Ridiculous Arrest of Vegan Mother for Choice of Infant Nourishment
The physician who called the authorities to have a mother arrested for choosing not to go to the hospital or provide an animal by-product formula to her infant should lose his license for his adversarial position and disrespect for his patient’s “culture of health” and belief systems.
The vegan mother was well-schooled in healthy dietary regimens for herself and her family while adhering to a vegan approach to wellness. The physician had no actual understanding or training in this nutritional approach to a healthy lifestyle. He was in error for making decisions and trying to have other agencies enforce his questionable position with complete disregard for the cultural background and sincere methodical decisions made by his patients. This doctor should be sanctioned and forced to take training in ethics to exhibit some modicum of cultural competence in the future before he is allowed to practice medicine. I would not recommend that you seek any type of healthcare from this physician or anyone who demonstrates a comparable degree of incompetence.
The vegan mother missed 5 months of time with her newborn and was deprived of bonding, parenting, and nourishing her child due to the erroneous actions of the legal system and the medical community. How will she and her family be compensated? I have an idea: Don’t ever allow this to happen again to any other individual or family!
Dr. Travis acknowledged that this doctor was unethical in insensitive to the culture and freedom of choice of the vegan parents. You can read and listen to what else the doctors on TV said about this case here:
TheDoctorsTV on the case of the vegan mother and child
Soy-based formula is not necessarily the healthy choice for an infant unless you carefully assess the ingredients and the processing of the soy in the formula. It is advisable to avoid any soy isolates. It is also important to determine that there is no soy allergy or sensitivity which is all too common with dairy-based formulas. Our infants depend upon conscientious adults to make informed decisions about the quality of food products they consume when they are so young and vulnerable.
One or two bottles of Essentia would have addressed the hydration issue of this infant. Animal-based formulas could have done more permanent damage to this infant’s health and well-being in addition to adding to the distress of the parents who are opposed to the consumption of animal products. There are very nutritious baby foods and beverages that are healthy available now. No one should be intimidated or threatened for choosing a healthy course of action for their infants.
Dehydration does not warrant a visit to the emergency room. The physician was remiss in this case and did not explore the numerous other options for the parents and the infant. Rather than dealing with custody issues and arrests, it would have been more appropriate to have explored these options rationally and methodically to find the ideal course of action. I would not have resorted to taking my infant to the ER, because I was fully capable of finding solutions without spending useless hours in the processing of emergency care admissions and waits for medical care. That time would have been better used actually caring for the infant, rather than shuffling the child from child protective workers to temporary placement and the procedures of moving a worried and concerned mother through the legal system with an unnecessary and unethical arrest. The five months could have been time spent with this infant to nourish her, instead of artificially separating the parents from this child within a broken system that essentially robbed the parents of time with their newborn.
Tell that physician to become better informed about wellness and a vegan diet. This doctor should willingly attend courses to keep his license by demonstrating an increased measure of cultural competence after being further educated on this topic of ethics and medical practice.
