Vegetarian baby

[JEB17]

Hi!
My partner and I are both vegetarians and as we are currently TTC it has been brought up in conversation about wether we would want to have our future child brought up not eating meat or not.

What is everyone's opinions on this? We're not sure how we feel right now. It is cruel to force a child to be meat free? Would they as babies still get enough nutrition from supliments?

They would get enough nutrients from a vegetarian diet, I would have thought.

Vegetarian will be fine. I think vegan is too much when bringing up a baby. But many communities around the world bring up babies as vegetarians and they are healthy.

It’s not cruel as long as you ensure they get a balanced diet. Millions of people are vegetarian, it’s fine. Be prepared that they may want to eat meat when they’re older.

I’d let them choose... no reason you need to go out of your way to feed them meat if you aren’t usually cooking it. I wouldn’t ban them from eating it outside your home though.

You will need to breastfeed, as I don’t think formula is vegetarian.

Vegetarian is fine, especially if you plan to breastfeed. Vegan would not be great without advice from an expert.

I have 3 children and they’ve never eaten meat. They’re 14, 11 and 9. They have a daily multivitamin plus extra vitamin D and they’re thriving. My eldest plays A LOT of competitive sport so isn’t lacking in anything. DH and I are vegetarian and didn’t even consider feeding our children meat. It’s not cruel in the slightest. I was raised eating meat until I went veggie at 14. I don’t think my parents were cruel raising me as a meat eater!

Do it. So long as you follow good advice about nutrition it'll be fine.

I have a 13 year old and 10 year old. Both vegetarian from birth. 10 year old is tallest is her school by a good 5cm.
Oldest has never drunk milk (although BF until 20 months). Eats cheese & eggs though.

It's perfectly possible to raise a vegetarian baby. It helps to be nutrient aware (I'd argue this is the case for meat eaters too though.). Vitamin B12 can be an issue although my girls get more than enough from their marmite addictions...

To be quite honest, none of my kids ate meat at as babies. Even to this day, my younger two (9 and 5) really don't eat much meat at all and they're very healthy. I don't think there's anything wrong at all with raising your child to be vegetarian.

Most of the vegetarian families' I know, their children tried meat during the teenage rebellion phase! Since there are far worse things to do as your rebellion, that's another good reason!

My girls are old enough now to have a choice. When they were younger I made the choice for them (as meat eating family's do in reverse). Neither has yet had the slightest interest in eating meat but if they did I wouldn't ban them from it.

I am a vegetarian but my husband and children are not. They eat relatively little meat as I do most of the cooking. I decided I would let them choose and that the default should be the societal norm. Different to both parents being veggie though. In that case I probably would have brought them up as vegetarians but been ok if they didn't stick to it when they are too young to really understand.

I don't eat meat, DH does. As a toddler DS was pretty much vegetarian but I didn't ban him from eating sausage rolls. He knew meat was from animals, and now he's older we've talked about animal welfare. He's chosen to eat meat but looks for organic or meat with the 3* Better Life certificate. (We're not in the UK)
He's still on the fence with Nestle. He won't buy Smarties but will eat them if offered.
He's only 9 so I just let him get on with it.

Vegetarian and vegan is fine. Even if you chose to feed meat to your child they might not like it anyway 🤷🏽‍♀️

I'm vegetarian, my DH is pescatarian and we're bringing our DD up eating meat. I want her to get enough nutrients and not be a fussy eater and she can make her own choice when she is old enough. She actually is quite fussy with the exception of meat! She loves beef, chicken, turkey, also tuna so i'm happy if she's happy. But certainly no judgements if you choose to yourselves, as long as you do it properly.1

I was raised veggie and I turned out ok . Just make sure they get enough protein and not too much soya (due to the estrogens) and they'll be fine I'm sure.

I'm vegetarian and I always viewed it the other way around hat it wouldn't be fair forcing meat on them until hey can understand the choice themselves. I raised my son vegetarian from birth and he's 13 now & perfectly healthy.

Oh, and I didn't have supplements, just a varied healthy diet, plenty of supplements out there if needed though.

I absolutely don't think it's cruel. When they're old enough to have an opinion they can decide for themselves and choose to eat meat if that's how they feel. I'm now pescetarian and went through a phase of eating red meat occasionally but then stopped.

I'm vegetarian and DS is too now, but I did give him some fish and seafood before he was one to prevent allergies to these - He may want to eat them when he's older and I wouldn't want to permanently remove that choice, even though I'd be disappointed if he did.

Thanks everyone for your responses. I intend to breast feed anyway (if all goes well) but its really interesting to see peoples opinions. Im still not sure what ill do(i know someone who was born vegeterian and she was always upset that she hadnt at least tried meat but she also didnt want to at this stage in life). Its probably something ill ponder over until the day it finally happens! But thank you all for your advice! C