judging baby vegetarians

[lispy]

Do people judge and comment when they find out yor baby is a vego? what do you tell them?

I usually get "Oh, you can do that can you?" And I point to my huge 3 1/2 year old and say "Well, he looks OK on it..."

Seriously, do people not know that in some countries (India eg) large sections of the population are veggie throughout their lives???

And it makes my blood boil when people (including some vegetarians!) say that they want their child to have the choice about meat eating, implying that by "depriving" them of meat and fish now will mean that they won't make their own choice later.

The title of this thread is making me laugh so much because I am imagining a baby vegetarian contest - like an old-fashioned baby show - being held in a marquee somewhere.
The baby vegetarians are all on trestle tables on green crepe paper arranged by artistic displays of their favourite vegetarian baby foods.

The judges are old women in big hats with fruit on the top going round with clipboards awarding them marks for brightness of eye, plumpness and artistic display of foodstuffs.

The OP posted because she is going to be a judge at a baby vegetarian show and wants advice from other MNers on what to look for.

sorry

Sorry

The scrawny thing was a joke

Dh and his best friend are both vegans - they are both 6'1 and about 16 stone each at least. They are in no way undernourished

Kathy I am seeing them in an Anne Geddes style dressed up as cauliflowers and stuff

Kathy am liking the baby vegetarian contest

Yes Franny I think what would happen is that one year someone would do that and win, and the next year everyone would except for a few who think that is not in the spirit of the contest and stand around muttering.

Thanks Doggie.
Now I will go away and stop hijacking your perfectly sensible thread.

Kathy I think you are making quite a name for yourself in whimsical thread hijacking

no she wasn't a friend she was a colleague and was very odd. Her partner was frequently in trouble with the police because of his involvement in some animal rights movement, and she seemed to find it her moral duty to lecture people about the morals of eating any animal products, and took out a grievence against te colleague next to her because she ate ham sandwiches at her desk and this woman found it was offensive.

I know lots of vegetarians but have never come across one quite like her.

Oh dear - I know some of those... they do tend to give the normal sane veggies and vegans (ie the vast majority) a bad name...

I'm a "real" veggie (no meat no fish) but always feel guilty when I give my dd fish to eat. It was the compromise I made with my husband. He's not really all for it and gets a lot of grief from my mil over it (and everything else)

I'm so fed up with hv's I don't go any more.
one of them was a veggie, but the other thinks I'm mad.

Drives me crazy when at every meal with non veggie friends it gets commented on.
That's my vegetarianism & dd's.
Why do people feel its ok to comment/critise.
I never go "oh so you eat dead things! why is that? Do you not find it hard? What about the health repercussions?"

I first thought that about judging vegetarian babys too

My friends are vegans and her very skinny children often cause her to be judged.
The little one's two side front teeth and black, that doesn't help, that and the fact that they are so skinny and are always asking for food!

My 2 young neices are veggies and they are obsessed with meat and last time I saw them they walked round th house playing the 'we're going on a meat hunt' game and walked round chanting 'meat, meat, meat'!

They try but I don't let them - just point out how I am giving my child such a good start in life without all the hormones/chemicals/BSE other children will be getting from meat. Normally shuts them up.

Well I have 2 DDs now both over 10. One has had 1 day off sick and the other only a couple when she had chicken !!! Over the years people have commented how healthy they are and started to wonder whether it's their veggie diet that does it...................... Yes I think I am poss more aware than others of nutritional content of foods, they don't go without and apart from not eating meat eat practically anything!
People did comment when they were young - qustioned whether they would get everything they needed from veggie diet but I think the proof is now in the pudding!
So I would say it gets easier as they get older.

of cos meat eaters are so unhealthy! My DD's are massively healthy and fit. Nothing against people making their kids vegans / veggies, couldn't give a toss, but the veggie / vegan kids I know all look very skinny and have bad teeth! Not generalising, just my personal observation based on the 6 families I know whose kids are not allowed meat.

I don't think anyone should make out that kids who are veggie are healthier than kids who eat meat, that's bollocks.

I'm veggie, dh isn't, we decided to feed ds meat because it was just easier and more straightforward than planning a vegetarian diet, given that dh is the one who enjoys cooking. My sisters are also veggie - one decided to feed her ds veggie food, the other to feed her dd meat. The biggest, strongest child out of the three is the veggie.

of that's proof then kids who eat meat aren't as healthy as veggoe kids. just my p[ersonal opionion but - Bollocks!

No, TC, but the sort of people who make ignorant comments about 'ooh, it's not good for them' or 'ooh, you shouldn't make that decision for them' (like we don't make every decision for toddlers - thats what parenthood is) tend to not be the healthiest eaters themselves. IME.

Well, there's quite a lot of reasons why eating a good vegetarian diet IS healthier than eating meat, TC. It isn't bollocks. And nobody is saying that your kids aren't superb and healthy, however, a good vegetarian diet has a lot of health advantages over one with a lot of meat in it.

I hadn't actually noticed anyone comparing the two, up until your post, but maybe I missed it?

I wouldn't let my son be a vegan, personally I think that is taking it a little far. I think anyone that eats non-organic meat regularly is going to end up less healthy in the end, yes. Look at that recent study about cured meat causing lung disease becasue of the nitrous oxide preservative. Not to mention BSE. And artificial hormones are bound to have an effect further up the food chain at some point. My son is very healthy, teeth fine so far and is the only one of his peers that hasn't had chicken pox yet despite being exposed to it 7 or 8 times, plus however many at Nursery.