Timid Vegetarian Cooks Chicken (so tell me, would you?)

[missedith01]

7mo son sound asleep at the moment but when he wakes we will be trying strips of chicken, as advised by BLWers all over.

Usually I have a bit of anything I'm giving him but I've not eaten meat for 31 years and I've looked at it five times and decided I just can't.

Have you ever fed yours something you wouldn't eat yourself? Please say yes and assuage my guilt.

you dont need to give him meat at all, definitely not at this stage. I'm not vegetarian but don't give dd 8 months meat yet.

I've given them loads of things I don't like, but not things that go against my ethics.

I'm a long-term veggie but my children eat fish - I don't cook it very often, but do sometimes chuck fishfingers in the oven or bake a piece of frozen salmon. The decision to feed them fish was less for nutritional reasons than convenience (we were living in a very fish-eating country) and the fact that DH wasn't veggie.

But if you don't feel happy about it, I'm sure there are alternatives to chicken. I'd never heard of BLW when DS was that age (he's now 12) but he was never very keen on being spoon fed so he had a lot of veggie finger food - chunks or sticks of cheese, omlette, mini lentil burgers, chunks of lightly fried tofu etc. Oh, and baked beans - perfect hair gel finger food...

Oh, I know it's not essential, but I'm not insisting on his being vegetarian just because I am ... his dad isn't and I think this is something he'll need to make his own mind up about.

At this stage I'm just trying for variety.

I know some vegetarian mums who feed and cook meat for their DCs, you'd be far from alone in doing this - but equally lots maintain a vegetarian household.

I don't feel strongly about what other people do ... I think it's somcpletely valid to maintain a veggie household particularly if you take the responsibility for the food side of things

In my house though it is my personal choice and not one that I feel that I want to evangelise or seek to impose on others. Unless I'm knackered and don't feel like cooking, in which case they'll have a nut-burger and like it.

Maybe to late to reply to you but I am in the same situation than you. I have been veggy for 11 years now and DP isn't. When we started to wean DD (now 15 months) we had a long talk about what to do. I always thought that I shouldn't impose something in anyone as I wouldn't like anyone to impose anything to me. I think also that after seeing my friend's daughter telling her mum when she is angry "when I grew up I wil eat meat" made me thing twice making my DD veggy. I think that becoming veggy should be a personal option and never being impose as it can backfired.

So DD is eating meat mainly chicken because she does not seem very keen in red meat at the moment, and also fish. I guess it is always very difficult to decide what it would be the best thing to do but always follow your instinct.

We always have lunch together so lunch is always veggy but she has dinner on her own and it is when I give her fish or chicken as DP and I eat later (DP is not at home when DD is having dinner). It is a bit difficult for me when she offers me food and it is something I don't eat but I still do as if I was eating it and tell her how nice it is.

Once she grows a bit older and she can understand I will have to explain her that I don't eat fish or meat and that she will have to decide what she wants to do.

Hope this has helped you.

I let the DS eat meat and fish even though I had been a veggie for 17 years. I would only buy the happy organic chicken for him though.

By the time I had DD my pregnancy cravings had destroyed my veggie status and we were all eating the chicken .

I do cook veggie meals for all of us, some with Quorn and some lentil-y things but we have organic chicken about once a month.

They are happy eating meat and veggie dishes and can make their mind up when they are older.

I used to eat fish though not meat but cooked both for dd1 and 2...and tasted it too (even the liver bleuuuuurgh, that was once and once only for dd1)

NO WAY would I give my child meat.

For the same reasons that I went veggie, I wouldn't give meat to my DD.

I won't be cooking meat for DS. First off, from a practical point of view, I went veggie before I learnt to cook, so I have no way of telling an overcooked piece of chicken from a dangerously raw one!

In terms of the idea that not providing meat involves imposing my values on him, personally I don't have a problem with this. These are my values, they are based on my sense of ethics, and I think it's important to share them with my children. I guess a good analogy would be that, if I had a particular religious faith, there might be foods I didn't eat as they were proscribed by that faith. For me, my vegetarianism is much the same. However, I know that, as people are veggie for many different reasons, not all vegetarians will reach the same conclusions about what to feed their DCs as I have.

mine have had loads of stuff i don't like

but not meat

No way would I. Apart from anything else, I have no clue how to store or cook meat safely. I know vegetarians who do give their children meat but it is not for me.

MY DH is a veggie and he will happily cook meat for my DD who is 7 months old. In fact he has very recently eaten little bits of meat and says that he might start eating meat again now that our DD is eating. (it all started when I ate his quorn spag bog and he ate my mince one by mistake !)

I, on the other hand, eat meat and I am so squeamish when I cook it. I tried to cook a chicken last month and I just couldnt touch it. It looked like a human . I had to use rubber gloves and just couldnt eat it!

I was brought up vegetarian by two hippie parents, so have never eaten meat or fish. It was left up to us to decide if we wanted to stay veggie when we were old enough to decide for ourselves. My sister and I are both still veggie (she much more militantly so than me), one of my bros eats fish and the other eats meat. Both my parents now occasionally eat chicken and fish.
I am glad the decision was left to me, and meat wasnt imposed upon me before i knew what it was and could choose for myself.
My ds is now 6mo and we are weaning - Who knew butternut could get so far in your ear? although my dp eats meat, i cook only vegetarian food as i dont know how and dont want to cook anything else. He is too lazy happy to eat this way.
When ds is old enough, he can eat meat with his dad if he wants to. Then it is his choice.

If I was a veggie I wouldn't. If your DH isn't a veggie and you're not bothered about your ds being veggie, get DH to do the meat meals.

I'm also veggie although DH isn't. We've decided DS should choose for himself when he's ready, so I am nervously learning to cook meat for him. I'm sure it wouldn't hurt your DC to go without meat for now anyway, and I know plenty of people who've grown up veggie...

DH and I are both veggie but the DC aren't (they're 3 and 1). Mainly because I think it's up to them to decide when they're older, but also because DS1 is a) super-fussy and b) allergic to egg, chick peas and lentils, so getting enough protein in him would be tricky without meat!

Otoh I don't cook meat for them at home, they have shop-bought fish fingers/fish cakes/chicken dippers/meatballs etc because I wouldn't have a clue how to cook them from scratch. They do have lots of tasty home-made veggie food too.