To let DS age 7 go vegetarian

[letdownalittle]

I'm not personally, though I eat a minimal amount of meat. A few of his friends are vegan, though certainly not the type to challenge him on his eating habits. I presume this triggered his thoughts on animal welfare, I know he's read and thought about it quite a bit independently.

He's been refusing meat at meals on and off for months, mentioning it more and more and now decided to go veggie. I've pretty much shrugged and said fine, presumed there's little point in trying to force feed an adamant child and just put a little thought into getting all he needs in his diet.

My mum and friend were both a little horrified I've 'allowed' him. Would you allow a child of 7, who was capable of clearly expressing their reasons in response to questioning, to change their diet and have autonomy? I didn't think I was being out there... but my mum does! I think I have memories of all the clear your plate stuff and the feelings about it...

Yes my opinion BASED ON a lot of research in almost 30 years of being vegetarian and it is a topic that is regularly discussed online and in mainstream media and your opinion seems to have little to no basis in fact.

the op asked would you let your 7 year old become vegetarian. I answered no. I explained why. I have answered persistent attempts to derail the ops thread. you haven't provided much evidence either (not the 7th day Adventist study though please, it's flawed).

My 11yo became one a few months ago after a few false starts. I was one in my teens so I know where's she's coming from, and I've really enjoyed exploring new recipes and ingredients. It's dragged us from that bolognese, roast, and curry, rut we'd found ourselves in. I won't become a vegetarian again because I enjoy a great steak now and again, but it's been a great experience to explore what she actually likes (lentils, barley, nuts, cheeses, olives etc.) rather than what's convenient, or meat substitutes. Quorn was great as as starter, and the odd quorn nugget is still great, but if you're going to really enjoy your food, it helps to think about it in a completely different way.

www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/considering-a-vegetarian-diet-is-meat-free-really-better

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, an evidence-based review showed that a vegetarian diet is associated with a lower risk of death from ischemic heart disease. Vegetarians appear to have lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure and lower rates of hypertension and type 2 diabetes than meat eaters. Vegetarians also tend to have a lower body mass index, lower overall cancer rates and lower risk of chronic disease.

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3662288/

www.nhs.uk/Livewell/Vegetarianhealth/Pages/Vegetarianhealthqanda.aspx

Any diet can be squeezed into unhealthy category but generally speaking vegetarianism is a healthy lifestyle. I know plenty of meat eaters who eat a nutritionally deficient high fat very limited diet but think they're eating healthily just because they eat meat.

I went veggie at the same age...and 28 years later still don't eat meat...

Yes let him, it's brilliant he is showing compassion . I haven't eaten animals since a similar age. We are all vegan in this house, children included.

Went veggie at 7 too. Family all meat eaters. They thought it would be a phase but aged 35 am still veggie. Went to Brownie camp shortly after became veggie, mum told them to give me what others having without the meat (this was the 80s). Got forced to eat ham and cheese quiche by brownie leaders (peer pressure -they said my team would get 10 points for it). Still remember the awful feeling of having to eat something I really found disgusting. Can't imagine that would happen today! My advice - let him do it, at 7 he's perfectly capable of making the choice.

I stopped eating meat at 9. Because I suddenly didn't like the taste of texture.
My mum was fine with it. It was never a big deal. I'm 24 now and still don't eat meat.

There has never been a case of protein deficiency on any natural diet ever described in the world medical literature.

We're not vegetarian but some in our family are or vegans.

I applaud anyone who encourages their children to think for themselves and question society's norms.

Unless he already does so, time for him to start cooking?

@Ummmmgogo that data states not suitable as a meat replacement for children under 3? OP's son is 7.

My 8yo dd is veggie. All completely decided by herself. I am happy to support her decision. It is so easy to be a veggie these days.

Luckily we all like quorn, and even tho we aren't veggies, happy to eat spag bol/chilli/curries etc., with quorn in. If we want meat, we just remove a portion of the sauce for dd.

She takes a multivitamin every day and eats loads of fruit and veg.

When I asked why she wanted to be a veggie, she said she didn't like eating animal corpses.

Fair enough.

Yes I would let him and I would be proud of him too.
My children have been vegetarian since birth and are very healthy, quorn or no quorn (actually not much quorn, but whatever).

My children were brought up vegetarian. Just Denver vegetarians don't just eat vegetables. You need a protein source too so use eggs, cheese, nuts pulses and the odd bit of quorn or soya stuff. I prefer soya mince to quorn and paneer cheese is lovely in curry. Halloumi makes nice skewers etc. You could batch com for him so you have easy a!ternatives such as pies or veggie but roasts and he can have same accompaniments as the rest of you. It isn't hard, I do it every night for my partner and myself but you may find the whole family could be veggie a couple of meals a week.

Remember

My dd is 9, she said she wanted to be vege about 5 months ago. I said yes - we're all meat eaters but I do respect her views. She's not keen on any of the vege frozen stuff though which makes it abit tricky when my other girls are having fishfingers!
Can anyone please recommend a good recipe book for vege meals? Nothing elaborate please, just standard stuff that would give her all the nutrients she needs 😊

I think that that really depends on whether you are educating him about fillsing the nutritional deficit. If you've just let him drop the meat without making any other adjustments it could have a very negative impact on his health. There is more to vegetarianism than just animal rights.

You did good allowing it

I would of allowed it, I think it's good to allow them to make choices from a young age and I certainly wouldn't say it was "out there". Giving him a veggie diet shouldn't be too difficult unless you have a very fussy child

I've been vegetarian since the age of seven...thirty years ago and yet to get bored.

My ds was seven when he chose to eat meat. Why wouldn't I let him make that decision? He understood the arguments for and against, and he is free to make a different choice from mine.

My DD is 6yo and decided three months ago to be a vegetarian. We all eat meat and we live in a country with few vegetarians, if anything she has encountered a lot of resistance from teachers, friends etc to not eating meat. However, she has valid, consistent and well articulated reasons based on animals rights for her decision so I think her decision should be respected.

We can't teach children to be moral people if, when they make moral choices, we dismiss them out of hand.

I'm bringing up my kids as veggies, and I also write a blog with some great tried and tested recipes (on my fussy kids) featured ...

Why not take a look, I've got some great ideas for nutritious balanced veggie family meals ...

myfamilyhomeblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/veggie-balls-and-tomato-sauce-with-spaghetti/

In my case the "sit there until you've cleared your plate" approach never worked, and I've been a vegetarian all my life (since I was about your son's age).

I went veggie aged 7 when I found out there was a proper word for not eating meat. It didn't go as deep as having researched animal welfare, etc I just never wanted to eat animals and that was that.

My mum was like you- didn't really eat much meat anyway so it was never an issue.

We all ate the same at meal times and once I'd moved out they started adding a few prawns to their curries. This was 30-odd years ago and there's loads more veggie food about now than there was then.

I guess it would be a lot harder for meat-and-two-veg families or those who don't think a meal is a proper meal without meat, but you don't sound like one of those. Crack on and tell everyone else to butt out.

As long as he gets plenty of fruit and veg and is healthy I don't see why not