Kids Nearly Starved to Death by Improper Vegan Diet

Three young children in Scottsdale, Arizona nearly died because their misguided parents were feeding them what they supposedly thought was a healthy vegan diet. When Blair Parker called 911 because his youngest daughter seemed to be having a seizure, doctors discovered that all three emaciated children were much smaller than they should be. The 3-year-old weighed only 13 pounds, the 11-year-old was the size of a 5-year-old and the 9-year-old was the size of a 3-year-old.

Both parents were arrested and criminally charged. The mother may see as much as 30 years in prison after a jury found her guilty of 3 counts of intentional child abuse. The parents say that their diet stems from Blair’s college studies in nutrition.

From Azcentral.com:

He described a daily regimen with the children that included prayer, study, chores, exercise and rigid adherence to diet, right down to what liquids they could drink and when.

“My children might have been short and light in weight, but I never considered they were unhealthy,” he told the jury.

Parker claimed that he could not find a doctor of his own religious faith or dietary beliefs that he trusted. Instead, he consulted with a naturopath who lived in Washington state and who could not actually see or examine the children.

Parker still claims that the children suffered from “malabsorption,” an inability to absorb vital nutrients.

The prosecutor said that Parker obsessed about the children’s bowel movements and gave them enemas that further impeded absorbing any nutrients of the food they ate.

“Vegan children who are fed properly grow,” said Deputy County Attorney Frankie Grimsman.

And in fact, when the children were placed in foster homes, they immediately began to gain weight - while still maintaining vegan diets.

This is why it’s so important to be educated about nutrition, period, but especially when you want to be vegan. You can’t just eat salad all day every day and hope for the best, and when children are involved, it’s all the more important. A lot of people don’t have a great understanding of what it means to be vegan, and how to get all of the nutrients you need.

Clearly, these children nearly lost their lives and the parents intentionally kept their condition from the public by homeschooling them and rarely taking them outside the home. 30 years does seem like a bit much, though – this isn’t too different from ignorant people feeding babies sugar water in bottles instead of breast milk or formula, which, crazy as it sounds, does happen. Clearly, we need better nutrition education in this country!

I hope somebody is feeding those kids big, juicy sandwiches right now.

Link [Azcentral.com]
Photo credit: Flickr user moria

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