BRAMPTON

Behold the dangers of new age quackery when there are children at risk.

Sean and Maria Hosannah are off to prison for two years for allowing their 27-month-old daughter Matinah to die from chronic malnutrition, blindly oblivious to the fact that she wasn’t gaining weight and was so weak and her bones so soft that she wasn’t even crawling as she passed her second birthday.

The organic vegan diet they fed her — devoid of vitamin D, B12 or protein — in addition to breast milk wasn’t enough to sustain the child. Combined with an asthma attack, she didn’t stand a chance.

“It appears that in terms of choices of food, the Hosannahs believed they were doing the right thing but it turned out to be horribly wrong,” Justice John Sproat said in sentencing the pair Friday morning. “This diet was certainly ill-advised and negligent.”

But in and of itself, the malnourishment alone wasn’t criminal, he said. What led to their conviction for manslaughter for not providing the necessaries of life was their decision to not seek medical attention for Matinah. The baby’s last doctor’s appointment was at 16 months when they were told she had developmental delays and needed to see a pediatrician.

Instead, she was never taken to a doctor again.

“The fact that the Hosannahs ignored the advice of (their doctor) is both culpable and criminal. Further, from 16 months to her death, Matinah gained only one kilogram. Week by week, month by month, the Hosannahs could see that there was no indication of any improvement,” the judge said.

“I do not know why the Hosannahs ignored medical advice and warning signs but I am satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt that they did. Distrust of medical professionals may have been a factor.”

And now one child is dead — and they are pregnant with their fourth.

They didn’t believe in vaccinations for their kids and even had a bizarre notion that doctors had infected Matinah with a bone disease while in the neo-natal unit, an argument the judge rejected as having “no merit.” No kidding.

Sproat was sympathetic to their loss and acknowledged that the couple never meant to cause their daughter’s death on Feb. 25, 2011. “They both express great sadness and pain at the loss of Matinah,” he said. “This has been a very sad case for all concerned.”

He rejected the Crown’s submission for a four-to-six year sentence. Instead, with six months credit for pre-sentence custody and their time on bail, they were each sentenced to two years less a day in a provincial jail. But the judge agreed to a request from Maria Hosannah’s lawyer to add a day to the mother’s sentence so the 31-year-old will be sent to a federal prison where she can receive better care for her pregnancy.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry,” Sean Hosannah, 42, told his weeping friends and relatives as he and his stoic wife were led away in handcuffs.

The couple, who maintain they did nothing wrong, have said they plan to appeal. “There’s not a day that goes by that our hearts are not constantly in pain,” Maria said at their sentencing hearing. “We know and believe that Matinah, which means the ‘firm one’, will like for us to continue to fight until justice is served.”

Their surviving children remain in the care of the Children’s Aid.

They seem like nice people — how did they not notice that their daughter was failing to thrive? How did they not realize that their diet was starving her of the nutrients she needed to survive?

During their trial, Dr. Michael Pollanen, Ontario’s chief forensic pathologist, testified that Matinah died from a combination of asthma and malnutrition. She also had rickets, a bone disease, from extremely low Vitamin D in her system, megaloblastic anemia and protein deficiency that caused an enlarged heart and fluid around her organs. Her bones were so soft and weak that normal handling could break them — one left rib and her left collarbone had healing fractures.

Dr. Stanley Zlotkin, a leading expert in pediatric nutrition at Sick Kids, told the trial Matinah had gone long periods of her life without enough food to eat.

So shame on these parents. Well meaning? Well intentioned? That may be so, but it offers no comfort to a little girl robbed of her chance to reach her third birthday.