Veggie baby?

Question

I am a vegetarian and my daughter is now 10 months old and i don't know what to give her! I have been getting the baby foods with chicken and turkey i them (no red meats, she will not have red meats) but she is at the age where she needs to eat more proteins and be able to feed herself more often.

i have tried tofu and it went ok, but i don't want to give her a lot of that, no more than once a week.

i really don't want to have to buy meats... any suggestions on foods?? Do lentils have good protein for her?

Answer 1

first - GOOD FOR YOU MOM!!!!!  beans/legumes & grains make a complete protien-which is what we humans need.  any combo of those will do it.  am a veggie and a Mom, raised 4 boys & two girls all veggie all grow and still veggie & one veggie grandson!  the boys are well over 6 feet tall, & one daughter is pushing 5'11".  do try to educate yourself a little more on food combining - used to tell the kids they had to have all the colors of the rainbow to make sure they had all their nessary minerial & vits.- sounds silly, but it is a pretty good gauge to go by.  being a veggie & a Mom can be challengeing & hard work - but i know MY kids were diffinitely worth it!  so hang in there Mom - YOU CAN DO THIS!!!:)  a veggie Mom too

p.s. - i even went so far as to write a veggie cookbook for my kids so they could have all their favs when they left for college & life.  :)

Answer 2

Well, I am expecting my first and my doc told me something I didn't know. We aren't equipt from birth to eat meat, it is something we are taught.

That said, there are many ways like peanut butter and fake meat substitutes to help with protein. Since peanut butter is sticky, why not try putting some into pureed food/baby food? With fake meat sustitutes, if it is time to help her feed herself more often, these are just as good as plopping real meat in front of her. Try some fake bacon, sausage links/patties, or even some of the crumbles they have.

I would ask her pediatrician. They should have all the information you will need to raise a child vegetarian. Many moms have done this without any meat, red or otherwise.

Best of luck!

Answer 3

Lentils are chock full of protein.  All the veg*n parents I know feed their little ones lots of lentils.

Even though you're not raising her vegetarian, I highly, highly recommend the book "Raising Vegetarian Children" by Joanne Stepaniak and Vesanto Melina.  Lots of recipes and sample menus covering the nutritional needs of all age groups.

Answer 4

If you were to read up on the matter, you'd find that all once living items (in reference to fruits and veggies) contain amino acids. Not trying to talk to you stupidly, but in case you didn't know, are building blocks of protein. Then your body knows what to do with them, how to combine them according to your needs and what to reserve as well as what to throw away.....all within the liver!! Now of course the first year is the most important, as the human body does the MOST growing in the shortest period of time (everything growing, not just body like in later stages). But you will also find that the perfect food for the infant, breastmilk, only contains 5-11% protein (all depending on what baby needs as it reworks itself regularly to baby's needs) per serving, while grown humans who are no longer growing in anyway consume way more than nescessary! You will also find that fruits and veggies contain 5% protein per serving as well!

So what does this all mean? Fruits and veggies are just fine for you little one!! As long as she is still getting her main source of food from breastmilk (or formula as a second best). Many parents actually find that their little ones have to have their meats disquised with better tasting fruits and veggies (think sweet like pears or sweet potatoes) in order for them to eat it!

And finally, you can try other foods like cooked quinoa, yes lentils, brown rice, and other whole grains, whether small amounts whole or ground/ mooshed up! I agree with the previous poster on feeding her what you are eating in smaller bites, prepared better for her, etc. Try to avoid the seed and nuts (peanut butter, almond butter, variety of nut milks) for a little while longer to beware nasty specific allergies to these things. Otherwise, Just have fun with it!!

Answer 5

i think with one so young you should get expert advice , so she gets a well balanced healthy diet

Answer 6

Whole grains, veggies, beans/lentils, fruits are all great sources.    There are some great books on raising little ones vegetarian.  Just google "vegetarian baby" for info.

Answer 7

When I was pregnant with our daughter, we discussed how to raise her,  feed her, etc.  and did lots of research on this. The most important/influential thing we read was (I'm paraphrasing here) "Children are simply miniature adults. " What the author meant by this was that in a broad nutshell, there is really no reason to treat them any differently than you would an adult.

For instance, if it is 65-70 degrees outside and the parents are wearing light sweaters, do not put the child in a snowsuit! The same can be said for many different situations.

If you guys are sitting down to dinner and having, as an example, veggie burgers, and brocolli feed your toddler diced veggie patties and diced brocolli. For breakfast if you are having oatmeal and sliced strawberries, feed your baby a baby cereal and fruit baby food. Feed your toddler an age appropriate cereal and diced stawberries...etc.

We decided to not feed our child any different than we feed ourselves since we didn't want to raise a picky eater (which comes from being raised on special meals and such after complaining to our parents "I don't like that", etc.) She is now 5 years old and has only been sick twice in her life, is of normal height and weight, very active. We get comments all the time about how "normal she looks considering she is a vegetarian"!

You can do it, I promise!