Going Vegetarian With Four Year Old

Dad asks advice on vegetarian transition and nutrition with four year old.

Question For Savvy Vegetarian: My wife and I have both decided to change our lifestyle. Our main issue is our 4 year old son. We ate healthy before we decided to stop eating meat all together. I guess our concern now is will he be getting everything he needs and what to expect while were all adjusting. Any advice will be greatly apppreciated. - R.W.

Advice From Savvy Veg:

For the first part of your question - will he be getting everything he needs, the answer is yes, depending on several factors. You already have a healthy diet. If you are ovo-lacto vegetarians, if he has no food allergies or sensitivities, and if he's a 'good eater', he should easily get enough protein, Vit B12, and other essential nutrients.

If you are vegan, there's more of a challenge, and I recommend that you not jump straight into a vegan diet for your four year old. Those are all big ifs. Whatever the variables, if you don't already, I would consider giving him a kids daily vitamin. Rainbow Light makes an excellent chewable one.

For the second part of your question, what to expect while you're all adjusting, the answer is expect the transition to take much longer than you would think, and expect that there could be some going back and forth between veg and non-veg, for all of you. Don't expect your four year old to just get with the program and be happily vegetarian for the rest of his life. That could happen, in which case, congratulations on your saintly child!

My experience with four year olds is that they are distinctly individual, and have formed definite opinions about what they want to eat. Ultimately, it will be up to him whether he goes vegetarian for the rest of his life - don't make it an issue in your relationship.

Take it slow and easy introducing new foods. Make it fun, get him involved in food prep, shopping, meal planning, and encourage his cooperation by giving him choices and rewards. When it's easy and welcomed by him, introduce the concepts behind vegetarianism, being careful not to overwhelm or frighten him - think education, not indoctrination. (I know of one father who showed his young children pictures of slaughterhouses - it gave them nightmares for years)

Here's a few resources for you:

Nava Atlas, of Vegetarian Kitchen, has a lot of kid friendly info and recipes on her site, and several excellent family oriented vegetarian cookbooks.

Many of the Savvy Veg recipes are kid friendly. See the basic recipe section, particularly tofu and beans. We'll be adding salads in the next few days.

I've also attached another SV Report, 10 Tips for Beginning Vegetarians.

Find more vegetarian advice letters

Regardless of what I or anybody else thinks, you are responsible for your child and his upbringing, and must follow your own feelings and best judgement with regard to his diet. As with all parenting, there isn't really a map or a manual, except in your own hearts.

I hope this has helped. All the best to you and your family,
Judy Kingsbury, Savvy Vegetarian