To think that parents shouldn’t force their children to follow their dietary preferences?

[TVD2103]

I’ll start by saying that I am a vegetarian, I haven’t eaten meat for years. I have a child who likes meat, therefore I always buy them the snacks and meals that they enjoy, I don’t restrict their eating at all just because I choose not to eat it.

I follow someone on social media, for recipe inspirations, they have a child younger than mine (I would say maybe 6 or 7?) and they mainly eat raw vegan food. They also have a toddler and they make both the children eat the same as them, I know this because they post what their children eat everyday. They’ve just posted a lunch for their child from the other day and it hardly had anything on it! It was literally like a couple of small tomatoes, salad leaves and humus and that’s supposed to be one of the main meals that fills a child up? They are quite restricted in their eating and are also passing this onto their child, I’ve noticed that a lot of vegan families on social media are also like this and it just feels quite extreme, especially when the children are too young to understand the choice of lifestyle and why they have to eat a certain way.

AIBU for thinking that your child should have a diet of everything including meat, regardless of your own dietary preferences, until they are at an age where they can choose for themselves?!

I heard of one mother who wouldn’t breast feed their baby because it wasn’t vegan 🙄

I've been a vegetarian for 40 years through 3 pregnancies and I've never needed to faff about keeping my vitamin and iron levels 'normal'. We are lucky to have access to plenty of food to have a rich and varied diet.

Obviously I did what everyone in every culture does and fed my children the food the household eats - which is all vegetarian. My children could eat what they wanted outside the house when they were old enough to choose, but we are a vegetarian household. My children have all continued to be vegetarian as adults.

Everyone 'inflicts' their food choices in their children, why single out vegetarian as bad?

You do realise that meat is also fortified. The animals that people eat are given vitamins including B12 which are then consumed by us. They are also given growth hormones which have been linked to an increase in cancer.

Make a safeguarding referral? Wow.

Maybe I should make a referral about all the obese children I see who apparently lived entirely on burgers and chips.

This thread reminds me of my health visitor who was very keen on me feeding my children meat because she had never seen anyone who weaned their babies on lentils ( this was years ago before Western health gurus started pushing lentils) I binned her. And went to a pediatrician who understood non-Western diets.

I don't presume I am eating a healthy diet or being pious about 'if we all were vegans the world would be wonderful' or have any other idealisn around eating all foods I eat a variety of food nor think meat anything other than what it is

They haven't been fed growth hormones in this country for 35 years. It's the main reason why North American meat cannot be imported into the UK (and EU).

Well it might be unusual but my nephew's mother who is Muslim feeds him pork as she doesn't force her dietary restrictions on him.

I'm vegetarian but if I had a child who wanted to eat meat then I'd feed it to them.

Rickets is caused by vitamin D deficiency. The reason working-class children of the 1800s got rickets was because they were shut inside factories all day. No sunlight.

Why not? I'm sure in 100 years people will scoff at the research studies from this era

And they'll likely have good reason to.

Re diet & excluding religious motivation, no I don't think it reasonable to give kids an excessively restrictive vegan diet, especially one that removes all fats as we need these things to grow along with various other proteins & carbs that are much harder to get via a diet like you're describing. Iron & B12 deficiencies are common for both vegans & vegetarians.

Most people simply do not have the nutritional knowledge to fully replace meat & dairy for a child's diet. My parents & sister (& family) are veggie, my sister for her whole 40yrs, so is my 15yo DS. I completely respect it & as a chef I make sure my veggie & vegan options are plentiful & interesting - so this isn't me having an issue with that lifestyle choice at all, I respect it!

But there is a line & those kids you describe will end up breaking their diet at some point for one reason or another.

I'll add! Some ppl do seem to have or not have a need for meat. My 15yo is the latter & has always struggled with meat whereas my 16yo & 23yo sons are very much the former. Personally, I don't mind much eitherway but a life without butter & cheese would be unlivable ;)

This is a good point. I think some children have problems at birthday parties etc though if their parents insist on a vegan diet and they can't have some chocolate or cake.

I think a vegetarian diet is fine for kids, with some flexibility for the above. Not keen on veganism as it is so restrictive and not objectively healthier or more eco-friendly than eating dairy and eggs. I know a load of people will tell me I am wrong, but I'm not. Flying processed vegan crap around the world is not a good thing.

Most people simply do not have the nutritional knowledge to fully replace meat & dairy for a child's diet.

Most people do not have nutritional knowledge, period. Personally, I think we need to spend more time looking at the way sugary breakfast cereals have become normal than looking at those who do not eat meat and dairy.

I absolutely agree with you and some people are completely bonkers. Tbh those who are on social media posting their every meal and every moment of life go automatically to bonkers category for me so I’m not following them (your particular one is a case for social services imo) Following their logic my DD should have been from early ago on the diet of black coffee, chocolate, bananas and cheese sandwiches.

Anyone who constantly posts their meals on social media are just looking for attention. But I agree with others all children are forced to eat what their parents want them to eat until such time as they can pay for and cook their own food. A raw vegan diet is a very specialised diet that would require a huge amount of research to ensure a child gets all that it needs. But if done correctly would still be better for a child than the processed shite some of the poor beggars are brought up on, in my opinion. See how long the parents can actually keep it going once the kids are old to start to see what others eat.

At my DS nursery I am getting increasingly pissed off that 8 or 9 times out of 10 the children are given vegetarian meals, no option for meat. We do have a few children who are vegetarian but not many.
The problem is most children don't like the vegetarian option. In the last week I have noticed more meat appearing in the menu. I assume parents have complained.
I have nothing against the children having vegetarian meals a couple of times a week but it was getting ridiculous.
Not entirely sure why nursery was trying to enforce a vegetarian diet on them.
I have a child who has chosen to be vegetarian so I cook for her (but everyone else eats meat). I think children should have access to different foods and not just follow their parents. Unless the diet is incredibly unhealthy no-one should dictate what others eat.

Most people.do.force their kids to follow their beliefs, habitat and lifestyles.

Not sure much can be done about it. I think once the child is old enough to understand what they want (roughly about aged 10?) then they should have a say.

The problems will start when children starts school and see the mouth watering fare that other children are consuming, while your kid is munching raw broccoli yummy.yummy 😉

YABU OP.

Plenty of societies worldwide that function very well on a plant based or vegetarian diet from birth to death. A large percentage of the population India, for example.

YABU to expect meat eating to be forced onto all children.

YABU if you mean young children.
We make so many choices for young kids based on how we choose to live our lives.. why is diet different?
You could criticise people for feeding their kids meat! That's also a choice you made for them...
Unless it's an older child who has outright stated that they wish to be or not be vegetarian.. and you are going against their wishes, making them eat a diet they do not want to eat.. then it's absolutely fine to feed your kid what you would normally eat yourself (as long as its reasonably healthy for them)
I raised mine veggie for the first years as I'm veggie and so that is how I cook!
Of course outside the home they are free to eat meat if they want to... but I do not cook meat at home. So Obviously my eldest who has pocket money and sometimes goes to friends houses, eats meat. That's his choice. He uses his own money to go to kfc with friends for example..
But I still don't cook meat because that's my choice. He can cook meat if he wants.
My younger ones are vegetarian because they are too young to make a choice about what they eat themselves.

Ridiculous, as a vegetarian from birth I never wanted to eat meat when I saw the other kids eating it. Only felt like I definitely didn't want it.

And to say the veggie / vegan kids will be eating raw broccoli (as your example food) is the most ridiculous suggestion ever. Far from it.

These are my kids vegan friends who come into my house snaffling about for any hint of a sweet, chocolate, devouring the pizza at parties - meat on it or not; grabbing and greedy because they get nothing at home. Highly likely these kids will end up obese once they drop the shackles. A little bit of everything does nobody any harm.

YABU to force children to eat pig anuses (hot dogs), feces, pus and all the other horrible things that are in animal products.

https://www.peta.org.uk/blog/10-meat-facts-that-youll-wish-were-april-fools-jokes/

I was forced to eat meat until at 5 I understood what I was eating and stopped. We all force some sort of diet on our children. Many children regardless of wether they eat meat or not do not have a healthy diet. That children are given a nourishing diet is what matters.

"especially when the children are too young to understand the choice of lifestyle and why they have to eat a certain way."

But that logic works both ways - little children are also too young to understand the meat industry and why people choose to eat it and the suffering and devastation it causes.

I feed my children vegetarian food and they can make up their own minds when they are adults completely free from my judgement. But for now they are young and need guidance, why should the wrong way be the default? I am the parent and if I want to teach my children right from wrong then that's up to me, I am under no obligation to raise them as animal consumers.

If my son wanted to go and kick a puppy or a kitten would I sit back with a smile and say oh well it's his choice!

You understood at 5?! 5?!

LOL, I can believe that of some vegans. (Not all, some!)