The battle over the health of the young boy began in 2006 when the mother began eating what she identifies as a 'macrobiotic diet' – an extremist form of veganism in which the main food is grains, to the exclusion of almost all else. The court heard that the main food in the mother's house was boiled, plain rice – but when the father took custody of the child at weekends he was determined to give him a proper diet.

When away with his mother, the boy visited his paternal grandmother with his father and they would eat "great feasts", including polenta, Italian sausages, and Gorgonzola, as well as "great feasts" at McDonalds.