to tell dd harbibo contain gelatin when she has decided to be vegetarian?

[ditavonteesed]

DD is 8 and has decided to be vegie, she has given me very good arguments and has thought about it a lot, she is willing to give up her favourite hot pork sandwiches etc. So all is fine but then she noticed somme haribo and I told her that they contain gelatin and told her what gelatin is, I said I will look into what sweets she can have today and get some in. I just think if she is doing this for all the right reasons it would be wrong to let her eat them not knowing. On the other hand I cpud easily have not told her and she would be none the wiser but I am not out to try and trick her into eating something that she has made a valid moral decision not to. So WIBU?

Prawn crackers and stella artois are the two my vegetarian bil has issues with. I'm guessing beer isnt an issue for her though

How can she be to young to not want to eat meat being vegitarian isnt fussy eating anyway yes tell her about gelatin in her sweets its only fair. I think you can get halal haribo so not gelatin

yes, of course you were right to tell her. Not all cheese is veggie either, you might want to mention that?

DD is 4, we are bringing her up veggie (though of course if she wants to eat meat/fish when she is old enough to understand it all and make that decision she can) and she knows that many sweets aren't veggie, though as she's all about choc rather than sweets she's not too fussed.

YANBU if she's made the decision to be a vegetarian, she needs to learn more about what's in her food. I became veggie at the age of 13, my mum did shortly afterwards so she was supportive but still ate gelatine! I can now read food labels in a split second.

Definitely right to be honest with her. Watch out for yogurts, many contain gelatine.

She's not too young, it's not like she's running away to join a cult! I became veggie at the age of 8. 30 years later, I still am.

Surely telling her is the right thing to do and she can then decide if she wishes to eat them or switch to veggie alternatives.

Don't forget cheese too. Veggie cheese is widely available,in fact a lot of branded cheeses are veggie. Parmesan isn't for example,pesto etc.

In what way is she too young? How can someone be too young?
Yes you should have told her of course. There are lots of veggie alternatives.

I have pointed out to my veggie curious child that its ok not to be all or nothing.

Its ok to reduce the animal stuff you eat.Its ok to eat some.Its ok to eat none.

No one makes the rules for them.They don't have to fit in the box.

And I am honest about what is in stuff -we had the gelatin chat recently -but because a Muslim friend visited.

You were absolutely right to tell her. I was 9 when I turned veggie. It was the age I started to really question the ethics of everything (brace yourself - I also quickly found fault with church and became a staunch feminist) and nearly three decades later I'm still veggie (and atheist and feminist) for much the same reasons. If you haven't looked already, the Vegetarian Society has some great info for families that you and your daughter might find useful. The vegan society also publishes a great 'animal free shopper' which is handy for less obvious non-veggie products like sweets.

I am so pleased that everyone agrees I wondered if I was being a bit mean this morning straight after I said it. I can read a packet in seonds due to dd's having intolerances when younger I can spot a key word without haing to read it iyswim. We have discussed she wont eat fish. She doesnt like cheese anyway. she loves milk may arrange to get milk delivered from a lovely local farm instead of buying from the supermarket. She will eat eggs as we have our own chickens so no worries about welfare issues there.

Will look out for yoghurts as that hadnnt occured to me.
Thanks :)

well an atheist feminist is somethingI would also consider myself to be.

Actually, Veggie Percys are much nicer than the gelatine ones. Do mention that most Haribo contain gelatine. Apparently, Haribo Funny Mix doesn't, according to a colleague of mine, but neither of us can every find them.

DS2 is vegetarian. We're about to go out for a big family meal with my in-laws and I need to speak to the restaurant about an meal for him. They offer just one vegetarian option, which seems to have either goat's cheese or blue cheese with it, neither of which he will eat. Vegetarianism is so mainstream, yet so difficult!

You might want to check the ingredients of yoghurts too. Some of those contain gelatine.

There's a massive difference between being a vegetarian and being meat free. To be meat free is often just avoiding meat products for health reasons or because the person doesn't enjoy meat very much. Most often these people don't mind eating marshmallows, jelly, sweets etc with gelatine and other products such as kit kat chocolate where the whey powder in it is not vegetarian (contains rennet from cows so you also need to check the chocolate list to avoid if she likes chocolate too!)

To be vegetarian is to avoid all dead animal products including rennet and gelatine. It's a lot easier to avoid nowadays than it used to be. There are gelatine free sweets, the Percy pigs are lovely. And most chocolate is now veggie although mostly cadburys is, nestle and mars are terrible for using cow rennet so beware!

You should tell her! If she's going to do it, do it properly.

I never understand these parents that shield their children from the fact that those cattle, sheep, pigs and chickens you see at the farm will all end up on the shelves at Tesco.

If you REALLY care about animals, you should educate your child that animals are farmed on a massive scale (animal slavery really), all so we can have a constant supply of meat.

And maybe future generations will grow up really thinking about the conditions that farm animals are kept in. And slaughtering methods. And whether the sheer 'scale' of the whole operation is 'right'.
Thinking of those massive cattle 'factories' in the States.

ditavonteesed, your nutloaf post made me smile. I wonder if our mums were doing the same ones. Mum used to get me one which came as a dry packet mix from health food stores, there was a mushroom version too, bless her, I'm so grateful she supported my choice though. On a positive note it pushed me to learn to cook at quite a young age.

Tell her. She founds like an intelligent child, who should have all the info to make informed decisions.

Ds wanted to be veggie when he was 4 (I am veggy so I have no concerns)..., until he realised that it would mean no bacon sandwhiches, ham, spag Bol, roast chicken...,,

Not at all. Mine are muslim and are perfectly happy and accepting that a lotbof yoghurts and sweets are out.

Not an issue with us as there are so many alternatives. Vegetarian marshmallows are the only thing thata hard to find.

Vegetarian haribo are vile and sticky.
There is a vegetarian sweet range like haribo called goody good stuff. Comes in a green packet and I get mine through ocado or asda.

I turned veggie at 10. My parents were supportive and 23 years later I'm still veggie :)

Biscuitsandbandages, I'm a bit of a marshmallow fan too, there's an online shop called 'need sweets' and I've had some lush ones from there.

The other thing to watch is yoghurt - lots contain gelatine. Veggie Percys are nice. I am a bad parent though. I am a veggie, but my nearly 3yr old eats meat. I hate him eating gelatine though, so I tell him gelatine Percys are spicy

I didn't know there was gelatin I yoghurt yuck I am going to look now

It tends to be the mousse-like yogurts.

Also the very low fat ones do like mullerlights, the best yoghurts are the full fat not messed around with ones.