reassure my partner veggie is ok

[hollya]

hi, i'm new here and am a veggie, have been since i was 8. please can someone with vegetarian children tell me that they are healthy and well.
my partner doesn't agree with bringing up our baby as vegetarian and it is really irritating me as i know it is a very healthy and normal way of life.
our baby isn't born yet (due may 9th), but this is creating issues already.
someone help!!!

Food rules and religion are odd; in fact, not all Buddhists are vegetarian (the Buddha wasn't - he died after eating contaminated pork). Brahmins are veggie. Jains are very veggie. And lots of people are just veggie because they opt for it.

Sorry, totally off-topic, yes of course you can be very healthy indeed and a vegetarian.

This isn't meant nasty and I don't want to upset anyone but can you not bring your baby up as a meat eater and then when they're old enough to decide for themselves let them choose if they want to be veggie or not. Like you chose to be yourself at the age of 8.

My parents raised me as a vegetarian, I am very healthy, so are they, we are raising our 2 kids vegetarians aswell, they are both healthy, DP sometimes has meat, he's the only one who suffers health problems. I don't know if humans are supposed to eat meat or not, but I just don't agree with the mass breeding and murder of animals for us, fair enough if you go out and hunt your own meat, kill it yourself etc, I personally think that all the andrenaline and bad chemicals in these mass slaughtered animals cannot be good to ingest, I also think that red meat contributes to violence in humans due to all the adrenaline pumping through these animals as they are murdered which goes straight into us when eaten, strong views I know.

My DH is a veggie, I'm not but we're bringing the children up as veggies too. DS1 hardly eats anything but I know it would make no difference if I let him eat meat anyway! DS2 eats a very well balanced and healthy diet - beans,. chickpeas, lentils etc as well as eggs, cheese etc.
Woodpops, I appreciate your point but, just as well, you could bring your children up as a veggie and then let them choose when they are older to eat meat. My nephew lives in a veggie household but will eat meat at other people's houses

I appriciate you can be brought up veggie. Could you not do a 50 50 diet with your baby. THat way you and your partner will be happy and baby can then decide if they prefer veggie food or meaty food. I was myself a veggie for 10 years.

50/50? Surely you either eat meat or are a vegetarian? If you eat 50% meat, aren't you just a meat eater?

It was just a flaming idea would she and her partner not be happy with that??? My sil is veggie and bil isn't. THeir dd has been brought up as a meat eater and can decide when she's old enough is she wants to be veggie or not!!!!

As with many things, I don't really care terribly much how people choose to raise their kids - it's their call, but it is worth pointing out that the remarkable human species is an omnivore, neither purely carnivorous, nor vegetarian, and has been for millenia. Indeed scientists link the inclusion of meat and fish into the diet of our ape ancestors as the reason for sudden brain expansion, intelligence and also explains our aggresive, hunting instinct. It's why we have both molars and incisors. This is being seen in the intelligence, aggresive nature and diet of modern day chimps, who although have a mostly veg/fruit diet, have in recent evolution begun to hunt other monkeys to add important protien to their diets. It also shows a difference in the way we eat - sharing a kill is a social activity, whereas gathering veg/fruit is a purely solitary activity. This explain (according to some) why we hate eating alone, and share most meals in a social context.

IMO the problem with all diets is being too extreme in one way or another (too much meat is NOT good for you) but agree wholeheartedly that veggies on the whole plan and prepare their food better, so this is why you would see healthy vegetarian children, esp. in today's dreadful culture for poor quality food. And indeed today you don't have to rely one a limited source of vegetarian protein (like you would have done in the rainforest!!), because you have the world at your fingertips in tescos!

Good luck with the baby!!

I don't want to offend anyone but I agree with woodpops. Human beings are omnivores by nature, eating both meat and vegatables. I don,t have anything against adult vegetarians as they have made a informed decision not to eat meat but personally do not think they should deprive their children of meat until they are old enougth to decide for themselves if they want to be vegetarian.

Don't know what kind of vegetarianism you are talking about, I just want to say that it would be difficult to raise a small child vegan. They need the protein and fat from dairy and eggs.

Thank you pinkmagic1, thought I was being wierd saying that!!!!

There you go hollya, I told you you'd have to get used to defending your choice, you might as well practice here! I wouldn't dream of criticising someone for feeding their child meat, it's a shame people have to do it to vegetarians. Pinkmagic, woodpops et al, we all make all sorts of choices and impose them on our children, you've made yours but I don't think it's fair to criticise mine. If my son wants to eat meat at some point I will let him as it happens but he's still choosing not to.

FFS have I made one critisism?? No I haven't we were simply asked our opinion and I gave it. I even started by putting that I by no means wanted to offend anyone. I suggest go go back and read again WWW. I haven't critisised veggies at all

woodpops, you said, and I quote "This isn't meant nasty and I don't want to upset anyone but can you not bring your baby up as a meat eater and then when they're old enough to decide for themselves let them choose if they want to be veggie or not" To me that suggested that you don't think it's good to impose vegetarianism on children - the 'when they're old enough to decide for themselves' line made me think that. Sorry if I misinterpreted your remark but that's how I took it. I could suggest that you could bring up a child as a vegetarian and let them decide if they want to eat meat 'when they're old enough to decide for themselves' but I wouldn't because I think it's each parent's choice!

So there's no need for the face, I don't think I was nasty to you or anyone else!

Yeah, I put can you not. It was a flaming question. I feel there was need for the face as I hadn't critisised anyone and didn't particualary like being accused of critisism. It was a suggestion. Bring them up meat eaters or as veggies I really don't give a toss. I was just trying to come up with a compromise that hollyas partner may accept.

I know it's not easy when one of you eats meat and one doesn't. After problems at nursery a few weeks ago I have now requested that my children are only given a veggie alternatives for their meals.

As a vegetarian, I wouldn't dream of poping out to the butchers to pick up lump of dead cow to fry up and 'kindly' feed to my children. It's a question of not only, what is good nutritionally for your child but of moral issues aswell which is why I think this thread is getting a little heated.
Some people become vegetarians for nutritional value, some because of moral value.

Don't know if you saw this article in the Guardian on Monday.

I was a veggie for years, however I am not any more. If I was I guess I would not cook meat at home but if they were out/at school I would let them eat what they chose.

To me calling beef a lump of dead cow is quite insulting. Can you not call it beef. Yes we're all well aware it's a lump of dead cow. It could be quite easy to say veggies meals often look like puke on a plate .

As I've said earlier I was veggie for 10 years and during that time I did a catering management course at college. I still had to prepare and cook meat which I was fine with as it was peoples own decisions to eat meat and if that's what they liked then fine. You just get on with it. We're all big and ugly enough to make our own decisions on what we like and don't like

Just to add to the debate, we are not vegetarians, although I admire anyone who is organised enough to do it and still have a balanced diet. I saw an article this week (can't remember where ?guardian) linking ADHD to lack of iron. How easy is it to get iron from a vegetarian diet?

it's very interesting how many of us were veggie for years (16 stubborn years in my case) and have found motherhood the trigger to taking meat and fish again, FWIW I think that is very telling about the efficacy of a vegetarian diet, but that's just my opinion

I had been eating a little bit of fish until I got pregnant but as soon as I was pregnant the thought of any foods of animal/fish origin made me feel really ill so I guess it works both ways. I was a 'moral choice' vegetarian, decided not to eat meat aged 5 once I knew what it was. Parents made me eat it and I actually developed an eating disorder. Now, I'm not saying their attitude to my food choices gave me the eating disorderthere were other important reasons why that developedbut I don't think it helped that they didn't respect that a child of my age could have such strong opinions.

Holly, veggie fact sheet here

My dd after a long time discussing with dh is veggie at home and has what everyone else does anywhere else (nursery, friends, grandparents) - I feel that my dh and I have made a choice to be veggie, but it's really important for kids to feel like they fit in - being a kid is hard enough, if the odd chicken nugget helps then so be it. I don't think she even realises that she doesn't have meat at home.

As for the iron thing - it gives me an excuse to always have chocolate in the house!