Toddler - lamb & pork

[Canyouexplainhowthatis]

My 14 month old hasn’t had any lamb or pork.

We don’t eat it ourselves (apart from my partners love for bacon) so I’ve never given it to him, but whilst looking for some recipe inspiration for toddler I’ve come across lots of sausage meals, pork chops etc

The idea of giving him it feels a bit gross from a nutritional perspective, so I’m curious how much of it your toddlers eat.

Is there any reason to include it?

There is a big difference between cheap supermarket sausages and those you get from a butcher. You could even have a go at making your own sausages - that way you can control the ingredients.

Nutritionally they are as good as other meats, not as iron rich as beef but on a par with chicken. Not sure why you think otherwise. Don't discount fish too, that is very good for you and cooks quickly, a big advantage when cooking separate meals.

But if you are vegan, why not buy a vegan toddler cook book and try the recipes yourself too, saves extra cooking. Children can't be brought up on salads so you are making a rod for your back not trying to come up with family meals. Mine have eaten spice from very young - just add extra chopped chilli once their portion is taken out I found worked well. You can feed dairy at other points of the day if they aren't vegan currently.

Long term you need more than low carb salads too!

If you don’t eat meat then I wouldn’t cook it especially for your child, there are plenty of good veggie options. If you aren’t a vegetarian though I’m not sure why you would think it’s ‘gross’.

My 2 year old doesn’t have a lot of meat cause I don’t it eat much, but enjoys it when we do. She had goat last week and loved it.

Nutritionally I don’t think there is any compelling reason to give it to your child, no. Assuming they are having other sources of protein and iron obviously.

I haven’t given lamb to my toddler and won’t to the baby as I can’t stand the stuff, and won’t have it cooking in the house because of the smell. I don’t feel it’s depriving them in any way, their diet is otherwise perfectly varied.

As with most things your kids will probably try it at some point later on and will either like it or they won’t. Don’t worry about it.

So long as he's already getting a balanced diet, there's no reason to include any specific food. Other than to familiarise him with the taste; at some point he'll doubtless be offered something like sausages or shepherds pie on a playdate.

No idea why you'd find pork or lamb 'bit gross from a nutritional perspective' though, other than that some cuts are fatty.

I really don't get what's "gross from a nutritional point of view" about pork casserole, or making pork meatballs, or lamb tagine, or lamb kofta. All of which are really easy to make at home, with high quality and/or organic ingredients easily available from supermarkets.

It's not like you're feeding him Dishwasher tablets and diesel.

Raise your son as veggie, loads of kids are raised veggie nowadays, and it's not an issue. Also don't worry about "running out of ideas" - he's 14 m old.

There are many sources of iron/omega 3 that you can also give him whilst staying veggie - and having variety

a bean chilli - with jacket potato or rice. Make any leftovers into a soup for lunch the next day.

Baked beans on toast - add cheese sometimes. Put cheese spread ont he toast. add cucumber/toamtoes/celery/pepper sticks ont he side

Falafal with couscous and veggies.

Humus with bread to dip

Eggs in any form! soft boiled with dippy soldiers, hard boiled on their own, or egg mayo sarnies, fried eggs, omelette, scrambled, quiche, frittata... ad din all sorts of good bveggies like spinach, peppers etc

Tofu - scrambled tofu, fried tofu, tofu fingers (fake fish fingers)

Dried apricots as snack, or part of a tagine or in flapjacks.

Mix flaxseeds/chia seeds into porridge or yoghurts.

Make your own savoury muffins/flapjacks - can add nutritional yeast to this (good source of B12) - also good for using up odds and ends of vegetables.

Cheese on toast/cheese toasties/quesadilla - if you use white bread it's fortified as well.

lentil dahls are great too - easy cheap and nutritious. We make a red lentil dhal and add chickpeas, spinach, tin of tomatoes onion etc.

Give your baby spices and herbs - they love them! Sure don't chuck a ghost pepper in their chilli, but start them off with paprika, a little bit of chilli poweder etc

If you're already at the stage of everyone eating a different meal and your son is only 14 months old you're in for a very very very long few years. You need to work towards eating as a family rather than over thinking which food is 'gross'.

@Canyouexplainhowthatis

My 14 month old hasn’t had any lamb or pork.

We don’t eat it ourselves (apart from my partners love for bacon) so I’ve never given it to him, but whilst looking for some recipe inspiration for toddler I’ve come across lots of sausage meals, pork chops etc

The idea of giving him it feels a bit gross from a nutritional perspective, so I’m curious how much of it your toddlers eat.

Is there any reason to include it?

DS doesn’t eat lamb, beef or pork. He gets his protein from chicken, fish, shellfish, turkey, and from vegetarian sources.

[quote Canyouexplainhowthatis]@Megan2018 Makes sense!

It’s just been an interesting journey so far. He’s my first and initially I was weaning him veggie, but I ran out of ideas very fast.

My partner eats lots of crap and I eat low carb (lots of salads mainly or really spiced up stuff to make it interesting) so I cook separate meals for the baby. It’s a pain![/quote]
Seems like your cooking is inefficient really. Your DS could just have what you have but with carbs added in and spice removed.

Me and DH are both vegetarian so we are raising DD the same, she's nearly 3 and never had meat. It's not difficult to eat veggie these days, I'm surprised to hear you ran out of recipe options quickly. Virtually everything you can make with meat you can make a veggie version of.

Your logic is like comparing a chicken breast with chicken nuggets from McDonald's OP. Not all meat products are equal. Just give them an equally processed quorn sausage instead.

@KindleRemote

Your logic is like comparing a chicken breast with chicken nuggets from McDonald's OP. Not all meat products are equal. Just give them an equally processed quorn sausage instead.

I would argue Quorn and vegan fast food is often more processed to make it taste better. But there’s no arguing the health issues surrounding nitrites in processed red meat products. It shouldn’t be an either or - both could easily be avoided or reduced significantly.

Wow, ok.

We are not vegetarian. There’s lots of chicken, beef & fish in our diets including babies.

There is no way to cook the same meals for all of us. Like I said, I live off salads and my partner is one of those lucky few that lives off burgers & pizza and doesn’t gain weight. I’m not prepared to feed our toddler those kind of meals on a regular basis, and I’m not prepared to eliminate spice etc from our meals to feed baby the same. Spices need to go in first and fry off for a spicy dish to work!

I’ve no problems making him meals of his own, I batch cook and freeze a lot for him and I actually enjoy finding new things for him to have.

We don’t eat lamb & pork because... we just don’t. Not interested in it.

I will probably start including some pork mince or strips for baby though so he can try something new.

Have you given him any of your spicey food at all yet?

I only ask because I was quite surprised at what ours liked, I only give something separate now if it’s too salty.

@FTEngineerM I haven’t yet. I’ve given him curries made with mild curry powder and he was happy enough, maybe I could try ours too.. I had just avoided it as I was worried it’d upset his stomach!

There is no way to cook the same meals for all of us. Like I said, I live off salads and my partner is one of those lucky few that lives off burgers & pizza and doesn’t gain weight. I’m not prepared to feed our toddler those kind of meals on a regular basis, and I’m not prepared to eliminate spice etc from our meals to feed baby the same. Spices need to go in first and fry off for a spicy dish to work!

It honestly must have crossed your mind what will happen when your son starts wanting Daddy or Mummys food? There is also absolutely no reason your son cannot have spicy food. Mine is only a few months older than yours and loves dishes with a kick.

I would not feed my child pork or lamb🤢 when there older they can decide what they want. I don’t trust myself to cook it properly either as I’m vegetarian. Just use a veggie alternative mine rarely eats meat , sometimes ready made chicken. But normally just fish.

You don't have to give them anything. We eat most meats but not horse or rabbit (both are not uncommon where we live) so our toddler hasn't had those either.

I don't really see the issue! We eat pork fairly regularly but not lamb because it's expensive here. I don't object to giving him lamb as such but it just hasn't come up.

As long as the overall diet is balanced it doesn't matter what exactly is in it.

I also think it’s worth trying him on spicy food if you’re looking for more variety, especially if you ate spicy food during pregnancy and if you were breastfeeding. He may surprise you with his tolerance.

You can get some v high quality sausages. I only serve Heck sausages to my kids

Nothing wrong with a meal of quality chipolatas and peas

Not really sure why you even started this thread.

You don't like the idea if cooking and/or eating lamb or pork.

You're refusing to change how you eat and cook as a family.

Have fun cooking three separate (lamb and pork less) meals every day for years to come 👍