Explaining veganism to my four-year-old and vegan diet supplements

[Morecoffeethanks]

I have a dd who is 4 years old. Until now she has had an omnivore diet- my husband eats meat and I decided it’s easier to make sure she has enough iron etc by allowing meat a couple of times a week.
However she has started asking questions why I eat differently to daddy and her. How do I explain in a child friendly way?
The reason I don’t eat meat is the cruelty to animals aspect.
If she decided that she would like to adopt a vegan diet which supplements are you giving to your children to ensure they have sufficient nutrients? Omegas, iron etc?

I woud get this thread taken out of active as it is going to end up as fuckwit bait for non-vegans (I'm a vegetarian, by the way, just not a dogmatic fuckwit who thinks not serving meat is tantamout to child abuse)

If you RTT it’s wasn't the kids sharing food that was the ultimate issue it was the parent laughing about it.

If every thread in this section took the same approach because of those ridiculous comments there would be no threads.

I think what’s funny here is the total innocence of the child and the controlling parent thwarted. It made me smile certainly. I don’t think it is fair to deprive a child that young of what humans naturally eat and need for their development, hence the amusement when something I disagree with is so innocently upended.

Pop a Lucky iron fish into all your soups, stews, sauces to increase iron content
They are pricey but last forever.

we can look at this two ways
yours
and mine
i don’t think it’s fair to make a child eat another living thing

I grew up as a meat eater. I gave up age 14 in 1980. I wish I’d had a choice. I wish I had never eaten animals and then had the choice to make that step to add animal products later.

so
The alternate view

Right, but it seemed to me that the parent was laughing about a rather OTT response from the parent whose child got given some food that parent didn’t want them to have. Sounds like they went pretty nuts about it.

I have to say I think that response was disproportionate. I wouldn’t laugh personally, but given the hyperbole she was faced with, neither do I view it as something that warranted the pile on she got.

If you genuinely don't want to influence her diet choice, you need to leave any emotive language out of your answers.

So, none of the 'i don't want to hurt animals' etc

Just simply 'this is the food I like, mummy and daddy like different food. You can choose which foods you'd like to eat from what's available in our house'

We have a similar set up, me and kids eat meat and fish, husband doesn't.
We've always been honest about why. Daddy feels killing animals to eat them is cruel and wants no part of it. Mummy doesn't mind so much as she thinks meat is delicious.
No one's got upset yet but I think we'll have at least one more veggie on our hands before too long.

The angst on here is the mother laughing about it on here.

The vegan site on mumsnet aswell.

I feel the same - the fact that I have ever eaten meat makes me feel really violated, in fact, and dairy does give me the heebie jeebies.

Children should be allowed to know where their food comes from though. Telling them you have to kill a pig for bacon or take a calf from the cow to get milk isn't emotive, it's factual.

Honesty is the best policy. ❤️

Vegans do in fact deserve to have discussion spaces where they don't have to defend their beliefs and practices and "i think not giving a child meat is child abuse" is effectively spam on a vegan thread on a vegan board asking for vegan advice.

Good point.

I wouldn’t jump onto the Jewish mumsnetters thread or the black mumsnetters thread and make offensive or upsetting remarks

Always worth reporting offensive remarks on here then

I personally would tell my kids that some people believe animals are here with us not for us and that other people have different beliefs. I would maintain a vegetarian household but let them crack on with hvaing what they wanted at school/parties/holidays/restaurants/other people's houses etc. But that's just me personally (pro-vegan reluctant vegetarian) - I don't think it's wrong to raise plant-based kids, just difficult, especially with all the misinformation and anti-vegan lobbying

Yes, as I said, I get that. I think it’s a bit OTT, quite honestly.

If I were the OP and my child had innocently offered a friend to share her food, only for the other child’s mother to kick up a big fuss, I’d be quite bemused as well.

As I said, i wouldn’t laugh, but I can understand why somebody might, when faced with that kind of hyperbole.

It’s not that I wouldn’t sympathise with the mother’s feelings, but I would be annoyed that she was seeking to deflect them onto others. If the mother’s that adamant about the dietary choices, she needs to put responsibility on her own child, not others.

I definitelt sympathise but I think for one's own sake it's better to have an "accidents happen" approach - even as a strict, label-reading adult vegan, it's easy to accidentally eat something non-vegan.

Everyone gets it’s not on the kids.
As I said
It’s the poster laughing on here that has got people’s back up
Its disrespectful on
the
Vegan site

Hi,

my husband is vegan I’m veggie, both kids are veggie but to be honest all of us are mostly plant based in practice. My kids only really questioned it when they went to school but it was more like “Mummy, why does X eat meat?”. Mine are 7&8 now but we’ve always just been honest with them without any graphic detail. “we don’t eat meat as we love all animals and we know that you don’t need to eat them to be healthy”.

for omega we use this

https://amzn.eu/d/08bq6Ga9

Tbh I brought up three boys
No hassle
Complete respect from friends
Complete respect from friends parents and school etc

All good

Another child in my kids class told my child “my parents told me animals don’t get killed for us to eat, we only eat the ones that have died because they are old”. I would rather be fairly honest, but in an age appropriate non-gory way. My kids do know that animals have miserable lives in farms (eg they are squashed) and are killed for human food. And they also know that this is unnecessary (my husband has been vegan for over 40 years and is in perfect health!)… so it seems illogical to them.

i have said they can eat meat / do whatever they want when they’re older and buy their own food. They were just a bit confused … “err no thanks, why would I want to do that?!”

May change of course

Same. I was never given the choice. Went veggie as a teenager. Pretty horrified I used to eat meat! If I’d be given the choice and the facts I wouldn’t have done.

Ah, apologies, I didn’t really think about that properly. Yes, I can see that the posts weren’t appropriate on this board.

And today in things that didn’t happen.

It‘s 2026, no school is allowing children to share food, especially vegetarians and especially when their parents have kicked up a stink.