Anyone not feeding their baby meat?

[LuckyD]

Hey all,

my daughter is 6 months old and has just started solids. OH and myself are both vegetarian, and we will be bringing up LO vegetarian until she is old enough to decide whether she wants to eat meat or not.

Anyone else vegetarian here? And what did you feed your LO to make sure she was getting enough iron etc?

Thanks!

 

[New2Bumps]

Hi

I'm veggie Once Ethan was about 10m he started having meat now and again, mainly because I didn't feel he was getting enough iron. He did drink some toddler milk which is reinforced with iron and he had lentils quite a bit which are both good but didn't seem to like his green veg too much back then. He has raisins a lot which are good and butter beans (all pulses are iron rich). I didn't want to give him orange juice either which aids absorbtion and stuff like nuts which are good but again you wouldn't give them to a baby or small toddler. Cereals are reinforced with iron but again they dont' start with cereal until a bit older so I think it's easier as they get older to balance the diet. I don't personally eat all of the 'typically veggie' things that do supplement the protein and iron such as tofu, beansprouts, kale etc and I think if I liked them then I'd have been able to put them into my diet. I also don't have any meat 'substitutes' such as quorn or soya mince which makes it more difficult for me. If you know that your own diet is good and is giving you everything you need then you can safely just copy that to your LO

My OH isn't veggie and quite early on I'd decided that Ethan would have a little meat for these reasons but his diet is certainly not meat based, much more veggie than meat, and as he gets older he'll be able to make up his own mind. As he eats mainly veggie things he'll have a good role model of both ways of eating (secretly hoping he's veggie lol).

If I was very very serious about it though I'd have certainly researched it more as it's definately do-able, but I think it is something that needs to be thoroughly planned for initially (meal planners, looking up recipes that included some of the more wierd iron supplement foods etc), and would become second nature months down the line. For me personally though, as long as I'm veggie and my LO's diet isn't reliant on meat I'm happy.

Hope you get some brill ideas from other veggie mummies!

 

[jen1604]

Hello

I was a vegetarian for 11 years.Ophelia,my eldest,was 100% veggie until she was atleast 2.

I then met,fell in love with and married a butcher (Yes,really) so they do eat the occasional meal including meat now.

There was a really excellent group thread,I think called 'Vegetarian mums and babies',I'll try and find it for you that had loads and loads of really excellent information and ideas on! x

 

[xemmax]

We're a vegetarian family, Oliver won't have any until he is old enough to sneakily have some behind my back to be honest I don't ever worry about his diet - I was also raised as a vegetarian and Oliver eats whatever I eat (I've adjusted my diet rather than his and taken away all of the added salt, stock and sugar from my cooking so we can eat the same). We eat a lot of vegetables (usually 3/4 different kinds with dinner), pulses, beans etc. I've just looked up a list of iron rich foods and found this on the Vegetarian Society website:

Pulses including chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans, and tofu. Sprouted beans and seeds such as aduki beans, alfafa and sunflower seeds. Cereals and products such as breakfast cereals and bread. Green leafy vegetables including spinach, kale and cabbage and also broccoli. Nuts, in particular almonds and cashews. Dried fruit especially apricots, dates and raisins. Date syrup and molasses are good sources of iron. Vitamin C which helps with absorption of iron is present in citrus fruit and juices as well as salad items like sweet peppers, lambs lettuce and tomatoes as well as broccoli and leafy greens.

https://www.vegsoc.org/page.aspx?pid=782

I've realised we use quite iron rich foods naturally and they're easy to pop into recipes if you eat a lot of home cooked food. We use chickpeas and borlotti beans in stew, cannellini beans in shepherd's pie, spinach in lasagne etc. Personally I wouldn't worry too much - just give LO a similar diet to your own.

 

[jen1604]

Here's the thread I was talking about - https://www.babyandbump.com/parenting-groups/204227-vegetarian-mums-babies.html

 

[Elphaba]

We're a veggie family too and so Xavier will be until if/when he decides otherwise. I try to give a mixture of foods so that he is gewtting lots of nutrients and I make use of fortified foods as well too.

His evening bottle is still formula too rather than cow's milk so that has more iron (though technically it's not veggie as most of them have fish oils for omega 3 which is a bit annoying).

ETA - my own diet is absolutely atrocious (healthy-wise) and I have lost my enthusiasm when it comes to cooking. I do cook for Xavier but also rely a lot on jars/pouches for him as well. I need to find my mojo!

 

[Thumper]

Another here although we don't have dairy either.

 

[Palestrina]

I'm a meat eater so it's not something I would even contemplate. I tend to eat a more veggie diet with meat being an occasional side dish. I don't wish to spark a debate but I would assume that it takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to provide all the necessary nutrients for a child without including meat. Personally I think it's risky so even if you are vegetarian you may want to give your child some sort of animal based protein like chicken or fish just to make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. Then when they're old enough to understand they can decide for themselves. It's easy to exclude junk food, processed sugar and salt from a child's diet because those are not essential for their development, where as protein and iron are not quite as easy to eliminate safely.

 

[Thumper]

I'm a meat eater so it's not something I would even contemplate. I tend to eat a more veggie diet with meat being an occasional side dish. I don't wish to spark a debate but I would assume that it takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to provide all the necessary nutrients for a child without including meat. Personally I think it's risky so even if you are vegetarian you may want to give your child some sort of animal based protein like chicken or fish just to make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. Then when they're old enough to understand they can decide for themselves. It's easy to exclude junk food, processed sugar and salt from a child's diet because those are not essential for their development, where as protein and iron are not quite as easy to eliminate safely.

I strongly disagree with this. I don't believe that meat is in anyway essential to our diet, and certainly not that of a child with their delicate digestive system.

 

[xemmax]

I'm a meat eater so it's not something I would even contemplate. I tend to eat a more veggie diet with meat being an occasional side dish. I don't wish to spark a debate but I would assume that it takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to provide all the necessary nutrients for a child without including meat. Personally I think it's risky so even if you are vegetarian you may want to give your child some sort of animal based protein like chicken or fish just to make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. Then when they're old enough to understand they can decide for themselves. It's easy to exclude junk food, processed sugar and salt from a child's diet because those are not essential for their development, where as protein and iron are not quite as easy to eliminate safely.

I strongly disagree with this. I don't believe that meat is in anyway essential to our diet, and certainly not that of a child with their delicate digestive system.

Totally agree Thumper.

If it really were the case then there would be a lot of children in world who were not developing as they should, seeing as vegetarianism is the norm in some countries. I think it's a very outdated view that a vegetarian diet cannot easily provide essential nutrients for a child.

 

[aliss]

My boy has decided to be veggie, LOL. I am former veggie myself so I'm well aware how to cook it properly. Vegetarian + non-vegetarian diets are pretty much equal in terms of iron deficiency levels, it's vegan diets that tend to be more iron-deficient but i wonder how much of that is based off of people with an extremely limited diet and they tend to use carbs for everything rather than essential fats or protein.

A lot of vegetarians eat like crap (ie potato chips) and don't know how to cook. Real vegetarian cooking is far healthier than the typical omnivore diet

Proper vegetarian cooking is fantastic and healthy - I make a lot of use of leafy greens, my 'kebabs' (usually with chickpea), hummus, dark red veggies + fruits, etc. I like to use a lot of Asian & Indian based meals because they know how it's done! Hindu recipes are fantastic.

 

[Rachel_C]

I've always said that if you compare the average veggie diet and the average omnivore diet, I think the veggie diet would be healthier because veggies tend to be aware that they have to think about what they need to eat. Meat eaters are more likely to be complacent and imagine they're eating everything they need when they're not. (I'm talking average person here, not necessarily the kind of person who'd be hanging around a thread like this!). It's not just iron or protein you need to include in a diet, which is what the average meat eater tends to assume, and therefore think they're fine.

 

[Elphaba]

Yep as far as I'm aware, there's nothing in meat that you can't get elsewhere. And I agree with Rachel that because I'm conscious that Xavier's diet COULD be lower in protein/iron than a meat-eater's, I make a conscious effort to include it, whereas if he ate meat I probably wouldn't think to consider either way.

I hold my hands up that my own diet is dreadful though! Saying that, the only time my iron levels have been even slightly low was mid-pregnancy (which I think isn't uncommon for anyone pregnant) and I don't necessarily make an effort to eat iron-rich foods for myself.

 

[LoraLoo]

I'm a meat eater so it's not something I would even contemplate. I tend to eat a more veggie diet with meat being an occasional side dish. I don't wish to spark a debate but I would assume that it takes a tremendous amount of knowledge to provide all the necessary nutrients for a child without including meat. Personally I think it's risky so even if you are vegetarian you may want to give your child some sort of animal based protein like chicken or fish just to make sure they are getting all the nutrients they need. Then when they're old enough to understand they can decide for themselves. It's easy to exclude junk food, processed sugar and salt from a child's diet because those are not essential for their development, where as protein and iron are not quite as easy to eliminate safely.

Im not a vegatarian (see, can't even spell it ) either, but even i find that statement insulting!

 

[New2Bumps]

Yep as far as I'm aware, there's nothing in meat that you can't get elsewhere. And I agree with Rachel that because I'm conscious that Xavier's diet COULD be lower in protein/iron than a meat-eater's, I make a conscious effort to include it, whereas if he ate meat I probably wouldn't think to consider either way.

The only thing I can think of that us veggies may lack is vitamin B6 but that's from when I turned veggie 20 years ago and it's stuck in my head, so I can't remember if it's an essential or a desirable thing and what it does!!!!!
I wonder what age LO would have to be to start having those chewy multivitamins 1 a day (with doctors approval obv) - I guess you'd be sure to cover your bases that way (if LO doesn't like kale/beansprouts/tofu/sunflower seeds) x

 

[Kimmer]

I'm a vegetarian and have been for 12 years (And I'm only 22 now). My husband is a vegetarian and our daughter is too.

As for a previous insultingly ignorant post, well I won't even go into how wrong that is.

My daughter have everything she needs. As meat is not essential to a diet, and not even natural for humans to eat (we had to evolve the ability to digest it, and even now, we aren't that good at it) I don't feel the need to give it to my daughter.

I have vegetarian baby and toddler cook book (I actually have 4 baby veggie cook books) LO also has toddler milk. LO's doctor has praised me for my LO's diet.

Sorry, my reply would've been a bit different if I hadn't seen the other post

(I put lots of sentences in brackets)

 

[NaturalMomma]

I was veggie for 6 years straight, but do eat meat some now (not much though). I can't remember with ds1, but ds2 didn't have any meat until about 16 months. He only has a little bit of hamburger or elk here and there.

 

[bubbles123]

There's no vitamin that you can't get from a veggie diet and even on a vegan diet there is only one (B12) and that can be added to food. So the idea that you can't get everything you need is simply untrue. You actually need very little protein, most meat eaters eat way more than they need which can be bad for the bones.
My son is veggie, I've never worried greatly about his diet, I give him the same food as I have. So for iron lentils, beans, green veg, fortified breakfast cereals, dried fruit etc. There really is no need to worry about protein. Protein deficiency is virtually unheard of in the west - it is a disease of starvation called kwashiorkor where children's stomachs swell up. If you're little one gets enough calories, they will get enough protein. If they're having dairy and eggs they will also be getting complete protein, just as good as meat (soya, walnuts and quinoa are also complete proteins too). No need to stress, just feed Lo a varied diet and he will thrive X

 

[Elphaba]

I'm a vegetarian and have been for 12 years (And I'm only 22 now). My husband is a vegetarian and our daughter is too.

As for a previous insultingly ignorant post, well I won't even go into how wrong that is.

My daughter have everything she needs. As meat is not essential to a diet, and not even natural for humans to eat (we had to evolve the ability to digest it, and even now, we aren't that good at it) I don't feel the need to give it to my daughter.

I have vegetarian baby and toddler cook book (I actually have 4 baby veggie cook books) LO also has toddler milk. LO's doctor has praised me for my LO's diet.

Sorry, my reply would've been a bit different if I hadn't seen the other post

(I put lots of sentences in brackets)

Is there a particular cookbook you would recommend, hun? Always nice to get more ideas!

 

[T-Bex]

We're a vegetarian house too, and we use a lot of lentils and beans, and, to be honest, a lot of Linda McCartney sausages/meat free mince! OH has veggie inclinations, and admits that based on ethics, he would (and does in the house) be veggie, but he still really likes eating meat, so we have a lot of "meat substitute" type things. I'm really lucky with Bethan, because initially, I let her eat meat with OH (when meat was still being bought), but she hated it anyway, but really likes quorn/linda mccartney/pulses. And she's a green vegetable demon - watch out broccoli! But yes, you can have a totally happy, healthy child without eating meat; it's only the west that are obsessed with animal consumption, really - if you look at a lot of other parts of the world, they're veggie, and their children and perfectly healthy!

If you check out The Vegetarian Society, they have some free books they give out, and I got a few that are exclusively on vegetarian children/vegetarian breastfeeding mums/vegetarian pregnancy etc, with some lovely recipes and advice.