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?

If you're buying chicken why not buy quorn instead? I'm presuming people dont shop for the year and then never shop again! If he loses interest, he loses interest then everyone goes back to meat and you have shown your child you respect him.

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.

Are you a Tory politician by any chance?

Buy a copy of Herb the Vegetarian Dragon, which is an age appropriate story, and also Cooking with Herb which has child friendly recipies. I was forced to eat meat when I was a child and hated it.

My daughter was 7 when she announced she would no longer be eating meat, I pointed out all the things she would be missing out on but her mind was well and truly made up - she's not eaten meat since and she's 22 now

At first she just ate what we did less the meat part of the meal but as time went on and we realised she was absolutely serious we started incorporating a few vegetarian options into our weekly menu

My brother did this. He ate what we ate minus the meat portion of the meal. I can't remember if Mum sorted a protein substitute for him, but I doubt she did (it was the mid 90's at the time, we were poor, and she had 3 other children to cater for). She certainly wasn't going to cook a second meal anyway. In the end, he returned to eating meat after a few weeks, but even now, he's not much of a fan of meat in general.

I like to think I would help my daughter do this, should the matter arise, so I would try to accommodate him. There's so many vegetarian alternatives out there now. But he needs to eat said alternatives. If he doesn't, then he'll just have to go back to the norm. We could all use eating less meat, but don't lie to him about it.

Sorry- it made me laugh though!

I’d say when you’re old enough to cook for yourself you can eat what you want, until then you eat what I cook. I’m not willing to faff around cooking two meals and thinking about including vitamin sources etc.

I wouldn’t ever do that... I don’t force my son to eat whatever me and my husband are eating if he doesn’t like it, just because it’s what I’ve cooked.

Sorry but you’re raising snowflakes then. You eat what I’ve cooked or you don’t eat. I won’t put up with picky eaters and I certainly won’t cook more than one meal.

Not wanting to eat meat is not picky eating! The child obviously is intelligentvenligh to realise that animals have to die for him to eat them. Respect it. I have two vegetarian parents, a pescetarian husband and my 4 year old and I eat meat. Its not that hard to sort out out. As for telling him its chicken flavoured potato - how stupid do you think a 5 year old is?!

My sons veggie since birth. He's now 18mtha and very healthy and eats a wide range of proetien sources. Eggs, cheese, chickpeas, lentils with rice etc are all great sources of protein plus there is quorn and other replacements

At 5 you can talk to him about types of protein, so if he doesn't eat meat, he could have fish, like fish fingers, tofu, egg etc. and have some for him to taste. He can then say if he'd rather stay eating chicken or have cheese some nights, and egg on others etc.

Richmond also do meat free sausages created specifically to taste the same as the meat version. In our mix of veggie / non-veggie / fussy older sibling house they've been a God send. They're in the bacon aisle rather than with the veggie / Quorn food, to attract flexitarians apparently. They may give you an option for toad in the hole etc. that the whole family will eat.

@AvaSnowdrop so all our kids are snowflakes and yours isn’t because they’re force fed stuff they don’t like.
Ok.... 🤷🏻‍♀️🙄

My DD decided at 5 in the middle of Tesco's that she was going veggie. She is now 14 and since that day I have tried and failed to persuade her to eat meat. She will probably always be veggie now and I respect her views. She's actually learned much more about food and understands how to balance her diet and in someways eats a more varied diet. For example she makes herself eat mushrooms even though she hates them because she knows they are a good source of protein.

My parents flat out refused to accommodate for my wish to be vegetarian despite me asking for many years to just have the same meal without meat, so I resorted to "accidentally" dropping the meat off of my fork and onto the floor. Every single meal. What a waste of food...

Just let him eat vegetarian meals it's not that hard to make food with the same amount of protein, I promise

Sorry but you’re raising snowflakes then. You eat what I’ve cooked or you don’t eat. I won’t put up with picky eaters and I certainly won’t cook more than one meal.
I dont tolerate picky eaters either, but choosing to not eat meat because they dont like the thought of animals being killed is entirely different from not eating something because its not a chicken nugget or a chip. The child has formed an opinion and has a conscience about something. Surely that is something to be encouraged?If its been thought through, that's entirely different. My children are far more adventurous now that they don't eat meat than they were as meat eaters, because they know that they have to eat different vegetables and protein sources if they don't want to eat meat.

I suspect that AvaSnodrop’s are served worms and scrubs under a bridge.

@AvaSnowdrop why is someone who makes a conscious decision not to eat meat due to having strong morals and ethics to not kill animals for food a snowflake?

My dd went vegetarian ages 6 for about 6 months while the rest of us ate meat.
She is now 8 and talking about going vegan which I think I will discourage as it's a bit too much work for me! However I have said I am happy for her to go vegetarian again. My 12yo has also now said she would like to be vegetarian by the end Of the year.....

My daughter, the same age,has decided the same. I have been forcing meat a little to be honest and it hasn't helped. She can't eat dairy so I've been worrying about vitamins etc. With good planning, it can be done and it can be healthier.
My issue is that DH cooks half of our meals and he already disregards nutrition so the 'careful planning' bit is something else that is now down to me.
I agree that it is important to respect their wishes, but difficult as the cook and care giver to respect their wishes AND ensure they're getting a healthy nutritional diet. Something u fortunately young children do not understand fully (it's a job just getting DH to understand!)