"Devout Christian" vegan parents charged with manslaughter when baby died of malnutrition

[AmazonGrace]

1 hour ago, Giraffe said:

A friend of mine had a really small baby who remained a small toddler. She was told by the baby’s pediatrician that it wasn’t where on the chart they land, it’s that they’re consistently in the same place. Her son is something like the 5th percentile, but because he’s consistently in the 5th percentile it’s not (automatically) alarming. For example, the problem would be if he were in the 90th percentile at 6 months and then was in the 5th percentile at one year.

In the chart I posted above, the lowest line is the third percentile. The dead toddler was nowhere near that weight. 

[Mama Mia]

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t at least include nuts, or beans? Being vegan, especially raw foods, with Very young children would be challenging, but hardly impossible. And the baby was ill for 6 MONTHS? Yea...that’s not normal parenting. They may be fundie - they may just be unbalanced, or substance abusing and think “devout Christian” is a better sounding strategy. 
 

I come from a mostly small family, one of my kids cruised along The bottom/ below the growth curves her whole childhood - and as a grown woman and mother  is very, very petite. The Dr was never worried. However another child had a pretty big drop on the curve when I wasn’t making enough milk, he was a colicky baby, and naturally tall and thin (and is as an adult) so I wouldn’t have been worried or aware of the lack of milk/nutrition if the well-baby check didn’t show the weight loss.  It’s one reason getting check ups from some sort of health provider is important. 

 

[Alcyone]

1 hour ago, Mama Mia said:

I don’t understand why they wouldn’t at least include nuts, or beans? Being vegan, especially raw foods, with Very young children would be challenging, but hardly impossible. And the baby was ill for 6 MONTHS? Yea...that’s not normal parenting. They may be fundie - they may just be unbalanced, or substance abusing and think “devout Christian” is a better sounding strategy. 
 

I come from a mostly small family, one of my kids cruised along The bottom/ below the growth curves her whole childhood - and as a grown woman and mother  is very, very petite. The Dr was never worried. However another child had a pretty big drop on the curve when I wasn’t making enough milk, he was a colicky baby, and naturally tall and thin (and is as an adult) so I wouldn’t have been worried or aware of the lack of milk/nutrition if the well-baby check didn’t show the weight loss.  It’s one reason getting check ups from some sort of health provider is important. 

 

The diet they were following sounds very similar to the mucusless diet which consists of raw fruits and some vegetables (such as salad greens). Nuts are considered too high in protein and fat and are only allowed sparingly. While I can see why individuals may want to try out fad diets, I don't understand why they put children, who are too young to give constructive feedback on how they feel, on these restrictive diets. In this case, though, the child was sick for months and I have to wonder why the parents never considered dietary insufficiencies as the cause. 

[onekidanddone]

On 11/20/2019 at 11:11 PM, JMO said:

That's not actually true.  According to the WHO charts 2nd percentile in weight for an 18 month old boy is 8.75 kg which is also 19.25 lbs.  So he was way below the growth curve for his age.  In fact according to the WHO charts 7.74 kg (17lbs) is considered 2nd percentile for a 12 months old boy.  He was dramatically underweight.   And toddlers should be getting most of their nutrition from solids at that age.  They can still nurse frequently but solids foods should be the most of their nutrition.  This is terrible neglect.  Those poor children.  

My daughter, as some of you may already know, was 17 pounds at 18 months when I brought her home from China. Diagnosed with failure to thrive because of her cleft palate meant she got very little nutrition into her when she tried to eat. She had her palate closure surgery less than a month after we came state side. The transformation was amazing. Being able to eat she blossomed. 
 
Thinking that a parent willfully denied their child food makes me all stabby.

[laPapessaGiovanna]

? @onekidanddone

That's exactly what I meant, there's no way that there isn't a serious medical reason if a 18 months old weighs just 17lbs. It may be a reason less alarming than another (ie kid is growing well but being born a preemie or micro-preemie it takes time to catch up), but there must be a medical reason. It's not normal much less ok that a child weighing that little never saw a doctor before dying.

[JermajestyDuggar]

This is exactly why babies need to go to regular check ups with their doctor. Otherwise  no one will tell the parents that something is going on. I am sure that if Zoo has been taking Chloe to regular check ups, her tongue tie would have been fixed sooner. But my guess is that she waited too long and Chloe was tiny. A doctor would have told her that Chloe was not growing and gaining weight like she should. But Zoo just thought it was cute to stick her in doll clothing at 4 months old and let her scream her head off all night long because she was hungry. 

[Flossie]

I didn't think that Zsu thought it was cute although part of her attention seeking behavior compelled her to post it online.  I always felt that Zsu was punishing that baby for being born a girl.  Something about her having her children born in groups of three, three boys, then three girls, etc.  But Chloe broke that rhythm, and Zsu couldn't handle it, or she expected Chloe to be her lost infant son to be born again and Chloe wasn't him.  I don't know, but I always felt that Zsu didn't like that poor little thing from the start.

[Aine]

On 11/25/2019 at 1:48 AM, laPapessaGiovanna said:

That's exactly what I meant, there's no way that there isn't a serious medical reason if a 18 months old weighs just 17lbs. It may be a reason less alarming than another (ie kid is growing well but being born a preemie or micro-preemie it takes time to catch up), but there must be a medical reason. It's not normal much less ok that a child weighing that little never saw a doctor before dying.

My best friend's little boy has had serious issues even staying on the growth chart at all for most of his 2.5 years on this planet. He had serious gastrointestinal issues that kept getting passed off as "colic" before being diagnosed with several severe food allergies; food his exclusively breastfeeding mother, not by choice to exclude solids but because he wouldn't eat any solids between the constant screaming in pain whenever awake, was eating. At 12 months, he was off the growth chart on the negative side for his age by weight but not height and length. Height and length were consistently 3rd-4th percentile since birth; weight was 52nd at birth and then off the growth chart; his head was 97th percentile at birth and then stayed there. I called him my "lollypop man" for the first few months of him walking because I swear he looked like that head on that body would overbalance him at any second. 

My friend went on a restricted diet without the allergens, after fighting for over a year to have him allergy tested and taking him to every specialist under the sun the first pediatrician referred her to, he was and still is awesome. He's back on the growth chart for his age but now his weight, height and length are all the 4th-5th percentile (and head is 97th percentile- and yes, he got checked by two neurologists  to make sure he didn't have hydrocephalus or anything else causing a big head haha). His doctors are so happy with him and unconcerned over his low percentile because that's his constant now and he looks healthy, is now hitting his milestones, and has two parents who are both on the shorter side and very thin naturally. He eats constantly now, food is always available to him multiple open snacks around him at all times, he has caught up on all milestones and hitting everything else now ahead if time or in line with the norm, and is still tiny by weight/height/length. 

Clearly the child/ren in the article were neglected and/or abused but straight up numbers and the average ignore the naturally occurring standard deviations of the mean. When they were standardizing growth charts, researchers/parents/teachers didn't have many low-SES participants because people were terrified of having their baby taken.

While the child in this news article was