Vickisue Gray

Free choice is such an interesting thing.

My son talks about being an omnivore yet if you looked at his choices,
even he'd say he's really a carnivore. He just plain loves eating steak
and sushi. Maybe a side of shrimp. We could force vegetables, but
he's just plain a meat eater. I was too, growing up, but as age has
come upon me, I eat more as a vegetarian.

So for health purposes, should I force him away from his natural draw?

I need to mention here, that a bowl of candy (Halloween, Easter, etc..)
will sit forever as my kids just don't eat it. They have a few types of candy
they will want on rare occasions but otherwise, the stuff will rot.

I purposely have veggie eating pets in the house, so I must keep fresh veggies,
always, so there is always a variety to munch on. Most seem to go to the pets,
though. Any other suggestions? (I do keep them all washed and put up as
a quick grab.)

Just curious,
Vicki


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kristenhendricks55

I would suggest that you let him make his own choice. If you leave
around a bowl of candy and he is allowed to choose from that, then
why would you restrict him from a steak, know what I mean?

The only meat I eat is chicken, and I'm a pretty healthy eater. But
that is only because that is the only kind of meat I like, not
because I found any other meat to be unhealthy. I think if someone
told me I shouldnt eat chicken, I'd probably have a fit LOL

I think it is probably alot easier to raise a child from day one as a
vegetarian then to let him have meat and when he finds that he likes
it, you take it away. Since he has made his own choices up until this
point, I would continue to let him do so and keep providing fresh
veggies too! The way I get my kids to eat veggies is to have all
kinds of dips around here that they can pick from. They love to try
things different ways and I never have to ask them to eat their fruit
and veggies. But then of course theres always a day when they want
cereal for all three meals, lol, but that happens :)


--- In [email protected], Vickisue Gray
<vickisue_gray@...> wrote:
>
> Free choice is such an interesting thing.
>
> My son talks about being an omnivore yet if you looked at his
choices,
> even he'd say he's really a carnivore. He just plain loves eating
steak
> and sushi. Maybe a side of shrimp. We could force vegetables, but
> he's just plain a meat eater. I was too, growing up, but as age
has
> come upon me, I eat more as a vegetarian.
>
> So for health purposes, should I force him away from his natural
draw?
>
> I need to mention here, that a bowl of candy (Halloween, Easter,
etc..)
> will sit forever as my kids just don't eat it. They have a few
types of candy
> they will want on rare occasions but otherwise, the stuff will rot.
>
> I purposely have veggie eating pets in the house, so I must keep
fresh veggies,
> always, so there is always a variety to munch on. Most seem to go
to the pets,
> though. Any other suggestions? (I do keep them all washed and put
up as
> a quick grab.)
>
> Just curious,
> Vicki
>
>
>
______________________________________________________________________
______________
> Park yourself in front of a world of choices in alternative
vehicles. Visit the Yahoo! Auto Green Center.
> http://autos.yahoo.com/green_center/
>
> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>

Meredith

--- In [email protected], Vickisue Gray
<vickisue_gray@...> wrote:
>> I purposely have veggie eating pets in the house, so I must keep
fresh veggies,
> always, so there is always a variety to munch on. Most seem to go
to the pets,
> though. Any other suggestions?

This is funny, my gf has an aversion to eating melons and squashes,
bc she thinks of them as "turtle food". Its not logical, just one of
those funny associations. She'll eat pureed squashes or drink punch
made with watermelon juice - just can't get around the idea of
eating cut bits of melon or squash, bc that's what she feeds her
turtles.

Does your son drink juices? Most of the fruits, and some of the
veggies in our house are consumed as juice. Ray and George both love
carrot juice, for example, but won't eat carrots. Mo won't eat an
orange, but loves oj. We make an effort to buy juices with a high
percentage of juice in them as a result, or make our own (less
often, I hate cleaning the juicer!).

You might also look into making desserts and pancakes with fruits
and veggies. We like grated zucchini in pancakes, as well as breads
or muffins, for example. And pie is great anytime.

I've also found that Mo will eat greens straight from the garden,
but not as a salad or cooked. I'm a fan of wild foods, and live in
the country, so Mo has also learned which weeds in our yard are
edible. Some days she goes out and grazes - that might not work so
well in town, though, if the neighbors are spraying their weeds.

---Meredith (Mo 5.5, Ray 13)

Vicki

Lol, "grazes" that so sounds like my husband. Many years ago, I got
grossed out when he taught the kids which bugs were edible. (I would
have so lost at Fear Factor.)

Thanks for the great suggestions. Summer's here so we'll just keep
offering up the variety and let them eat what they like.

Debra Rossing

We were fairly meat eating then got away from beef and pork at home but
still plenty of poultry, plus hot dogs, fast food burgers, and beef
sometimes at restaurants (DH loves ribs for example but that's not
something we'd typically do at home most times anyhow), etc.Then sushi
got added in. However, along the way, we've also started moving toward
vegetarian - we recently heard a term "flexitarian" - that is, we
generally eat veg but might on occasion eat some fish or other animal
meat. In a given week, most of our meals are totally vegetarian, edging
toward vegan even. So, how does this play out with DS, almost 9, who's
never been limited on what, when, how he eats? Same as always,
basically. He eats what, when, how he chooses. Most of the time, the veg
options are fine with him - DH makes an awesome veg chili for instance
(served with shredded cheese and sour cream sides, sometimes homemade
gaucamole and flour tortillas too). Other times, he's not thrilled by
the choice and opts for something else. The other night, for instance,
we were having roasted veggies and couscous. The texture of the couscous
was just not right by DS - so he grabbed a couple of hot dogs. His
choice.

Forcing anyone to anything is not a good choice - try forcing a sapling
tree branch away from the way it is growing and see what happens when
you release the controls - ouch! We just communicate, provide info (a
really cool poster we found showing what nutrients are from what food
items, geared to vegetarian eating - DS was amazed in a happy "Cool!"
way when he saw that whole grains were in almost ALL the categories),
and give him the same access to the grocery choices (he helps with the
shopping most of the time anyhow) that us grownups have. You could
-force- all-veg eating BUT you'd be facing the backlash in terms of
relationship as well as what would likely happen outside of your view
(at friends' homes, once he gets old enough to be out and about on his
own, etc). Consider: how would you react if someone -forced- you to add
meat into your eating, "for your own good" even? So, why would you do
the same to your son?

Also, most "veggie eating pets" are eating things like lettuce, celery,
and carrots - great for snacking, but not high in the protein content.
Providing alternate protein sources might be a start - make a meatless
chili for example if your family likes tex-mex. Or, try meatless burgers
- we found a recipe for black bean & bulgur "burgers" that looks and
works (shaping wise) remarkably like ground meat (looks kind of like
meatloaf before it's cooked). We shaped it into cylinders and wrapped it
in tortillas one night - it got good ratings from all of us - DS and I
topped it with ketchup and cheddar, DH tried salsa and cheddar. The next
day, hubby tried it with BBQ sauce. Total winner - we're looking at also
modifying the seasonings to make Italian-style 'meatballs' for pasta and
doing these faux meatballs in BBQ sauce for next year's super bowl party
(we traditionally bring meatballs in BBQ sauce to the potluck
gathering). We also did meatless sushi last week - avocado, roasted red
peppers, cucumber, carrot, a little nice mild goat cheese (chevre), and
DS tucked some canned tuna on top of some of his battleship sushi - we
understand the sushi thing - that's where DS wants to go for his 9th
birthday dinner (our tradition is to have a just-family dinner someplace
of the birthday person's choice on or near the birthday and he picked a
sushi restaurant). We also like sashimi which is just fish, no rice or
veggies even. Find ways to accommodate BOTH your choice and his - for
instance, cook the meatballs separately in a little tomato sauce so that
you can have pasta with plain sauce and he can have pasta with
meatballs. Lots of ways to accommodate both. And, the "good will" (for
lack of a better term) generated because you are working WITH his
choices is likely to grow a situation where he's more willing to maybe
have one or two meatless meals each week (things like pasta are great
starters in that regard).

Deb

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