Why do people say it's wrong to raise children vegetarian?

Question

If I had children I would definately raise them as vegan or vegetarian.

A meat eater has the freedom to feed their kids an omni diet and I have the right to feed my child a meat free diet. When they grow up they can make their own choices.

(Back to the question, why do people think it's bad? Vegetarians don't lack nutrients so that argument is invalid)

Answer 1

Well, when a child is young, there are some things that a vegetarian diet just does not provide for brain and body to properly develop. If you do stick to wanting to raise them a vegetarian, you must visit a nutritionist and doctor as soon as you find out you're pregnant to find out what to eat to make sure the baby develops inside you properly and healthily. Visit them for what to feed your baby when they're born, also. All through their life (especially from birth to about 14 years of age) you'll need to go back to the nutritionist and doctor constantly to make sure they develop healthy.  

Answer 2

its best to let them be raised how you want them to be the first 10 or so years but once they get over a certain age they need to learn of other things and to have free choice like my auntie is trying to force my teenaged cousins into getting baptized  

Answer 3

For the same reason people look down on families who home school their children.  People look down on lifestyles that are outside what they see as "normal".  As long as the children are well cared for and having their needs met it shouldn't matter how we raise them.  People need to not worry so much about how other people raise their kids and worry about what is going on under their own roof.

Answer 4

Because they have opinions

They are free to have and voice those opinions as long as they do not try to force them on you or try to force you to adhere to their opinions

You might want to try that philosophy on for size

There is as much evidence that a vegetarian diet is unhealthy as there is that it isn't

And veggie only diets do lack certain essential nutrients, that's indisputable

The only thing open for argument is just how essential those nutrients are

Answer 5

I agree with you 100%. But your questions can't be answered by me because I have no idea either.

Answer 6

They're usually ill-informed on the vegetarian diet.

Kudos to you for planning to raise your kids as vegetarians. I'm planning on doing it too.

Answer 7

I raise my children Veg. And that's that.

If you have a problem with that, well, that's your problem, not mine.

Cheers

Answer 8

I've never heard it said that it's bad. It's certainly easy to be well-nourished as a vegetarian. It's a little harder being vegan - I used to be one and my health wasn't as good as when I was vegetarian - though that could have been my fault for not taking more care about what I ate.

Answer 9

I recently had a child (boy) who will be raised the same way.  our families will have issues with this, we know.  people think its bad because of a couple reasons.  A)  its different and people want more of the same  B) it makes them think about why they eat meat  C) there have been a couple lunatic veggies out there who gave their kids soy milk from birth and the kids died (that's why soy milk has a warning label on it).  But frankly, it is my house, and I will not let any carcass enter it (unless the cat drags it in).  No one can be forced to do what they don't want to, but until the kid is old enough to make a decision (with the knowledge of what he/she is doing), the kid will live how the parents say so.  just like the curfew other parents give their kids.  

Answer 10

You should let them try what they like as long as it is nutritious. How would you feel if you were deprived of vegetables? Meat contains the proteins that children require to grow...do you not realise this?

What isn't valid in relation to your point is that meat eaters do not deprive their children of vegetables!I've never heard of an 'omni-diet'. If that was so their children would turn into demented savages.

Let your children have freedom of choice.

Answer 11

I know how you feel. It really annoys me when people criticise me for saying I want to raise any children I have as vegetarians but those same people haven't got a problem with people who raise their children as Jews or Muslims from birth with the religious beliefs and diet that comes with those religions.

I agree with you that people can be just as healthy as someone who eats meat and fish when they're living on a vegetarian diet; it's certainly never done me any harm.

I think it comes from an ignorance of the fact that veggies are just as healthy with their meat and fish replacements, if not healthier.

Answer 12

you know I have a friend thats a vegetarian i think its not a good idea but the parent owns the child so I guess its ok but I think they should have a choice.

Answer 13

I think its fine, but once they are old enough you should allow them to at least try it and make their own decision

Answer 14

I completely agree with you I am a vegetarian and when I have children they too will be vegeterian and eat what I eat until they are old enough to decide for themselves.  

I think lots of people are obviously you know meat eaters and many don't understand vegetarians.  They respect them though for making their own decision but just think it's wrong to force your child to be what you are.  Many believe meat is a necessity and you shouldn't deprive your growing child of meat, but if your an adult and want to deprive yourslef that's ok.

I'm not saying I agree with that argument though I don't but I think that's what many people believe.

Answer 15

hiya all 3 of my children r vegi if they want meat they can .they love vegi stuff i was brought up vegi and i am glad i was i have so much respect 4 animal i jus could not eat them.

Answer 16

because children shouldn't be forced into diet or religion or any of it.

if my mum and dad did that i'd have very little respect for them!!!

Answer 17

If you don't like the answers, then wisdom dictates you probably shouldn't have asked the question due to the fact that you are too narrowminded to accept other opinions.

Thankfully, you don't have children.

On to my point!

You are absolutely right in stating that "Vegetarians don't lack nutrients". You are also accurate when you state that you have the "right" to feed your child a meat free diet. And you are accurate in stating that that a "meat eater has the freedom to feed their kids an omni diet".

Where you are wrong is  your assumption that you know all about what it takes to feed a baby a healthy diet.

Human babies are designed to consume mothers milk. That in itself is not a vegetarian food. As they gain more independance their growth spurts ensure the need for a wide variety of nutritional requirements few of which are gained from consuming nice leafy vegetables.

Obviously, as children mature, they could develop correctly from a well managed vegetarian diet. Introducing that diet to infants or toddlers will cause irreparable damage and anyone who differs with that obiously has no concept of raising children.

Cheers.

Answer 18

I would say some people think it's bad because we are all born (naturally) omnivores and didn't spend thousands and thousands (...and thousands) of years working our way to the top of the food chain to be eating things like nut cutlets and mung bean casserole.  I'm a practicing omnivore and find it insulting when veggies try to impress upon me the ethics about eating meat (yes, I know you're not doing that in this instance) by saying things like "you wouldn't kill an animal yourself etc, etc" and they're right, but no more so than I wouldn't put wellies on and go into a muddy field and pick spuds and carrots and stuff.  But I personally do not think it's any more my business to criticise what other people eat as it is for them mine.  It's all down to ones preference in the end.  You carry on what your doing.

Answer 19

Not trying to go against you, but being a vegetarian/vegan is your choice isn't it? So your kids should have a choice whether they should eat meat. I'm vegetarian, and if I have kids when I'm older, I'm not gonna raise them as vegetarians because I feel they should have a decision just like I did when I chose not to eat meat.

Answer 20

Because people are uneducated.

They really believe the whole

veggies-lack-nutrients thing.

Which we all know is total bs.

They should be more concerned with the chemicals

pumped into meat.

Answer 21

A child has the right to eat what they want to eat as long as they feel they are not deprived of eating something. If they are brought up e.g culturally they will respect your decision for not cooking meat. As long as they are getting the equivalent nutrients from vegetarian foods then theres no problem at all.  

Answer 22

It's just ignorance, plain and simple.  The people who think raising a child as a vegetarian is brainwashing never seem to have a problem with sending a child to Sunday School.  

Everyone raises their children according to their own values.  Period.

For instance, my niece is a member of a church sponsored youth hunting group.  Do I find it appalling?  Yes.  Would I EVER say anything to her parents?  Not a chance.

In reality, however, it's not that big a deal.  My little boy is seven, he's vegetarian, and no one has ever said a word to me about it.  He has been given the chance to try meat at school and at family get-togethers and he chooses not to eat it.  He simply cannot stand the smell.

Answer 23

Children need much more protein, and higher quality protein, than adults do. When you feed kids a vegetarian diet - especially a vegan diet - you are putting their development at risk. No parent has the right to do that.

Yeah, I know that peasant kids in India eat a vegetarian diet.

The good news is that kids from vegetarian families usually get what they need from the school lunch.

Answer 24

Hello,

(ANS) It takes x80 tons of wheat grain fed to cattle to create x1 ton of meat for human consumption. I would strongly suggest that this is NOT sustainable in the long term for the human race. Why? because we will run out of productive land to feed the population of the planet. Especially so if the worst effects of climate change become a reality, i.e. sever weather that will directly affect crop production.  

**Its been a recognized fact for several decades that we can easily feed the whole human population of the world if everyone became vegetarian (not vegan but just vegetarian) i.e. we didn't waste land on wheat for meat production.

**Meat means murder & so my question is the opposite of yours, Why? would humans eat meat in the first place and why? should children be made to eat meat?? Nobody stops to consider that question do they? its just assumed by parents that its OK!

**I have been a vegan, then vegetarian and now a gluten free vegetarian for 31years & I am completely healthy. I have no intention of ever eating meat ever again.

Ivan  

Answer 25

People think it's wrong because they *think* that vegetarians lack nutrients.  It is indeed an invalid argument, as evidenced by the American Dietetic Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics opinions on the subject, but many people will continue to insist that it's not healthy.

Also, for some strange reason people think it's perfectly acceptable to decide what your kids eat if and only if it's also what the majority of people eat.  As soon as you decide something different, then it becomes "brainwashing."  Ugh.  I can't explain it, but I can sympathize.  My kids will be raised vegan because that's what I believe in.  But I'll take a lot of c**p for it.

(Wujoosay: mother's milk absolutely IS both a vegetarian and a vegan food.  It's what nature designed for our infants and veg*ns have no edict whatsoever against nursing.)

Answer 26

I think you answered your own question in the sense that folks believe they won't get the essential nutrients (e.g., Vitamin D, calcium, proteins, iron) that a typical diet provides. If you know what you're doing, then raise your children as you see fit.

Answer 27

Well in my opinion Vegetarians are people that don't want to kill animals (obviously) but if everyone became a vegetarian then there wont be any point in breeding the animals and they will become extinct, so vegetarians think they are saving animals and all that sh*t, but there actually killing the animals in a way.

Answer 28

Up to  you really, as you say when they are older they can eat meat if they want and will make their own choices, most people would say it is enforcing you own opinions of meat eating on them.

Answer 29

its like forcing your kid to do something he/she doesn't want to do or not letting your kid go do something because you have had bad experiences with it so kids should make there own choices.

Answer 30

Most likely because the argument often isn't invalid. Yes you can get all necessary things from non-meats but quite a few people don't look into it enough to create a diet where they will get all the things they're missing from meats.

If you manage to replace everything needed with non-meat foods and make sure it's kept up then it's fine. Some people though are foolish enough to not think about it and end up ill from a lack of the essential amino acids/iron/whatever else. There's also the fact that it limits foods they can eat quite a bit, especially if they don't like certain ones which are good for them.

I suppose another reason is the same as the religion bit, where parents induct their children into a certain way of thinking (and often punish them if they even think not to follow it). Again it's one of the things where it can be fine, as long as people are open about it and let them decide for themselves, but in your case you say they can decide when they're older but then state "WHEN they live in MY house they eat what I FEED them" which seems to imply the opposite, unless they can only choose when they're already adults, it also seems quite dictatorish which can harbour resentment from children to parents.

Answer 31

They are downright idiots.Even in animals the toughest like the Elephant is a veggie.Famous people like Amitabh Bachhan, Hitler, Saints,Yogis are all veggies.Even in my own family, every one is a veg grand parents - grand children living in different parts of the world, are vegetarians.All are eminent personalities and teetotalers.