Any other vegan or vegetarian parents to be?

[Visje]

Just wondering what others' experiences have been like, and advice from parents who have been there certainly wouldn't hurt!

I'm 8 weeks pregnant and vegan, my husband is a vegetarian, and we're super-confident that even if meat grew on trees that this is still the healthiest thing I can do for our baby! We're in the process of announcing our pregnancy, and I've already had someone ask if I'm going to start eating meat again. I'm hoping that that's not going to happen often while I'm pregnant, or that I'm going to keep hearing about the couple in France whose baby died and everyone blamed on their vegan lifestyle, when it was really the parents not taking her to the doctor when she got sick.

After the birth, we do plan on letting our child choose, but only when they're old enough to make an educated decision, and we do plan on, from the time they're 3 or so, explaining to them where animal products come from and how they're produced, in an age-appropriate way. Until they can choose, no meat, but if they want to have a slice of veg pizza or cake at someone's party, we're not too bothered. Once they can choose, we're still going to keep our house a meat free zone, and make them use their allowance money to buy meat if they still want it.

Our beliefs are controversial to most people, of course, but I'm confident that not only is it setting them up for a healthier than average lifestyle, but also that awareness of the world around them is important.

 

[MummyMana]

I'm a vegetarian, and i'm also going to let my daughter make her own mind up when the time comes, however i'm going to introduce meat into her diet as its more dangerous to suddenly start eating meat after never having it (or after a long time of not having it) than it is to stop (the tummy won't know how to deal with the bugs in meat basically) this is what my Mum (also vegetarian) did and I made the decision when I was 7

As for pregnancy, I was pretty anaemic and the mw said eat more red meat, I was like "no". That was pretty much the end of it xD

 

[magicwhisper]

my mother is a vegetarian and so are me and my two sisters.
My OH and i have decided that when we get our own little one we will have 4 days eating veggy and 3 eating meat for the little one to be and i will let them choose when they are old enough to understand