InsaneJournal

This is just sick
Parents of 12-year-old Vegan girl who has degenerative condition may face charges.

Anyone who allows their child to be harmed because of their philosophical (or religious!) beliefs should be charged--and found guilty. Now, usually when a child is harmed by their parents' beliefs, it's emotional or mental, and you can argue that the parents didn't know they were harming the child, emotions and the mind being relatively difficult to accurately measure/understand, particularly with people we're close to. (Might not be true, but you can at least argue it.) A diet that causes malnutrition severe enough to give a twelve year old the spine of an eighty-year old? THAT IS KIND OF OBVIOUS, AND TAKES A LONG TIME TO DEVELOP. Not to mention the incredible number of broken bones this kid has suffered, with various other problems due to malnutrition. There's no way they could not have known what they were doing to their daughter.

Adults can live on a vegan diet (no animal products at all, including eggs and dairy products) if they're very careful about it, although they still can suffer problems from malnutrition, depending on their health in general and what their eating habits are. But it is simply not possible to provide a child with all the nutrients he/she needs on a vegan diet. I mean, children have died from being put on a vegan diet too young. Granted, there are many children who don't have serious problems being on a vegan diet, but is that a risk you really want to take with a child's life and health? When adding in eggs and milk will drastically reduce the risk? You don't even have to feed the child meat! And if you decide to try to raise your child as a vegan, you darned sure better be on the lookout for any problems caused by malnutrition.