Vegetarian 4 year old?

[FamousFiveForever]

My 4.5 year old daughter has never been keen on meat apart from the ubiquitous processed foods they offer in restaurants: chicken nuggets, sausages and breaded veal cutlets.

She will eat mortadella and salami sticks but that's it. She takes salami slices off her pizza and says she doesn't like meat and refuse to eat chicken legs, etc.

If she is a vegetarian, what do I need to look out for? Isn't this a bit early for her age?

Appreciate any advice. Thank you.

No, she can have a perfectly healthy diet. Get some dietary advice, include fish if she wants to eat it, nuts, pulses, dairy. You could bump her up with vitamins while you find your feet. It is in my opinion a much healthier lifestyle when done right

She can have a very healthy diet without eating meat, especially if you have a rich varied diet, with lots of dairy products an pulses and grains and nuts.

There are some great vegetarian cookery books for families with children (Veggie food for kids by Sara Lewis is one).

Done right, a child's vegetarian diet is completely healthy.

I don't think you should label her a 'vegetarian' though, she's not actively choosing to be a vegetarian and she might well like meat when she gets a bit older.

My DS didn't like meat or eat it when he was little, now though he loves the stuff, even though we only have it about once a week in the form of a roast or chicken stir fry.

I was like this as child and was made to eat meat, I never liked it and as soon as I left home I never ate meat again.
I have brought my children up on a non-meat diet (they do eat fish) and although I wouldn't mind if they decided they wanted to eat meat, none of them want to at the moment.

Do you think that if you are quite relaxed about it and let your daughter not eat meat for a bit she might start wanting to eat it again in a few weeks / months? I know it's a pain if the rest of the family are meat eaters and you can end up preparing different meals, but some are easier to adapt than others, e.g. giving your daughter margherita pizza while everyone else is eating pepperoni.
In my experience, if you insist on her eating something she doesn't like you could end up putting her off it for life!

Thank you, so many good replies. I will try and check out this cook book.

We eat some indian/asian food as well, like pilaw with chickpeas, daal with lentils, etc which she likes. She does eat fish, she just dislikes meat, at first i thought it was something related to the texture of beef or steak, but she says it stinks and she really dislikes it. She does eat processed meats though which doesn't really tally with being a vegetarian.

Thank you for the advice, I will speak to our paeiatrician about a food plan.

All 4 of my dc are on vegetarian diets like DH and myself. We seeked advice from GP and other professionals and done right it's healthy.

I wouldn't call my DC as they could eat meat if they wished but so far my oldest two have never mentioned wanting to eat it but then I don't offer it either. It could change in time.

Have you tried mixing meats or plain chicken breast into a salads? She nay just be a picky eater.

My mum has bought me up as a vegeterian from the start.
I live a perfectly balanced and normal healthy life. I wouldnt read to much into it, as some of the others have said she is still young.

I would try and make the least fuss you can. And maybe try different quorn recepies. make a lasagne or spag bol using quorn mince for you and yoru family, then you could see if its truly the meat she doesn't like, as it would look the same and everyone in your family would be eating it.

I'm not necesarily bring my dd up as a veggie it''s just as i dont cook meat she doesn't get it, but when she goes to other family members she will have it now and then. She is kind of the opposite as she wont eat processed meat as in nuggets... it has to be in a meal; pasta, spagbol...But shes only just turning 3 so that could all still change.

DS refused all meat until age 7! Then it was a slow process of chicken ....and now age 9 he will only eat beef burgers and chicken.
He has a healthy diet full of fruit and veg. If DS doesn't want meat I won't push him