Imaginif

Is child sacrifice abhorrent? The ancient Incas are now said to have partaken in the ritual and there exists a world buzz of interest around recent findings. Hair samples and extensive testing confirm that Llullaillaco Maiden and Llullaillaco Boy died after receiving special food for at least a year before their demise. Fattening children for 12 months prior to sacrificing them to the gods sounds like a modern day child protection issue to me. It would never happen in our civilised society! Or would it?

Child health and a balanced diet is an indicator and determinant of child safety. Parents who feed their children only low nutritional meals, high in calories, salt, fat and goodies that kill are considered to have poor parenting skills. In short, and in combination with other low skill parenting, they may be seen as bad parents. They are placing their children at risk of obesity and ongoing disease.

These modern parents are sacrificing their children to the god of fast food and we all sit back and condone it. In fact, we often encourage it. A loving parent I may be, but, I too have over fed my children on McDonalds (see their blog on corporate social responsibility), fish and chips, pre prepared supermarket meals and packaged foods that allow me to lead my very busy work lifestyle. As a child therapist I have given my darling child clients a Kinder Surprise to take away with them after a session. Thank goodness I finally got that child health is directly related to the food we busy parents give children. Doh! No miracles in this. I’m just really slow sometimes.

Good nutrition is a child’s right. By denying nutritious meals on a daily basis are we sacrificing our children to ill health? Yes, I think so. We become no better than those ancient murderers that sacrificed children by over feeding them foods set aside for the elite, walking them down the road of death, drugging them and leaving them to die of exposure (or for at least one of the Incan child Mummies, a blow to the head). Gee, sounds awfully much like the news I hear daily: child obesity at an all time high, parents luring children to their death, parents drugging their children so they’ll be quiet or parents even leaving their own drugs lying around for babies to swallow, homeless children freezing and dying on the streets of our towns. Where’s the Convention on the Rights of a Child here, in our modern day, sophisticated and God fearing lives? Are we loving and caring for, or killing our children as a sacrifice of the lives we chose to lead?

Healthy diets can be expensive. Children of parents from a lower socio economic bracket often survive on cheap foods high in carbohydrates, saturated fats, sugars and salts. Don’t stand by and let your community sacrifice its young. Start a meal swap, home economic homework club where you supervise a low cost high health value bake up with the local kids, adopt a family and drop them in healthy home made lunch box treats every week or even donate some healthy food to a shelter or community kitchen.

Above all else, remember that good food and nutrition is a child’s right. Do the right thing by your child.

Article by Megan Bayliss

News reports about Inca child sacrifices:

Incas ‘fattened’ kids before sacrificing them
Teenage girl was frozen sacrifice
Study: Inca drugged children sacrifices
Inca children ‘fattened up’ before sacrifice
Tests track last meals of sacrificed children

Special thank you to Vegan Momma who helped me not to fear raw food as a replacement to the highly processed and middle classed refined food that has traditionally graced my table.