Can babies eat quorn?

[omfgski]

Do...

 

[Wishing_well]

They can eat meat substitutes but I'm not sure how "good" they are for them. I read something about soya being bad and too much oestrogen or something :/ (ill try and find it)
As long as they get enough protein and iron etc, I don't see why not.

My daughter eats Quorn and other substitutes as I'm veggie. But she always gets offered meat too as my OH is a meat eater. Tbh I don't think she likes either.

 

[BunnyGirl]

Hi there

We're vegetarian, so my 3 1/2 year old and 1 year old have never yet had fish or meat – both are (mostly) happy and healthy!

Meat substitutes like quorn are fine, but they are low in calories and high in fibre, whereas babies need calories/fat and shouldn't have too much fibre because it can cause foods to rush through their system without the goodness being absorbed. I offer meat substitues like quorn mince or soya sausages maybe once or twice a week, but neither of them are all that keen!

The rest of the time they get their protein etc from dairy (milk, cheese, yoghurt etc), eggs, peas, beans, humous, and occasionally lentils, coconut milk, nut butters.

If you're not offering meat/fish, you should also offer foods that are high in iron – spinach/greens, peas, dried fruit, tomato puree, breakfast cereal etc. Fruit and fruit juice containing lots of vitamin C to help absorb the iron if served at the same time.

Hope this helps!

BG xxx

 

[Bex84]

Like pp said quorn is fine from 9 months i had this confirmed on weaning course and by dietician. The only thing is making sure they have calories to which you can get from things like dairy. My lo eats meat but much prefers quorn

 

[omfgski]

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[Mum2b_Claire]

Fine from 6 months but in moderation as others have said. Im not veggie but both of mine love sausages, and i feel the meat ones aren't great for them (salt wise.) they prefer the quorn ones anyway.

 

[summer rain]

I am vegan and its perfectly safe for babies to have no meat or other animal products in their diet as long as they are getting enough fat and protein from elsewhere. However with quorn it can promote intolerance symptoms as it is very high in various types of proteins, so now it even has a warning on the packaging. Quorn contains egg anyway but when I still used to eat it before I was vegan I had a very bad stomach on several occasions so it put me off for life. Generally I prefer to avoid meat substitutes for myself and the kids and eat things made from the whole foods, legumes, seeds, nuts etc. I do sometimes get the granose mixes as they contain some soya but it is only about 12% to 49% of the product; the rest is ground seeds, wheat protein, ground beans, spices etc. You can get ready made wheat protein based meat substitutes and these are better and more realistic than soya; but what you can buy in the UK in more mainstream shops is a very poor selection, most places only do the frozen original Linda McCartney sausages. You can also make your own from scratch, its not too hard and there are loads of recipes online, and you can buy the special high gluten flour from most far eastern supermarkets, and online, it tends to be called 'vital gluten flour', a 1 kg bag is anything from £4 to £8 usually but you tend to only need to use a cup or so in a recipe. Unless you're gluten intolerant then the wheat based substitutes are a far healthier, better option than soya. The one thing to bear in mind with the wheat stuff though is it soaks up liquid more easily than normal meat or soya meat substitutes so don't put any of them in a stew or something at the beginning because it will resemble soggy lumps of dough at the end! xx

 

[jensha]

I don't know what quorn is, but typically most meat substitutes will contain soy. Soy is estrogenic and should be avoided by everyone, especially babies.

 

[Bex84]

No, Quorn products do not contain genetically modified ingredients. All Quorn products contain mycoprotein, which is not soy-based, but is made from a member of the fungi family. It is grown and harvested under strict quality controls and we can therefore reassure you that it is not a product of genetic manipulation. All of the other ingredients used in Quorn foods are purchased by us to a specification which requires that they are not genetically modified. We are working with our suppliers to ensure that this specification continues to be met.

I just copied and paste this from their own website. Its fine as long as in a balanced diet and that's what dietician told me as well so wouldn't worry about using it. I think Jensha is right that some alternatives do have soy in though

 

[summer rain]

I don't know what quorn is, but typically most meat substitutes will contain soy. Soy is estrogenic and should be avoided by everyone, especially babies.

Quorn doesn't contain soya it is made from mycoprotein which is a type of mould. There are also many other meat substitutes available in the UK that are soya free especially if you eat eggs (most of the soya free meat substitutes contain egg white or protein but egg free ones can be bought sometimes). Regarding soya being oestrogenic there is differing research on this, yes soya formula should not be used for babies under 6 months and it should be avoided after 6 months when there is an alternative, but soya is widely eaten in some Far Eastern societies as a staple food, and yet when tested people there had lower levels of oestrogens and women started their periods later than in the West as well as having lower rates of various cancers. So things are not as clear cut as they appear. I am intolerant to soy and so can only tolerate small amounts occasionally but for those people that aren't it is fine in moderation. Regular dairy and meat is oestrogenic as well, especially dairy because the whole way it is obtained is by keeping calves constantly pregnant and their hormone levels high. Not to mention the oestrogen in the water supply and oestrogen mimicking chemicals in packaging and plastic bottles, soya is not to blame for those xx

 

[eulmh82]

Yeah i agree give it in moderation. In read it;s fine to give just as long as it;s not kind of a staple in their diet. But mine has it as we eat mostly quorn and not mince. I do make sure he gets lots of fish and chicken

 

[summer rain]

The other thing with quorn is because of the type of mould it is made from (and its a mould not a fungus) it is related to penicillin (though quorn doesn't have antibiotic properties), because of this some people who are allergic to penicillin may be allergic to quorn xx