If a bill presented in Parliament by the center-right party, Forza Italia, progresses, parents who impose a vegan diet on their children could be sentenced to one year in jail, or two If the child is less than three years old.
The fashion of veganism is becoming stronger, and at the same time there is growing concern about the increase in cases of children who have had to be hospitalized for nutritional imbalances.
What is intended with the proposed law is to protect children from unbalanced diets. The text, already known as "Savino law", provides up to one year in jail for the basic crime of imposing a vegan diet on a minor.
If the diet results in illness or injury, the prison sentence would amount to between two and four years, and even up to six years if the child's death occurs.
Outrageous cases
The case of Chiara has been the most popular and has opened a great debate in Italy about whether children should follow restrictive diets imposed by their parents. The 2-year-old girl has had to be admitted to the Intensive Care Unit in a hospital in Genoa because of a poorly controlled vegan diet that caused her various shortcomings.
The girl did not eat any food of animal origin, which led to problems in her health: very low hemoglobin values and a significant lack of vitamin B12. Both factors are dangerous for a child's neurological and psychomotor development.
Then another case was known that also outraged the entire society. The case of a 14-month-old baby weighing as one of three, did not reach 5 kilos, although here it is not clear that it was for eating a vegan diet. The degree of malnutrition was such that to avoid further risks to the baby and custody of his parents has been immediately withdrawn.
These two well-known cases are part of the four cases that have occurred in the last 18 months of malnourished Italian children who have had to be hospitalized.
In addition, requests for their children to be fed a vegan dietary regime also increase in schools. And of course, the concern increases.
The risks of the vegan diet
A vegan diet excludes any food of animal origin: meat, fish, animal fats, jelly, dairy products (cheese, milk, yogurt, butter) or honey, as well as eggs or any food prepared with eggs.
According to dietitians of the American Dietetic Association, a child can eat a well-made vegan diet with all the necessary nutrients and grow perfectly healthy.
But "If the diet is not controlled it can be very dangerous", explains Alberto Ferrando, president of the Association of Pediatricians of the Liguria Region.
"Veganism is a very rigid dietary regimen, which a child can only follow on condition that it is followed, with continuous checkups, by a pediatrician, so that he can intervene immediately when there are deficiencies of vitamins or other elements, deficiencies that can be dangerous to the child's health. "
It is imprudent and very dangerous to impose restrictive diets on children that exclude essential nutrients for their development and may put their health at risk.
Do you think the jail sentence is the solution? I think the key is in improve parental nutrition education so that they can offer their children a proper diet for each stage of growth.
