Posted on 05/12/2005 9:34:27 AM PDT by HungarianGypsy
A Scottsdale couple have been charged with child abuse after their three children, who police said were put on a type of vegan diet, were found malnourished and severely underweight.
The couple’s 3-year-old daughter weighed 12 pounds when she was taken to Phoenix Children’s Hospital last month after apparently having a seizure, said Scottsdale detective Sam Bailey. All three children remained hospitalized Wednesday, Bailey said.
The parents, Blair Parker, 34, and Kimu Parker, 35, were arrested April 28, and on Wednesday were each being held on $90,000 bail in a Maricopa County jail.
The Parkers were charged by a direct complaint from the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office, according to court records. Bill FitzGerald, spokesman for the office, said the case is expected to go before a grand jury for possible indictment.
Police said that after Blair Parker took his youngest girl to the hospital, a social worker contacted police.
At the couple’s home in the 300 block of North Miller Road, police found the two other emaciated children. The 9-year-old boy weighed 29 pounds and stood at 3 feet 4 inches tall, while the 11-year-old girl was 3 feet 9 inches tall and weighed 36.5 pounds, a police report said.
Police said the Parkers’ house was immaculate, "organized" and "free of clutter." The refrigerator was stocked with fresh vegetables, roots and mixed grains.
Both older children, who were home-schooled, were well-spoken and welleducated for their ages, though officers thought the children looked young for their ages, the report said.
Dr. Janice Piatt, a pediatrician at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, later told police, "I have never seen such stunting before except maybe in Africa. It was beyond severe malnutrition."
Yet Bailey said the couple "weren’t consciously starving their kids."
He noted that the children’s mother also was thin — she weighed 115 pounds and was 5 foot 6 inches tall.
"She was extremely skinny but did not appear malnourished," the report said.
Blair Parker, who is 6 feet 5 inches tall and weighs 200 pounds, told detectives his family was on vegan diets and don’t consume animal or dairy products.
Kimu Parker told police the family mainly eats rice, beans and vegetables. She said the two older children were small for their ages because they didn’t have "animal steroids and other products that the average person consumes."
None of the children have been vaccinated, and the family believes in holistic medicine and were in contact with a doctor in Wisconsin who would explain to them how to treat their children after diagnosing them, the report said.
The couple, who have read extensively on health issues, said the girls’ bodies don’t absorb protein and that the holistic doctor diagnosed the problem, according to the report. They supplemented the 3-year-old’s diet with a product that was supposed to help absorb the protein.
In general, vegan diets should be safe for children as long as they get the proper nutrients, two Valley nutrition specialists said.
"With regard to whether it’s appropriate for a child — there are healthy children who eat vegan all the time," said Terry Hughes of Gentle Strength Cooperative in Tempe.
Karen S. Moses, a registered dietitian at Arizona State University, said it’s possible to raise children on vegan diets successfully.
"People can be very conscientious about how they feed their children and can do a vegan diet without compromising the child’s health. It takes a lot of work. You really have to be conscientious about protein and calcium. You have to be really thinking about nutrients in a way that other people may not."
Contact Irene Hsiao by email, or phone (480)-970-2324
My argument exactly. Every time I argue with some sort of vegetarian I always smile, tap my sharp canines and incisors and tell them that those teeth are for ripping and tearing flesh. The back teeth that are flat and leveraged more closely to the mouths' fulcrum and muscles are for crushing and chewing fibrous matter.
Since they are usually lefties, I don't bring G_d into the discussion. However, I almost always point out that evolution separated the meat eaters from the plant only eaters. Homo erectus won that battle for survival due to adaptability to their food gathering environment. The Neanderthals (with their flat cow-like teeth) didn't make it. The second evolutionary argument is to ask them why our gizzard (appendix) is inert. Due to the fact that we cannot digest cellulose, a plant only diet is ridiculous. Plus, there is a very good reason that animal fat tastes sooooooo good.
That said I've only on rare occasions seen a healthy looking or acting vegetarian.
That was me last year - a nasty hard freeze after the tree had flowered. Perfect weather this year, just no bees. Two years in a row w/o home grown peaches... I'm very sad.
No problemo. </john connor>
You can't really bring God into a discussion with a vegan because in the garden of Eden, Adam and Eve didn't eat meat.
My wife is 5'5". When I first met her she was 105 and looked HOT. She still does!
Oddly enough, the only time it seems that vegans care about the Bible is when discussing Genesis. Otherwise, they use esoteric texts like Essene Book of Peace.
Well, in Ohio a good peach crop 3 of every 5 years is doing well.
{{{Hugs}}} sweetie.
hippies suck
Thank Ya.
Many vegans are as skinny as a stick. That is definitely not a healthy way to be.
Sure it is.Just ask anyone who has or knows someone with PKU.We DO NOT need meat(although I love it dearly).Two of my children are phynelketonuric.That means their bodies cannot break down the amino acids in protein.Meat is very high in protein(well except for bacon fat),so they cannot eat any meat.Nor can they eat or drink any dairy product.They even have to watch some of the vegetables because so many contain lots of protein.Potatos and english peas come to mind. (My daughter,11 years old can only have 6 grams of protein per day.Look at some of the nutritional values of some foods when you get a chance.One slice of bread is around 3 grams)
That said,they are extremely healthy.My 11 year old daughter is about 100lbs(she's tall) and my 1.5 year old son is around 25 lbs.They are measured throughtout the year to make sure they are growing as they should be.They're usually growing above the normal percentile.Something else is wrong with this picture.These kids are way under fed or have some type of disorder.It's not the lack of meat or dairy products.
Ruth Chris' steaks are very good but the service sucks.
Me, too. It's about moderation, too. My sister tried vegetarian for a year or 2 with her kids. No one could talk her out of it. She didn't want 'fat' kids. Only skim milk after age 1, no meat. They were pale, thin, anemic and frequently sick. Finally her doctor laid down the law with her, the kids needed meat, and 2% milk till age 2 and regular snacks. Her youngest, a healthy chubby preschooler, clearly benefits from her new way of feeding them.
Liberalism is a mental illness.
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You don't know what their political ideology is. They homeschool and many homeschoolers are conservative. Some Conservative Christians practice holistic medicine (Amish to some extent). I'm a Vegetarian, but you'll be hard pressed to find anyone more, well I won't say Conservative, cuz Conservatism seems to be dead these days, but you know what i mean....
Veganism is probably unhealthy for children, pregnant mothers etc.. but I don't think vegetarianism is neccesarily unhealthy, although I wouldn't risk it with my wife or kids in that way.
In this case, I am actually leaning towards siding with the family over the state. I'd need more info to be sure though....
See post 232.Your pediatrician is misinformed,as was ours.
I'm siding towards the family as well, only because this isn't the first the CPS has insisted a person's lifestyle is dangerous for children and it turned out NOT to be. There's a family in Florida who had their children taken away based on their diet and then found out the reason why the baby died was because of a genetic defect.
That's the thing about liberals and their experimentation - they'll do it to their kids and rationalize away a 12-pound 3 yo girl as OK, or at least it couldn't be THEIR fault!
I, too, had raw milk as a kid, but I didn't care for it. I, too, have discovered, as was always suspected by my ped and me, that I am lactose intolerant. A local dairy makes a great acidolphus milk I buy occasionally. I love yogurt and can also tolerate certain cheeses, the part-skim, low moisture seem to work best in small amounts. Kefir is good, too, but hard to find where I am. I still love ice cream now and then, but it doesn't love me!
I tolerate it well, it's that I have always been kind of grossed out by it. Maybe because I knew it was a dead animal and looking at the bones and the veins turned me off. And that goes for beef, chicken, and fish. It's funny because I won't eat soy burgers or anything else that pretends to meat. Just really hate the taste and texture, I guess.
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