Mostly vegetarian with kids - do you cook meat on your kids?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This typo is making me laugh harder than it should.

+1. Me too!

[Anonymous]

There is no thing as mostly vegetarian, you are either vegetarian or not. Mine are vegetarian too. We do veggie nuggets.

[Anonymous]

I’m sorry , this is Op. I wash trying to decide whether to ask whether you “push meat on your kids” or “cook meat specifically for them” and accidentally pushed submit!

For “meat,” he gets eggs once or twice a week and maybe shrimp or salmon once a week. DH doesn’t really like seafood or I’d cook fish more often.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is where I don't understand how people think of fish/seafood as "not meat" - you eat plenty of meat at home if you're having seafood/fish every few days. Your kid will be fine not eating meat every day but a few times a week - that's how most kids around the world grow up (probably less, in fact).

If fish was a meat and meat was a fish then you would see a cows swimming in oceans and cat fish eating grass on a meadow.

OP, this one is tricky. Although nobody can question that in many areas of the world, people never eat meat at all, no fish either, yet they grow up being beautifully strong, tall and just perfectly perfect humans. Example - certain areas of India or China. Yet, you have tons of areas where many kids faces are stuffed with meat few times a day on the Weekdays, double that Sunday and they end up being obese and all that. Example - U S of A.

So in theory there is no need to feed a kid meat daily or at all. However, the greatest challenge is to know how to balance diet in such a way that non meat died supplies with all nutrients for optimal physical and mental growth. The fact is that in those areas of the world where people are Vegetarians for generations, they simply learned the trade and pass it from generation to generation. It is not as easy to do it solo, here with no support and no traditions. It is doable but challenging. Meat is just such an easy way to supply most of needed building blocks..
Instead of eating bucket of grass.. you eat cow who ate bucket of grass... sadly..

I agree with the pp who said that it is not required to feed kids meat regularly. I tend to think that little goes a long way.
If I were you and was on meat free diet, I would simply do the same for kdis, but add some meat product to eat..
Example - stir fried vegetable with rice.. for you and the same for them plus.. a little stir fried beef or chicken added to their dish
just before serving.. or even a small hamburger but just the patty on the side of the plate.. if they get used to eating like that they won't mind.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m sorry , this is Op. I wash trying to decide whether to ask whether you “push meat on your kids” or “cook meat specifically for them” and accidentally pushed submit!

For “meat,” he gets eggs once or twice a week and maybe shrimp or salmon once a week. DH doesn’t really like seafood or I’d cook fish more often.

Oh. .. I see..
okay, so in my case, I don't push meat. My kids who grew up eating meat that I always tried to minimize in efforts to eventually go vegetarian myself, I noticed that kids started phasing out meat and by the age of 8 or so started asking for no meat in any dish that would call for meat..
so there was sometimes pulling meat from ceasar salads etc.. if forgotten and added.. and pulling hamburger fromt eh bun and eating just the rest..
now they leveled and will request some meat dish from time to time but mostly don't ask for it and ask for non meat food.
No pushing whatsoever and supporting it. Kids are all taller then parents by now and well. It is pretty amazing how the system self regulated itself and I see that when they ask for meet there must be some nrrf

[Anonymous]

I am a vegetarian; my spouse & kids (9 & 5) are not.
I do almost all of the cooking, and I rarely cook meat, though I will sometimes get a roasted chicken or something for them, and we keep sandwich meat around, which they eat sometimes. I’d say they don’t eat meat most days, but I don’t keep them from it, nor push it on them. They do like chicken nuggets and stuff like that.

[Anonymous]

We are vegetarian. My kids can eat meat at school, but they don't like it, so they also are vegetarian. I grew up vegetarian so I know how to cook without resorting to fake meats or tons of cheese/dairy, so my kids are strong & healthy. The trick is to make sure you know how to balance vegetarian meals to get a wide variety of nutrients. But you really don't need the amount of protein people eat in America to be strong and healthy.

[Anonymous]

No, my toddler doesn't stay still long enough for me to cook on her

[Anonymous]

I never cooked meat on my kids, no.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I tend not to cook very much of anything on my daughter. Although sometimes when she runs a high fever we might try a lean cut of beef on her forehead while she naps, but that tends to be hit or miss.

Try a fattier cut.

That's a pro tip... thanks. It's our first child and we want to make sure our child cookery makes sense, if and when we do it. I see so many parents not cooking on their kids I feel weird trying to make sure my kid is properly (and safely) cooked on. Does MCPS have a cafeteria program for novices?

[Anonymous]

No, I have never cooked meat on them, but I will try toasting some bread in the morning and see how it goes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you are mostly vegetarians, how do you handle eating out and cooking at home? DS is 2 and I have no problem having him eat meat out, but he generally just wants grilled cheese or cheesy pasta. We’ve ordered a burger or meatloaf, but he prefers to just eat the mashed potatoes or fries that come with it. I don’t really cook meat at home, do you think I need to specifically prepare it for him? We do eat seafood or fish every few days.

As an example today he ate:
Breakfast : Scrambled egg with spinach, few spoons oatmeal, 1/2 orange
Snack : Cheese stick and handful of grapes
Lunch : spinach mac and cheese, few strawberries
Snack : yogurt with muesli and few blueberries
Snack: banana
Dinner : rice, sweet potato, broccoli, tahini sauce
Throughout: couple cups of milk

Now that I write it out I feel like he’s eating too much dairy and fruit!

egg
green vegetables (spinach, broccoli)
oats, rice
orange, grapes, strawberry, blueberry
milk and cheese
banana
sweet potato
sesame seed (tahini)

You have the fruits covered, and I think decent veg as well. I'd add some more legumes and nuts or seeds if you are raising your child vegetarian. hummus, white beans, black beans, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is where I don't understand how people think of fish/seafood as "not meat" - you eat plenty of meat at home if you're having seafood/fish every few days. Your kid will be fine not eating meat every day but a few times a week - that's how most kids around the world grow up (probably less, in fact).

If fish was a meat and meat was a fish then you would see a cows swimming in oceans and cat fish eating grass on a meadow.

Meat = animal flesh. Therefore, fish and seafood are meat. Seafood, chicken, pork, beef, camel, dog, buffalo, salmon, scallops, turkey, are all meat.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seafood is meat because it's animal protein. So if you're eating seafood at home a couple times a week at home, then you're fine.

-also mostly vegetarian who eats meat (including seafood) 3x a week

You aren't "mostly vegetarian".

[Anonymous]

Well, eating fish and seafood every few days leaves you nowhere near vegetarian. You sound pescatarian at least so there’s that. Fish and seafood are animal meats, with the same sort of protein and B12 benefits.

Aside from that, my 2 year old, living in a completely omnivorous house, eats more “vegetarian” foods than it would appear your child does. We serve a lot of hummus, white bean dips, etc., plus roasted chickpeas, “cowboy caviar” with pita at lunch, tofu in a bajillion different combinations (eg. In stir fry, breaded with panko, and baked in nuggets, crumbled up with nutritional yeast and basil as a cheese substitute). We make a lot of vegetable curries (eg. Spinach, butternut squash, chickpea), dal, falafel, lentil patties, etc.

We do a clear “meatless Monday”, but many other of our dinner meals are vegetarian. DD may or may not eat the meat portion of dinner that day, but I know she gets lots of nutrients the rest of the day.

She also JUST started drinking milk at 2.5, but would normally have 1 serving of cheese and 1 serving of yogurt a day.