Just curious. I am borderline vegan (gotta have a slice of pizza one in a while) and the wife and little girl are vegetarian. It can be a challenge sometimes with a picky toddler, but she's thriving.
Anyone else?
Any vegetarian families here?
Semi-veggie
Hi, we aren't vegetarian but eat tons of vegetarian dishes since my wife has a poultry allergy (which means our daughter can’t have poultry for another two years) and we have friends who are vegetarian. I also love cooking and coming up with new stuff. Our daughter loves baked tofu, have you tried it? Polenta also works well if you dress it up with veggies and black beans.
Veggie
We're veggie, and I know of at least one other guy on here who is (New No. 2- you still out there???). Admire your attempts at being vegan, but I just don't think I can do it! My daughter (20 months) has never had meat and remains in the 50th percentile for everything. The trick for kids, as well as adults, is to make sure you're offering lots of healthy choices and not just sticking to junk food (or all mac & cheese). Our ped was fine with her diet and only recommended that we also give her a vitamin with iron in it since it's hard to get kids to eat enough of the iron containing veggies.
Baked tofu rocks- Jane could eat that all day- I'll mix it up with frozen peas and she is in heaven.
How old is your daughter? Are you going to try going vegan with her? When she's old enough do you plan to let her choose what to eat on her own?
Sidenote:
Have you seen some of the "processed meat" products out on the market for kids these days? Those little meat sticks in meat juice totally seem rank, and I've never met an adult who gives their kid that stuff who'd actually eat it themselves.
Also semi-veggie
My wife is mostly vegetarian but she has started slipping in some salmon every now and then. The kids and I aren't, but we usually go all vegetarian for dinner. I really need to increase the number of vegetarian dishes I can prepare. Things get pretty boring around here.
She's 18 months old. I
She's 18 months old. I wouldn't press the vegan thing with her. I feel like it's up to us to decide what's best for her. A healthy veg diet is best. No refined sugar, lots of whole foods, fruits & veggies, healthy snacks, etc.
The baby spam? That stuff looks repulsive man.
Veg Out
I make mostof the calls for my daughter food wise. I also maintain the house and cook so it's all vef. I allow my daughter to eat meat (my Mum and Father -in Law ar fabuliouis cooks. No hot dogs! EVER!) because I feel it's important that my daughter make the choice she wants in life.
She is aloud sugar and sweets because I don't wanther to devlope a "good" food "bad" food fixation. I hope it will be part of the larger everything in moderation attatude I'm trying to impart to her. But, so far she deosn't have much taste for meat.
Be Seeing You.
Not us, but the Kids are
My wife and I not not big meat eaters, but enjoy a burger or grilled chicken on grill occasionally. We were both raised in a high German population, which is known as a meat and potato culture. Most of our relatives just need to see meat and they start salivating. Veggies are often and afterthought, unless soaked in a cheese or some other fattening sauce.
Both are kids rarely eat meat. All they want is fruit and veggies. At one point, all we could get our oldest to eat was brocolli, peas, corn, and beans... and they had to be still frozen. I think it had to do with her teething. She has since moved on to cooked veggies. We don't push meat on them. They both like chicken, so I can't imagine doing without. Our 3 year old actually hates pizza, so that is easy to avoid.
I admire your ability to stick to your beliefs. Especially when the toddlers are so picky.
Why?
Question for you folks... why did you choose a vegetarian lifestyle? I get asked that a lot and I really still don't have a "canned" answer. For me it transcends the obvious health benefits, not to mention the considerably smaller environmental impacts. At the same time, though, I'm not really spiritual, so I'm not all about it being for religious reasons (although I do tend to lean closer to the buddhist teachings on meditation and respect for all living things I don't believe in reincarnation or a heaven or whatever).
Why Indeed.
Like you Jon I don't realy have an answer. I decided to "give it a go" in 1989 and haven't eat'n meat since. But, in that time I have read, "Diet for a New America," "Slaughterhouse," "Fastfood Nation," and other worlks about the health and ecomics of a meatless diet. I personaly belive that the product is nasty. Ihave no ethical problem with eating an animal, say that one personaly rased and slaughterd, or even farms that produce high quality meat. I do have a problem with factory framing. The ill helath of the animals aside, the treatment of the workersis herendious. The condituions they work in get worse every year. But, since this whole industry is about death most of it is hidden from our view. I went looking becsue I wanted to know.
I never preach or tell other what to do becasue I belive that is wrong. Imade a choice and if it infulances others then great but I don't feel I can be in any ivory tower becasue I'm a vegatarian.
Yes, I miss baccon.
Be Seeing You.
Why?
I was raised vegetarian. When I was a kid, I started eating meat. When I was 16-17 I stopped again and I haven't touched the stuff since. I'm 31 now.
For me, it's mostly about being a responsible consumer. I try to be as conscious as I can about where my $ goes and what it supports. To me, the meat industry is wrong on so many levels. There are few family farms left. The supply of meat that our country relies on comes from factory farms. I'll stop myself from going on the rant that I could go on, but that almost sums it up. And, meat is bad for you. A healthy veg. diet is best. You also get a huge variety of food and flavors from a plant based diet. Meat eaters tend to eat the same things all the time.
Also, I try to be as compassionate a person as I can be. (I come from a buddhist background) Abstaining from meat and animal products helps cultivate that. It's part of a discipline and practice that focuses my motivation in the right direction.
And.. the stuff is just rank nasty to me. I have no taste for it or any desire to eat it. It's just not something I think about.
All that said, I am not the type to judge others for the choices they make. To each his own.
Joined: 2008-06-03
Dad Points: 38