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?

[FaFoutis]

B12 is added to cereals too. It's fairly easy to eat enough of it even on a crap vegetarian diet.

[pictish]

Perhaps this particular mum is selfish...or possibly ignorant, as on the face of it, she doesn’t know how to top up her child’s iron levels through his diet. It is quite easy to do so without relying on meat.

I don’t think vegetarian mums are selfish, no. Done right, it’s a healthier and more cost effective way of eating.

Don’t make sweeping statements. Vegetarians are not all the same and neither are their children.

[Biologifemini]

She might be selfish but it isn’t because she is vegetarian- it is because she is an idiot for not feeding her son properly.
You can get iron from your diet if you eat well. Plenty of meat eaters eat shite too and are malnourished.
It is a question of research and educating yourself.

[hamabr86]

I think it is selfish to enforce a strict diet without doing any research about how to adequately replace the lost nutrients (and love it or hate it meat is very nutrient dense). Not necessarily selfish to be veggie.

A big portion of my childhood was vegetarian and I was very underweight and sickly until at 16 when I got a part time job I started buying meat products or eating it with friends. My mum's idea of a veggie diet was quorn burgers, chips and beans though.

My sister has maintained this vegetarian 'diet' and is ALWAYS ill, as now is my youngest brother who switched back to veggie after a couple of years. Mum has switched to vegan in the last couple of years (after returning to meat eating for a while)and now keeps telling me she's not feeling well etc. but doesn't take supplements or pay much attention to the quantity of nutrient dense food she's getting.

If you are going to cut out an entire food group you need to make sure you are replacing what it lost. Its fine saying you eat broccoli for iron but if you are only eating the same amount as you were before it isn't enough, you probably need to be having double.

[Gileswithachainsaw]

There could he underlying causes of the iron deficiency.

A vegetarian diet can he be perfctly healthy. Meat isn't some miraculous cure all. Many meat eaters feed their kids utter shite and have the same problem.

[AssassinatedBeauty]

This idea that children eating the same food as their parents do = "pushing" things onto them just never goes away. Meat eaters push their choice onto their children too! Just because in this country it's the majority choice doesn't make it not a choice.

[Merename]

So why is it ok for people to force their children to eat meat because of their beliefs? As several have said there is little reason for a veggie child to be iron deficient and it sounds like this mum has left it a bit late to educate herself and is doing so now. But I’ve had a couple of those comments regarding my veggie child ‘I hope you’re going to let her choose’ - I say ‘just like you are letting your child choose?’

Anyway, very young children can make a beautiful choice to prioritise the animals that they love - watch this if you haven’t seen it m.youtube.com/watch?v=tQIMJ648qgg

[AssassinatedBeauty]

Vegetarians don't cut out an entire food group.

[DGRossetti]

GP has said it's probably due to his diet

Perhaps the GP could investigate a bit further ?

DB was forever being told he suffered iron deficiency leading to anaemia. Turned out his iron levels were fine, but he had a mild form of Thalassemia. If he had taken iron supplements it could have been unpleasant.

[NameChanger22]

I have been a vegetarian for 35 years and never been iron deficient, including throughout pregnancy. Vegetarians and vegans are generally much healthier and live longer than meat eaters. Anyone can be iron deficient if they don't eat right.

[pictish]

Agreed. What about you OP, ‘pushing’ meat onto your children?

I’m not a veggie btw - but you sound so ill informed and judgemental you have pushed my buttons.

[LucyAutumn]

NO. Not ALL vegetarian mum's are selfish thank you.

I am a vegetarian mother and I'm bringing my child up on meat because I believe vegetarianism is something you should choose.

It doesn't matter though because if I HAD decided to bring my child up a vegetarian there are plenty of ways to ensure a proper well balanced diet.

Step out of your judgey pants, open your mind a little and learn not to tar everyone with the same brush.

[Ticcinalong]

I know healthy vegan and vegetarian kids and a lot of people I used to live near were vegetarian for cultural reasons. No dietary related anaemia or iron deficiencies!
In fact the vegan kids I know are the healthiest around.
The mum sounds like she isn’t clued up on nutrition - nothing to do with being veggie. Lots of parents feed their kids junk food and crap all day and also end up with children with nutritional deficiencies and issues including obesity. It’s about education not about being veggie or not. The nhs advise a vegan or vegetarian diet is suitable for all ages.

[Tomatoesrock]

Yabu. There is plenty of iron in green vegetables, unless he is a non veg eating vegetarian.

[RomanyRoots]

So why is it ok for people to force their children to eat meat because of their beliefs?

I don't think there's much belief unless you are veggie or vegan. Everyone else eats it because it's yummy and they like it.
My kids have always enjoyed a med rare steak, right from being little, I don't know anyone who would force their kids to eat meat.

[eelbecomingforyou]

So all vegetarian mums are selfish? Even ones whose dc have no vitamin deficiency??

IMO eating meat is pretty selfish and crap for the planet. No point everyone having high iron levels if the planet is fucked!

[PlantsArePeopleToo]

Also welcome to MN OP.

[MsMotherOfDragons]

YABU, you goady twit.

Perfectly possible to have an iron deficiency even if you are a meat eater.

Perfectly possible not to have an iron deficiency if you are vegetarian (none of my family do and we are all vegetarian from birth).

[Beesandfrogsandfleas]

Don't a lot of people give their dc a vitamin supplement anyway? I could leave out all the green leafy veg I w Nate, doesn't mean my 6 year old old would eat it!

[AuntBeastie]

Meat. Is. Not. A. Food. Group.

[StarfishSandwich]

She’s likely feeding her child a shit diet, whether through selfishness or ignorance, but being a vegetarian is neither here nor there.

[Carouselfish]

You make choices for them until they're educated enough to make an educated choice themselves. That's what parenting is. Giving them meat is forcing a choice on them just the same (and there are drawbacks to it if you want to argue it's wrong to remove that food group). She's just a shit vegetarian.

[PatchworkGirl]

All parents have to make choices about their child's diet - there is no way to give them complete freedom to choose from all available foods. A veggie diet can be healthy and balanced - low iron is only a concern to veggies who eat a poor diet (in the same way that many meat eaters have a poor diet). She is no more selfish than anyone else who does not understand nutrition. (I've been veggie for 25 years and never had an iron problem - it's been checked several times for unrelated issues).

[daughterofanarchy]

My husband and his family are all vegetarian and none of them have iron deficiency anaemia. I on the other hand am a meat eater and I am anaemic.

[PlantsArePeopleToo]

Meat is not a food group so what food group do vegetarians remove from their diet?