They need our prayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[blessed]

Hi
To everyone that is a part of this forum, please pray for the Anddresohn family. They are the ones that live in Florida. Their trial is starting and the two older children will be testifying against them. It's so unfair what the court system is doing to this family. Thank God that they have a great lawyer and support from around the country.
They are going to show their trial on "Court TY" I'm not sure when it will appear on the channels that you all have but check your cable court channels.
I saw them on the t.v. and they are trying hard to hold it together but you can see the toll it has taken. Please pray for them, they are trying to be strong.
What is being done to this family is ABUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ann

[Sharon in Colorado]

Is this a recent update on the family? Do you have a website?

[blessed]

Hi Sharon,
Go to your search and type in- Rawfriends.com, then click on update it should be to your right side.
The trial is on court tv today.
Ann

[Ariannah]

http://www.courttv.com/trials/andressohn/101805_background_ctv.html

Here is the Court Tv link.
This family is in my prayers. I have been praying for them ever since I first read this story.

The implications of this could be far reaching....

The sad thing is, the child died at 6 MONTHS when the condition she suffered from (DiGeorge syndrome) normally has a prognosis of just weeks. Methinks their healthy way of feeding her extended her life rather than ended it early.

[TimmyC]

Ok I don't want to be the judge here...that's not my point. The raw and living food lifestyle is supported by me! I wish the family well.

Now for my question as I'm curious. For babies, isn't breast feeding the most natural thing to do to give babies the nourishment they need at least for the first six to 12 months? Did the family do that or did they believe that wasn't following the lifestyle. I just didn't see it in the posted article?

It's so sad!

[blessed]

Thank you for link on the court tv.
I also thank everyone for your prayers going out for the family. This case could have effects far beyond the area in which the family is living.
This is a very important case for Vegan/Vegetarian parents to be watching, we need to know for the sake of our children.

Ann

[Jamie]

Tim~ I don't get that either,, You are correct~~~ breastfeeding is God's perfect food/nurishment for babies. I have nursed all my babies for at least a year and didn't start them on anything solid for at least 8 months.

Jamie


I was thinking after I wrote this that of course the healthier mother eats, the healthier the breastmilk.

I do feel for this family. It is such a sad thing. But I do wonder why they don't just agree to feed their kids cooked just to get them back. Can't they then always do 80% or something and then after things quiet down move more back to the full raw??
YIKES,, are ya all gonna yell at me for that??

[sweetgoddess]

Nobody will yell at you. The whole situation is puzzling for everyone!

[Ariannah]

I was wondering about the breastfeeding issue too after I posted. Maybe the baby's condition made it more difficult to suck? Who knows....

I wondered too, why they didn't just keep some cans of tuna or non-perishable cooked food around to keep up the image, or agree to feed them cooked to get them back, but my take is that it takes a very strong and honest person to stick 100% to their convictions and what they believe is right, even in extreme circumstances. Can't say I'd be so unbendable.

[blessed]

I can understand their plight. When my husband and I decided to adopt a baby with a disability which caused him to have a slow growth pattern we never thought that we would get caught up in the system.
We had the police come into our church looking for us on a Sunday morning during midday service. They knew at the time that we were vegetarian and they wanted to use this fact to come into our home later on that day to seach it without a court order and to search the baby.
We were not allowed to comfort our child or to defend our to defend ourselves as they came with two armed policemen. Our crime was feeding our child organic food and goat's milk.
So I understand to an extent what this family has gone through. I am glad that they are being represented by a good lawyer and have wonderful and giving friends around the country.
This is a disease that is growing by the day and if we don't stand up and speak out against it it may come knocking on our doorstep one day.
As for my husband and I we recieved a lot of support when we were going through they finally dropped our case as we refused to cooperate with them. As we knew whatever we said they would use it against us so we said very little.
It was hard for them to continue with us because we refused to sign papers they sent us in the mail and would not work with them. They did convince the adoption agency to take our son back and they gave him to a non-vegetarian family but we didn't hang our heads or let that cause us to break-up. It made us stronger and more determined to talk with families about feeding their children a healthy diet and we are now going to attempt another adoption.
When you get knocked down the best thing to do is get back up as soon as you possibly can.

Ann

[Sharon in Colorado]

Here is a different perspective for using cow's milk. I believe the Creator, in all His divine wisdom, foresaw that there will be babies who won't have mother's milk for one reason or the other. Perhaps the mother can't or perhaps the mother dies or maybe the baby gets adopted. So I believe that there are exeptions for using cow's milk in the early years. Babies require milk for necessary growth and if they can't get it from mom, a cow or a goat, there could be some problems there. I don't know if wheat grass and carrot juice is going to supply the same exact necessary nutrients for that initial development.

[Denise Nicole]

I don't understand the not breast feeding either.
http://www.second-opinions.co.uk/miami_death.html

[Autumn]

An article I read when this story first broke stated that they had "problems" with breastfeeding. However, it didn't state what the problems were, or indicate whether it was a problem for the mother or the baby.

[Jamie]

goats milk is supposed to be very similar to human breastmilk.....much more easily digestable than cows milk.

I have even had friends that have nursed for a friend who was sick or whatever. Also, I had a good friend that pumped her own milk for a family that adopted and wanted the baby to have breastmilk.

[TimmyC]

I'm glad to see all of these very interesting and thoughtfull responses. I thought I was throwing myself to the wolves for bringing it up :).


Tim

[truthseeker]

"Maybe the baby's condition made it more difficult to suck? Who knows.... "

I do think this was probably the case, as it mentions in one of the articles, the baby was not able to sit-up or hold up her head. Suckling is quite a cordinated technique used to extract milk from the breast that the baby may not have had the ability to learn.


My prayers are with them.

[Punky]

I can understand their plight. When my husband and I decided to adopt a baby with a disability which caused him to have a slow growth pattern we never thought that we would get caught up in the system.
We had the police come into our church looking for us on a Sunday morning during midday service. They knew at the time that we were vegetarian and they wanted to use this fact to come into our home later on that day to seach it without a court order and to search the baby.
We were not allowed to comfort our child or to defend our to defend ourselves as they came with two armed policemen. Our crime was feeding our child organic food and goat's milk.
So I understand to an extent what this family has gone through. I am glad that they are being represented by a good lawyer and have wonderful and giving friends around the country.
This is a disease that is growing by the day and if we don't stand up and speak out against it it may come knocking on our doorstep one day.
As for my husband and I we recieved a lot of support when we were going through they finally dropped our case as we refused to cooperate with them. As we knew whatever we said they would use it against us so we said very little.
It was hard for them to continue with us because we refused to sign papers they sent us in the mail and would not work with them. They did convince the adoption agency to take our son back and they gave him to a non-vegetarian family but we didn't hang our heads or let that cause us to break-up. It made us stronger and more determined to talk with families about feeding their children a healthy diet and we are now going to attempt another adoption.
When you get knocked down the best thing to do is get back up as soon as you possibly can.

Ann

Ann,
I am so sorry for everything you went thru; you have been wronged by the system. They (meaning society in general) are the ones that should be questioned about diets; pumping our children full of additives, preservatives and chemicals to make more money.
It's such a SAD world......

[Punky]

Here is a different perspective for using cow's milk. I believe the Creator, in all His divine wisdom, foresaw that there will be babies who won't have mother's milk for one reason or the other. Perhaps the mother can't or perhaps the mother dies or maybe the baby gets adopted. So I believe that there are exeptions for using cow's milk in the early years. Babies require milk for necessary growth and if they can't get it from mom, a cow or a goat, there could be some problems there. I don't know if wheat grass and carrot juice is going to supply the same exact necessary nutrients for that initial development.

I agree with you on this Sharon.

Although I do hope the family gets their children back and will
send prayers out for them to reunite.

I also think it's a shame that all raw/living fooders will get "lumped" together
and sterio-typed by society in general from this prominant case.

[Punky]

Sharon,
I agree with your post,, and goats milk is supposed to be very similar to human breastmilk.....much more easily digestable than cows milk.

I have even had friends that have nursed for a friend who was sick or whatever. Also, I had a good friend that pumped her own milk for a family that adopted and wanted the baby to have breastmilk.

I believe their might be some breast milk banks in some cities. One would have to research it. I had an aquintance whose baby was in the NICU for months and would pump her breast and also collect breast milk from friends.

[Essensual]

http://www.tampabaylive.com/stories/2005/10/051019baby.shtml

Wow this whole situation is terribly sad....they keep brushing the child's medical conditions to the back burner.

[sport]

During renovations on an old house we discovered that the walls had been lined with newspaper from 1862. There were lines and lines of ads looking for wetnurses. I think that nature intended that mothers without babies or mothers who could feed more than one baby would feed the babies that had no mother to provide the milk. I do not believe that any babies were intended to drink the milk of another species.

[TimmyC]

I watched the news on Fox this afternoon...this family is in for the fight of its life. The Raw and Living Food lifestyle on this program got a raw deal.


Tim

[Ariannah]

I don't have tv, but reading about it on the internet is scary. It looks like the boys' aunt has done a great job of brainwashing them against their parents. If something like this could happen to this family, and people like blessed get their children taken away for feeding their family healthy foods, what will this do for the reputation of families everywhere who go against SAD convention?? Shudder.

Obviously, I think raw food is best, but I do have my own issues with the alleged whippings and enemas.

[sport]

Can someone tell me what program on Fox covered it and we can all send them an email telling them that we have eaten like this for X number of years and are much healthier than the average person. Maybe if enough people made a noise then it would be heard.
The thing that bothers me is that I dont know how responsible these people were in their approach and why the other kids were not healthy. Maybe I should mind my own business and stay out of it when I do not know the facts.
I am confussed

[GlimR]

The issue of what kind of food the parents fed their children is only one issue.
When you get caught up in something like this all the other facts get pushed to the side in light of everyone's passion to support the raw food way of life or condemn it.

If the children were healthy and energetic, as raw fed children usually are, there would probably have been no question. And there are , in fact, lots of questions. If the baby could not suck the mom could have expressed her milk. I can't even imagine how you could get a baby to drink wheatgrass juice. I have been in early education and infant care for 25 years and in my experience a baby won't even drink something strong tasting. I have a hard time stomaching it.

Yes, things can get so twisted in a situation like this and it is almost impossible to know what really happened. When my daughter was about 6 months old she was so small she was off the bottom of the growth chart. The pediatrition told me to put her on formula. I had already successfully breat fed two children for a year each and knew there was no problem with my milk production. I went to the store on the way home and bought formula and I was so upset...did not want to do it but was worried by what the dr. had said...when we got home I tried to feed her some of the formula, she cried and did not want it.....I promptly dumped it down the sink and nursed her. I do know that for me personally if my child had such obvious failure to thrive I would see a doctor, even it was not conventional medicine there are naturopaths, homeopaths too.....there are alternatives. I would do what I thought was best but would not watch them whither away before my eyes.

I am not judging the family and their choices. But this is really about more than just their choice to follow a raw food diet.

[TimmyC]

GlimR you have a lot of good points. After watching Fox's Shepard Smith during his 1 hour show, which started at 2pm CST on 10-19-05, I'm figuring this is going to be a huge case, and everything pointed against raw and living food as the problem (the broadcasters and interviewers would be laughng with disgust and their noses up in the air).

(I'm searching for the transcript, but can't find it anywhere) No one interviewed supported the lifestyle instead made a mockery of it.

I'll tell you what this is going to be about: The media is going to blame the lifestyle, and it's going to get a bad rap that is for sure (i'm sure they're going to interview raw foodists, but for mockery purposes only)....then it's going to be about bad parenting...as social services was at the family's house three different times. It was ugly let me tell you, and I believe it's going to get worse. However, the bad parenting is going to be the secondary issue here ( in my opinion after viewing that show).

In my humble opinion, it shouldn't be about the raw lifestyle, it's about making sure your baby or children for that matter can survive. I have trouble understanding how anyone who loves their children could let their baby get so bad that he/she was malnurished to this fatal extreme. I simply don't understand. I'd do anything for my kids....if that meant taking them to the hospital everyday. Sure I don't know exactly what happened, just stating my opinion, and question if indeed there was neglect involved. It's very very sad.

Another thing that was discussed on this show was that this is another push into violating privacy in the home.


Tim



The issue of what kind of food the parents fed their children is only one issue.
When you get caught up in something like this all the other facts get pushed to the side in light of everyone's passion to support the raw food way of life or condemn it.

If the children were healthy and energetic, as raw fed children usually are, there would probably have been no question. And there are , in fact, lots of questions. If the baby could not suck the mom could have expressed her milk. I can't even imagine how you could get a baby to drink wheatgrass juice. I have been in early education and infant care for 25 years and in my experience a baby won't even drink something strong tasting. I have a hard time stomaching it.

Yes, things can get so twisted in a situation like this and it is almost impossible to know what really happened. When my daughter was about 6 months old she was so small she was off the bottom of the growth chart. The pediatrition told me to put her on formula. I had already successfully breat fed two children for a year each and knew there was no problem with my milk production. I went to the store on the way home and bought formula and I was so upset...did not want to do it but was worried by what the dr. had said...when we got home I tried to feed her some of the formula, she cried and did not want it.....I promptly dumped it down the sink and nursed her. I do know that for me personally if my child had such obvious failure to thrive I would see a doctor, even it was not conventional medicine there are naturopaths, homeopaths too.....there are alternatives. I would do what I thought was best but would not watch them whither away before my eyes.

I am not judging the family and their choices. But this is really about more than just their choice to follow a raw food diet.

[blessed]

Thanks everyone who has posted this far.
The family is indeed in a fight for their lives. We are grateful for the lawyers that are representing them. They need a high profile lawyer, they have a very difficult road ahead of them.
Yes, it seems they want to forcus on the diet and other matters more than the fact that the baby was born with a disability.
My hope is that the lawyer will bring up other children that were born with the same disability and lengh of their life span and use this as a way to bring the case back into focus.
It seems that this fact is getting lost in the case and it may be on purpose. State Officials have a way of clouding the truth.
That is why we as parents must be very careful to stay clear of any involvement with them. This a lesson wisely learned and humbly shared.

God Bless All Of You for your love and concern

Ann