Do children need meat every day?

[Faradalla]

We eat meat but we don't love it. Normally we will have chicken once a week, tuna once and maybe beef once. The rest will be meals with egg, cheese or lentils etc at the centre. We eat a lot of dairy, peanut butter and avocado. My kids are 1, 5 and 7. I haven't been able to find any real information either way.

What do you think?

Nope, but they do need quite a bit of iron and plant based iron is harder for the body to absorb than meat sourced iron. So you need to include lots of plant based sources in their diet.

Like spinach? They hate spinach! Any other iron rich food that I might not automatically think of?

There are millions of children all around the world who grow up in vegetarian cultures, so no, children do not need meat every day. They need protein, carbs, fat, fibre, dairy. All of those can be delivered in a vegetarian diet.

No one "needs" meat every day. Protein yes,that can come from any source. Everyone needs a sensible balanced diet, your body needs Vit C with a meal to absorb iron,that can be a glass of fresh orange juice.

No one needs meat every day, or even most days, and much of the world only have it as a treat. Sounds like they’re eating a good diet, you’re all good.

Of course they don’t, if you’re careful to given them a balanced diet.

For iron:

Beans, peas, lentils
Tofu, soybeans
Nuts and seeds
Leafy greens - spinach, kale, Swiss chard, beet greens
Potatoes (skin on)
Mushrooms - portobello or shiitake
Prune juice
Black olives
Spelt, oats, quinoa
Coconut milk
Dark chocolate

Of course not. They'll probably be healthier having well balanced veggie meals a few times a week.

No they don’t
my DS has never eaten meat in his entire life
now 6’2” naval officer
lentils, cheese, vege mince etc all good protein sources

Noooo? Me and my children only eat chicken (no other meat or fish) and we certainly don’t have chicken every day.

When my sons older ill be giving meat every day as me and partner have it every day

I’m finding this post a bit odd. There is a HUGE amount of info available on healthy balanced vegan and vegetarian diets. Have you done any research at all, OP?

My 11-year-old child has never eaten meat or fish and has been to the doctor five times in her life. Not necessary at all! She's the tallest in the class too.

Brocolli.. baby trees..

Of course I have. I was looking for studies on children who don't eat meat or medical risks and a)couldn't find much and b) the concept of eating meat regularly is subjective...what is regular? We aren't vegetarian so that wasn't exactly what I was looking for. One website said that eggs are a great source of iron and another said that they are awful. Everyone I have spoken to in real life thinks it's crazy that we don't want meat every day and yet a plant based diet is also the new Holy Grail. Its confusing. Is it so weird to ask some opinions on mumsnet?

It doesn’t matter if you aren’t vegetarian, though. If they manage perfectly fine without any meat whatsoever, your kids can
obviously manage with a minimal amount.

It’s weird to say ‘I haven’t been able to find any real information either way’. I’m not sure how that’s even possible if you’ve done even the most basic Google.

Literally, the NHS:

• https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/how-to-eat-a-balanced-diet/the-vegetarian-diet/
• https://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/patient-information-and-leaflets/documents/patient-information-leaflets-a-z/2837-vegetarian-healthy-eating-for-children/file

The BMJ:

• https://www.bmj.com/content/375/bmj.n2792/rr

I was looking for information on children who just eat meat a few times a week, as opposed to studies done on vegetarian or vegan children and couldnt find anything that mirrored my exact situation. I guess I can extrapolate the information I need from the studies on the latter. Thanks for the links you shared.

I made a mistake in my previous post where I said I'd been looking for studies on children who don't eat meat but forgot to add the word 'regularly'. Yes there is a lot of info on veggie kids so I'm sure you did find that weird!

Thank you. Anaemia is a concern and I wasn't sure if 3 servings of meat per week would provide enough iron.

Ds is super fussy 2 year old. He’s tall for his age and healthy

He only eats sausages in terms of meat ( max once every 2-3 weeks)
And from that list above only beans, peas and oats. He eats cheese also

I think as long as they generally have a varied enough diet, you don’t need to worry. You know if you give them a decent enough diet, it doesn’t have to be perfect .

We are vegetarian. We eat a lot of lentils, chickpeas, beans, leafy greens, coconut and give a kids multivitamin which includes iron and an omega 3 supplement. All seems fine so far!