''Couldn't speak, feed herself''
A couple from Australia have narrowly escaped prison after their baby was found severely malnourished due to a vegan diet.
The couple in their 30s, who cannot be named, were sentenced to an 18-month jail term which will be served as a community order.
The girl, now three, was so malnourished she looked like a three-month-old at 19 months.
She was fed a diet of oats, potatoes, toast and rice among other things.
The toddler was found to have no teeth when taken into care in March 2018.
At a sentencing at Sydney's Downing Centre Court on Thursday, Judge Sarah Huggett criticised the parents for putting her on a "completely inadequate" diet.
"This child was severely malnourished, underweight and undersized and delayed as far as age-appropriate milestones were concerned," said the judge.
The baby was taken off the parents after she suffered a seizure and emergency services were called.
It was then that she was found to be severely malnourished. She presented with blue lips, cold hands and feet, low blood sugar and little muscle tone, said the Australian Associated Press.
The baby's foster carer, who took her in after she was taken out of her parents' care, said the baby was "behind other children".
"She couldn't sit up, she couldn't speak any words, she couldn't feed herself, she couldn't play with toys... she couldn't roll over all the way," she said in a victim impact statement in May.
Judge Huggett said the child's parents were "initially unable to accept that their daughters' condition was due to malnutrition".
She said the couple - who had two other children that they raised without injury - were not "very young or uneducated".
She said the mother was suffering from a level of depression at the time but had become "increasingly fixated" in her beliefs - including their vegan diet.
