A vegan mother whose newborn son was taken from her several months ago after he began losing weight has regained custody of the child.
On Wednesday, a Seminole County, Florida, judge told Sarah Markham that she would get custody of her son Caleb, with the provision that she provide a nutritionist's report within 10 days.
Markham was arrested in June when her son was less than 2 weeks old. He had lost 10 percent of his body weight. A doctor said Caleb was failing to thrive and told Markham to take her child to a hospital.
Rather than taking the boy to the hospital, Markham wanted to try supplementing breast milk with vegan formula.
"There's no case, there's no abuse, there's no neglect – there's simply a doctor who has been challenged by a mother, and he didn't like it," said Bo Markham, Caleb's grandfather.
The judge agreed, throwing out Seminole County Child Protective Services' claim that Sarah Markham was not fit to care for the child.
Attorney Mark O'Mara said he expects the criminal case against the mother to be thrown out, as well.
"My hope is that they'll simply dismiss it and not go forward on this at all," O'Mara said.
Caleb stayed with grandparents after being removed from his mother's care and now weighs 17 pounds.
"He's still on a soy formula – he's been on it, he likes it, he's doing well. He's growing healthy, and I can't ask for anything more," Markham said.
