Any vegetarian mums out there?

[RMarieClaire]

I have been vegetarian for over a decade, and became a vegan about a year ago.

I'm now 13 weeks pregnant and I've reintroduced eggs and some dairy into my diet because I've gone off a lot of vegan protein sources since I became pregnant.

Anyway, I had always planned to raise my children vegetarian, as I think it's a very varied and healthy diet. My OH eats meat and fish, but is also happy for us to raise our kids vegetarian. However a few people have asked me and been surprised by (and very judgy) about our plans.

Just wondering if there are any vegetarian or vegan mums who have any thoughts or tips?

And Fanny the stomach cramps etc are just down to change in diet. My DBro barely ate any meat growing up due to pickiness (we weren’t a vegetarian family) and every time he ate meat after s longish break he got GI symptoms. They went away as his stomach got used to it.

Same as I got gas and diarrhoea when I moved to Tanzania and started eating kidney beans twice a day every day. It takes your stomach a while to adapt to a major change in diet, it’s nothing unique to eating meat.

Nobody will be permanently uncomposed by eating meat from a vegetarian diet: if you really want to eat meat then eat small amounts and persevere and you'll be fine!

I've been vegetarian my whole life, my DM was & still is.

My DH eats meat sometimes but never at home. All 3 of my DC are vegetarian (9,8 & 6yrs). All are extremely fit & healthy, the youngest has asthma but that's it.

I breastfed all 3, which I'm only mentioning as a health visitor went to great lengths to tell me I would be unable to do due to me being vegetarian.

My DH completely supports this decision & most of my immediate family are also vegetarian/vegan so it's normal to us.

We've never really had any negative comments (to our faces anyway).

Also I've been dairy free since 2000 (I only eat eggs that come from my Auntie's free range hens who are ex-battery hens) so my diet when pregnant & breastfeeding was close to vegan.

As I have first hand experience of being raised vegetarian it's very easy to stop people who say they should start off eating meat & choose later. They can choose later but for now the are vegetarian. All 3 have said they will always be vegetarian (I won't hold them to it but I wouldn't be surprised if they did).

My brother & sister, who were also raised vegetarian from about 3 & 5yrs (my DM felt pressure to start them with meat by her parents not my DDad) She had more confidence/experience by the time I was born thankfully!! DBro & DSis are also still vegetarian.

I have been vegetarian for 17 years. DH is not. I am not bringing DS up vegetarian - I don't want to force my choice onto him and in any case DH eats lots of meat at home anyway so DS would inevitably want some.

Interestingly I also have one vegetarian and one non-vegetarian parent, was brought up eating meat as were my two siblings. I chose to become veggie at 14, no doubt partly influenced by my DF.

I guess it's what you are comfortable with. I have been a vegetarian for a good 20 years and have two children aged 16 and 13 who are vegetarian and always have been. I didn't even consider giving them the option of eating anything else as I don't eat meat and cannot cook it either. They are both healthy, eat a varied diet and I have never had to worry about their health as a result. I breastfed both for at least a year and then used baby led weaning with my second as it was far less stressful.

As long as their diet is varied and healthy, then they should fine. Even raising them as vegan should be feasible if you are clued up on healthy eating for babies and children.

I would occasionally look up the nutrients and calorie intake of their diet but have completely stopped as they have gotten older, as I realised that there was nothing to be worried about.

Both my husband and I are vegetarian and have been for over 20 years

Our son will also be raised vegetarian until he is old enough to decide otherwise

His formula does contain fish oil unfortunately as the only one that doesn't (Kendamil) gave him a bad stomach so we had to compromise there and give him Aptamil

He will definitely not be served meat or fish in this house but if he chooses to eat meat purchased with his own money when he's older then there's not much I can do about it. I would be privately very upset though