Vegetarian Baby?

[pixiedash]

Hi all,

I have a big question for you all. My husband and I are vegetarians. We have many questions regarding how to raise our daughter -- whether it's healthier giving her meat or if it's okay having her be vegetarians with us. It was more of a personal choice than a choice of necessity, so we have no problem cooking or preparing meat (we were both meat-eaters not too long ago). Do you gals have any suggestions, advice, etc.? Do you think it's a good idea?

Some more info: Lily, 10 months old, is allergic to eggs (white and yolk) as well as barley. So we haven't been able to give her any eggs. For protein starters, we've been giving her tofu. She's weary on hard finger foods, so I'm not giving her any nuts yet. But we're going to introduce lentils into her diet this weekend.

Thanks for all your support!

[Pens Fan]

Hello.

As long as you LO has a varied diet its perfectly fine for her to be a vegetarian.

DH and I are also veggies but we also eat Fish.  DD is the same and she is 3 years old.  We ensure she eats a lot of Quorn products (Do you get that brand where you are?) 

DD loves meatless meat balls, Chilli and Spag bol made with Quorn meatless grounds.  She will also eat veggie sausages.  We also introduce Lentils, chickpeas.  When we were in the US they also did quorn chicken style bites.  To ensure she gets enough iron we give her organic dried appricots for breakfast on her cereal.

Hope that helps.

Cheers
Eliz

[JKL]

Check out Ruth Yaron's Super Babyfood book.  She offers tons of ways to make sure babies eating a meatless diet get needed protein, etc.  I referred to it so much when ds was a baby that it pretty much fell apart and I had to get a new copy to have on hand for dd!

[Mimi 2]

Here's a recent thread on some vegetarian dishes for los.  There are some more in the Recipes Board, have a look through tohose as well.

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=141919.0

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=85570.0

http://babywhispererforums.com/index.php?topic=55680.0

HTH

[imaayafa]

i raised my first son without any animal meat or gluten for his first year and maybe once a week to once a month for his second year....for protein i did serve eggs....
but also he ate almost every day lentil/vegetable soup pureed or bean/vegetable soup pureed. we also served a lot of sweet potatoes and buckwheat, both of which are very high in micronutrients. and organic, whole fat yoghurt, avocado.... buckwheat and millet make nice porridges when blended with a hand-blender, with butter or olive oil and a pinch of salt (and fruit is possible too). at age one i started blending almonds and walnuts into some foods, too. and added flax oil. and quinoa. (tried this when he was younger but it was coming out undigested no matter how well i cooked it. but you can try with a hand blender). and glutenous whole grains.
with my second son, i had read some other points of view and decided to start serving organic meats from 6 or 7 months sometimes, always mixed with vegetables in a puree soup. and mackerel in olive oil. in addition to the eggs, buckwheat, millet, full fat organic yoghurt....lots of veggies and healthy fats. (egg yellows only until 12 mos).
so this is not scientific at all, but my second son gained weight much easier and developed much quicker. it could be just a genetic thing or a coincidence.
the website of dr weston price has some very strong opinions (and some research) about this that are interesting to add into any discussion in either direction.