My dd is close to being a vegetarian, need advice

[Barefoot~Baker]

My dd1 is going on 6yo now. When she was a toddler (a young one) she'd eat some meats, but she stopped by the time she was 2 and the only meat she eats now are fish sticks.

I'm just concerned about her protein intake I suppose. She eats yogurt, drinks soy milk, and will only have cheese on pizza. She won't eat any beans. She will eat peanut butter, but does't like any other nut butters. Dd is VERY picky and often eats cereal for dinner.

If any of you have advice for us I'd love it! I think it's interesting that she's naturally cut meats out since she was so small. I have absolutely no problem with it, as long as she is healthy

[caiesmommy]

6 is a good time for her to "help" you in the kitchen. There are vegetarian cookbooks geared towards kids.iknow our library has one that is about a vegetarian dragon who loves to cook. I would have her look through cookbook pictures with you and have her help you make what she thinks looks good. Obviously this would take twice as long then you just preparing the meal, so maybe once a week plan a cooking day.

Also things like smoothies/pasta sauce/lasagna are all good ways to hide protein/vegetables

[mumkimum]

The Vegetarian Way and Raising Vegetarian Children are two books that do a good job of covering nutritional aspects related to being vegetarian. I'd try to get your hands on either of those - they'll give you a lot of info for vegetarian sources of vitamins/protein/minerals/etc. Both have specific information for children of different ages, and there are some pretty good recipes in them too.

[wytchywoman]

My DS2 is not a fan of meat either and sounds about as picky as your DD is, lol. The one thing to keep in mind is that humans don't need tons of protein. If you can get a serving, even a small one, of protein down her at mealtime then that should be sufficient. Eggs, cheese slices, yogurt and soy milk are all good sources of protein as long as she is consuming the full serving.

[NC EcoMaMa]

I recently posted something about the protein myth. This is all new information I have been hunting online after hearing from a nutritionist that protein isn't actually what I or my family needed, it was just a way to explain things to the layman.

Here is a good video about it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ae-dlHOmwk4

We need the part of the protein that our body has to work so hard to covert it to... amino acids.

When you look for the "protein", find ones that are higher on the amino acid levels so the body can process them more readily.

Here is a good list.
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/protein/

From that page they have an xls spreadsheet for you to use.
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/...dChartWeb2.xls
If you don't have office you can download open office. It is a free open source office and will let you look at the documents.


Peace,

Jo

[EnviroBecca]

How about keeping a "protein diary" on the foods she eats for a week or so, to see if she's getting enough? Use the nutrition facts on the packages or this site. Whole-grain foods are high in protein and good for you, so if your whole family can switch from white bread to whole-wheat, etc., that will give her more protein.

Nutritional yeast flakes are an easy way to add protein to any oily food. They taste kind of like cheese. Here's my recipe for a pasta dish using nutritional yeast and sunflower seeds.

[Barefoot~Baker]

Thanks so much for your help, I'm going to look into these books and watch the videos

[iris777888]

To speak to your question about protein, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine provides great guidelines on nutrient needs for kids by age group, including menu suggestions: http://www.pcrm.org/health/veginfo/v..._children.html

And to add another resource, the Vegetarian Resource Group has a Yahoo! group for parents raising veg children: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/vrgparents Some of the parents also eat a veg diet, but others do not. There are discussions about specifics you may find useful, like how to deal with being vegetarian at school, eating different things from other kids (getting teased), at birthday parties, etc.

I think it's great your are supporting your daughter's preferences! If only all parents were so supportive.