At 18 months old, most babies weigh around 22-26 pounds, however, when one Australian mother brought her 18-month-old baby into the hospital, doctors were horrified when they saw they emaciated baby weighed just 14 pounds.
The 33-year-old mom, whose name has not been released, had been desperate to treat her son’s severe eczema, which had gotten so bad that he was often covered in blood from scratching himself. At first, mom went to doctors for help, but the prescribed steroid creams did nothing to help.
When the creams failed, mom went to naturopath Marilyn Bodnar for help, and was told to start a raw food only diet since her diet could be having an effect on her exclusively breastfed baby. When that failed to make a difference in his skin condition, Bodnar advised mom to start a ‘water only’ diet.
For four weeks, the baby boy was deprived of nutrients and starved while mom tried these raw and water-only diets, and at one point ate nothing but watermelon for three days straight. By the time she brought him to the hospital, the baby was days away from death, was severely emaciated, had been vomiting for four days straight, had sunken eyes, extremely low sodium levels, and flexed hands and feet.
The mother, who prosecutors claimed should have known better since she was a university-trained midwife at a Sydney hospital, was then tried in court for endangering her son. “The case against the defendant demonstrates a serious example against her training and against the telltale signs which would have been blindingly obvious to anyone,” Magistrate Ian Guy said.
Ultimately, the mother was sentenced with a 14-month goo behavior bond, but can no longer work as a midwife and has to testify against Bodnar for reckless grievous bodily harm and aiding the failure to provide care to a child.
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[Featured image: medicaldaily]
Breastfeeding Mom Almost Kills Baby After Starting Raw Food Diet is an article from: LifeDaily