A mother in Florida that was charged for child neglect after her doctor discovered that her son was malnourished has been able to regain custody of her baby.
Sarah Markham, a 24-year-old mother from Seminole County, Florida, lost custody of Caleb, her son, five months ago when a doctor advised her to go to a hospital due to her baby's malnourished state, but Markham did not immediately go.
"I'm just so excited ecstatic and about getting him back; this whole thing was a nightmare," said Markham to WFTV-TV.
Markham and her lawyer settled the case against her by the Florida Department of Children and Families to allow the mother to regain custody of the child. However, to keep her son's custody, Markham will need to meet with a pediatrician approved by the state.
The Sheriff's Office of Seminole County, which was overseeing the case through the county's Child Protective Services, said to ABC News that it is not allowed to speak regarding the outcome of the case due to state privacy laws.
"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, the grandfather of Caleb.
The arrest on Markham happened back in June 24, after Markham was prompted to directly go to a hospital upon examination of the infant.
When the mother did not go to the hospital immediately, the doctor alerted the authorities. Markham was then tracked and arrested in her apartment, with charges of child neglect with no bodily harm.
Accusations at Markham included her refusal to provide a non-vegan infant formula to her son even though the baby was suffering from dehydration.
Mark O'Mara, the lawyer of Markham, said to ABC News that the doctor that examined her son told her to take Caleb to the hospital after Markham said that she was opposed to using an animal-based infant formula to serve as a supplement to breast feeding.
Markham was a vegan, and she wished to raise her son as a vegan.
According to O'Mara, Markham did not immediately go to the hospital because she instead purchased vegan infant formula, with which she was feeding Caleb at the time of her arrest.
O'Mara added that Markham was trying breast feeding for her child, but her son was finding it difficult to do so, causing him to be underweight into a condition of "failure to thrive," meaning that the child had lost weight than what was acceptable.
While Markham has regained custody of Caleb, the child neglect criminal charges on the mother are still in court.
