5 year old saying he doesn’t want to eat meat.

[Rogben13]

My son who’s 5 keeps saying he doesn’t want to eat animals any more as he likes them and thinks it’s mean. I’m all for cutting out red meat but I’d like to encourage him to carry on eating chicken and fish for the protein etc as he won’t eat beans or things like spinach. Do I encourage this not wanting to eat animals thing or keep offering him meat? As a family we’re certainly not vegetarian but do eat meat free tea time meals around twice a week, my husband thinks it’s ridiculous and he’s just going through a phase. What would you do?

My DD asked to not eat meat aged about 2...she meant it and has stuck to it until fairly recently (10 years). She's also a fairly 'fussy' eater but increasingly coming out of that - on her own terms. She's quite nervous of new foods but I think our patience is being rewarded.
It's not difficult to accommodate and she was willing to eat fish occasionally.
I hate the thinking of 'pandering' it's not a weak thing to listen to your children.

Please don't lie to him. The best thing to do would be to respect his wishes, but if you can't do that, be honest and tell him he can become vegetarian when he's a bit older.

A child isn't going to believe in 'chicken potatoes' or whatever forever - at some point they'll realise the lie, and if they still believe eating meat is wrong, will probably feel incredibly betrayed and may not trust the food you give them from then on.

100% respect his wishes if he doesn't want to eat animals please do not force him !

Some Haribo are suitable for vegetarians!

My six year old declared in the summer that he wanted to be vegetarian. We went with it (easy enough as I'm vegan). He lasted a week and cracked when I told him that the jelly snake he wanted from the Pic n Mix wasn't vegetarian (if he's doing it, he's not half arsing it).
However his best friend at school has been a vegetarian since about September and isn't showing any signs of giving it up. His parents have been amazingly supportive of him.

I went vegetarian at 13. I knew that I wanted to do it years earlier but wasn't allowed to by my parents. At 13 they decided that I was old enough to decide. Thing is, it was the same decision is come to years before so I never saw the point in making me wait.

My mum thought I was going through a phase when I said the same thing ages 5. 25 years later I have no regrets

I would go along with it so long as he'll eat vege foods high in protein. There is no need to eat meat now.
Me and my kids very rarely eat meat, we just dont like it that much.
It may be a phase but I'd go along with it because I dont see the harm.

Also, both of my DC have commented this week in conversation with each other that they are uncomfortable with the idea of eating animals, but that 'it tastes so good'. It was interesting to hear their dilemma. They are 6 and 8.

My dd is 5, and has been mainly vegetarian for about a year. She stopped eating meat after she was sick having scoffed a large amount of sausage pasta very quickly so not really for ethical reasons! She'll eat some fish, eats eggs and likes hummus, cheese, yoghurt, peanut butter, baked beans etc. We decided to go with it rather than have fraught meal times. We still give her opportunities to eat meat and over christmas she ate a couple of rashers of bacon. We had been trying to eat more veggie foods so this year we're going to try her on some lentil/bean type things. I don't think she'd go for fake meat.
I don't think it's a big deal, and can mean they try things they might not have otherwise.

By the by if anyone wants vegetarian jelly snakes then nearly all M&S jelly sweets are vegetarian.

I’m not aware of any vegetarian Haribo.

The funny mix and strawberries are vegetarian Haribo. Lots of children are committed enough to not eat certain sweets, my dd was from a very young age, all her choice.

Yes so are my DS's. They turn down Haribo from.kids at school and dont eat the marshmallows at cubs or anything. Even though I didnt instigate the vegetarianism and did tell them to just eat the bloody marshmallows, I'm very proud of them. I wish I had their willpower tbh

What a great boy you are raising OP. Children are so compassionate naturally they often don’t want to eat meat when they realise it comes from their animal friends.
Absolutely I think you should accommodate him.
It’s now easier than ever to eat meat free and it is increasingly being recognised as healthy and ethical to do so. Just make sure he still eats a balanced diet. Please don’t lie to him or force him to eat meat. I would of absolutely hated my parents for doing so when I insisted on going veggie as a child.

My daughter is only 2.5 but since weaning has been a self imposed pescatarian I suppose. She hates meat. Loves fish.
My DS was the same, he's 7 now and still has no interest in eating meat at all. He eats a far better diet nutritionally than his meat eating sister so I'm not seeing any harm in it. If he wants to have meat again when he's older that's his choice but if he never does then that's also fine. I remember being force fed foods when I was younger and it left me with a lot of food issues that I've only recently managed to unpick slowly. Quorn/Linda McCartney/others do some fantastic substitution products that the rest of us meat eaters have started incorporating into our diets as well now.

As others have said I would respect your son's feelings and let him try eating a vegetarian diet -- he's showing great compassion, empathy and thought and it would be a shame to stop him.

I raised my two DC on a vegetarian diet. They are now 10 and 7 and perfectly healthy. Getting enough protein is pretty easy -- dairy, eggs, beans (including baked beans), hummus, lentils, nuts (including peanut butter), peas, tofu, meat substitutes... You need a combination of all of these to get full protein.

Getting enough iron can be trickier -- green vegs, fried fruit, lentils, fortified cereal etc.

Getting enough B12 is essential, but a reasonable amount of dairy and eggs covers this.

Your DS may well change his mind in the future, but I would support him for now.

I can’t get past that some people are suggesting that highly processed poor quality meat (sausages) is better for a child than a vegetarian diet. I am not vegetarian either.

I’m the one the mentioned sausages. I didn’t say they were healthy (though if you get the right ones they can be). I said I used them as a test of how much DD really wanted to be veggie.

Thanks @Avocadosmash! Didn't know that. Off to track some down!

Anyone who wants vegetarian marshmallows - apparently you can sometimes find them in Halal shops (although I have not checked). The ones from amazon are rank imo.

www.femalefirst.co.uk/vegan/haribo-revamp-their-vegetarian-range-of-sweets-1195823.html

Amazing!

egghead yes their cubs leader tracked some down but they are small and dont melt as well in s'mores apparently

I found chocolate covered marshmallows in Holland and Barrett but dd not tried them yet. I agree that the Amazon ones are rank. They have vegetarian jelly too which is nice.

i would respect this and use it as a starting point to incorporate more meat alternatives for the whole family (I'm not a veg but i'm very open minded as to ways to cut back)

i wouldn't start making two dinners though!

I would respect his choice since he has explained a perfectly valid reason not to eat it, not just being fussy. However, I would explain to hin that it's a very grown up choice to make, and meat is good for you so if he wants to stop eating it he needs to make up for it by eating more other healthy things (the other protein alternatives he won't eat).

I'm all for respecting children's choices but they need to be grown up about the consequences - like telling a child they can have a pet but only if they feed it and look after it's needs.

my DC2 made a similar statement when she was about 7. We did go veggie for a month, but I explained that to keep healthy she would need to be more flexible in what she ate, and couldn't just expect to be served cheese pizza or quorn sausages at each meal (we know one vegetarian child who literally has cheese pizza, or pesto pasta to the exclusion of most other foods).

I'm a pretty decent cook and put in lots of effort, but after a month she agreed that she just wasn't ready for a healthy meat free diet. She occasionally talks about having another go in future, and our menu is meat free probably half the week anyway.

I can’t get past that some people are suggesting that highly processed poor quality meat (sausages) is better for a child than a vegetarian diet. I am not vegetarian either.

Me too. (by which I mean I agree and I'm not either)

And I'm pretty amazed that so many people are suggesting lying to their kids, "Just tell him it's chicken flavoured Quorn -- he'll never know" type thing. What happens when he does notice that there's no packets of Chicken Flavoured Quorn in the bin and he finds you've been lying to him. What kind of an arsehole is he going to think of someone who did that? How to destroy your kids trust in you and make them hate you Lesson One.

How to destroy your kids trust in you and make them hate you Lesson One

Nah. The OP's child is five. In a week's time, he will probably have long since forgotten he ever said it. A bit of chicken-flavoured quorn reassurance will do the job until then.