Outrage in Italy for the case of a 14-month-old baby who weighed as one of three (for a vegan diet?)

If a couple of weeks ago we talked about the case of a girl who had to be admitted to the hospital for eating a vegan diet, probably poorly controlled, now in Italy returns the controversy about knowing the case of a 14-month-old baby who arrived at the hospital with the weight of a three-year-old baby.

Apparently also wore a vegan diet, but although the other case generated some doubts, in this case there is no possible case. It is impossible for a vegan diet to be to blame for a 14 month old baby do not reach five kilos of weight.

The parents have taken custody

As we read on BBC, the degree of malnutrition was such that it has acted with total speed to avoid more risks to the baby and custody of his parents has been withdrawn.

It was the grandparents who couldn't stand the situation anymore and took their grandson to the hospital. The doctors were dumbfounded: at 14 months he weighed about five kilos, so they immediately did a blood test to see his situation. He had significant calcium and iron deficiencies and found that he had a congenital heart disease which had to intervene urgently.

It was not the vegan diet, but the unconsciousness of their parents

Although some media seem to insist on ensuring that it is because of the vegan diet, it is clear that the premise does not hold. If you want your child, if you care about him, if you want him to be vegan, you will prepare a diet that does not lack vegetable proteins, foods rich in iron, or supplemented, and foods rich in calcium (which are beyond dairy) and in vitamins. And if you don't know very well how to do it, you are looking for a nutritionist to make it for you and to a pediatrician that every certain time assess the health status of the baby, just in case.

A few weeks ago we told you that experts in children's nutrition alerted in a Spanish food guide that parents take a long time to offer uncrushed food to babies. In the aforementioned guide, of the Public Health Agency From Catalonia, we can read this about vegetarian and vegan diets:

In the case of vegetarian food, which excludes meat and fish but includes eggs and / or dairy products, and vegan, which excludes meat, fish, eggs and dairy products, well planned and supplemented when necessary and properly, can meet the needs of children and adolescents.

If they are not raised carefully and with the right knowledge, they can pose a risk of nutritional and energy deficiencies, especially in the case of more restrictive diets, such as vegans.

For this reason, in these cases it is convenient to consult a health professional expert in vegetarian food.

But they shouldn't have done any of that, and they probably never went to any pediatrician, because if so they would have seen the problem of heart at birth, or in some later revision. That same unconsciousness is what led them not to seek help even though the baby weighed just 5 kilos.

Did they want it? Did they love him? Did they take care of him? Probably not. And if they loved him, it's clear that they loved him badly, since the child's life has been at risk all this time and who knows how long he would have endured his health in this situation.

That is why from the hospital they contacted the police and from there the custody was withdrawn.

They probably end up taking care of their grandparents

This custody now belongs to the Italian State, which will study the possibility of transfer it to grandparents, who were the ones who worried about taking the baby to the hospital, we understand that before the refusal of the parents (if not, they would have gone).

So in this case the vegan diet could not be to blame, because a well-made vegan diet and, if necessary, well supplemented, is perfectly valid for a one year old child and, probably, much healthier than most children of that age carry.

Video: Imposing Vegan Diet Could Land Parents In Prison (March 2024).