Food Abuse and Child Abuse

An interesting article was published a few days ago contrasting “time-honored” religious food rituals with “food edicts” that become perverted to be a “tool of psychosis.”

Religious fasting and child abuse: how to recognize the red flags
[The Star-Ledger 6/12/11 by Kathleen O’Brien]

The article states: “Charismatic leaders can gain control of people’s minds in sects and pretty much create their own rules,” Grumett said. Whatever food edicts a sect founder invents are likely a test of obedience and loyalty to him.

When children are involved, it’s a red flag that a line has been crossed. “It is not the purpose of any fasting regime to cause people harm, especially not children,” Grumett said. “No religion requires children to fast. It is recognized that, because they are growing, children need a higher level of sustenance.”

Catholics have dietary restrictions on Fridays during Lent, as well as Ash Wednesday and Good Friday, but only children 13 and older are required to abstain from eating meat, and fasting is expected only of adults ages 18 to 59, according to the guidelines of the Archdiocese of Newark.

Jewish children younger than 13 are not required to fast for Yom Kippur; they are often encouraged to participate by trying it for just a few hours at a time.

Complete fasting is limited to a special day or portion of a day each year. Ramadan is restricted to the hours of daylight. Some Mormons fast on one Sunday a month, donating the money they would’ve spent on food. Hindus may fast on the day of the week associated with the deity to which they’ve made a devotional vow. The thinking behind such traditions is that avoiding excessive consumption — or even suffering a bit of hunger — can help draw one’s focus to God. For Christians, it can be a physical way of understanding Christ’s suffering on the cross. “

After cataloging abuse for six months now, we know food abuse is involved in many of our cases. We took a look at the 145 different cases to see if there were any trends.

Of the 145 different cases in our archive (January-June 2011), most How Could Yous or other abuses posts involve sex abuse. Some involve theft or fraud and physical abuse. None of the sex abuse cases involved food abuse. Many of the physical abuse cases do involve food abuse.

The food abuses can be divided into three categories: food deprivation; force-feeding as punishment; strange or nasty things to eat.

The twenty-seven food abuse cases broken down by location:

• 2 cases Canada
• 1 case each New Zealand and Nepal

US cases:

• 3 cases in Pennsylvania
• 2 cases each in Alaska,Arizona, Florida, New York
• 1 case each in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Nebraska, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin

Five children died due to food abuse.

The list of strange or nasty things the children were fed for punishment or instead of regular meals:

• “Powermeal” consisting of oatmeal, refried beans, uncooked eggs and rice, microwaved
• Feces
• Bowl of Valentine’s Day candy, crushed with hammer and washed down with 5 of 10 Dr. Pepper sodas (child vomited at the fifth soda)
• Hot pepper
• Hot pepper sauce
• Pet food
• Bowl of jelly beans until the child vomited
• Peanut butter sandwich only diet
• Goat food
• Dog food
• Dandelion leaves

The number of adoptive parents that engaged in food abuse slightly outnumber the foster parents: thirteen to twelve. (There are more foster parents than adoptive parents that have sexually abused kids listed in our archive at this time.)

Almost all cases are in children aged infant to age nine. Three cases involve children older than nine.

The cases where strange things were fed to the kids are from religious parents; religious parents that homeschool; those that have worked in the child welfare profession; or from parents who were advised by adoption counselors.

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