7 year old vegetarian - help!

[PollyDollyLolly]

My DD7 approached me just before Christmas completely out of the blue, extremely upset about having to eat a ham sandwich for dinner and how she knew it was an animal. We had a lengthy chat about meat and she decided she didn't want to eat it anymore, she couldn't tell me what had drawn her attention to this but I have a feeling it was someone at school, I spoke to the school at the time and they said they hadn't been doing any subjects around it. Prior to this she was chicken, beef and fish mad so it came as quite a shock but I thought it would just be a phase.

Fast forward to now and she is still 100% not eating meat but she barely eats any vegetables - she will only recently eat quorn but only nuggets, no other meat alternative types. She'll eat things like pasta but only with cheese, noodles, mozzarella etc but she will not physically eat veg - if I force it, she holds it in her mouth until she gags. Sometimes I get away with blending some veg into a tomato sauce for pasta but it's touch and go if she'll eat it. She won't eat mash, eggs, potatoes, gravy, she'll sometimes eat rice but again, only very little.

Does anyone have any ideas on food to try or has anyone been in my situation and can offer words of wisdom? I am literally at the end of my tether with it all. I'm definitely not going to force her to eat meat so that's not even an option but I just need ideas to try and vary her diet.

Well as long she'll be fine. Don't worry about giving her something different every day. If she likes pasta, just give her pasta for every dinner, and start blending in extra vegetables into the sauce, along with meat-free mince/chicken. You can also blend lentils into a pasta sauce. Just do it gradually until she doesn't notice the taste has changed.

Sorry, meant to say *as long as she likes pasta she'll be fine!

She'd eat pasta everyday of the week if she could, I'm just concerned that there aren't many nutrients in it and it's a bit basic. I'm trying her with new things all the time and try not to pressure as I know that can make kids rebel but she just won't give in!

What you have here is a fussy eater. The fact that she's vegetarian is much less of an issue than the fact that she wants to eat only white carbs and UPF.

What is the healthiest daily menu that she would likely accept?

Ooh don't worry honestly! I only say it because my family is Italian - families there basically have croissant for breakfast, and then pasta for lunch and dinner everyday. It's boring, but it works!

Carbs, tomatoes, olive oil, some fake meat or lentils for protein, and then any veg you can persuade her to try.

But no harm in taking a multivitamin while you're adjusting

No words of wisdom as my kids are only young! However I do try and give quite a few veggie meals a week... some things that my kids like are curries (try a halloumi one), bean and cheese quesadillas, chilli con carne etc. I know you have said no eggs... what about French toast/eggy bread? Courgette or carrot fritters go down quite well (as the veg is kind of hidden!). Knocchi as an alternative to pasta for variety? Soup? ... I think keep on offering variety or maybe get her involved in the cooking and shopping?

Have you tried to make some veggie burger yourself? There are many great recipes with chickpea flour, mushrooms, beans....

I would sit with her, give her a pen and ask her to write the word "vegetarian" and then point that the three first letters stand for VEGetables. She doesn't want to eat meat, you have no issue with that, what you have issues with is that she is becoming malnourished . Tell her, she will be cooking with you and that you will experiment and make vegetables so delicious everyone in the house , not only her, will fight for them and that if she wants it, you can start a vlog about it.

There are many great vegan cookbooks, Start at your local library for a few authors and once you have one, buy them.

My 7 y/o is also vegetarian for similar reasons, and can also be fussy. We’ve got her a ‘body book’ all about body facts (useful in other ways too!) and includes nutrition & digestion. It’s set out there that she needs these nutrients and why, and if she won’t eat meat then she needs to get them from the other handily illustrated sources.

She now likes naming the nutrients in different foods and encouraging them to help her body as she eats them! Eg ‘come on cheese, go and help my bones’ etc!

my son has been vegetarian since 5. Now 9. However he sounds much more open minded about food than your dd.

if she’ll eat quorn nuggets I’d recommend quorn escalopes. Really nice and come in a variety of flavours, fresh or frozen. Pesto flavour ones are the best. It’s the only “fake meat” that I (carnivore) eat.

what about frozen vegetable fingers/nuggets/burgers. I make my son wraps with hummous, chopped cucumber and chopped vegetable fingers and he loves that.

my son is also not great about veg generally however much prefers raw to cooked. So he gets lots of chopped cherry tomatoes, cucumber, carrots, peppers which are more nutritious than cooked.

agree with PP though I think your daughter is mostly sadly fussy rather than the vegetarianism being a real issue. I rolled my eyes when my son decided to go veggie and was convinced it would last two weeks max….nearly 4 years ago.

On the Vegan board, www.mumsnet.com/talk/vegan , there are plenty of ideas and recipes.

Oh and halloumi and feta are big hits with my ds- def worth a try if you haven’t already.

Did she like bolognaise? I make it with meatless farm mince and it tastes quite good. My veggie child likes gnocchi, risotto and also curries with paneer.

You could the pasta made with red lentils, for protein. Tesco and Sainsbury’s have it.

If they will eat the quorn nuggets, the quorn southern fried bites might work too for an extra thing to try.

Do they like anything spicy? Because things like quorn pieces- which i find grim on their own, are really good in curry or in fajita type powder mixes. Especially if you can leave it to settle into it before cooking.

Pasta is a good base for meals and its not the worst thing to eat a lot of- i would maybe keep up with the addition of the one secret blended vegetable in the sauce each time.

The richmond vegetarian sausages are really good as a fake. And can be quite easily added to other things.

Is bread still something they like?

By increasing the artificial ultra-processed vegan variants, you might actually dig yourself a deeper grave. Hidding a veg by blending it in a sauce will not solve the issue but working on increasing acceptance and hopefully pleasure from eating real food will .
The more quorn or other industrially engineered products you had, with a taste so far away from real food, the harder it will be to accept whole foods. Think quinoa, making socca, a flatbread made out of chickpea flour and roast vegetables in the oven with olive oil, garlic and rosemary, Make food that tastes good. And make it clear to her, health is not optional.
Use cronometer.com to see the nutritional analysis of what you are giving her to eat, consider how much is a plant or comes form an industrial plant.

5yo DS is vegetarian and also doesn't eat eggs or drink milk. He now hasn't put on any weight in 18 months and after seeing a dietitian we think he's lacking some protein and calories, I'd really make sure you give as much dairy as possible and eggs if she'll have them. My boy loves veg so that's not really an issue for us but we try to base meals around chickpeas, lentils, beans etc. Lentil bolognese, sweet potato chickpea curry, bean tacos or quesadillas, occasionally quorn or cauldron veggie sausages, stir fry with tofu or edamame beans. We put peanut butter in wherever we can and he also eats a lot of houmous. Good luck!

My son who is 8 has said a few times he would like to be a vegetarian (one of his good friends is one), he's already a very selective eater so every time I say I will support him with it so long as he is going to eat suitable foods in order to get his protein and nutrients in. Im not willing to cut out the very minimum amount of protein he does eat now without him eating vegetarian options.

He decided he'd rather eat meat than chickpeas and quorn. So is not a vegetarian.

Maybe try telling her that if she wants to be a vegetarian she needs to be willing to eat vegetarian foods which meet her nutritional needs. If she's not willing to do that then she can't be one.

Is there any vegetable she will eat?
how about fruit?
As a pp said get her involved in the cooking/chopping and meal planning.
Take the pressure off, put out food buffet style a couple of times a week and let her help herself to whatever she wants without suggestions just praise if she tries anything new.
Educate her in nutrition and get her to understand the importance of various nutrients to her body.
suggestions of foods to try
-halloumi and pepper skewers -she may enjoy threading these
-cous cous instead of rice with mozzarella and salad bits
-pitta pockets filled with cheese and cucumber
-jacket potato with baked beans - will she eat beans?

I never understand the panic around vegetarian food - it’s not some other alien cuisine. In fact a lot of the things you say she won’t eat - vegetables, potato, rice etc are vegetarian! So that clearly isn’t the issue.

Instead of tearing your hair out, put the onus back on her. Ok, if you won’t eat x, y, z please help me design some yummy meals you will eat. Give her a (theoretical) budget, look at some veggie websites for inspiration and go round the supermarket together looking at all the different options and make a plan for the week. Get her cooking or helping. Make it fun. Let her take a bit of ownership and try not to take it too seriously - she’ll probably grow out of it.

Does she eat tomato based pasta sauce? You can then purée veggies into it.

My dd was older but incredibly fussy when she wanted to go veggie - I said I would only cook her veggie food if she ate vegetables, took a further couple of years but we sort of got there - still picks out onions and peppers!

Try hallomi, the flavoured tofu from cauldron foods, Linda McCartney chorizo style sausages. We eat a lot of dal big hit cooked in coconut

My 7YO DS is similar.

I've always suspected its more a sensory issue than actually caring about animals. He has always been an awkward eater shall we say. When he was a baby he would have small feeds and grazed all flipping day. Pretty much stayed like that until school and still prefers little and often. He's never been particularly fond of meat so I've not pushed it. He will eat quorn products, eggs, cheese and pulses. For a lot of family meals we've also switched to veggie mince etc. So I'm happy he is getting some protein.

9YO DS is autistic and has loads of sensory issues around food. So does DH. So I'm used to fussy eaters TBH and usually leave DH to juggle it all while I cook for my non-fussy self separately.

Please don't force feed her.

Im a bit old fashioned because I basically told my kids that if they don’t eat their vegetables and by that I mean at least a few fork fulls of each vegetable then they won’t get any dessert that night and no treats ever again until they start eating healthily. It did the trick and they are great eaters now.

ps Obviously wouldn’t advocate that if your kids have sensory issues with food and I think eating meat is a personal choice so I’d never make my dc eat meat if they didn’t want to but vegetables and fruit have always been non negotiable for me

Will she eat soup? I throw veg in the slow cooker with water and stock and then use a stick blender.

I have a bread maker and throw nuts and seeds in there. My grandmother used to occasionally bake bread with cheese and onion in it.

Would she be open to a 'veg of the week' a new veg she has to try - she gets to choose but she has to try it.