A Sydney naturopath is facing court after a raw food diet designed for a breastfeeding mother allegedly caused the baby to almost starve.
Marilyn Bodnar has said she intends to plead not guilty to charges of recklessly causing grievous bodily harm and aiding or abetting failure to provide necessities of life to a child, after advising a 33-year-old woman to undertake a ‘toxin-free’ diet to fix her son’s eczema.
Part of the diet Bodnar allegedly suggested to the woman in 2015 involved living solely off watermelon and water for three days, while she was still breastfeeding.
Relatives expressed concern over the woman’s weight loss but she was allegedly told by Bodnar that she was “fat” and needed to lose weight.
Bodnar explained the baby’s weight loss by saying that this was the body’s way of eliminating “toxins”.
The baby was eventually taken to hospital, supposedly just days away from starvation, where doctors found him to be malnourished, dehydrated and developmentally stunted.
Bodnar’s defence are trying to put this back on the mum:
“It was the actions taken by the mother that directly inflicted harm on the infant.“Whilst unconventional advice may have been given by Marilyn as to how to cure the infant’s eczema, it is the reckless and negligent actions of the infant’s mother, a former registered nurse, that directly impacted the child’s health.”
Bodnar will appear in Parramatta District Court next month and has been placed on bail on the condition she doesn’t give naturopathic advice to anyone under the age of 16.
Source: ABC.
Photo: Facebook.
