raw food baby death

[Guest guest]

>Peter wrote:

>>

>>what's really annoyed me about the news coverage surrounding this -

>>

>> > The tragic death of Areni Manuelyan highlights the profound dangers of

>> > letting ideology triumph over reality.

>>

>> As anyone who regularly read " The Vegan " will know, supposed nutritionists

>> are notorious for not being able to give advice to parents on bringing up

>> their children as vegans - their attitude always seems to be that it's

>> impossible - I wonder if the nutritionists in this case gave any useful

>> advice to the parents, or if they just told them it was impossible and let

>> them get on with it?

>>

 

I passed this on to Stephen Walsh [colleague on VeganSoc council who

replied to recent press stories] and got the following response. See

final paragraph especially. (IVU is the International Vegetarian Union

[see www.ivu.org - a huge website with thousands of recipes from around

the world, all vegan, as well as a vast amount of other information].

The discussion group to which Stephen refers is for scientists only, but

disseminates the results of its discussions to all.)

 

Good wishes,

 

Vanessa

 

 

Stephen Walsh writes:

 

First, it is the responsibility of parents to ensure that they feed

their children adequately. The more untypical one's diet, the less

effective mainstream nutritionists' advice will be, even with the best

will in the world, and the more responsibility the parents must take on.

 

Any mainstream nutritionist would have correctly diagnosed failure to

thrive and would have highlighted concerns over B12, vitamin D,

calories, protein and iron, and probably zinc and iodine. A good

nutritionist should have suggested a shift to a mainstream vegan diet if

they felt that the parents were commited primarily to veganism rather

than to a raw diet.

 

Such cases would be under the direction of a consultant paediatrician.

If the paediatrician considered it impossible to arrange a suitable diet

they would not have left the parents to get on with it but would have

initiated care proceedings.

 

Where any nutritionist would struggle is in explaining how to construct

an appropriate 100% raw vegan diet for an infant. In recent discussions

in the IVU science discussion group vegan nutritionists have debated

whether this is possible, and if so how. Including a reliable source of

B12 and calorie dense, moderate fibre foods were considered essential

but not in themselves sufficient. Hopefully some clear guidelines will

emerge from the ongoing discussions including input from raw food

groups. Once there is a reasonable degree of consensus the conclusions

will be disseminated widely.

 

Stephen Walsh