Veg*n Introducing my daughter to the veggie forum

Keep the veggies up! Have you asked your daughter to visit any of those Chinese vegetarian restaurants? they have fake meat, fish etc. there! the food tastes good!

I don't know if we have one of those around here, thats neat though! She usually just orders veggie lo mein and a veggie spring roll.

She loves all the fake meat though. Luckily we have good grocery strores in our town that carry lots of veggie options. We also have a Whole Foods grocery that only carries foods with no additives/hormones/fake stuff, etc. So, naturally, that is a great place for us to shop for her (and for the whole family)

I remember a few years ago I wanted to be a vegetarian too, though I am really fussy over food and I just couldn't cope with it! So I just had to stop trying. I wouldn't eat salad just because of the sauce!

Because your daughter is so young, take special care to see that she gets any vitamins and minerals that she needs. Its esp important for the younger ones to get what they need to grow and be heatlhy. Thats great that you have a good healthy grocery store...wish there was one around here!

My son became a vegetarian when he was five after watching a National Geographic nature special that showed chimps eating monkeys. He looked at me with horror and said "If that's what meat is, I'm never eating it again!" And he hasn't. He's almost 19 years old now. He's 6'4" tall and weighs 250 pounds and plays college football. Certainly not he stereotypical vegetarian, but he really can't stomach the idea of eating meat to this day.

Good luck to you and your daughter. Does she eat dairy? Eggs? I think a vegetarian diet without those things would be healthier, but both were mainstays in my son's diet and still are.

As far as restaurants—Italian is a safe bet because there is always pasta with pesto or marinara sauce. In addition to the veggie Chinese places, our favorite upscale fast-food, kid-friendly restaurant is Noodles. Do you have them there? And even the most basic kids' menu usually have grilled cheese. I remember that my son and one of his friends who is vegetarian for religious reasons used to order "Big Mac with no meat" when they went out with their friends.

I've got quite a few kid-friendly recipes that I've used over the years, but most contain dairy and/or eggs. If you're interested, though, I can find some and post them.

Thank you for being such a great mom and allowing your daughter to become a vegetarian! I wasn't so lucky when I was little. I come from a family of meat eaters and hunters so I saw first hand where meat came from. I was always and animal lover too.

When I was 12 years old, I finally couldn't take it anymore and decided that I wanted to be meat free. Before this my parents would make me sit at the dinner table all night long until I ate my meat. I always ate the other stuff but would just cry about having to eat meat!

It took months of convincing, but finally I was "allowed" to become a veggie. Now almost 20 years later, I still am meat free!

Thanks for the warm welcomes guys.

We had a long talk with our daughter when she became a veggie to explain to her that she would need to make sure she ate a variety of foods that would give her the nutrition she needs to stay healthy. She agreed to not be picky and try new things to make sure she got that nutrition and I must say she has been great. She does eat dairy and eggs, also lots of different veggies (we make sure she gets plenty of broccolli, etc. that is high in iron), lots of soy protein and tofu, nuts, etc. We let her pediatrician know also so she could help us be on the lookout for any problems, but so far so good! She is a strong healthy girl.

Elliemom, we would love to see any recipes you would like to share, that would be great, thanks. We dont have a noodles, but she has ordered a veggie whopper from Burger King or if we go to Bojangles (a chicken and biscuit place) she will get an egg and cheese biscuit. She has been great at being so flexible.

Yes, our whole foods is a great store. We went yesterday and got her some veggie taquitos (bean and soy cheese), veggie samosas, soy hotdogs, soy "chicken" nuggets and BBQ tofu. They have a deli and hot bar where they have a lot of prepared veggie and health foods for a quick lunch too. It's nice to do that for a treat sometimes, they have outdoor seating for a quick bite in nice weather. We use that for a little mother/daughter time quite often.

Kudos to you for being so supportive of your daughter's decision! I know it must be hard since she's the only vegetarian in the family. Is she still eating dairy products and eggs? Being as young as she is, and obviously still growing a lot, she needs a considerable amount of calcium and other vitamins and minerals, but I feel certain that you already know all of this. Just make sure you both do a lot of research to learn what foods contain what and how to build her a healthy diet.

Once again, I think it's FABULOUS that you're supporting your daughter like this. It may be a fad, or she might decide it's a permanent decision, but either way, you'll end up closer for treating her like an adult.

Make sure you check out the Sticky Thread for Recipes near the top the Vegetarian threads. There are some great ones in there.

Oh my days, 6. What a cute thing. I think it is great that you are supporting her. There are loads of recipies to try just go a google search. I hope you are proud of her. 5 and a vegitarian. Its good that you have give such a small child the option.