Discuss child's diet with your husband

[Guest guest]

Lorna,

 

My first advice would be to decide what your limits

are regarding your son's diet, what you don't want to

bend on, and what you are willing to be flexible on,

and then you need to have that discussion with your

husband about how you are going to raise him. Ideally

you should have that discussion before having kids,

but that is where I would start if I were you.

 

For me, I can't stand the thought of my children

eating meat, and especially not feeding it to them

unknowingly as babies! So that wasn't something I was

willing to be flexible about. Luckily we agreed to

that before they were born. Their father and I aren't

together anymore but he still respects our decision,

although he is a meat eater and of course it would be

easier for him when he's got the kids to feed them

meat. My logic basically was that I feel very strongly

about this and eating meat is against my morals (and

also proven to be very unhealthy). He doesnt feel

strongly that kids *should* eat meat, there are no

morals involved on his end, just a convenience factor,

so it just seems logical that he should defer to my

stronger feelings on the matter. Now that the kids are

older (11 and 6), I dont think they would eat meat

even if he tried to feed it to them.

 

Anyway, about your child trying meat so that he can

see what he's choosing not to have, I would disagree

with that (at least until he is much older) for the

following reason: Letting him him try meat and then

decide if he wants it or not is only based on taste,

not the larger issues (morality and/or health) which

he is by far too young to understand.

 

With extended family, its true you can't always

control what they do when you aren't there, but if you

and your husband agree to raise your son vegetarian

and present a united front, I would think most

extended family would respect your choices and not do

things to your son that you disapprove of behind your

back... And anyway you only have to be vigilant until

they get older. My younger son will say, 'is there

meat in this?' so he monitors the situation himself

now! Also it may help if you prepare yourself by

studying up on the proven health benefits of a

vegetarian diet and the negative aspects to eating

meat in order to answer any questions and allay any

fears of relatives who cant imagine a growing child

not being allowed to eat meat!

 

The last thing I wanted to say is that most babies

drop weight when they start becoming mobile and

running around. With all of the discussion lately

about children who are underweight and won't eat,

etc., I just want to let you know that my boys are

super-healthy, happy, active, smart and empathetic

children and have always been 60-75% on the growth

charts for height and weight, and have never had a

taste of meat!