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
You're a real macho conservative :-)
Where can you actually get that?
Yup! Broccoli is another of their favs. I BBQ London Broil and add a side of Broccoli. Never have left overs.
They gotta eat meat if they want to grow up strong and healthy.
That's okay if a person is extremely active. Look at what slaves used to eat, the whole hog literally along with lots of starches. The most long lived people I used to meet were old black folks from the South. Not now.
Very true. A diet that excludes meat, but includes dairy products can be prefectly healthy (I've been a lacto-ovo vegetarian for 20 years). But a no animal products diet is absolutely not capable of sustaining good health.
The researcher was Weston Price. Here's a summary of his research. Lil'Freeper runs a ping list for people interested in this sort of thing.
Same here. My girls LOVE Brocolli (tiny trees)! It is the best vegetable.
The diet states people should consume goats milk products, and organic meats.
Sometimes you can get it in Whole Foods or by mail. I wish I remembered the name of the freeper that sells it.
Vegetarian and vegan mean two very different things. If you're on a vegan diet, please don't stay on it very long.
I adore raw milk. Since it was illegal we used to be able to get it from a company that listed as "For pet consumption only". As if a pet would be eating butter, cheese, and the like. LOL! Our local Sprouts now carries raw milk, though. Of course with seven people that's going to be expensive.
LOL! Mine call them tiny trees too :)
I'm mistaken. If a particular kid "gets it," that's cool with me. For many, though, the concept is lost on them....they'd be just as happy with a burger or peanut butter.
That sounds really good. I'll have to check out that book.
I did not reach the top of the food chain just to graze like a prey species..... Nothing against the Vegetarians but..... if you are going to feed your children that kind of diet AT LEAST USE SUPPLIMENTS! CALCIUM AT THE LEAST FOR THE LOVE OF GOD! Do you know what you are doing to your children.... when they get older they will curse the ground you are buried in because they won't be able to DO anything as their skeletal structure will be TO DAMN WEAK!!!
I've been vegetarian for more than thirty years, and love food and don't feel deprived in any way. It's obvious, I guess, but I think the main point is to use common sense with eating, whether you're an herbivore or a carnivore.
These people were starving their kids with horrible fanaticism. I've been pretty fat at various times on a vegetarian diet by also ignoring common sense. You've just got to eat a well-balanced diet.
Adults can do okay on a vegan diet for quite a while, but not indefinitely. But I've never heard of a child who'd been on a strictly vegan diet since birth growing up without serious health problems.
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