Is it okay to be a vegetarian when you're pregnant, but not raise your kids vegetarian?

Question

I'm not planning on being pregnant any time soon, but I was just thinking : I am planning on being a vegetarian for the rest of my life. But I don't want to raise my kids to be vegetarian, because I think its not fair. I want them to make the choice on their own, not be brainwashed. So if I am vegetarian while I'm pregnant is it going to affect them to have meat once they're born? Just wondering.

Answer 1

to the mom she would like it but the kids would not the mom is just unlucky

Answer 2

Ive heard from doctors that if you are a vegetarian while you are pregnant your son could possibly have  penal dysfunction because the protein in meat helps to nurture the embryo. You should ask a doctor because you don't want to be that case where your child has a disfigured p***s.  

Answer 3

Yes, a pregnant or nursing mother can be vegetarian and it's perfectly safe for the infant, so long as  she's getting all the right nutrients.

http://www.vegsoc.org/info/preg.html

http://www.ehow.com/how_5354_be-pregnant...

http://www.vrg.org/nutrition/veganpregna...

http://www.veg-world.com/articles/pregna...

As a parent, it's your right to determine what is appropriate to feed your children, so long as you have educated yourself about nutrition and are meeting all their needs.

Why not feed them healthy foods consistent with your own values, and let them decide on their own if they want to eat meat? You don't have to force them to be vegetarian; but if you start them eating meat as children, you're effectively teaching them not to be.

Edit:

"Natural" is not a valid reason to feed someone store-bought meat. Factory farming is not natural. Animals that cannot move for most of their lives is not natural. Animals that are pumped full of antibiotics and growth hormones and fed vast  quantities of grains that people could eat directly is not natural. Slaughtering billions of animals unnecessarily every year is not natural.

Meat-eating carries a significant environmental cost. If you care about the future of the planet and the impact your children have on it, then avoiding meat is an obvious choice. It's the same as choosing cloth diapers over disposables, or biking instead of driving.

Edit2:

Timmy, you're just supporting my point. Our diets are not natural. So appealing to our evolutionary history is irrelevant. We don't need meat to be healthy, this is well supported by nutritional science. But we know eating meat has numerous negative consequences: for animals, the environment, and for health. Perhaps you've noticed that in the Western world, there's a childhood epidemic of obesity and diabetes... which is related to the high-meat, high-fat diet parents feed their kids.

Raising kids vegetarian is better for the kids and for the environment.

Answer 4

I think it's perfectly fine to raise your children exactly the way you want them to be raised. Plain and simple.

Talk to your obgyn about a how to have a healthy vegetarian diet while pregnant, they can give you the best advice in that area

Answer 5

This is a pretty dumb way of looking at it! For the point in your parents not forcing religion on you, did would they have hated it you decided on a religion prior to  leaving the house and tell you not to go, because of whatever their feelings toward it? If not, then they would be allowing you to choose for yourself. In the same sense, at a sensible age, as long as you allowed them to try meat, then how have you brainwashed them into vegetarianism? And then again since you don't eat meat are you brainwashed? I"m confused by your logic! Most vegetarian parents are fully aware that they can't control all aspects of their child's life, especially when they are not in sight. However, it is a learning process they will let their child come to find whether or not the child wants to continue eating meat. Now they might have rules of not in my house, but elsewhere okay. But it's common knowledge that in anything you believe in, that you can raise your child that way, but once they begin to think for themselves, you cannot tell them what to do on that subject, they will choose for themselves! Those people going into cults aren't entirely brainwashed, they are given the choice, and such choose that path. It's hard to brainwash a person without the proper techniques (military still does a few, I know from experience), but to be vegetarian does not include any of those techniques, thus cannot brainwash a person.

Main Entry: brain·wash·ing  

Pronunciation: \ˈbrān-ˌwȯ-shiŋ, -ˌwä-\

Function: noun

Etymology: translation of Chinese (Beijing) xǐnǎo

Date: 1950

1 : a forcible indoctrination to induce someone to give up basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes and to accept contrasting regimented ideas

2 : persuasion by propaganda or salesmanship  



By definition, a child cannot be brainwashed as he/she has no basic political, social, or religious beliefs and attitudes in order to accept contrasting regimented ideas! They learn what they are taught and then can later be brainwashed to go against what their parents taught them!  

Answer 6

You don't think it's fair?  Why not?  Most parents raise their children  with their ideals.  Although I agree that children should make the choice, how is feeding them meat giving them the choice?  I dont understand why it's called brainwashing if you want to raise kids vegetarian but not if you raise them meat eaters.   This is a double standard.

If you are vegetarian for ethical reasons, it just does not make sense to me that you would buy and cook meat.  Not feeding your kids meat is not brainwashing them.

Answer 7

Raising your kids to eat meat is pushing your views on them too, don't you think?  Why not raise them vegetarian and then give them the choice to eat what they want when they are old enough to cook for themselves?  I don't see why you would go against what you believe in to cook meat for your family, if you truly believe vegetarianism is better.  As long as you know how to cook properly for yourself, you can easily raise you kids to be healthy and happy vegetarians.

Answer 8

how is feeding your kids a veg diet "brainwashing" them... just because meat containing diets are "normal"  that could still be considered "brain washing"... just because it's normal to raise a child in your religion it's still considered "brain washing" by many...

if your a veg cuz you think it's wrong, why would you give that to your children? wouldn't you raise them veg and then let them decide? i think you dont' want to because feeding them meat is "normal".... but why can't they be raised veg and then decide to eat meat?  it's only "normal" to eat meat and then decide not to becasue most people who eat meat don't even think about it and why they do so....  if you start them off not eating meat sure they will wonder why ... why are you afraid to let them start "thinking for themselves" at a younger age then most people who just feed their kids meat and don't even think about it?

Answer 9

Are you crazy? How is raising your child vegetarian brainwashing but raising him to eat meat isn't? How is it not fair? Wouldn't it make more sense to raise him with your beliefs? That's like a Atheist saying ohh i'm going to raise my child up a christian and let him go to church even though I don't believe in God. I'm sorry but your question lacks logical thought....

Edit: Timmy it is wrong to me because she is suppost to be a vegetarian so wouldn't it make the most sense to raise vegetarian children? This question lacked logical thought to me because when I think of parents I think of people who pass THEIR belifs on to their children. Like I said athiest don't raise christian children, Christians don't raise atheist children. It just doesn't make any sense to me. And humans being natural omnivores is no excuse. I could see if vegetarians were all sickly and near death, but we aren't. Most of us are as healthy as can be and her being vegetarian she should know that, so why wouldn't she want that for her child as well?

Edit: Your trying really hard not to understand me aren't you? I'm not saying force vegetarianism down thier throats. I was also brought up in a Christian family and they never forced God on me and I am not Christian now but the thing is they weren't raising me as a buddists. If you taught your child why being a vegetarian was good and what is done to animals then they would be a vegetarian for the "proper reasons", not only because that's how you raised them.

Answer 10

Well it is not healthy to not eat meat in the first place wile you are pregnant. The meat has certain things in it that your baby will need. I also think that is is a good choice for you to let them decide if they want meat or not but i suppose you need to ask yourself is how are you going to introduce it to them to meat if you do not eat it your self. You are with out realizing it going to raise them with your beliefs which is not wrong because half the people that eat meat were raised with it and thats why they eat it. your only concern should be that they are healthy and have all the nutrients that they need. If when they get older then they will make the decision on there own.

Answer 11

Kudos to you for your open-mindedness! Certainly a broad animal/vegetable diet is important for ensuring the optimal growth of children, and they can be free to make any choice they want when they are fully grown.

But bear in mind that when pregnant and nursing you are eating for two people, and the other one needs a lot of high-quality protein. It's certainly possible to survive on a vegetarian diet (lots of dirt-poor people in India do just that) but there is no assurance that it optimizes physical and mental maturation.

Answer 12

when pregnant, eat meat, do it for your babies health for gods sake. once you have the baby, go back to being a vegetarian. seems selfish to deprive the baby of meat because you have to be a vegetarian.

Answer 13

I think it is great to have them eat meat, and if they have any questions about becoming a vegetarian or vegan later in life, they'll have a great resource.....YOU!! :D

Answer 14

According to the American Dietetic Association, vegetarian diets are appropriate for all life stages, including pregnancy and lactation.  And you are free to raise your children as you see fit.  Should you change your mind and decide that you want to raise your children with the same high standards that you've set for yourself, you'll want to know that the ADA and the American Academy of Pediatrics approves of vegetarian diets for infants and children, too.

Personally, I don't draw any distinction between a meat-eater passing their meat-eating ways on to their children and a vegetarian raising their child vegetarian.  Neither is brainwashing; both are simply doing what parents do, which is making important decisions for children too young to make them themselves.  Numbers alone don't make one "OK" and one "brainwashing."

Answer 15

la vie boheme last time i check humans are omnivores meaning antural diet is that of both meat and veg.....vegetarianism is purely a choice not a normal human diet

so brining a child up  on what humans are designed to eat s whats best...now since we are omnivores dont you think it would be best to start an omnivorous diet for an omnivore then changing....rather than starting on a vegetairan diet for an omnivore

and its not brainwashing its normal....brainwashing them is telling them something false....telling an omnivore (who can eat both plants and meat) that meat is ok to eat is no more different that telling a child a car is a car

what i want to know is why vegetarians think its brainwashing to feed an omnivore an amnivorous diet???

yet they dont mind scaring an omnivorous child into being a vegetarian by telling them ALL meat is unhealthy and evil

Edit nerdy...orchards are not natural...fields of crops are not natural, force growth fruit and veg is not natural....eating mangos in britain is not natural...eating most fruit all year round is not natural...fruit and veg thats 3 times the size is not natural...buying fruit and veg from the stores is not natural.....so how dare you begin to tell me eating meat isnt natural

DOT her question has perfect logic...how is raising an omnivore to be an omnivore wrong? its not

raising a child to be a vegetarian isnt normal as we are omnivores.....its not instiling our beliefs as telling an omnivore they are an omnivore isnt instiling beliefs its the simple truth

nerdy if being a vegetarian is so much healthier than eating meat why is it i have a perfect 6 pack and a cholestorol level of 2.3...way below acceptable figures