Vegetarian children

[Piglet]

Hello

If you are a vegetarian will/do you bring your children up as vegetarians too? I was asked this question and it got me thinking! Is it unhealthy for a baby to not eat meat?

[cavy_upstairs]

ive heard that it is just fine for a baby to go without meat but im not sure..... i was accualy just wondering that earlier today...

[dona83]

I think this kinda goes in line where some parents just totally ram religion down children's throats. My views have changed in the past few years where I think if parents think that vegetarianism is good for their children, raise them to be vegetarians. But if your children for whatever reason decide to start eating meat, well let them go their ways. Kinda like Amish young adults when they turn 18 or something they can decide whether they want to remain Amish or move on to a more modern lifestyle.

[stranger]

Babies need fats, sugars, and protein to survive. Meats are vital to the growth and well being of an infant but there are certainly other ways to supply your child with these important components. Meat is a very healthy for small children, but if you want to force your diet upon your children I highly suggest consulting a physician with a safe plan/outline before you deprive your small child of this vital part of their infant diet.

[VoodooJoint]

Infants do not need meat. In fact it is detrimental to their health. This information I have received both from my midwives and my childrens' pediatrician.

There is plenty of natural sugar in fruits and veggies...children and adults need no more than a healthy diet provides.

Absolutely a doctor should be consulted. However, a child being raised eating meat needs a doctor to supervise their diet even more then a child being raised vegetarian.

[dona83]

Stranger go raise ur children to be obese and unhealthy and leave the rest of us alone.

[kalrik]

Stranger, don't post unfounded statements here, on this PRO vegetarian forum.

I was raised a vegetarian. I have never had a piece of meat in my entire life. I have textbook perfect blood pressure, I am 5'4'' (but I am asian and were shorter. ). I am in my weight range for height, and I got accepted to med school when I was seventeen (which took some smarts <- in response to a previous post about mental development of vegetarians). I am very healthy and am so without ever have consuming meat, Not as an infant, a toddler, a child, or a teenager.

It really bothers me when people spew just flatout incorrect information, mainly because this promotes the spreading of more incorrect information. Any "points" a meat eater has that is aimed to bring down vegetarianism in any way is just flat out wrong. There is not a single aspect of good health that is sacrificed being a vegetarian. I expect (especially on a pro vegetarian forum) that others do not say incorrect statements about vegetarianism or suggest in anyway that it is wrong, detrimental, unhealthy, or any other excuse for the fact that meat eaters are the reason this industry exists- the industry of killing live beings that feel pain and fear- just so people who can exist without eating meat can have a tasty piece of "food." Afterall, it's just food, is it worth killing?

[stranger]

I'm just trying to give sound advice. Meat can be a very good nutritional resource for infants but if you decide to exclude this component from your child's diet you should contact a doctor for safe guidance; that's all I was trying to say.

[Emily F.]

Dona83-

It sounds like your saying to Stranger that if a child was raised to eat meat, they will be obese and unhealthy? Correct me if I"m wrong.

I don't agree with your statement. I'm a big meat eater, I was grown up eating plenty of meat, and I'm very healthy, and I'm sure as hell not obese.

[Baby Bears]

Originally Posted by dona83

Stranger go raise ur children to be obese and unhealthy and leave the rest of us alone.

Whoa! Unnecessary rudeness!

Look, the fact is that vegetarians and non-vegetarians will NEVER agree or get along on this subject. Too much of ANYTHING is bad for you if you don't use moderation. Moderation is the key. People in society today are not obese just from eating meat. It is the processed foods and fast food and junk food and America's inability to recognize what a proper serving size is that is causing obesity.

[Sabriel]

Obesity or not, meat is still bad for you. Think of all the hormones they feed chickens to make them nice and round and plump. It's illegal now in many countries but if you get any meat from the US it's still getting into your food supply. Do you really want your daughters to be exposed to so much estrogen? No wonder little girls are experiencing puberty at eariler and earlier ages.

Unless you raise your own animals, slaughter and prepare them yourselves, you have no clue what they are doing with something as easy to fiddle with as meat.

[dona83]

Originally Posted by Emily F.

Dona83-

It sounds like your saying to Stranger that if a child was raised to eat meat, they will be obese and unhealthy? Correct me if I"m wrong.

Sorry to all other meat eaters just that I don't like Stranger's tone of voice or how he seems to be attacking us, most of my friends of meat eaters and I know the difference between people who just simply joke around about my vegetarianism and people who actually try to attack my ideas, Stranger's one of them who's attacking my ideas and I simply don't like it. I was raised on meat too, my health is pretty good before i turned vegetarian and it's still good now. It's a personal counterattack on Stranger, no one else, so don't mind me.

[kalrik]

I agree, the tone of Stranger's first post, "if you want to force your diet on your children" and the sound of the second post are different. Wrong information is stated in the first post as well, "meat is vital." One of my friends who has her degree in food science and nutrition is a vegetarian, and she says meat is very unhealthy because of what they do to it, how they process it (note, not because it's cruel, but because it's actually unhealthy is her point). I don't think she's been learning wrong information for four years. Do you see the difference between the posts?

I wish all people who promote eating meat would simply not post on the forum. It shouldn't be a forum for a moral or nutritional debate. The forum is to help people along the way to vegetarianism and discuss issues that PROMOTE it.

We force many things on our children; our healthy diet will not be the worst of what we will do.

[Piglet]

I will never touch meat from now on and indian husbands do not cook! So, it will probably end up that my kids will be vegetarians. Of course, I will seek advice when the time comes.