We are vegetarian and 4.7yo ds has just told me he eats chicken at nursery.

[beansprout]

He is quite sure about this. The nursery claims to cater for all diets and I know I need to talk to them but am very cross if this is the case. Why is this different to religious beliefs that I am sure would be respected?

That's appalling. And agree with bigbella, people should respect principled beliefs whether or not they are religious in nature.

As it happens, I'm a vegetarian but ds and dh are not. When we had the discussion about weaning ds, dh was very keen to cook meat for him. And I wasn't the cook, at the time - once ds was old enough for meat, I was back at work full time and dh did more cooking than me.

I felt that we both had equal rights to decide what was best for ds and dh felt more passionately than me on this issue so I went with his wishes. Whichever way round you do it, the child can make up his or her own mind when they are older.

I do have to agree with ellingwoman about when it's appropriate to get mad at nursery. Asking for a special diet is extra work for them and I would tread carefully about "giving them hell" when it might be just a mistake or a misreporting.

see that repulses me tbh, fake meat. to me it reinforces the idea that you have to have meat to make a meal. but i see they do it so the veggies don't feel left out.

i do think at nearly 5 the child should be able to say if they eat meat or not. dd is 3 and can do so.

'unacceptable'
'shocking'
'make a huge fuss'

jeez - it's a mistake, no one's life was at risk.
How can the op's ds 'be sure' if he's never had it? Get the facts. If it's the nursery mistake remind them. Save the 'crossness' for some biggie.

(haven't read the whole lot)

Just wanted to say, beansprout, bloody hell that's awful.

It shouldn't be different to religious beliefs, it isn't different to reigioous beliefs. And personally i would say that an ethical stance on not eating meat is more fundamental than not doing it beacuse a book says so. But that's another conversation.

Agree with others to check it's not quorn or something.

Then give em hell.

As I was saying....

But being vegetarian is not a special diet. It is so common it is just normal. Nurseries cater for it as a normal thing surely.

bigstripeytiger, i did not become vegi because i think its a healthier diet, i did it because i do not want to eat meat. i do not have the right to impart my views on my children.
i agree with izyboy, if you make a deal of not eating meat, the 1st chance they get they will try it, and so they should!
my partner eats meat, why do i have the right to say the kids dont when they quite honestly enjoy it! they are healthy, well nourished and quite frankly well educated in the fact they can make their own choices.
i would be more than happy to support one of them if they go vege, and to be honest a tad chuffed if they did, but its their decision!

aside from this, i believe the nursery at error if they did give the child meat when the parents asked them not too.

Agree with islandofsodor being veggie is hardly a special diet. Surely all facilities like this would be able to cater for veggie diets, it's really mainstream. We're not in France for crying out loud

I imagine that my demands that DD be fed pheasant, rare steaks and dorset crab will be met with . And yet that is what i choose to give her at home

gardeningmum When people decide to be vegetarian themselves, but feed their children meat it makes me think that they feel it is in some way less valid to be a vegetarian than a meat eater. That eating meat should be the default option.

I think that Riven explained it better than me in her post of 16.58.

solidgoldSneezeLikeApig "most vegetarianism is just attention-seeking behaviour anyway"

What a load of offensive, ill informed rubbish.

you could call it attention seeking, making a childish swipe at vegetarians on a thread about a vegetarian child being fed meat at nursery...

Thanks for all the support. Will speak to the nursery in the morning.

For those of you who don't understand or respect my choices, thanks for letting me know!

Funny that, as all the attention I have ever had on that subject has been pretty unwelcome!

tiger- i don't eat meat but dd does. not because i feel meat eating is the default position though. i don't like meat, she does. end of really.

please let us know how you got on at the nursery.
i asked my sons nursery about it and they told me they do have some vegi children and they help themselves to the other kids plates and pinch meat items.
better not name the nursery

exactly ruddynorah, my kids actually like meat, so i feel i do not have the right to tell them they cant have it.

I'm with you on this one beansprout - you've told the nursery you and your son don't eat meat and they've (apparently) gone against this. It's the principle of the whole thing.

I looked after a child whose family were vegetarian and they specifically stated this on the child record form I had for her. No problems for me. If her family didn't want her to eat meat I had to respect that and had to watch her at toddler parties etc. but then that's my job.

I would definitely bring this up at the nursery and ask them to keep more of an eye -especially if they say they cater for all diets.

What about if somebody was allergic to nuts or dairy produce. What would happen then?

As for posters saying if they like it let them eat it - you could say that and let them have lots of sweets and cakes, but would you?

My son is three and also comes home from nursery saying he has had chicken and fish. We are vegetairan for health reasons but if I wanted to I could also argue the religious point as well- however i choose not to. The nursery carers sometimes also tell me that he had chicken for lunch. I know that he ahs a table mat which is colour coded so that he does not get meat, so I choose to believe that he is not having meat and is mixing it up with quorn- I have challenged him on this and he is not too sure.....
If I did find out that he had meat, I would be extremely upset.....and would take issue with the manager and the nursery.
I also think that is not right for others to suugest that the child should be able to choose for themselves at this age or even up to age 6. I challenge anyone to explain to my 3 year old what the health reaosn is that means he should not eat meat. He wants to do what everyone else is doing. We should all be careful when we do not understand the 'individual' issues involved in any child's circumstances- it may no always be as simple as suggesting one i simposing ' one's own views' on their child.

just wanted to add my two cents as someone who was brought up a strict veggie..

i was almost vegan growing up (very little dairy/egg) and as soon as i was in nursery and going to friends houses i would always refuse anything with meat in it.

i am now 22 and expecting my first child and believe that it is a perfectly reasonable choice to raise your child vegetarian and i am still vegetarian and would never want to eat meat (clearly my diet is my own choice now).

people who are saying that raising a child vegetarian is child abuse seem rather militant and unreasonable to me! being vegetarian has a lot of proven health benefits and i would be concerned feeding a child meat seeing as what goes into processed meat products and the quality of cheap meat.

on a side note, i recently found out that many baby formulas are not vegetarian (a midwife told me this) and the manufacturers dont even state this on the labelling! so if you aren't breastfeeding it is worth contacting the manufacturers to check (i belive cow and gate was singled out as having beef in it..)

Ooh, someone's revived this thread in time for me to mention that superstitious dietary restrictions imposed on children are attention-seeking wank as well...

lets all ignore the troll........