KEW GARDENS, N.Y. — A mother accused of nearly starving her baby to death with a vegan diet insisted at her trial Monday that the girl flourished on the strict regiment.

"She was thriving," Silva Swinton said of her daughter, Ice, during her second day of testimony before a Queens Supreme Court jury.

During two hours of cross-examination, Assistant District Attorney Eric Rosenbaum, who is seeking assault convictions against Swinton and her husband, Joseph, confronted her with the testimony of doctors who said famine-like malnutrition caused severe developmental delays and health problems in Ice. (The parents spell the name as "Iice," although it is spelled "Ice" in court papers).

According to those physicians, the 15-month-old girl weighed just 10 pounds, had rickets and could not sit up, crawl or talk when social services workers removed her from the family home in November 2001.

"The fact you had a 15-month-old child who couldn't stand up didn't concern you," Rosenbaum asked.

"Children reach different milestones at different times," Swinton replied.

Swinton fed her daughter a homemade infant formula she concocted with the advice of employees at a local health food store, she testified. On an average day, she said, Ice would drink 12 cups of the formula, which was a mix of nuts, soybeans, and herbs, including comfrey, red raspberry and rose hips.

She admitted she did not know if the store employees had any nutritional training and did not even know the last name of one man she consulted.

But Swinton disputed nearly every aspect of the prosecution's case. She said, for example, that Ice's legs were bowed not by malnutrition, as a doctor concluded, but because her daughter is "double-jointed."

The girl's stomach, which medical experts testified was swollen by hunger, was "just like any baby's stomach, hanging over the diaper," she said. Of the girl's lack of teeth, Swinton remarked, "they were on their way to coming out. I could tell."

Pressed by Rosenbaum, she said the only part of the child's care she regretted was not including more fat and calcium in Ice's diet, advice she received from a nutritionist after social services intervened. When the prosecutor asked if she did not believe Ice suffered "very substantial damage from the diet," Swinton shook her head.

"Not that I can observe," she said.

Ice was released from the hospital after a three-month stay and she and her baby brother, Ini, now live with a relative of the couple.

Silva Swinton, dressed in a white, fitted brocade jacket and a long black skirt, delivered curt answers to the prosecutor's questions in contrast to her direct testimony on Friday. Then she told jurors at length about how she had turned to veganism and holistic medicine after growing up fat, sickly and unhappy.

When Rosenbaum suggested Monday that her new lifestyle eclipsed everything else in her and Joseph Swinton's life, she paused for a moment before saying carefully, "We were disciplined."

She admitted using marijuana before becoming pregnant with Ice. An acquaintance of the couple testified earlier that Joseph Swinton believed his wife's previous drug use made in unhealthy for her to breast feed their children.

As the cross-examination drew on, Swinton seemed to become more impatient, at one point taking a personal jab at the 5-foot, 8-inch prosecutor.

When Rosenbaum suggested her testimony that Ice "fought" doctors trying to treat her was incredible because of the baby's small size, Silva Swinton shot back, "You are kinda small yourself, Mr. Rosenbaum."

She and Joseph Swinton face 25 years in prison if convicted.

Summations in the case are scheduled for Tuesday morning. The jury is to begin deliberating Wednesday.