Vegetarians With Kids
 

If you're a vegetarian do you think its better to instill that in your kids at an early age or let them eat however they want and decide for themselves when they're older if they want to go that way also?

I'm veggie now and my kid loves meat and I'm trying to decide if I should encourage it now while he's young or let him find his own choice.

It's not natural to NOT eat meat...
Let them make their own choice. :thumbsup

I think the kids should eat anything they please

I think you should let him choose. I currently weening myself off of meat slowly. I tried cold turkey (no pun intended) a couple years ago and it didnt work well. I didnt know what I should eat and I got crazy skinny :winkwink:

Whether its natural or not is a matter of debate, but I just can't eat it any more and not get grossed out thinking I'm eating a butchered animal's dead body.

You're joking right? Our digestive system is really not made for meat, neither are our teeth. I am not a vegetarian btw, I love steak but you are wrong in your statement.

Let them decide,but let them why you chose to be a veggie( and the advantages ettc.) at least you're not a vegan,i would be a veggie but i love chicken too much....becasue i'm black and i'm gentically disposed to eat it:helpme

We are naturally omnivors. I think you should allow your child to make the choice.

I will be doing with my son.

do what is best for your child

I'd let them make their own choices. But keep them educated.

Lets them eat what they want! my :2 cents:

i am a meathead

my wife is a veggie head

my kid will decide when she understands beter for now

she is a meathead

I have had the same thoughts.I have been a vegetarian for over 30 years but my wife can't do without her meat.
Our 3 year old daughter at the moment likes to eat meat but as a compromise I insist that its fish or organic free range chicken.I just don't like the idea of her eating cows or pigs that have probably been fed dead animal meal.Unfortunately cows are no longer just grazing on grass but are being fed grain feed and dead animal products.
Its interesting that the anglo-saxon humans are only eating animals that were naturally vegetarians and not meat eating animals.
I am sure that my daughter will make her own informed choice when she is older.

I think you should explain your reasons/philosophy, but let your child develop his own views. I'm vegetarian, and have some rules, like *I'm* not going to cook meat for kids, or wash meaty dishes, but I'll buy it and allow it in my house if others want to deal with it.

Younger kids are pretty receptive to emulating their parents. But if they want bologna sandwiches for lunch, let 'em make them, or if they want to order fleshy dishes in restaurants, let 'em. Life's a lot easier for them when they can eat meat when they're out of the house. Fake meat alternatives are also useful, like try fake veggie balogna in place of real bolgna and see how that goes over. I've fed fake meats to kids (fake sandwich meats, pepperoni, meat crumbles in spaghetti sauce, etc.), and if it's an ingredient in something else, they'd rarely know if you didn't tell them. (I do tell them if they ask, and they usually do ask out of curiosity since they'll wonder why I'm cooking meat, but even kids not used to vegetarian food are generally fine with it). If it's something alone, like bacon, they usually know, and if they're used to regular bacon it usually seems lame. But some imitations are still okay. Sausage, fake chicken nuggets, and fake ribs, when done well, seem similar in quality to low quality (e.g. school lunch quality) meat versions, since the meat versions are heavily processed, and much of the flavoring and texturing is done the same way with either version. Kids not used to vegetarianism do seem turned off by hardcore weirdo health foods (brocolli nuggets instead of chicken nuggets, sprouts on sandwiches, wheat grass juice, etc.), but most adults are too. Tofu I'd say works well with kids who are used to it, but not with kids who are unfamiliar with it, and the older they get, the more preconceived bias they have against it. If you're just learning how to cook tofu yourself, I wouldn't inflict it on others until/unless you get really good at it. :-)

If you're a recent vegetarian convert, and your son is older, I think it would be very difficult to make any sudden changes to what he'd reasonably want to eat. Also kind of hypocritical, if last year you were eating meat as well. If he's still a toddler or younger, I would think it would be pretty easy to change his home diet.

One more tip is be careful with nutritional needs...kids have relatively greater protein requirements than adults. If you have eggs and dairy, that can help a huge amount, but if you cut even those out, I'd be really careful about ensuring an adequate protein balance. It's not that hard to achieve, but you need to be aware of what you're trying to achieve. You could do some serious damage if you impose a vegan diet without educating yourself.

Let the kid eat meat if he likes it! Forcing your kids to be something isn't right, it's the like the parents that force their kids to play every sport when they aren't into sports!

Sure, make sure he eats healthy, but your kids can eat heathly and eat meat at the same time!

I would say let me try being a vegetarian, and if he likes it, he likes it, but if he doesn't, don't force him! Just my :2 cents:

jDoG

do vegetarians eat eggs?

that's not fair!

Good point! :thumbsup

it is NOT natural to eat meat

humans have a herbivore digestive tract - it is 4 tmes longer than a carnivores digestive tract
carnivores need to expel the meat quicly so it does not rot inside the gut (which is what happens when humans eat meat)
we also dont have the right teeth to eat meat
You go out on the plans and hunt down am animal and kill it and prepare it using your BARE HANDS and I'll then believe it is natural to eat meat
whoever says eating meat is natural for humans never took a biology 101 class


you can NOt eat meat and be healthy at the same time
so if you are concerened for your kid's health - you should encourage (but not force - you just end up in a power struggle) your kid not to eat meat.


:thumbsup

Some yes, some no. There are lacto-vegetarians (they drink milk) and octo-vegetarians (they eat eggs) and there are vegans - who don't eat, wear, use any animal related product. (Vegans don't eat butter, milk, honey, etc.)

This is truly the key. If you are going to remove meat as part of the diet, be sure to educate yourself on how to replace critical nutrients.

My wife was a vegan until she got pregnant. Interestingly enough, she went from hardcore veganism and back to eating meat while pregnant and while she was breastfeeding. Me, being a meat eater, suggested that this happened due to the fact that we NEED to eat meat, but in truth, we don't need to however if we don't, we need to get the nutrients elsewhere.

Education is the key, and my wife happens to be a certified haulistic nutritionist so I don't get to argue much with her, but still educate yourself before you make any decisions for your kids sake.

i eat "veggs" eggs from 100% vegetarian chickens, ie not fed meat meal and animal protein.

interesting...

i was wondering because an egg is an animal cell, so I would think that a person that does not eat meat would not want to eat an animal cell.

My wife and I are both Vegetarians and don't eat any dairy products either. I have 3 children, a 15 month old daughter who lives with us and is Vegetarian, and 2 children who live with their Mum who are not Vegetarian.

Our 15 month old daughter has followed our Vegetarian diet and can decide when she is old enough to realise that eating meat would cause her harm if she wishes to do so.

My 12 year old daughter asked us why we don't eat a lot of chocolate and product with dairy in it. We let her know that most cholate/dairy products contain 471 (lining of calves stomaches) as a preservative. Gelatine also contains pigs trotters. After hearing the truth my 12 year old daughter made up her own mind and became Vegetarian too. :)

when I have them my children will not be eating meat other than non-farmed fish and seafood. Neither me nor my partner will be cooking anything else so they won't really have a choice in the situation.

theres not a lot healthier than freshly caught fish and salad.

Up until that sentence you seemed to make a fairly reasoned post. But that seems like such a patently ridiculous assertion, unless you define "healthy" in some patently ridiculous way, that it undermines your credibility and puts you squarely in the crackpot vegetarian camp. :winkwink:

Actually for truth sakes, humans DO NOT need to drink milk from a cow to be heathly, that is all false!

Inface, we are the ONLY mammals that drink milk from another mammal! I've read magizines about vegetarians! And drinking milk is a no no, I guess!

jDoG

I believe if it was not for us eating meat we would not be here now.

A perfect example are the Inuit. They totally lived on meat alone for eons.ie: polar bears, seals, etc....

thats as irrelevant as spears being important in the past.

The Inuit had no choice, yet we do to live a healthier and posssibly longer life! :thumbsup

it depends on what your reasons for not eating meat are. not all vegetarians are "eww eating meat and wearing leather is gross" a lot do it for health reasons.

It depends on where you live, but if the water source is anywhere around a big US population center, there is a lot healthier than freshly caught fish. In many parts of the US, pregnant and nursing women, and children under 12, are advised against eating frequent or sometimes any seafood from the region. PCB and mercury can concentrate to dangerous levels in fish.

"Vegetarian" is a very loose term, and people who call themselves vegetarians have very different rules. Most do drink milk. A surprising number of self-described vegetarians even eat chicken and fish, which irritates many self-described vegetarians who don't. :)

I dont think it is natural to force anything on kids accept basic values like be honest and so forth.


Lifestyle, food choices, religion should be a personal choice. IMHO

wow you guys are a bunch of pussies
eventualy were all going to die, so who really gives a fuck.
how does eating plants make you any healthier than eating meat? I can see it eventualy making your imune system non existant. and you will turn into a pale, skinny, pussy!

I live in a small australian town : for me there is nothing healthier than freshly caught fish. Of course there are places i would eat fish from.. in fact i didn't eat a lot of local produce when i was in LA, US farmers use a lot more pesticides.

yep, it stems from being called a vego because you won't eat anything at a barbecue - i usually say i am "considered" a vegetarian, because i eat fish i can't really be called one, but for all intents and purposes it's what im referred to by anyone who knows me.

I eat fresh fish I caught about 2 times a week. You have to be carefull how much fish you eat, I read that too much is not good either. ie: mercury and some other reason......

Just don?t be a hypocrite about your reasons (i.e. wearing or owning anything leather) for being a vegetarian. My husband?s ex was a stupid vegetarian, served eggplant, tofu and veggie-what-ever but still insisted that we paid for leather items.

On the other hand, I really don?t like eating meat but I like leather shoes, bags, belts and the list goes on so meat was available?though I think it was over cooked many times.

The girls always questioned their mothers reasoning and just said I was a bad cook.

:)

KRL humans were ment to eat meat... it dose suck the way live stock is treated and something needs to be done.. However moo moo cows were not put here to cut our grass, their entire purpose in life is to make people fat at McDonalds.

Btw I just got back from Smokey Bones and I had the really Big steak... mummm

oh yeah i forgot to mention my dad made me be a vegitarian for 4 years. i resented the hell out of it. Shame at school cuzz I was different yadda yadda. There prolly is no right or wrong answer here its a personal choice and either way its prolly ok :)

depends on where you're fishing and the size of the fish, the bigger the fish the bigger the bio-amplification of toxins such as mercury because they've eaten thousands of smaller fish to get to that size as well as their own environmental absorbtion.

my father goes deep sea fishing about once a month and that gives us enough snapper to last a while.

depends why you're a vegetarian. A lot of vegetarians wouldn't give a shit about killing animals it's just for health reasons.

interesting about the toxins

We really nail the red snapper too! I usually go deep sea fishing every friday (if the seas are not over 4') we have to go about 27 miles out to a place we call the "snapper hole".

I fish with these 3 retired guys all 65+, even after we split all the fish up 4 ways I usually go home with about 15-20 #'s of filleted fish. Mostly Red Snapper but also Grouper, Trigger, Cobia and Rock Bass. (the trigger and rockys are best)

wow good shit!
I wish i could go out that often! I might go once every three months depending on work committments. But my father goes more often, we generally get snapper and pearl perch.

our snapper are a little different to your red snapper:
adult
http://ahipara.co.nz/wildcat/images/snapper.jpg

juvenile:
http://www.starfish.govt.nz/shared-g...ad/snapper.gif

pearl perch:
http://www.bksfishing.com.au/picture...pearlperch.jpg

i do a bit more estuary fishing and get a lot of these:
http://www.ansto.gov.au/info/press/2...dwhiting_2.jpg
sand whiting they're my favourite. but you have to fillet a bunch of the bastards to get a good feed whereas one snapper will make two awesome fish burgers :)

You guys are lucky to be close to safe fishing areas. I'd love to be able to eat the fish here but who wants to eat fresh caught fish from the shores of Brooklyn? Not me! I would probably catch some bass with a mafia snitch's pinkie finger with the ring still on it in the fish's stomach.

Let him do the choice, and various alimentation is better in early years :2 cents:

yeap I am allmost a vegetarian. I can't eat any meat that is on a bone or you have to tear with your teeth like steak. I eat boneless chicken breast, hot dogs, and hamburger every once in a while but that is it.

i would never ever trust a vegetarian,

only freaks and gay people are vegitarians, reminds me of protestors.

nothing like grabbing a big ass bloody steak and chowing down!

had a similar experience, just flip the role...was my mother the vegitarian...



personally, with my lil heathen I think I'll teach him how to think and let him figure it out on his own...



I prefer less dead animal than most for health reasons, but I'd never balk at a GOOD ASS steak either...I'm of the thought that occasional (and I mean occasional) meat eating is what man was built for...

...and when I eat it, if I can ensure it's kosher or was raised free-range, etc that is the BEST....worst part of meat eating today is the hormones and the way in which the shit is raised and killed...

49 Hypocrites.