr's at hospital couldn't find a reason for admitting the infant and found him lacking nothing when blood work was done. DHHS threatened to remove baby unless mom used commercial formula.....DHHS overstepped their bounds in my opnion.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

...and this was my point, as well.

We had a case last year in our state where the mom was giving the infant a home-made formula using goats milk and had documentation of how she made it, what was in it including all essentials vitamins/minerals....infant was thriving, gaining weight,ect no case for neglect. Dr reports her to DHHS for neglect due to not using commercial formula....DHHS made the infant be admitted to hospital. Dr's at hospital couldn't find a reason for admitting the infant and found him lacking nothing when blood work was done. DHHS threatened to remove baby unless mom used commercial formula.....DHHS overstepped their bounds in my opnion.

[NurseGirl525, ASN, RN]

My son was on soy formula as an infant because he was allergic to milk. He was never underweight. A chubby little boy. There has to be way more to this story than what is being reported. But yes they do add other stuff into soy formula. A vegan diet is not good for a baby and its developing brain. I am all for people choosing their own lifestyle, but these kind of diets are not appropriate for infants. Infants need protein.

[morte, LPN, LVN]

and that is attainable thru a vegan diet, especially, if the kid was breast fed, even partially.

My son was on soy formula as an infant because he was allergic to milk. He was never underweight. A chubby little boy. There has to be way more to this story than what is being reported. But yes they do add other stuff into soy formula. A vegan diet is not good for a baby and its developing brain. I am all for people choosing their own lifestyle, but these kind of diets are not appropriate for infants. Infants need protein.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

and that is attainable thru a vegan diet, especially, if the kid was breast fed, even partially.

I read the statement you quoted to mean that a baby eating a vegan diet is not appropriate, not a breastfeeding mother eating vegan. Veganism and breastfeeding are (as you stated) very much compatible.

As with most anything there's a right way and a wrong way to do veganism. If all you ate were Skittles you'd be a vegan but you wouldn't be very healthy. There are vegan formulas that are appropriate for feeding babies or supplementing breastfed ones, but there are also vegan products that aren't. I agree with those who say there has to be more to the story.

[kp1987]

I was told once by a lactation consultant that babies shouldn't have soy milk... Is this true? I can't remember her reasoning behind it.

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

I was told once by a lactation consultant that babies shouldn't have soy milk... Is this true? I can't remember her reasoning behind it.

Do you mean soy milk or soy formula such as Prosobee? (asking for the sake of clarity.)

[JustBeachyNurse, LPN]

Babies should not have soy milk as it does not meet their nutritional needs. Soy formula is fine especially if intolerant of cows milk based formula like my son was, fortunately he was mostly breastfed but there were some situations that required supplementation.

[klone, MSN, RN]

There is some concern about estrogens in soy, but I think it would require a lot. It's okay to give soy milk to older infants along with a variety of other supplemental foods, as long as you're not relying on it to meet nutritional needs. I gave my youngest small amounts of soy milk when he was >6 months.