Vegetarian 8 year old doesn't eat :(

[ChittinIt]

My son decided about 3 months ago that he is vegetarian.

I have no issue with that but he will not eat properly.

He won't eat vegetarian alternatives such as quorn or veggie sausage.

He doesn't eat many vegetables.

I'm at my wits end.

At present he lives off cheese pizza, cheese sandwiches, potato, tomatoes.

He does eat alot of fruit thankfully.

I don't know what to do, do you think a trip to the Dr would help, like an authority figure talking to him about nutrition?

It's not actually that unusual for vegetarians not to want to eat fake meats, for some sort of defeats the object a bit, so I wouldn't worry too much about that.

Do you get him involved with cooking at all ?? If not, this could definitely help

Making pizza from scratch, is cheap & very easy & blitzing other veg into the tomato sauce us a good way to get him to eat more veg

If you can afford it, invest in a NutriBullet - with this you can blitz sunflower seeds, linseed a, seseme seeds & any other seeds are nuts into fruit smoothies & you don't know they are there - you can also use it to make pancake mix, with added seeds, nuts & oats - by doing this he will be getting all the balance if protein, minerals & vits he needs

Good lck

Excuse typos , need to reset my autocorrect

I would also think about giving him a couple of Spirulina pills a day - these a great source of iron & much more

Bump.

So sorry Rockin. My phone said no replies!

I really think he would like that, I'll look into different ways to hide veggies.

Go to the library and get some kids vegetarian cookery books and let him loose. There will be a chapter on nutrition that he can read up on and it will explain why he can't eat pizza for ever!

If her chooses a couple of recipes, then take him to the shops to get the ingredients and help him cook it for the family. There are loads of recipes an 8 year old can cook, and all the better if he discovers some ingredients or cooking methods he likes.

Can you find any cookery classes for kids locally? Check your local authority website to see if they are doing any 'Cook + Taste' classes.

If he's old enough to make the decision to be vegetarian, then surely he's old enough for you to be able to discuss nutrition with him, and that he needs to eat a more varied diet?

Don't bother with meat substitutes, they're processed and often taste horrible!

Why doesn't he eat other vegetables?

What about vegetarian dishes like lasagne or veggie chilli? There must be other dishes that you could make. There are lots of vegetarian pasta dishes, for example. Or risottos - mushroom or asparagus make lovely risottos.

He can learn how to make pasta at that age! Lovely.

If ypu try to think of veggie food as veggie food - so not 'normal stuff without meat but a meat substitute' then you will find a world of recipes!

Maybe get him involved in cooking, including using pulses, tofu (works well in a curry) etc.

Red lentils cook down to mush so I use them in soups and sauces. You could try tofu, it's quite a strange texture though!

Hummus and vegetable sticks with pitta bread is one of our staple lunches too.

Sam Stern's veggie cook book is great. My dd1 is vegetarian, she's eleven and a bit fussy but we have found lots of recipes in it that she likes. We also always have a tub of houmous in the fridge which you can mix with all sorts of stuff. Jamie Oliver's falafel wrap from his 15 minute cook book is a real winner too.

Does he like chinese, thai, indian food? Take the family for a meal and let him choose from a good variety of veggie foods on the menu.

DS loves tofu (and he will eat any animal) in japanese noodle bars. Veggie sushi is nice too - a bit fiddly to make but kids can try it!

I'd just get a heap of recipe books from the library and let him have a look through to see what he likes the look of. Then maybe try a family veggie meal in solidarity.