To think vegetarian mums are selfish?

[lisabd345]

There's a woman on my Facebook who has a son 6 years old.
She's a vegetarian and she's made sure her son is too.
She's just posted that her son is suffering from iron deficiency and GP has said it's probably due to his diet and the fact he doesn't eat meat....and the GP has gave him medication to take every day and he is crying about it ..so she's asking what to feed him to bring iron levels up.
Aibu to think he should make a decision when he's older if he wants to be vegetarian and not have it forced upon him?

It is more than possible to feed a child a healthy diet which is vegetarian and rich in iron. The issue here is that his diet hasn’t been healthy enough - at least she’s rectifying that now.

Plenty of people raise omnivorous children on insufficient diets which lack essential nutrients!

I think you could make an argument that it’s selfish to give your children carcinogens like bacon and processed meat but actually I think it’s more important that we respect every parent’s right to make choices like this, and ensure that everyone is appropriately educated on what is required for a healthy and balanced diet.

I have known omnivores, vegetarians & vegans who have all had appalling diets. The vegan, for example, existed primarily on long-life vegan pate on toast, soy milk, & orange juice. No actual vegetables, & very little fruit. They didn't know how to cook. It's also possible to be unhealthy on an omnivorous diet - some people seem to exist mostly on nutritionally void takeaways. A good, balanced vegetarian diet is very healthy.

It's nothing to do with veggie /vegan/ omnivore. It's to do with laziness, poor nutrition education, lack of time or money to cook proper meals.

😄🍿

Child may have an iron deficiency due to gut issues eg coeliac, not due to diet.

You don't have enough information to base your judgement on

I think you are selfish for feeding your child whatever you eat. Dick off op.

Well she’s not being a good mum letting his diet get so bad he ends up needing medicine but being veggie has nothing to do with it.

Plenty of veggies get all the goodness they need. Iron comes from many places not just meat

Also why is it only vegetarian mums who are selfish? What about vegetarian dads?

I think it's fine to bring up a child to be vegetarian as long as you are careful to make sure the child has the correct nutrients. I don't hold with the notion that they should eat meat so they can decide when they're older...you could just as easily state you shouldn't feed them meat and let them decide when they're older. Parents make all sorts of decisions on behalf of their children.

Veganism is a different situation imo...in general, I'm very against children being brought up as vegan because it is much more difficult to ensure the child is receiving all the nutrition it needs.

She's selfish if she's foisted an unbalanced diet upon him because she cba to check she's doing veggie healthily, not because she's veggie per se.

Have my first ever

I’ve met many carnivores who are anaemic too in my nursing career

I’ve come across a number of poorly informed judgemental idiots too, that number has just increased by one

My SIL brought her kids up vegan (14 and 16 now) When the 14 year old was younger he ended up in hospital due to being deficient in what seemed to be pretty much everything.
Her DD is 16 now. She was at my house a couple of months ago and I was making (beef) lasagne for our own dinner later that evening. She said it smelt lovely and asked me if she could taste it. Now if she had been 6 and her parents had her on a vegan diet I probably would have adhered to their wishes, but at 16 I thought she was old enough to decide for herself.

She told me she'd tasted a duck roll at her friend's house when the family were having Chinese (they'd got her a veggie curry) and that she'd had a chicken wing off another friend's plate when they were out recently.

She told her mother that she had tasted meat and wanted to eat it more and her mother hit the roof. I (and I believe the friends families too) got a phone call where she screamed abuse down the phone at me and accused me of 'brainwashing and trying to poison DD with toxins'. Did I not know that 'animals carry diseases and you can catch it when you eat them'

Her DD and herself are now having serious rows over food. She actually told her DD that if she eats meat again she can move out from under their roof and survive on her own.

I’m a vegetarian myself and wouldn’t dream of removing an entire food group from my children’s die

What food groups do vegetarians remove?

Not a problem as long as people know how to eat properly. I know veggies and vegans with children and both child and parent are perfectly healthy.

And why just 'mums'? Are dads not ever responsible for feeding their children?

If you have a look in AS there are quite a lot of threads on this subject already which may be useful.

Its a subject generally guaranteed to get people hot under the collar here but you may not be aware of that if you are new rather than NC.

I’m a vegetarian myself and wouldn’t dream of removing an entire food group from my children’s diet

You don’t know what a good group is.

*food group

It’s very difficult for anyone to get the iron they need through diet. Even meat eaters would have to be scarfing the beef and liver to get their daily fill. You’re better off with fortified cereals which are of course veggie.

Some people just can’t cope with less than optimum or don’t absorb well. It’s not that unsual

YABU it's not vegetarianism that is the problem it's a bad diet.

I think it's believable that the doctor said that the iron deficiency was due to poor diet. I do however find it unbelievable that they said it was a result of not eating red meat.

Even if the doctor did say it was a result of not eating red meat (unlikely) then how would you even know this? Somehow I doubt a committed veggie who was determined her child would be one too would admit that they'd said it was lack of red meat. I think you've heard the mum say it was a result of his diet and immediately jumped to the conclusion that this must mean it was the lack of red meat causing this.

I hope the OP knows that there are large sections of society in various other countries that are vegetarian and have survived for centuries. Your Friend's child will survive. Ask her to research and include vegetarian sources of Iron. Oh and B12 will also be low. Again, there are vegetarian supplements.

Surely eating meat is more selfish than not eating meat.

The GP has no idea what he is talking about there. It’s totally possible to havea very balanced diet AND not suffer form iron deficiency whilst been vegetarian.
And it’s also possible to suffer from iron deficiency whilst eating meat (I know I did as a child - Fwiw the doctor atvthe time advised my mum to make me eat parsley, not meat)

There is a possibility thatbthe ieon deificiency is coming from his diet and eg not eating enough green leaf vegetables. Butbthe asnwer is to correct it WHILST still been vegetarian. Not have a go at the mum and say she is selfish

Oh and B12 will also be low.

Dairy and eggs have B12.

YABVU

I say this as a carnivore.

I don't think you should push vegieism or veganism on a child any more than religion.
However, you can have a good diet as either, although it doesn't sound like this child has.
so yes, parents are being selfish, another vegetarian family might not be though.