HELP AP/VEGAN BABY TAKEN FROM FAMILY -- PLEASE CIRCULATE

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Hi Friends, thought you'd want to also read, in addition to the msg below, Merritt Clifton's msg at the end here. Just because a child's parents are vegan doesn't necessarily equate with good care...Very sad... Adela

 

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bklynvixen2004;

Thursday, September 30, 2004 4:05 PM

HELP AP/VEGAN BABY TAKEN FROM FAMILY -- PLEASE CIRCULATE

PLEASE CIRCULATE WIDELY!Healthy breastfed 14 month old removed from parents' care for vegan lifestyle: I have known this man through internet and telephone contacts for years (going through parenting and nutrition research papers with him he's very research oriented) who now has had his child taken away because the doctors were very freaked out that a 14m.o. recieves human milk still (instead of cow's milk as they recommend), is parented by attachment parenting methods and is fed raw vegetables, nuts, yeast and such with no meat or eggs. They brought him in for a fever and the doctors found slight anemia (which is known in medical literature to be common in an ill child) and has no other test studies to support a diagnosis of "failure to thrive" (the baby is in the lower 25percentile for weight and has reached all his developmental milestones and according to the grandmother in the newspaperstory was "always happy" before being removed from his parents' care). The family is in New York and needs good legal counsel (i.e. understands breastfeeding and nutrition and natural parenting practices) in that state, for starters. I was asked to circulate the below. Regards,

Linda Folden Palmer, DC, author Baby Matters, infant nutrition consultant ATTENTION ALL VEGANS and VEGETARIANS

Would you want your child taken from you because you refused to feedhim/her meat, dairy or other animal products? As a mother, would you feelcomfortable knowing that your nursing child had been taken from you andplaced in a foster home where he/she would be fed commercial baby food andmilk-based baby formula? That his/her social and emotional needs were beingignored, even though you and your spouse adhered to tenets of AttachmentParenting and the Continuum Concept (both proven to optimize childdevelopment)? There's a witch hunt in our midst:http://www.nydailynews.com/09-07-2004/news/crime_file/story/229622p-197218c.html http://www.nypost.com/seven/09062004/news/regionalnews/29978.htm WHAT CAN YOU DO TO HELP? If you are a lawyer, a medical professional, a holistic practitioner, or a parenting expert, please respond ASAP. This family needs advocates fromthe vegan and vegetarian communities DESPERATELY, before their family istorn apart again.If you are a nursing vegan or vegetarian mother, or a practicing vegan/vegetarian (parent or not), GET THE WORD OUT! Feel free tocross-post this message to other vegan/vegetarian groups, tell your friends about this injustice, spread the word. Write to the Editors of the Daily News and the New York Post. Tell them that this sort of slanted journalism is unacceptable:letters and voicers WHY DO I CARE? This concerns my godson's future, his parents' rights, and the rights of all vegan/vegetarian parents to raise their children as they choose, without unwanted interventoin. I was raised vegan and vegetarian, and have been healthier and freer of childhood illness, infection and disease because of my mother and father's wise choices. Because New YorkCity's medical "professionals" are uninformed about the benefits of avegan/vegetarian diet, *especially* for children, they have mounted anattack on my godson's well-being. He was a healthy, happy, breast-fed,vegan/organic, well-adjusted baby before he was taken from his parents(after an emergency hospital visit for a high fever) and placed in fostercare. The cause? Iron-deficiency anemia (9.1), which -- as most medicalprofessionals should know -- is common in all children, even those who eatmeat or dairy.

 

From Medline, "Drinking too much cow's milk is a classiccause of iron deficiency in young children." (Full article,http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/007134.htm#Definition) Thank you for your time, and please help if you can.... -Arien Muzacz bklynvixen2004 Note from linda palmer: -- Now that's a skinny baby if I ever saw one (?? below). He's in the 25 percentile for breastfed babies and has met all of his milestones of walking, babbling, coordination... and grandmother said (in the newspaper article) that the boy was always happy before this occurred. A malnourished child is not "always happy," i guarantee.

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<< Merritt Clifton anmlpepl

Linda Furness linda.furness1

Thursday, September 30, 2004 4:15 PM

Here we go again

 

Dear Linda:

 

Here we go again. There are thousands and perhaps tens of thousands of healthy vegan babies in the greater New York City area. We raised one to the age of two there ourselves, before relocating. There is no cabal or medical/legal conspiracy going on there to discourage raising vegan babies, or breast-feeding (our son was breast fed to nearly age five), and there are hundreds of vegan health workers and employees of social service agencies in that area (as well as lawyers) who would quickly bring such a situation to light, if it existed.

I don't suppose you remember my previous heads-up in a similar case. (Below.) While I have certainly seen and reported about actual discrimination cases against vegetarians and vegans, I can't recall running across any such case in either the U.S. or Canada that stood up in at least the last 15 years, maybe longer.

 

I can, however, remember several cases in which vegan babies died of neglect. Vegan babies are no more immune to bad parenting than any other babies, and when they appear to be having problems, it is the duty of the docs and social service workers to intervene.

 

Cheers,

Merritt Clifton, editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE.>>

 

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