Maggie Berney, Wokingham &
District branch
I suppose that if there is a preconception about
veggie diets it's that it's all beansprouts, brown rice and lentils. In fact, until I became pregnant, my diet
wasn't anywhere near that healthy: too many pies and chips and not enough veg,
which, unsurprisingly, lead to recurrent bouts of anaemia. Anyway, that all changed once the blue line
appeared in the window. My diet became
healthier, I took vitamin supplements and I ended up with iron levels that were
healthier than your average non-pregnant meat-eater!
I have been a vegetarian for 14 years and my
husband has been one for even longer and, to be honest, it never entered out
minds to feed our children meat. On the
whole, family and friends also took it for granted that the children would be
vegetarian and it was never really discussed.
The people who did take issue with our decision were those who didn't
know us very well and, in telling us we were bad parents, usually managed to
demonstrate their own level of ignorance, the most memorable comment being,
"You can't raise that child to be a vegetarian. It's not healthy. Where's he going to get his calcium
from?" Well, milk actually...
The health visitors that I spoke to were supportive
of our decision, but I think it was fortunate that I didn't need their advice
as their grasp of vegetarian nutrition did seem a little limited. Luckily, when I started my maternity leave,
two of the girls at work bought me a copy of Carol Timperley's book of ‘Baby
and Child Vegetarian Recipes’ which promptly became my food-bible!
When my son was born his diet obviously wasn't an
issue for the first six months. He was
initially breastfed, but fairly quickly we moved on to mixed feeding. I decided to introduce solids at five months,
and for the first month there was nothing unusual about his diet – the usual
fruit and vegetable purees. When he got
to six months we began to broaden his diet and started introducing lentils and
cheese as protein sources followed eventually by beans and tofu and, much later,
nuts, quorn and seeds.
It is actually quite hard for young children to get
insufficient protein in their diet, especially if they eat and drink enough
dairy products. My main concern has
never been giving them enough protein but rather making sure that they get enough
iron and other essential minerals. I'm
fortunate in the fact that both my children strangely enough love broccoli but
from the age of 12 months I have also given them a vitamin tonic containing
vitamins A and D plus iron, copper, calcium, manganese and potassium.
These days both children eat the same meals that we
do. Life is too short to cook two
separate meals each day! Their favourite
meals include chickpea curry, lentil hotpot, spaghetti bolognese made with textured
vegetable protein (TVP), or any kind of pasta with sauce but preferably sausage
sauce (made with vegetarian frankfurters).
Eating at other people's houses wasn't initially a
problem. Most of my friends know that
we're a vegetarian family and cater accordingly. In the last year or so though things have
changed and my son has now got to the stage of going to parties without
me. After a lot of thought I decided
that it would be best to let my children eat what they like at parties. After all, we eat vegetarian sausages at home
which look just like the meaty ones served up at most parties - it's not easy
to tell the difference. I feel that at
four years old my son is too young to be able to distinguish what constitutes
meat and what doesn't, and I don't want him to get into the situation where he
may start worrying about what he is and isn't allowed to eat and thereby
getting hang-ups about food in general.
Taking this route has the benefit that when both
children are older they will know what meat is and what it tastes like and so
will be able to make an informed choice about whether or not to eat it. We've had conversations about where meat
comes from, the first of which was prompted by a hog roast at a family wedding:
"What's that Mummy?" We've also explained that, although we choose
not to eat meat because we don't like eating animals, most people don't feel
the same way that we do. Once they are
older we will also explain about modern farming methods to them.
Once the children start having opinions on what
they want to eat, I am prepared to let them eat meat if that's what they decide
they want to do, although I know I will be disappointed. The proviso will always be that if they want
to eat meat at home then they will have to buy and cook it themselves.
In the meantime, they are two healthy, lively
children who are average weight for their height.
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| Home made Lentil Patties |
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| Yum! |
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