If you're vegetarian and doing baby led weaning

[Lelophants]

What do you do about quorn and other meat substitutes?

If you feed your child meat then that's great, but you probably won't be helpful on this thread!

We've avoided giving anything like this to our 9 month old along with anything processed and higher in salt (just like we wouldn't give him fishfingers, chicken nuggets etc if we ate meat). The reality is that making lunch and dinner every day (dh full time wfh) means there are days when we are just exhausted and whacking some quorn sausages or an escalope in the oven with some frozen veg is all we can manage.

On these occasions we will swap that part of the meal with something else for ds e.g. homemade bean burger defrosted from freezer, some eggs if we have any, nut butter spread on something (basically anything vaguely protein - you get my drift!)

I know giving ds something different to us is frowned upon considered illegal by baby led weaning enthusiasts, but it is unrealistic that we always create amazing vegetarian meals from scratch. I do homemade pesto, hummus etc but it's a lot!

We are currently avoiding dairy due to allergies but we are starting to introduce this very slowly. I'm sure that would make things easier.

So I was wondering when we actually can feed him this occasionally?

What about tofu? Slice and cut it in the shape of finger and bake in the oven for 20 min.
Or even cubes of plain tofu .
But what about lentils and chickpeas? A little stew with veggies and lentils, or a little minestrone with chickpeas?
You can also use chickpea flour to make socca or even falafel . You can also consider seeds crackers on which to spread nut butter for extra protein,

Parenting is a flexible task, and you learn as you fly. You start motherhood with an exception which will be corrected for decades. In the same way, when you address any new phase, you adapt to the uniqueness of your child and family. BLW is an idea which will be adapted to your family. I have never understood this battle between the mean in which the food reaches the child;'s mouth (finger vs spoon) which leaves out the most important part, what food is given. By banning the spoon, you leave out so many dishes and types of food which adults would eat, or at least, I weaned my kids with, many soups, soupy risottos, stew, ratatouilles, and son on.

By giving soups, you can widen her diet with several kind of beans. Look up for so many Italian bean soups recipes,
By giving risotto, in which you can add chia seeds, and lentils.

You can make polenta with a rich tofu bolognese sauce.

It is a pity to miss stuff based on a principle.

expectation not exception

I'm pretty sure I used to give my lot Quorn sausages sometimes when they were little.

We're also having to avoid soy which means no tofu 🙈 such a pain!
I feel like lentils and chickpeas we do so often.

I agree blw can seem very prescriptive at times!

Why no soy?
Experiment with chickpea flour. You don't mention quinoa. It is nice and versatile.

I don't believe you signed a contract with BLW and if you don't follow THE book you will have to give up on your parental rights.

For us, French, it is a very strange and rigid way of weaning. That's not how parenting works, being rigid and inflexible .

Focus on the food, not the spoon vs finger. Prepare a lovely and tasty onion soup (which basically cooks itself) with nutritional yeast croutons for all the family to enjoy tonight

Try posting on the vegan board, www.mumsnet.com/Talk/vegan , many discussions from vegetarians and you won't be abused if not 100% vegan

My OH is vegetarian and I am not fussed enough about meat to cook it separately, so there is not very often meat in our house. I do a mix of BLW and spoon feeding (and she is the best eater I have ever known- haven’t yet found anything she won’t eat from pickles to hummus to curry to anything)

I have given our baby (9mo) quorn, mince and pieces, in small amounts. So for example if we are having spag bol, I make sure she gets more of the tomatoes and grated courgette/carrot than quorn but she always has some. I add a bit of cheese to give her some fat. I always plan to give her avocado with it but forget (btw, I have discovered slicing and freezing avocados and it’s a whole new world of not wasting them!).

I also have some jars in for those nights when what we are having just isn’t right (and these usually include meat). Once eaten I use them to store good meal portions in and freeze so you could do that with a recipe that’s more baby friendly when you want a beige dinner!

I've offered processed meat substitutes to my LO and just gave very thin slices / a few chunks. As long as it's not the majority of every meal it's fine

Aren't the majority of meat substitutes made of soy protein?

I don’t try to have such high standards. For example, I don’t worry about a protein at every meal as long as there is a least variety of at least three food items. I also will sometimes only serve the veg portion of what our dinner is and swap another bit.

Some simple veg ones meals.

Bread spread with:
Cream cheese
Peanut butter
hummous (precious first born I made my own without salt and she wouldn’t eat it, dd2 gets store bought)
Mashed avocado

All with some other fruit of vegetable.

Plain pasta with gated cheese and some boiled veg ( at least Two from: peas, green beans, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower)

Roast sweet potato with couscous/quinoa and cucumber

Shredded omelette with boiled veg

What you are doing sounds fine. Its been some years since I did this but we didn't give quorn until after two. Replacing that part of the meal with another protein is fine, or leave it out entirely and have greek yoghurt or something afterwards. Try to think intake across the whole week rather than meal by meal or day by day. The odd lower protein meal wont be a problem.

I’m not a vegetarian but I really recommend the Little Veggie Eats cookbook; loads of recipes that don’t involve meat substitutes and all the ones I’ve tried have been delicious. My DS always eats loads when I make one!