Vegetarian 8 year old

my daughter is 9 and has been doing the exact same thing for the last 2 months, i have been giving her centrum kids multi vits etc, our family are all big meat eaters so im hoping its just a phase


Candkids

I've been one since I was about 2. The only thing you really need to worry about is iron and B12. If you can get a kids multi that has both of those as long as you guys eat a variety of foods then he will be fine. I ate a crap diet as a kid and no meat and the only issue I ever had was iron.

Oooh of course - when did she go Vego?

By the way - fancy seeing you here! lol!

Personally I would suggest seeing a dietician before letting a child cut out any main food group. Like Stacey said the main issues would be iron and vitamin b12 (remember those vegan parents who let their 2 year old die cos they wouldn't give b12 shots??) ... but also getting the right protein mix in a meal to cover all the main amino acids is tricky if you don't know what you're doing.

His iron needs are still pretty high at that age, and red meat is by far the best source - high dose supplements tend to cause constipation - and its pretty hard to meet kids iron needs without meat. Vitamin B12 deficiency is horrible too (I don't absorb it, it causes anaemia, I have never been so tired in my life as when we were working out what was wrong with me! definitely hard to concentrate and I was sleeping 16+ hours a day at the weekend, and crashing straight after work every night).

so yeah, while it is possible to have a great vege diet if planned well, its a bit more difficult to get everything kids need in to them as they are still growing (adults cope better as they eat more food overall and are not growing so don't need nutrients for growth). Is he happy to eat lentils, tofu, huge variety of veges and nuts / seeds, dairy, eggs etc etc? I would not recommend just taking meat out and not altering the protein mix.

Just my view though. A dietician would have a better idea of what you should do (I did nutrition at uni).

Hopefully its just a phase and a multi covers you til he moves on!

Hmmm she will probably tell me its not a good idea and i should just make him eat it!   Will send her a message and see.

My son only eats red meat very rarely, actually any meat pretty rarely, or eggs or dairy but he is very healthy. A well rounded diet should meet most people's needs, including children. It really is a bit of a reflection of our meat based culture that we continue to place meat as the holy grail of iron and B12.

Personally i don't believe it is as important as we are led to believe. I have lived among cultures who do not ever eat meat and their children are healthy and grow up just like ours.

Some people do have issues absorbing certain elements but those people would have those issues with or without eating meat.