To let DD be veggie??

[Catsandcannedbeans]

Recently, she has expressed consistent interest in it. Asking questions, telling me she doesn’t want to eat animals ect. I am pregnant and have done my best to accommodate, but honestly right now I can’t be cooking two dinners everyday. She’s been pretty understanding for a 6 year old, and will eat fish fingers/fish, she’s had some chicken too. She is persistent in not wanting to eat animals and to be honest I don’t want to force my child to eat meat.

DH says I’m being silly pandering to it, but I don’t like making her distressed, and she is starting to get genuinely distressed when served meat.

I was veggie for 7 years, so I can do the cooking stuff. She eats a lot and will eat pretty much anything, so I’m not super worried about protein and nutrition. I feel like DH has a point, but also she seems to genuinely be upset with the idea of eating animals. She has even asked if the cat can be vegetarian - I have explained that she is a carnivore and she accepts this by the way. Don’t worry I’m not feeding our cat quorn.

I know this is a contentious issue, but I would like advice. I was thinking pescatarian first and then if she keeps it up we can look at vegetarian. Obviously if we do this I will ensure she has b12 ect. I do feel is is young, so maybe a better option would be to wait till she’s bit older?

YNBU - proceed with caution and let her explore this
YABU - DH is right and she will get over it

Of course stop serving her meat if she doesn’t want it. It’s great that she’s so compassionate at such a young age! It’s also super easy to make pretty much anything veggie these days so hardly a faff.

Both my daughters ate no meat growing up. Now they do but I respected their choice.

It's hard to achieve a healthy vegan diet for a growing child (I think as a vegan myself!) but there is no issue at all with vegetarian diets especially if she isn't fussy. Respect her wishes and try to do more veggie stuff as a family so there's less faffing to do with different meals.

My 8 year old has been veggie by choice for 2 years! To be honest I don’t find it difficult I just cook veggie meals and add meat to those who wants it now! It was an adjustment though in the beginning!

I don’t see that you have much choice you can’t force feed her meat? Sounds like you are willing to support her which is great .

My daughter has been vegetarian since she was 5 (almost 11 now) I started getting gousto boxes for a while to make sure she had all of the good foods and she knows she needs to eat the beans / veg / lentils etc etc. We eat mostly vegetarian as generally i refuse to cook more than one meal and we all have a very healthy diet as a result. I wouldn't consider this as pandering personally, I want dd to feel supported. Also my dd is distraught at the thought of eating anything containing animal products (she's one step away from vegan I'm sure). It's a lifestyle choice for her. She wants to be a marine biologist and is a huge advocate for animal welfare already.
This could be a fad for your dd but it might not be, in which case you really need to think about this from your kids angle. If she's upset at eating meat, do you really want her to remember you forcing her to eat it?

I was a vegetarian for a bit when I was a kid my best friend was so I followed. I ate the exact same foods as the rest of the family just with out the meat.

Right now I’m just switching stuff out but I want to look into meat alternatives a bit more before I commit to it. When I was veggie I was at uni and I was living off beans, soup, cigs, beer, and toasties most of the time. In the last few years I was veggie I actually did a lot more cooking, and felt way better.

I’m not as anti processed foods as a lot of mumsnetters, but I want to know a bit more before I feed it to her regularly.

I think her dad is just worried about protein, and he thinks she will grow out of it but she’s very strong willed so I think we are in this for the long haul.

My 13 year old DD told us that she wanted to be a vegetarian nearly a year ago. To be honest I have found it easy to adapt to it but I am not averse to eating vegetarian meals. If we have a spag bol or chilli then we use Quorn mince for everyone, if we have sausage and mash some of us will have pork sausages and she will have a vegetarian alternative. We have found a delicious vegetable lasagne that we now have as it's better than the meat alternative! To be honest I think we are all eating healthier because of it. If she decides to go back to eating meat in the future then that will be fine but I know she appreciates that we have been able to support her with this choice.

If you're not against processed foods @Catsandcannedbeansthen Quorn is your friend! Make curry, cottage pie, chilli etc with Quorn not meat for DD, possibly you and DH(DP? sorry I forgot which!) could also eat the vegetarian version too. Embrace your DD being vegetarian and enjoy making it work 😊

Your DH sounds pretty mean tbh.

It's really easy to get enough protein as a vegetarian, even as a fussy one. My DS tracks his protein and he gets plenty, mostly from eggs, yoghurt, cheese and things like Linda McCartney sausages.

My husband decided he didn't want to eat meat when he was 7. His mum thought it was just a phase.
That was 70 years ago. Long phase 😉

If you do then I'd try to ensure she does still eat fish to help her body grow. I know we 'can' survive on veggie foods but for a growing child it's best to stick to some animal meat as we're omnivores, and fish is great option.

The likelihood is if you serve her meat anyway she just won't eat it so what is the point? What does your DH think will be achieved by that?
Just make sure she is eating a balanced diet and she'll be fine (my eldest went veggie at 7)

Why do you need to cook 2 dinners every day? Have vegetarian food more as a family. It's generally healthier and cheaper.

Add Quorn mince or veggie sausages to family favourite dishes instead of meat.

Or, cook a tomato pasta sauce then separate out DD's portion and mix bacon / chopped up cooked chicken breast into the remainder. Look into alternative sources of protein then look up simple recipes using them.

My kiddo decided to be veggie at about the same age. He’s a teen now and still is - he’s taller than me and extremely healthy 😂😂

Veggie is easy - nuts, eggs, lentils, beans and an absolute plethora of “fake meat” options these days.

For him, it was seeing the link between our family pets and the animals we eat.

Let her. If hubby is convinced it’s a fad then he’ll only have to ‘pander to it’ for a couple of weeks. If after that she still wants to be veggie then it’s not a fad! The fact that she isn’t fussy makes it super easy. The only time I’d try and stop a child being veggie is if they refused to eat any veg, beans or pulses.

This was me. ‘D’ F refused to accommodate. On leaving home I went veggie and have never looked back, I also barely see him now.

listen to your DD. It’s easy to eat a healthy veg diet, why not all do it? I’m now 45 and in much better shape than almost all others my age.

She will get plenty protein from eggs, cheese, milk, yogurt, nuts etc. You're DH is overreacting.

I will add, I think DH has a skewed perception of vegetarianism because when we met I was veggie and I wasn’t really doing it properly. I was very skinny and slept all the time - I was also a student doing student things which definitely contributed to me being sleepy and skinny. He’s not totally opposed to it, and he’s not opposed on a moral level, he is just concerned.

My 3 kids, all in their 30s now, grew up veggie. All incredibly healthy, only 2 lots of antibiotics ever, two now vegan as well.
I always cooked healthy and tasty meals. If there was something new I'd say I wanted them to taste it but if they didn't then want to eat it, that was ok
I used to say I wouldn't cook meat but if they wanted to eat it at friends houses, that was OK with me.
I always thought the advice about picking your battles was especially correct around food. As long as they're eating good food and not much UHP, I don't think you need to worry about supplements. It's lovely to see sensitive and empathetic children.

I know quite a few people who’ve been veggie since a similar age to your DD. I also know people who turned veggie as soon as they were able to take control of their own meals, but were forced to eat meat before then. Refusing to let a child turn vegetarian doesn’t make them not vegetarian, it makes them a vegetarian who is forced to eat meat against their will. Don’t let your husband do that to your DD.

DS 25 has been veggie from birth. DH has a family member who’s been vegan from birth. It’s really not a big deal these days.

Just to add, I’ve been veggie for 42 years and DH for longer.