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!!!

This reminds me of Mrs Merton: "Let's have a heated debate!"

Interesting discussion. I am an omnivore but do eat a lot of meals without meat or fish in them, as my DH used to be veggie (tempted back by a bacon sarnie after a drunken night out!) and I got used to cooking veggie meals. To me there is no better meal than roasted veg with pasta and lots of oozy mozzarella....

However, I also love a lump of dead cow when I got out for a meal, medium rare please. Yum Yum.

Am confused by the suggestion that one could raise one's kids as 50/50 veggie and non-veggie - how is that possible? You are either veggie or you're not. It's perfectly possible to have a balanced and nutritious diet as a veggie.

Also refute the suggestion that most meat-eaters don't think too much about their family's diet. I certainly do and try and buy free range/organic wherever possible. But it's expensive!

MY DS1 is a typical kid in that he thinks most veg is poison. He eats carrots and peas so we get through tons of those. But he loves fresh fish and I also hide lots of veg in Bolognese, shepherd's pie etc.

I think it's difficult to bring your child up as a vegetarian, but certainly not wrong. It's difficult to be a veggie as an adult too, sometimes!

In the paper today they mentioned the fact that the kenyan study had been sponsored by the US Beef association

Food for thought?

I have followed this thread with interest, there seems to be such strong views on the subject.
I choose to eat meat as by nature humans are omnivores and I believe a varied diet including meat, fish, grains, fruit and vegetables is healthiest and most natural.
Maybe Hollya could consider including meat in her childs diet but only organic free range.

Message withdrawn

I'm a 'sort of' veggie (fish occasionally when eating out) & dh is rather stricter than I am...nothing that ever had a face or a mother.

As far as I'm concerned, I made my decision at 13 after becoming horrified by what I learnt about large-scale farming methods. If I was 13 now, I'd probably decide just to eat organic, free-range meat - that wasn't an option back then! - I haven't taken to doing so because after 21 years of abstinence the idea of meat just doesn't appeal...BUT ds has the odd jar of baby food containing meat, usually Organix or Hipps.

I'm quite sure he'd be perfectly healthy on a veggie diet, & I know plenty of people who are bringing up kids with no meat at all. It's just that I tend to think that yes, as a species we have evolved to be omniverous (but NOT to eat chicken nuggets & similar confections of eyeballs, a*seholes & chemicals! ), I don't have any ethical objection to humanely farmed meat & I don't want my kid to be the one who pukes at his best mate's birthday party when he's 11 & they go to McDonalds...

I reckon if you feed a balanced diet (& many veggies have been thinking carefully about diet for years) then it's not that important exactly where specific nutrients come from - more important to avoid over processed foods & dodgy additives, & to get children thinking about what's in their food so their later choices will at least be informed?

Actually River Phoenix didn't grow up that healthy in the end. But that was nothing to do with being a vegan.

If you are a vegetarian for moral/principle reasons rather than just health, you simply wouldn't consider organic meat and fish, pinkmagic. However good or pure it is, the point of vegetarianism is 'no food with a face' - even if that face was smiling when it died! Lots of people profess to be vegetarians, when what they really mean is they don't eat meat. or even just not red meat. Last time I looked, chicken and fish belonged to the animal kingdom.

IMO I would have problems with bringing up a child as a vegan. I'm sure you could ensure a reasonably balanced diet in the home but what about when it came to nursery/school dinners, visits to friends' houses for tea, going out for meals etc. My brother is a vegan and it's really hard to feed him when he comes round (not that often, luckily for his stomach!) - we quite often eat veggie but it invariably includes some dairy element.

Agree totally with your post CarrieG.

I know wordsmith, I'm one of those annoying people who claim to be veggie but sometimes eat fish - but when I say 'actually I'm a pescatarian' people tend to either look blank or say 'Really? I'm Taurus!'...

Sorry x-posted - was referring to the 'professing to be vegetarian bit'!

LOL Carrie!

Just to add a bit more heat to the debate, for fun (although I guess everyone's getting bored now!?), while everyone is slagging off meat and all its additives, how healthy is it to feed children soya, and can anyone tell me what is in quorn??!! IMO it just as possible to have an unhealthy vegetarian diet as an unhealthy meat diet.

my dd was veggie until about 6 months ago and now she eats organic chicken mainly down to me running out of things to cook for her and being lazy, my dh has been a veggie for 20 odd years and is never ill we eat no meat at home dd has what we have usually. I am about to wean dd2 and will wean her as a veggie. As long as you know how to cook a balanced diet all will be fine, my dh loves brown bread, rice, fish and veggies however i will let her choose what she wants to eat when she is older. I know plenty of meat eating children who have terrible diets.

I posted a question about Quorn a while back (ie. could I feed it to a 6 month old!). Can't find it now, but I think the gist was that it might cause problems with egg allergies, or be too salty?

hello everyone.
all these posts are very interesting and have certainly given me some ammo against the 'non-believers'!!
i'm still showing them to dp when i get the chance and they seem to have shut him up (which is a first!!).
my mum bought me a great book today on cooking for vegetarian babies & children by Rose Elliot. it's really useful because it takes you through weaning right up to proper meals.

Just wanted to add one more thing to reassure you. I have a nine year old of average height who is veggie, he is exceptionally bright and we have no worries over his diet he eats everything.

I have a 10 month old who is veggie he is way above average height and weight (on the 99th centile for both) + well advanced and very strong.

I have beeen a vegiie since birth I am above average height and a good weight

The only issue I have had to deal with is ignorance e.g

no 1 ds was fed meat by a girl I met at antenatal group as she felt I was not looking after my child correctly! - when I found out I stopped seeing her

Last week I was accused of making or forcing my children to be veggie - I pointed out that my children have a choice when they are old enough to cook own meals. DS1 is and has attended meaty cookery lessons but continues to choose to be a veggie

It is healthy people havebeen veggie for years!
My childminder has a mainly veggie after providing meals for DS1 - she noticed when her children were eating veggie they had fewer colds, sickness, illness bugs etc.

hollya - rose elliot is wonderful one of the first cook books I was ever given was by her and I still use it. I heard about the book you are talking about but it was out of print for a while.
good luck.

Some info here there is a bit about veggie children at the bottom

On the veggie society website there is a bit about Quorn not being suitable for young babies die to the fact it is very low in fat.