Protein in vegetarian toddler

[Babymay]

Hi, just wanted some advice really. My 18 month old DD is being brought up a vegetarian. My problem is that whilst she is at nursery, most lunch times she barely touches anything. This is the main time when they give them a protein based meal, but she rarely eats anything.

I try giving her as much protein as possible at home, but I'm quite worried she's not getting enough. Are there any ideas or suggestions how I can get her to eat lunch?

What are they giving her?

Lots of children don't eat well at nursery, veggie or not. And you're making sure that she gets enough protein at home.

Could you send some food in from home for her? I remember having to send my own food in for ds1 (non-veggie but very fussy) at that age. It was at the nursery's request as he wasn't even trying what they were giving him.

The nursery should be providing food that's attractive though...

How long has she been at the nursery? Sometimes it takes a while for them to settle in enough to start eating. And the older they are, the more likely they are to copy their friends.

But sometimes they are just fussy eaters and never take to what the nursery gives them - mine were both like that, also vegetarian, though their various nurseries catered reasonably well for vegetarians, they just didn't eat much at nursery. When they started taking packed lunches to school they usually ate more.

If your DD is eating at least a little bit - bread? fruit? - at nursery, and is drinking milk or whatever, and she's eating healthily at home, I don't think you need to worry too much. My two certainly didn't seem to suffer nutritionally from not eating much of the nursery food - they have both been at 98th percentile or higher on the growth charts since birth.

Also Babymay remember that there's protein in greens, fruit,etc. think about the size and weight of a gorilla ;they are fruitarians and eat just a few insects!!
if you're really concerned maybe give a veg. child vitamin supplement which should have B12 in it. you can get them in H.F. shops.

Hi all, thanks for your posts. She's been at the nursery for over 6 months now. She does pick at bread, potatoes fruit and of course has all her snacks!
I guess there is nothing I can do, just keep trying. As you say she gets lots of protein in other ways. Even if they are meat eaters there is no guarantee they will eat!

But what do they give her? Don't they have a veggy option? If I were you I would be packing her a lunch...she can't ust have carbs.

Hi, they always have a veggie option, ie quorn equivalent to meat options or cous cows or variety of bean dishes, but it's just that DD won't eat hardly any of it. She'll pick around it!

Another way to look at it is the fact that as long as she's happy and healthy she'll be fine. Us adults invest too much emotion in food which DCs don't. They have tiny stomachs so just "picking" as you call it is okay for her.

seed/ nut butters and quinoa are good sources of protein, my ds won't eat much meat so we use these quite a lot. [:)]