Vegans Sentenced in Baby's Death
By GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer
4 hours ago

ATLANTA - A vegan couple was sentenced Wednesday to life in prison for the death of their malnourished 6-week-old baby boy, who was fed a diet largely consisting of soy milk and apple juice.

Superior Court Judge L.A. McConnell imposed the sentences on Jade Sanders, 27, and Lamont Thomas, 31. Their son, Crown Shakur, weighed just 3 1/2 pounds when he died of starvation on April 25, 2004.

The couple was found guilty May 2 of malice murder, felony murder, involuntary manslaughter and cruelty to children. A jury deliberated about seven hours before returning the guilty verdicts.

Defense lawyers said the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby, who was born at home, was in danger until minutes before he died.

jeez was the woman unable to breastfeed him or did she choose not to?

evenstar3 said:

They're vegans...I don't think breastfeeding is allowed

FruitToAttractBears said:

seriously? but...it's her own milk...that is explicitly meant to nourish her offspring

evenstar3 said:

But it commmmes from an animaaaalllll

How awful. Clearly a case where parenting classes would have been beneficial.

poor little thing

U can get Soya Milk baby formula my daughter was brought up on it

Damn, that's seriously messed up.

Another example of silly sensationalism.

"IDIOTS sentenced in baby's death" would make more sense, but attract less finger-pointing attention. The fact that these people are vegan has absolutely no bearing on whether they had the brains or the inclination to nourish their child appropriately.

And I know you motherfuckers know that vegans do breastfeed!

FruitToAttractBears said:

Most sane vegans that I know abstain from milk products that come from OTHER animals. This couple was just wayyyyy too extreme or completely ignorant.

Further proof that people who are too stupid to live can and do breed.

FunkMistress said:

thank you

IrresistibleB1tch said:

Makes no sense that they posted they were vegan, cheap maybe. There was no food in the house. They said they were adhering to Vegan principles in taking care of the child? He wasn't old enough to even eat meat.

applekisses said:

Or not having kids at all. Problem is, there's no law preventing the stupid from having kids.

uPtoWnNY said:

Absolutely!

This is so sad. Some people are beyond stupid.

Crown Shakur (wtf) - rest in peace.

FunkMistress said:

Seriously!

this is pretty dumb.

There has to be more to this. I know they should have been better to the baby and were just stupid in not recognizing that the diet wasn't good for the baby. but what did they do wrong? Did they know that a baby can't be fed like a vegan? I'm not sure of the negligence or abuse implied. Certainly the punishment was very very harsh.

I mean can you raise a baby vegan?

superspaceboy said:

absolutely.

http://www.keepkidshealth...ldren.html

Is a vegan diet healthy for an active, growing child?
Absolutely. Children raised on a vegan diet eat more fruits and vegetables than their meat-eating counterparts. They are sick less often, and don't have as many food allergies. Even vegan junk food is healthier than regular junk food, containing fruit juice instead of sugar, and whole wheat flour instead of white flour. Family and friends may worry that your child will be ostracized at school if he brings tofu and sprouts. So send your child to school with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, apple, carrots, and fruit-sweetened cookies and no one will know your child is eating a "special" diet. At birthday parties, find out what the host is serving and drop your child off with the vegan equivalent of those items.



Feeding Vegan Babies
The breast milk of vegan women is refreshingly void of many toxins and pesticides that are found in the breast milk of meat-eating women. This affords a vegan baby an even better chance for short and long term health.


Feeding Vegan Infants
The first foods any child eats are usually mashed fruits, soft veggies, and iron fortified rice cereals. All of these items are vegan so nothing special needs to be said for starting solids. Avoiding cow's milk and eggs are probably good advice for the first year of any child's life anyway. After that, simply give your vegan child samples of food from your own plate and see what she likes.

FunkMistress said:

What she said.

It says right on the damned soymilk container that it shouldn't be used as infant formula.

It's possible to raise a baby vegan, but only by breastfeeding for a good long time and following up with carefully chosen foods and some supplementation. Kids need a lot of calories, so they can't just eat like most adult vegans do. Studies show that properly fed vegan kids don't grow as fast in the beginning, but they catch up later and don't have any negative effects from it.

I wouldn't feel compelled to give a baby animal products just because it's the norm, but I would sure watch them very, very carefully.

Young children should never, ever, ever be fed restrictive diets. (Unless, of course, they have some sort of life-threatening disease.) The dietary needs of a child (especially in the first few years of life) are immense -- and getting adequate and varied nutrition is critical to their mental and emotional (as well as physical) growth.

There are certain vitamins that can only be found in animal foods. Children also lack a lot of co-factors necessary to convert vitamin pre-cursors into the actual vitamins. (For example, beta-carotene to vitamin A. True vitamin A is only found in animal foods.)

Genesia said:

where do you get this information?

IrresistibleB1tch said:

From non-vegan sources.

Genesia said:

for example?

whatever...

my kids were breast fed and had formula too, and they are very healthy and hardly get sick...

and we eat meat.....

hope these so called parents rot in jail

IrresistibleB1tch said:

That was my question before the org hiccup.

I'd also point out that most American children ARE fed restrictive diets. They eat diets full of starchy, sugary crap and nearly devoid of whole foods. Given the choice of restrictive diets, I think people would be wise to choose the vegan one if it is carefully planned around whole, organic foods.

HereToRockYourWorld said:

IrresistibleB1tch said:

On the subject of vitamin A -- by a renowned lipid biochemist:

http://www.westonaprice.o...fetal.html