GUILTY GA - Crown Shakur, 6 wks, starved to death, Atlanta, 25 April 2004

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The two first-time parents, who lived in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood, rushed the infant to the hospital after he began to have trouble breathing and doctors declared him dead on arrival after failing to resuscitate him. They found his death was due to extreme malnourishment or starvation, and police then searched the couple's apartment.

They found a soy milk bottle, an apple juice bottle and a rancid-smelling baby bottle caked with debris. Prosecutors said an investigation revealed the two only fed their baby soy milk and apple juice, and contended at the 2007 trial that the couple intentionally neglected their child and refused to take him to the doctor even as the baby's body wasted away.

Defense attorneys countered that the first-time parents did the best they could while adhering to the lifestyle of vegans, who typically use no animal products. They said Sanders and Thomas did not realize the baby was in danger until they rushed his emaciated body to the hospital.

"I loved my son _ and I did not starve him," Jade Sanders said at her May 2007 sentencing hearing.
http://www.telegram.com/article/20110912/APA/309129873

What the heck else were they suppose to have fed a 5 week old. color me confused. Also,trouble breathing is not the first sign of starvation.:crazy:
 
Breast milk would have been a good start for this baby. You can get soy formula but it often has animal derived vit D in it.
I wonder if this babe was having plain soy milk which wouldn't be good, yep, just seen it was
 
RIP little baby! Poor thing never had a chance. so very sad.
 
Breast milk would have been a good start for this baby. You can get soy formula but it often has animal derived vit D in it.
I wonder if this babe was having plain soy milk which wouldn't be good, yep, just seen it was

I was allergic to my mother's breast milk (we never did get along) and was raised for the first few months either on soy or barley water, if family stories are true.
 
It is very hard for me to understand how people who care so much about animal welfare that they adopt a vegan lifestyle care so little about their baby that they let him starve.
 
"The 6-week-old was dead when his parents took him to Piedmont Hospital, across the street from their apartment, on April 25, 2004. He weighed 3 1/2 pounds and was so emaciated that doctors could count his bones through his skin."
http://www.ajc.com/news/jury-baby-murdered-by-1174779.html

At first i thought maybe they did not realize. But unless this article got the weight wrong, whytheH did they not take the baby to the doctors.....
 
From where I'm standing, the parents killed their child.
 
This news is so sad. I truely do not want to believe that this couple starved their baby to death. But I can NOT for the life of me figure out WHY they did not take their baby to a doctor sooner.
This brings up a bad memory for me. My oldest daughter (now nearly 17), had problems as an infant. I fed her constantly and it seemed she never could get enough. Her formula didn't seem to stay long with her at times passing what seemed almost straight through her bowels. I took her to her pediatrician who then admitted her to the hospital for Failure to Thrive. I was questioned CONSTANTLY by this doctor. She thought that I was lying and was simply not feeding my child. My grandmother who was staying with me at the time stood up to this doctor and assured her I was caring very well for my child. The doctor switched her formula and it seemed to help (some). She was still very slow at gaining weight and growing. I was always drilled at each doctor visit regarding my daughters care and why she wasn't gaining weight like she should for what amount of food she was taking in ( I learned to always take my Grandmother with me)This doctor kept me in tears. A couple of months went by and my daughter got sick with Pneumonia and was admitted again to the hospital. I questioned the doctor about WHY my daughter would get pneumonia because I kept her indoors in warm home and we never went out except doctor visits. Her explanation was just that sometimes these things happen. A few days after her release, I noticed she had some facial swelling on one side and was having a problem with closing her eye and her lip began to droop on the same side. I immediately took her back to the doctor ONLY to be accused of me hurting my daughter. I was questioned so much by this doctor and she was wanting to lay blame solely on me for EVERYTHING. She was sent to another hospital an hour and a half away and FINALLY there they were able to get the answer to all of the problems. Her partial facial paralysis was from Bells Palsy ( although a cause couldn't be determined) After taking our history from pregnancy to birth, they ran tests and came back with our answer. My daughter had Cystic Fibrosis which explained everything--the failure to thrive and pneumonia. We were referred by that hospital to our CF clinic and she has been in good hands since.
But after all of these years, and for the rest of my life, I will NEVER forget the way this doctor treated me and the lack of knowledge she had as a" professional".
My story is what leads me to want to believe these parents didn't willfully starve their child. I only read the articles the links took me to but I can't help to wonder if there could have been an underlying problem, possibly like my daughter had. EITHER way , it is a very very sad ending to the precious life of this baby. Why not take the child to a doctor? It makes no sense, no sense at all.
 
I was allergic to my mother's breast milk (we never did get along) and was raised for the first few months either on soy or barley water, if family stories are true.

The soy milk for babies is not the same a buying plain soy milk from the cooler at the grocery store. My son was on soy formula as an infant for a while due to suspected allergies, and I can vouch for it: not the same as the soy milk you or I would drink.

It's loaded with all the nutrition and fat a baby needs. He got fat drinking it. :)
A five week old shouldn't be drinking apple juice AT ALL. That is just flavored sugar water.
 
i believe they may not have known better and maybe did not want to deal with it all. education may be lacking. they had the baby in the tub cause hospitals have germs? but why not just breast feed? but like mentioned, there could have been a problem but didn't know to get help across the street (oookay). which sounds crazy. it sucks to blame ignorance but what else could it have been? still, no excuse. three pounds, poor baby.
 
I really dont want to believe that they killed this baby, I do believe there was neglect. They should have sought help when they noticed the baby was not gaining weight!
 

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