To think veganism is not for children?

[ohhhhlivia]

Yes, I am aware that it is perfectly possible to have a healthy vegan diet at any age. I know that.

However, it is more difficult and easier to get wrong if you want to be vegan. It still is restrictive (even with all of the new stuff coming out) as in you need to tell hosts, check menus in advance etc.

It's a barrier that has to be overcome. I don't understand why you would do that to someone who has no choice in the matter.

Lots of kids go through a fussy phase too, add veganism in and surely you're at a high risk of health problems?

I think what I'm getting at, is that childhood nutrition can be hard enough as it is, so it just feels wrong to make it harder for reasons that do not directly benefit the child.

@ChazsBrilliantAttitude I stand corrected. Though I gather many modern Jains do abstain from dairy due to cruelty in mass dairy farming (where that exists as the norm).

Has anybody on this thread ever killed and eaten an animal?

I think it should be done in schools. Our lives are far too sanitised these days, which probably partly explains the rise in veganism. I know I'll get flamed for that though!

@ohhhhlivia do you honestly think of school children had to kill an animal that would see Veganism decrease?

Rita
Thanks
They are very strict about eggs on the other hand. Absolutely nothing with egg is allowed.

Ha op! Yes I’ve gone shooting from a young age (uncle is a gamekeeper) and my spaniels go beating/picking up during the season.

All the meat is sold to local game merchants or taken home and eaten. I have a brace of pheasants in the shed hanging ready to be plucked for dinner next week.

My cousin and his wife are the biggest breeders of pheasant for shoots in my county. It’s very normal for me to be around animals, dead and alive. I do eat predominantly vegan, unless I know the history of the animal and how it was killed. So won’t eat meat/dairy in restaurants etc. It’s a fact of life, humans are mostly omnivores and so I do think knowing where meat comes from, how it’s killed and treating the animal with respect in life and death is important.

@namechange46

would have such a huge effect on the environment.

Wonder how many kids you've got then? You know, since you care so much about the planet?

If it was a normal part of their lives, yes.

@ohhhhlivia trust me that there is nothing subtle about anything you've said. Sniffing in asbestos is more dangerous than a ham sandwich, wow until you said that I didn't understand 🙄

Throwing myself off a bridge is more dangerous than breathing in asbestos, but that doesn't mean asbestos isn't bad for my health. Likewise, just because asbestos is more dangerous that processed meat doesn't mean that the carcinogens in processed meat are not dangerous at all.

The long read in last week's Guardian was really interesting. It was asking why do people hate vegans so much? I don't understand why people who avoid abuse of living creatures deserve this hatred but I imagine on MN, it's the usual vitriol from unhappy, unfulfilled, frustrated, bored women with not a lot to do.

@ohhhhlivia have you ever showed your children slaughterhouse videos? Lots on YouTube. Maybe start there and then ask if they want to go hunting. I'd be keen to hear your feedback once you've showed them videos. And Dairy farms too where they take the newborn calves from their mothers.
Truly interested to see if your children would like to see that and how they feel afterwards.
Of course there's every chance they are happy to watch slaughter videos and then perhaps even happy to go hunting, but I'd be interested to hear the feedback from starting with YouTube.

So by your logic that kids should only eat the safest possible diet, @ohhhhlivia
The majority of popular meat products that people eat in this country should be completely excluded from children's diets 🙂

Margarine is so bad for you. If you leave a block of marg in the garden no insects will go near it. Google the negatives of margarine.

mustard you are ace. I wish more people could be like you and give a shit.

I'm not Vegan but my daughter and granddaughter are. My daughter's two sons are vegetarians. They are all healthier now than they were before they gave up meat and dairy.
At first I was concerned that the children would suffer health wise but I've been proved wrong.
I think people fear what they aren't used to but one you get used to it, a plant based diet is fine.

I've worked on dairy farms and yes, my kids have seen me kill something and have then eaten it.

Sorry.

I only know one vegan who is bringing her child up vegan and she takes a lot if care to make sure she has a good diet so I don't think it's anyone's business. My husband and me are both vegetarians and his view was our children should eat what we ate then they could choose to remain as vegetarians or not when they were older. If they did want to be vegetarians then they would always have been vegatarian. None of them eat meat now they are adults and have moved out.

No need to apologise I don't take these threads personally

LaurieMarlow
You can do a quick search yourself
So many cases in the US.

One couple fed their baby a home made formula of mashed potatoes , a recipe they found online as a good replacement for the vegan formula their pediatric prescribed.
So weird! Why would they do that?

YANBU

I don't believe it's right to impose dietary restrictions on a young child, but that's just my opinion

An older child who can make an informed choice ok, but younger ones who don't actually have any real say in the matter- I don't agree with this

You can do a quick search yourself. So many cases in the US.

DATA is what I’m looking for, not some random shite on the internet.

Lots of ppl feed their children crap. It’s far from a solely vegan thing.

Some people might find the idea if forcing children to watch their mother kill an animal pretty grim. Personally, I would avoid anyone who celebrates that or biasts about working in a dairy farm. Ugh.

Hmmm, surely if you work/have worked in the dairy industry you have financial interests in promoting people eating as much meat and dairy as possible. Or am I just not understand the subtleties again?

*understanding

Some people might find the idea if forcing children to watch their mother kill an animal pretty grim.

Meh, people did it for millenia and we still managed to get to this point. Plenty of children all over the world right now still witness it regularly. Quite honestly, having the luxury of being able to give 'animal cruelty' any head space at all is a very modern and very privileged place to be. It's only 'grim' from your first world perspective because you have access to such an abudnance of food and supplements that you don't have to consume animals or animal products.

I don't believe it's right to impose dietary restrictions on a young child, but that's just my opinion

But....we all do, don't we? We may not make them vegetarian or vegan, but we choose their diet by our choices and many children don't have a wide range of foods that includes everything