> An only five month old baby who is breast fed and supplemented with
> raw vegan foods by caring parents dying of malnutrition is hardly an
> advertisement for a raw vegan diet. ;-)

I didn't see anything in the article stating that the cause of death was
malnutrition. Furthermore, there were four other children who were
apparently of normal weight. A fully breastfed baby dying of malnutrition
due only to diet is extremely rare, even in "developing" countries where
malnutrition is rampant--the baby usually takes everything from the mother
first.

It's quite possible that the cause of death was something completely
different--ie. a physical problem or genetic disease that blocked absorption
or digestion. These things may certainly be related to diet (sometimes over
generations) but babies on cooked, or animal product diets die everyday from
similar things and noone blames the diet or parents.

I'm not saying that I support raw veganism for babies--i don't. Just that we
have no real understanding of why this baby died. The media (and the public,
sadly enough) always loves a sensational story where someone can be blamed.
Participating in that rarely leads to any real understanding or help for
anyone.

warmly,
ingrid (partner to Jean-Claude who mostly writes here)