NY Times letter on Swinton baby starving case

[Guest guest]

The POINT is that the Swintons weren't vegan, either, because they fed the child

COD LIVER OIL (not a plant). Period.

 

Further, they had NO relationship with any standing local vegetarian society,

nor with any " national " group (PCRM, FARM, PETA, EarthSave, VRG, etc. - not even

the Black Vegetarian Society, nor VivaVegie, or, for folks of color, any of the

Hindu or Jain vegetarian groups. And NYC has more than a handful of great

resources for African-American vegetarians. At last count there were AT LEAST

three local vegetarian groups in NYC developed ENTIRELY for African American

vegetarians (www.NAVS-Online.org).

 

Here are some great connections:

AFRO-AMERICAN VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

PO Box 46 Colonial Park Station

New York NY 10039

 

Alycia Lee - professional photographer

who used to run NY Vegetarians and Vegans (and is an AAV).

128 E 83rd Street

New York NY 10028

212-535-9385

 

Maynard S. Clark

 

Karen Dawn <karendawn wrote:The New York Times

 

April 11, 2003, Friday, Late Edition - Final

 

SECTION: Section A; Page 24; Column 6; Editorial Desk

 

Truth About Vegan Diet

 

To the Editor:

 

You report (news article, April 5) that a Queens couple who fed their baby

daughter a strict vegetarian diet were convicted of nearly starving her to

death.

 

As a vegan and a lawyer, I am disturbed that the prosecution of Joseph and Silva

Swinton has been billed as a " vegan " case.

 

Lactose intolerance is fairly common, particularly among people not of European

descent. Given that and other scientific doubts about the health attributes of

dairy products, it was hyperbole aimed at exploiting the jury's ignorance for

the prosecutor to focus on disparaging vegan diets.

 

Any parent is negligent for not seeking medical advice regarding a child who is

obviously very ill.

 

The Swintons were at fault for failing to seek and apply appropriate nutritional

knowledge in caring for their child, not for avoiding dairy and commercial

infant formula.

 

Clearly, the Swintons are in need of parental training, not prison terms.

 

PAUL TANIS

Washington, April 7, 2003

 

http://www.nytimes.com

 

 

[Guest guest]

I have to comment on this because it hits so close to home. The issue is not

that the parents were vegan (they profess so). The issue is whether or not they

were neglectful in providing adequate and appropriate nutrition for their child.

It appears that they were neglectful and I would venture to say it had nothing

to do with their dietary choices - an assumption on my part to be sure. I have

just been through an incident with our state Department of Children and Families

where they were investigating my husband and I for raising our children vegan.

One of my daughters weighs 29 pounds at 6 years old. They were extremely

concerned that we were not feeding them properly and tried to make us start

feeding them a " well-rounded, healthy " diet including animal products. You must

understand that my children are quintuplets and that the daughter they were

using to try to make me feed them an omnivorous diet was born at 1 pound 4

ounces. For her to be 29 pounds is fantastic. For her to be here at all to

debate over her diet is absolutely amazing. Fortunately, I was able to prove

that I am well-educated on the nutritional needs of children and what foods in a

vegan diet provide the nutrition children need. I also was able to show that

my children are following their own growth curve wonderfully. They had their

six year check up two weeks after all this began. Two gained 5 1/2 pounds in 8

months (we were late with the 5 year check up), one gained 6 1/2 pounds, and the

other two gained 3 pounds. The average yearly weight gain for children this age

is 2- 4 pounds. They all grew 3 inches, well within the accepted range. This

was the second time we were investigated regarding feeding a vegan diet to our

kids. Both times have turned out well as my children are incredibly healthy and

vibrant. This time they had no choice but to drop everything since the medical

evidence proved them wrong. It is something I am told happens more than we know

about. It is something that happens because people are ignorant about different

life styles and beliefs and are not accepting when they are made aware of them.

BUT if a vegan/vegetarian child is fed properly, they grow just as well as

non-vegan/vegetarian children AND are definitely more healthy. Maybe I'm a bit

paranoid now, but I think it does behoove us to keep careful track of our

children's growth curves (through a doc's office to make it official - this is

mostly what saved us) and to make it a practice of keeping well-informed

regarding vegan/vegetarian nutrition.

 

God's Peace,

Gayle - mom to Naomi, Ethan, Rebekah, Seth, and Arielle - 3/31/97

" Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic

with the striving, and tolerant with the weak and wrong ... for sometime in your

life you will have been all of these. " Author Unknown

 

-

Maynard S. Clark

Veg-African-American (AT) Groups (DOT) com ; VegNYC

Cc: Natalie Castellanos

Friday, April 11, 2003 8:10 PM

NY Times letter on Swinton baby starving case

 

 

The POINT is that the Swintons weren't vegan, either, because they fed the

child COD LIVER OIL (not a plant). Period.

 

Further, they had NO relationship with any standing local vegetarian society,

nor with any " national " group (PCRM, FARM, PETA, EarthSave, VRG, etc. - not even

the Black Vegetarian Society, nor VivaVegie, or, for folks of color, any of the

Hindu or Jain vegetarian groups. And NYC has more than a handful of great

resources for African-American vegetarians. At last count there were AT LEAST

three local vegetarian groups in NYC developed ENTIRELY for African American

vegetarians (www.NAVS-Online.org).

 

Here are some great connections:

AFRO-AMERICAN VEGETARIAN SOCIETY

PO Box 46 Colonial Park Station

New York NY 10039

 

Alycia Lee - professional photographer

who used to run NY Vegetarians and Vegans (and is an AAV).

128 E 83rd Street

New York NY 10028

212-535-9385

 

Maynard S. Clark

 

Karen Dawn <karendawn wrote:The New York Times

 

April 11, 2003, Friday, Late Edition - Final

 

SECTION: Section A; Page 24; Column 6; Editorial Desk

 

Truth About Vegan Diet

 

To the Editor:

 

You report (news article, April 5) that a Queens couple who fed their baby

daughter a strict vegetarian diet were convicted of nearly starving her to

death.

 

As a vegan and a lawyer, I am disturbed that the prosecution of Joseph and

Silva Swinton has been billed as a " vegan " case.

 

Lactose intolerance is fairly common, particularly among people not of

European descent. Given that and other scientific doubts about the health

attributes of dairy products, it was hyperbole aimed at exploiting the jury's

ignorance for the prosecutor to focus on disparaging vegan diets.

 

Any parent is negligent for not seeking medical advice regarding a child who

is obviously very ill.

 

The Swintons were at fault for failing to seek and apply appropriate

nutritional knowledge in caring for their child, not for avoiding dairy and

commercial infant formula.

 

Clearly, the Swintons are in need of parental training, not prison terms.

 

PAUL TANIS

Washington, April 7, 2003

 

http://www.nytimes.com