Elizabeth Hawk, a 33-year old woman from Pennsylvania, has been charged with malnourishing her 11-month old son. She follows a strict vegan diet and encourages her family members to follow it as well, but they don’t buy into her pushing. “She was going to live on water and sunlight,” Hawk’s sister-in-law Brandy Hawk recalled her saying, according to the news station at Fox.
Her son, who’s name was not disclosed had been suffering from developmental delays and a visible rash, which had Hawk’s brother and Jerry Hawk her estranged husband, who is also the father of the boy, concerned. However, when they mentioned the rash to the mother, she blamed it on allergies and did not take it be anything serious. They refused to take her excuses lightly and knew something needed to be done immediately.
Jerry Hawk decided to take the young boy to the local Child Youth Services for examination. Specialists found the 11-month-old had been suffering from developmental delays that left him at a “failure to thrive” level, and that his fruit-and-nut-only diet was causing physical deterioration. A vegan diet requires people to add supplements and diet aids in order to gain the proper nutrition that non-vegans gain from eating meat and consuming milk.
Being vegan has become more popular over the years but the importance of balancing a diet for a baby is far more important than the diet of a grown adult. Babies require a balanced diet in order to be able to develop properly and learn at a reasonable speed. A physician who inspected the boy said not treating his rash was “inhumane” and put him at risk for septic shock, a deadly condition. Elizabeth remains free on her own recognizance and the baby is now home with his father and his two siblings.
