judging baby vegetarians

[lispy]

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

I think if this does turn into a rant about which is healthiest we should ditinguish between veggie and vegan as I think they are very different in terms of childrens health, Not saying vegan can't be healthy but I'd say it would take a lot more effort to ensure nothing was missing in the diet - I can't see why veggie shildren that eat dairy would have nay problems with their teeth.

we are a veggie family and I am always prepared for 'attitude' when I mention my ds(3 in aug) and dd 1 are being raised veggie... but it never comes. maybe we are lucky and maybe it is because my lo's are both off the scale huge so it is more a matter of 'are you putting them in manure?' type comments. I was sent to gp cos dd is so huge - lol so you can't win.

The attitude when me and dh went veggie in our teens was v different, I was constantly being told I looked 'pale' - nowt to do with the fact I am a ginger ffs!!

I don;t understand why vegetarians would have bad teeth?

Doggiesays, didn't think you were being serious with the scrawny comment, I just felt the need to take the piss out of my fat assed dh.

Interesting type fact:

Dr Spock in his latest edition of his childcare bible recommended all infants be raised vegan

it isn't actually hard to provide a balanced vegan diet IMO. It just involves thinking about meals in a different way from the usual Western diet

am actually quite at the crap some people have got from family/friends etc

a vegetarian diet can be adequate

I know that I gave my kids a healthier diet than I would have done if they had eaten meat, becuase it really forced me to do a bit of reading. Prekids, and even during pg with ds, my diet was appalling-chips, quorn and all sorts of shite. It was weaning him onto a vegetarian diet (dp is veggie, I am a fish eating diletante) which sorted me out.

such a funny title

don't know why but it made me snort

Soya formula is v sweet, so if a vegan baby wasn't bfed for whatever reason, it might explain bad teeth?

yes see i thought it would be a tirade against baby vegetarians and their unreasobable judgementalness

What's wrong with quorn?
Should babies not eat it?
Oops!

Quorn is quite high in salt isn't it? I know dd didn't ahve it for a long time and now only has it occasionally.

Oops Bad mum!
She stole some hallumi off my plate earlier too.

I shall always remember reading soemwhere there is protecin in most things even a potato so that became my standard answer to anyone who worried my 2 weren't getting enough protein. DD brought up veggie tried meat at 4 and decided it was not for her, I shall give ds the same choice when he is old enough (don't know who will cook the meat for him if he chooses to eat meat but we'll have to sort that out if and when)

Quorn very processed, is salty and highly flavoured too

we eat it as a sop to dp who is major carnivore but deprived ds likes it

Yes they do. I try to remain polite. Ds can have stuff when he's at parties outside of the house, though it's never occured yet. We don;t follow him around making sure he doesn't have haripos and sausage rolls.

he is a strapping toddler though and was 10.4 at birth, so that usually stops them short of the malnutritian worries

Can I ask a question to sympathetic people who might be in the know? What happens if your veggie-from-birth child does want to eat meat when they are older? How does the body cope with it? Would it make them ill?

If they ate a big chunk of red meat when their body is used to lentils and quinoa then yes it WOULD make them feel pretty crap

I can say this with some certainty as dp does it every time we visit my parents round Christmas and I have to put up with him complaining for the next 24 hours

(it wouldn't do them harm Tatties but they might find they have digestive troubles afterwards, that's all)

Yes that's kind of what I thought... I suppose like eating anything you're not used to

Ds has a v healthy diet. It's not something I have to defend. The comments usually come from people who eat cheap meat which frankly, I wouldn't wish on anyone!

A baby vrgetarian contest would be ridiculous - my ds would win

We're veggie - dds from birth. Not vega. Quite horrified by the recent research which links meat and particularly processed meat to breast cancer. I've also noticed that we and my veggie friends very rarely get tummy bugs. Makes sense that a veggie diet would be less prone to nasties that lurk in raw meat and passed on by poor hygiene.