Parents of ill vegan girl may face police

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Mark Macaskill

A 12-YEAR-OLD girl in Scotland, UK brought up by her parents on a strict vegan

diet has been admitted to hospital with a degenerative bone condition said to

have left her with the spine of an 80-year-old woman.

 

Doctors are under pressure to report the couple to police and social workers

amid concerns that her health and welfare may have been neglected in pursuit of

their dietary beliefs.

 

The girl, who has been fed on a strict meat and dairy-free diet from birth, is

said to have a severe form of rickets and to have suffered a number of fractured

bones.

 

The condition is caused by a lack of vitamin D, which is needed to absorb

calcium and is found in liver, oily fish and dairy produce. Decalcification

leads to the bones becoming brittle and can cause curvature of the spine.

 

Dr Faisal Ahmed, the consultant paediatrician treating the child at the Royal

Hospital for Sick Children in Glasgow, declined to discuss the specific case. He

said, however, that he believed the dangers of forcing children to follow a

strict vegan diet needed to be highlighted.

 

One leading nutritionist, who asked not to be named, said: " In most instances,

the parents who are imposing this very restrictive and potentially hazardous

diet are not themselves brought up as vegans. They are imposing on their

children something . . . which we do not know enough about to know it is safe. "

 

Jonathan Sher, head of policy at Children in Scotland, an umbrella group

representing 400 organisations, said social workers should intervene where a

vegan diet was putting children's health at risk.

 

Last year, an American vegan couple were given a life sentence for starving

their six-week-old baby to death. In 2001 two vegans from west London were

sentenced to three years' community rehabilitation after they admitted starving

their baby to death.

 

Glasgow city council said the incident involving the 12-year-old girl had not

been referred to its social work department.