Court orders vegetarian mother to feed her son meat

An Italian court has ordered a vegetarian mother to cook meat for her son at least once a week after the boy's father complained that his son wasn't being given a proper diet.

The mother in Bergamo, northern Italy, started her son on a macrobiotic diet, which is typically a vegetarian diet consisting of whole grains, cereals and vegetables, in 2006.



But the father, who is divorced from the mother, complained that she had made the decision without consulting him and that the diet put his son’s health at risk. Despite the mother’s dietary regime, the father took his son out for meals at McDonalds and prepared desserts, meat and dairy dishes on weekends, when he had custody of the child.

The father’s mother, the boy’s grandmother, also fed him foods which broke the diet, including gorgonzola and sausages. According to the child's mother, the boy would come home after the weekend with a stomach ache. The father eventually took the matter to court so that the boy’s diet could be decided once and for all.