Current Events > A baby kept on a "vegan" diet died, Parents arrested

(+) Yeah! (+)

The parents of an 18-month-old boy who died in September from malnourishment have been arrested by Florida police on charges of manslaughter and child neglect.

On Sept. 27, around 4 a.m., Sheila O'Leary nursed the child briefly and, she told authorities, became worried when he began breathing shallowly, the Florida Fort Myers News-Press reported. Rather than call for help, though, the O'Learys went to sleep.

The paramedics who responded to a 911 call later that day pronounced the boy dead at the Cape Coral, Florida, home; he weighed just 17 pounds when he died, according to police reports, significantly under the average weight for a child his age, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sheila and Ryan O'Leary told investigators that the vegan family only eats fruit, vegetables and raw foods, such as mangoes, rambutans, bananas and avocados, according to the News-Press. The parents supplemented the toddler's diet with breast milk.

The child, who was home-birthed had never seen a doctor.

The couple turned themselves in to authorities on Nov. 6, after the medical examiner's office released its autopsy findings: the cause of death was malnutrition and complications, including dehydration, microsteatosis of liver, and swollen hands, feet and lower legs.

They were booked at the Lee County jail on charges of felony manslaughter and child neglect. Bond was set for both at $250,000, and an arraignment is scheduled for Dec. 9.

In a statement on his law firm's website, attorney John Musca, who is representing the 35-year-old mother, called the boy's death "tragic."

The toddler, he said, had been "struggling with illness for the past six months, making it difficult for him to eat. The mother said that the little boy began to recuperate, but then started teething, causing him to have new struggles with eating."

No attorney was listed for Ryan O'Leary, who is 30, in the Lee County jail records.

The O'Learys have two other children together, ages 3 and 5, whom police saw at their residence in September. One had blackened and decaying teeth, the News-Press reported, at both were extremely malnourished, weighing under the third percentile for their age groups.

According to the probable cause statement, Sheila O'Leary told police her children were all home-schooled, though law enforcement could not find records of them actively enrolled in a home-school program.

NBC News reported that the children were removed from the home and are being looked after by the Department of Children and Families' care.

https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/A-baby-kept-on-a-vegan-diet-died-His-parents-14855623.php
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Some stories are so sad and horrible i have to just keep on walking......
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That sucks.

Parents probably thought "swollen legs, etc... his body is just getting the 'toxins' out!"
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Nothing but vegetables. I get what they were trying to do, but this is the wrong way of doing it?

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18-months old and 17lbs? That's really low.
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The kid didn't die because of a vegan diet, the kid died because the parents are wack jobs who never saw a doctor.

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so fucking sick of this stupid shit.

vegan isnt healthy unless you already have health issues. period.

and vegan babies is just fucking criminal
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Kavatar posted...

The kid didn't die because of a vegan diet, the kid died because the parents are wack jobs who never saw a doctor.

The literal cause of death was malnutrition. Unless a doctor was going to start force feeding the baby, nothing would have changed.

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Kavatar posted...

The kid didn't die because of a vegan diet, the kid died because the parents are wack jobs who never saw a doctor.

it was most definitely the vegan diet

Everyonedies posted...

The O'Learys have two other children together, ages 3 and 5, whom police saw at their residence in September. One had blackened and decaying teeth, the News-Press reported, at both were extremely malnourished, weighing under the third percentile for their age groups.

"our two other kids are FINE so let's treat this new baby the same way"
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Damn...
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poor baby had to be born to idiot parents

Hope they throw the book at them. Forcing an objectively less nutritional diet on a baby? How cruel.

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Morons are going to use this as ammunition in their anti veganism crusade
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Duncanwii posted...

Hope they throw the book at them. Forcing an objectively less nutritional diet on a baby? How cruel.

Wait til you see what people all over the western world feed their kids

DarkChozoGhost posted...

Morons are going to use this as ammunition in their anti veganism crusade

Already doing it lol.

And lmao @ flabby Duncan still trashing on veganism. The irony
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DarkChozoGhost posted...

Morons are going to use this as ammunition in their anti veganism crusade

anti veganism crusade >>> dead infant baby
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DarkChozoGhost posted...

Morons are going to use this as ammunition in their anti veganism crusade

And other morons will pretend that forcing a vegan diet wasnt in the babys best nutritional interest to continue vegan propaganda. Its almost like people with agendas many times dont think outside that box.

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A baby died and somebody is only concerned about protecting a vegan narrative.

This self-interest shit is way out of hand.
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Conservatives should keep this same energy next time somebody guns down a load of school kids

Malfunction posted...

Conservatives should keep this same energy next time somebody guns down a load of school kids

Because everyone trashing is conservative huh

what a deflection

s0nicfan posted...

The literal cause of death was malnutrition. Unless a doctor was going to start force feeding the baby, nothing would have changed.

I thought malnutrition was part of a vegan diet?

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Malfunction posted...

Conservatives should keep this same energy next time somebody guns down a load of school kids

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Lots of stupid opinions on both sides here. Gross.
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One isn't lots, imo
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It's kind of disingenuous to say babies have to eat meat when you can just look at India (around 30% vegetarian) and see no shortage of babies that were raised never eating meat. The problem is these Western parents are usually into all kinds of dumb conspiracies and do stuff like not going to the doctor and eating weird diets far beyond just no meat (no gluten, etc.).

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They should both be sentenced to having an entire fucking pig shoved through their anuses.
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LordFarquad1312 posted...

They should both be sentenced to having an entire fucking pig shoved through their anuses.

Why get pigs involved? I thought we're supposed to respect bacon.
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Malfunction posted...

Conservatives should keep this same energy next time somebody guns down a load of school kids

Lmao

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ASithLord7 posted...

And lmao @ flabby Duncan still trashing on veganism. The irony

Someone posted a pic of him once, and he isn't even fat (as far as i know) but it's so like you to jump into a personal attack over stupid bullshit on the internet

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Malfunction posted...

Conservatives should keep this same energy next time somebody guns down a load of school kids

Are you saying its the vegetables fault and not the parents?
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Mom looks exactly like I expected her to.

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These things should be treated like most other lifestyle choices and have the child be of sound age to make the decision for themselves instead of it being forced. Since it involves a dietary change it should also be monitored by doctors as well.

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Kavatar posted...

The kid didn't die because of a vegan diet, the kid died because the parents are wack jobs who never saw a doctor.

Mystery_Mission posted...

it was most definitely the vegan diet

It was both. They gave it a vegan diet because they are anti-science wack jobs.

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ssjevot posted...

It's kind of disingenuous to say babies have to eat meat when you can just look at India (around 30% vegetarian) and see no shortage of babies that were raised never eating meat.

Most of these will still breastfeed their babies, because that's just common farking sense. It's what babies naturally eat, just as carnivores naturally eat meat. You naturally wean a baby off of milk onto veggies when the time is right, but you don't worry about it until then, because it's no big deal.

The problem is these Western parents are usually into all kinds of dumb conspiracies and do stuff like not going to the doctor and eating weird diets far beyond just no meat (no gluten, etc.).

Really, this is about a borderline-psychotic notion of "purity" that, once again, even most vegans don't subscribe to. We're talking about the kinds of people who would say that if someone cannot eat vegan for health reasons, then that person is defective and should die. It's not something you see every day, but I've encountered it a couple times.

And then, to make matters worse, we've got a particular branch of this kind of psycho-purism that doesn't even bother to do the research to do it properly. As it turns out, it is possible to raise some children and even babies on vegan diets; it's quite a bit more difficult than for adults, but at least in some circumstances, it can, in fact, be done. But it does require a lot more effort and attention than normal, and these parents seem to have just not wanted to put the effort in. Criminal neglect indeed.

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https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19562864
the diet is fine. the parents are not

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My friend has 4 kids and her whole family is vegan. I dont agree with forcing your diet on children, but I will say her kids are perfectly healthy and at a good weight. She stays home and is pretty much in the kitchen 90% of her day though, fixing up meals for everyone. Its a lot of work. Sounds like these parents went beyond just vegan diet and didnt feed their kids enough or just skipped any kind of plant protein whatsoever.

Kavatar posted...

The kid didn't die because of a vegan diet, the kid died because the parents are wack jobs who never saw a doctor.

Because a doctor would have told them that a vegan diet for a baby is fucking idiotic.
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Ain't exactly vegan if it has breast milk JUST SAYIN

Zikten posted...

poor baby had to be born to idiot parents

It happens all the time its just not talked about in the news.
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darkjedilink posted...

Because a doctor would have told them that a vegan diet for a baby is fucking idiotic.

Here we have people supporting parents force feeding a vegan diet (with very little breastmilk supplemented) to a baby that died of malnutrition because it couldnt choose itself what to eat. Yet we have monthly threads from the same people crying about circumcising baby boys because it wasnt their choice.

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