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Did Veganism and Alternative Medicine Kill Breast-Fed Baby?
Filed under: In The News, Breast-Feeding
An 11-month-old baby's death in France was blamed on breast-feeding and the mother's vegan diet. Credit: Getty Images
Just ask the French couple sentenced to five years in jail for refusing to take their sick and undernourished 11-month-old daughter to a hospital, and instead treating her with advice from a 35-year-old alternative medicine book, Time magazine reports.
The case, which has attracted considerable attention in Europe, serves as a reminder that homeopathic treatment alone is hardly the answer to every health woe, and, in some cases, may even be tantamount to child abuse, according to Time.
Joel and Sergine Le Moaligou were accused of "neglect or food deprivation" after their daughter died due to their failure to follow a doctor's advice. But they escaped actual jail time after their sentence was partly suspended, Time reports.
In 2008, two months before their baby Louise's death, the strict vegans brought their baby to a doctor. The doctor suspected pneumonia and directed the couple to get their daughter a chest X-ray. Instead, they returned home and followed recipes they found in books on natural medicine for mustard, garlic and clay poultices. The couple's alternative "bible" was "The Natural Guide to Childhood," written in 1972 by Jeanette Dextreit, Time reports.
Louise had been losing weight -- she wasn't even 13 pounds at nearly 1 year old, but her parents canceled an appointment with her doctor. She died about a week later. Prosecutors pointed to breast-feeding and the mother's vegan diet as the causes for the baby's death, Time reports.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends babies be nourished exclusively on breast milk for the first six months; solid foods are gradually introduced one by one after that. It would be highly unusual for an 11-month-old to be solely breast-fed, but even more so in France, where breast-feeding is the lowest of any Western nation, according to Time.
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ReaderComments (Page 5 of 6)
4-08-2011 @ 12:17AM
starfish said...So true, Dolores. People should look up the correlation between meat (red meat in particular) and colon cancer. My mom's family grew up on a cattle farm and her mother died of colon cancer and my grandfather has it now. (Which is what lead us to do some research.) If only people knew.
4-08-2011 @ 12:55AM
Tyler Fisher said...see starfish, this is exactly the kind of statement that leads me to believe that you in fact haven't been to college because any college student knows that coorelation does not imply causation. There was also a really strong coorelation between getting your children vaccinated and autism, but obviously vaccinations don't cause autism
4-08-2011 @ 12:07AM
Gia said...What IDIOTS! They put their SELFISH needs before their baby's health and look where it got them! They KILLED that baby by living a STUPID lifestyle! If ADULTS want that way of life that's fine, but how dare them force that on a baby and her stupid weak breast milk wasn't even enough to sustain life! They should serve LONG jail time and if they have another baby it should be removed from their care before it even leaves the hospital. But then again those weirdo naturalists would probably have a home birth and skip doctors all together. UGH Some people are just plain jack asses! That poor baby STARVED to death and didn't have enough nutrition to fight off anything!
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4-08-2011 @ 12:36AM
William said...Those people should get maximum jailtime and someone should lose the key after they're in their cells.
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4-08-2011 @ 1:04AM
Ken said...This is baloney (so to speak). I have a niece and a nephew in PERFECT health who were raised vegan from birth. These parents in this case missed something. There are lots of vegan children raised to adulthood from birth who are fine and got all their nutrients. Saying humans "have to" eat meat is just propaganda from the various meat industries who make -- wait for it -- MONEY on the senseless slaughter of animals. Grow up.
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4-08-2011 @ 12:45AM
William said...Has it occurred to any thinking person (like this couple) to use their brains and remember where we're from? Humans are carnivores not vegetarians. Our ancestors were meat-eaters and that trait is still critical to proper growth. Without meat, the body doesn't function properly. I feel sorry for naive vegans with misplaced priorities.
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4-08-2011 @ 1:39AM
ethan said...i feel sorry for people who speak about things that they know nothing about. your comments make you seem somewhat moronic. being a vegan and vegetarian is one of the healthiest lifestyles that exists if you do it properly.
4-08-2011 @ 8:59AM
Joylandusa said...William, Ages ago humans evolved into carnivores because that was easier than growing crops. People evolve and change over time. Vegetarians have evolved into healthier people than meat eaters. That's proven. Animals do have the last laugh.
4-08-2011 @ 12:51PM
Tyler Fisher said...Actually you don't just evolve to make life easier for you. Evolution depends on genetic variation, so therefor you can't just one day decide, hmmm I think I wanna be a carnivore today. The genetic information has to be there. Also, why don't you take a look in the fossil records, because humans have never been herbivores. However, William, you are wrong as well. Humans have also never been strictly carnivores. We are omnivores, which means we eat both plant and animal material. Oh and one last thing, evolution occurs in populations over time, not in individuals. So for you to claim that in your lifetime you evolved into a healthier person for any reason is complete ignorance. Unless your great great great grandparents were also vegetarians or vegans to think that you evolved into a more efficient herbivore is just ridiculous. Also vegetarians are not healthier. I will say that vegetarians may be healthier than some who only eats meat, but vegetarians are in no way healthier than well balanced omnivores. Now that actually has been proven. Everything in moderation, and stay away from extremes. (Oh and p.s. next time you want to claim somethings been proven you should probably look it up in a scientific, peer reviewed journal rather than a random website you found while google searching.)
4-08-2011 @ 1:07PM
Joylandusa said...I evolved into a vegetarian. I use my brain to do what's right. I didn't have to look up genetic information in a book to see what I'm supposed to eat.
4-08-2011 @ 3:39PM
Tyler Fisher said...You're so ignorant. You're just embarrassing yourself so you might just want to stop talking. YOU did not evolve, and if you think that you as an individual are capable of doing so on a whim shows that you really aren't using your brain, as you claim
4-08-2011 @ 12:52AM
Tyler Fisher said...see starfish, this is exactly the kind of statement that leads me to believe that you in fact haven't been to college because any college student knows that coorelation does not imply causation. There was also a really strong coorelation between getting your children vaccinated and autism, but obviously vaccinations don't cause autism
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4-08-2011 @ 12:59AM
Jeannette said...The couple were not at fault for being vegeterians/vegans themselves, but for failing to follow the doctors orders.
And to those who say humans are not meant to be vegetarians, I'm so sorry, but you don't know what you're talking about. I've been a vegetarian for 18 years. In addition to not eating meat, other than what is in salad dressings, mayo, and baked goods, I eat no dairy products, and I don't eat seafood.
I went vegetarian because of my love for animals. I could not go back to eating meat, dairy, eggs, and seafood now because of what I know. I'm a very healthy 62 y/o nurse, thank you very much!
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4-08-2011 @ 12:54AM
Tyler Fisher said...see starfish, this is exactly the kind of statement that leads me to believe that you in fact haven't been to college because any college student knows that coorelation does not imply causation. There was also a really strong coorelation between getting your children vaccinated and autism, but obviously vaccinations don't cause autism
Reply
4-08-2011 @ 11:08AM
Rebecca said...Everyone blames veganism. You can get all the nutrients you need being vegan, you just have to be extremely careful. You can get enough protien from things other than animal products. There are a lot of people that get sick becuase they do not plan out their diet well enough.
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4-08-2011 @ 1:30AM
Susie said...This didn't have anything to do with being vegan--the baby had pneumonia that didn't get treated! Sam--eat your steak and take a look at the fat in your blood vessels then--will look like a rope of cooked spaghetti. You may think your steak is good--your heart and all the rest of your body won't.
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4-08-2011 @ 1:30AM
Susie said...Alfred--did you realize that a lot of animals have pointed teeth and they eat only PLANTS! Hmmm.
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4-08-2011 @ 2:09AM
Olive said...Take a look at the gorilla's teeth.
4-10-2011 @ 2:36PM
Tyler Fisher said...not true
4-08-2011 @ 2:03AM
Olive said...There seems to be a terrible lot of ignorance about veganism, judging by a majority of the comments. For instance, there is plenty of good-quality protein in a vegan's diet. Grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds contain all the protein requirements for the human body. If veganism was bad for children, then how do you explain my five vegan born & bred children, who were always 95th percentile and higher as babies and are spectacularly healthy children now? Do you really think that meat-eating babies do not get pneumonia? And what makes you think that just eating meat will guarantee a healthy child? The facts are that there are plenty of underweight, unhealthy meat-eating children. Yes, the French parents were irresponsible, but don't assume that because ONE baby died because of bad medical decisions, that all the thousands of healthy, live vegan babies are somehow to be pitied. Do your research before you make silly comments.
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