I was a vegetarian for 12 years. In addition to soy (including veggie burgers, tofu, etc.), peanut butter and almond butter (any nuts are good), cheese, soy, milk, and rice and beans, eaten together. If this turns into a long-term thing, I would consult with a doctor and nutritionist. It is easy to find tasty veggie food, but it can be difficult to maintain a complete balanced diet over the long haul. This is one of the reasons I gave it up.
Wait till you have 5 kids like me. Trust me, they team up, you’re outnumbered and you give in.
Having said that, I usually don’t give in and never make threats that I don’t carry through on (“I really mean it this time…”).
It’s really a matter of picking and choosing your battles.
Lastly, having watched my sister battle through anorexia, I am hyper-sensitive about mentioning the “W” word (weight) around my 4 girls. Kids and their diets is a very serious issue, and even though my picky eater eats virtually no meat and the occasional McNugget, we try not to overemphasis the problem.
Tim
Tridork,
Wow, talk about an overreaction! Go back and read my original post. What made you think he’s a picky eater? He just doesn’t like meat right now for reasons that I actually agree with. 2 weeks ago he wanted to go bow hunting, so I suspect this is temporary and said so.
Parents who don’t pick their battles wisely are the ones whose kids get sideways. A little flexibility is a reasonable accomodation while you help the kids grow up. While I don’t want to debate parenting styles, I disagree with your leap to a life of sex and drugs down the road due to a short term absence of meat in the diet.
“Pick your battles”
Colin,
What’s that saying? - “Great minds think alike”.
“pick your battles” is absolutely wise. Why shouldn’t kids have some control over what they eat? It’s one of the most personal decisions we have to make. I decided when my son was in the womb that I would not fight with him about food.
He eats what he wants, is lean and never sick and we have a harmonious house. Of course, we also never had junk around the house, so he just naturally made good choices.
My reaction was meant half tongue in cheek and half seriously.
My kids have both gone through picky eating periods and for as long as we had control (they’re both adults now) we found ways of making them eat balanced diets. Kids will chose candy (or whatever their preference is) over meat, if you let them. You have to find a way for them to make the choice of eating meat (or anything in a balanced diet) vountarily.
Currently my daughter hardly eats any meat at all, preferring a nearly vegetarian diet. She is constantly tired and has very low iron count, even with medication. My son on the other hand is a pure meat eater. Vegies? What are they? Potatos? Why? they just takes up valuable meat space on the plate. They are both adults so can screw up their own lives if they chose.
It’s sorta like kids at the supermarket checkout. They behave badly demanding candy and eventually the parent buys them a candy bar just to shut them up. The kid gets conditioned to behave badly and get rewarded for that. Wrong answer!
Upon entering the supermarket, my wife and I would head to the bulk food section and get a small amount of candy in a bag. The kid would get to hold the bag, unopened, until the checkout. If they had been good for the entire time, they got the candy, if not, it got returned. Kids learn FAST. We NEVER had a badly behaving kid in the supermarket after we instituted this plan. Not even once.
We got the desired behavior at the lowest price and for the least hassle.
I hate to see soy touted as a ‘meat alternative’. It is very high in plant estrogens and has been shown to have effects on the human body when eaten in large quantities (i.e. people eat it as a total meat replacer). Soy is fine, but in moderation. Also, there really is no substitute for meat. We are physiologically omnivores and meat provides all kinds of things that substitutes don’t. Having said that - my folks used to slip a raw egg into a milk shake for me when I went through a picky ‘don’t want to eat meat’ stage. 
I agree with eating soy in moderation. In fact, I agree with eating everything in moderation. The more scientific reports I see, the more this philosophy makes sense. It’s sort of like hedging your investments.
Why shouldn’t kids have some control over what they eat?
Because 7-year olds aren’t equipped intellectually or emotionally to make those decisions. What’s next? Let them decide that they don’t want to brush their teeth, go to bed at midnight, live on Coke and Snickers, not shower and skip school?
Come on!
Sorry, slippery slope arguments belong in the Lavender Room 
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Read carefully, I said “some” control. And Snickers and Coke aren’t available in my house. As I said, I chose not to battle my kid over food and I have an extremely healthy (hasn’t missed a day of school in 4 years), athletic, happy 10 year old who goes to bed on time and brushes his teeth. Nowhere in my post did I advocate “no limits.”
Chill.
What about cheese? It seems sometimes that if there were no cheese, then our two year old would be eating nothing at all. Of course, he has already learned to remove anything green from the vicinity of cheese before eating it.
Our 7 year old is in a phase where he won’t eat anything that used to be alive. He’s VERY sensitive about it and the right thing for us to do is ride it out and keep him healthy w/o protein from meat. Maybe this is permanent, but probably not. We don’t eat a lot of red meat, maybe 3 times a month, but do eat a lot of fish and chicken. What are some good ways to get the missing protein into his diet? Something tells me a glass full of of Hammer Nutrition’s Whey Protein isn’t going to go over too well!
I had a picky child and a child that would eat sushi, anchovies or anything with odd textures or smells. I say had, because essentially I explained to him why he had to eat what, and that like many other things in his 6-year old life that it wasn’t a choice and eventually he came around.
My mother made us eat what was given to us and to clean our plates. No discussions. She was a teenager in WWII Holland, and in the “hunger winter” of 1944 and 45 thousand’s of Dutch starved to death. To this day at family gatherings or at restaurants you can quickly see those who lived through the war (and most of their children) because they take only what they can eat, and leave NOTHING on the plate left over. That’s how it was in our house. Interestingly, the Dutch are some of the healthiest and longest-living peoples in the Western world.
Maybe discuss with him why he feels like he does, and what triggered those feelings. Go from there and see if you can work some compromise with him.
I had a picky child and a child that would eat sushi, anchovies or anything with odd textures or smells.
I assume you meant he wouldn’t eat those things. I’m not sure why this is a problem - I don’t eat anything with odd smells either
My mother made us eat what was given to us and to clean our plates. No discussions. She was a teenager in WWII Holland, and in the “hunger winter” of 1944 and 45 thousand’s of Dutch starved to death. To this day at family gatherings or at restaurants you can quickly see those who lived through the war (and most of their children) because they take only what they can eat, and leave NOTHING on the plate left over.
I fail to see the relevance… we’re not starving anymore. Of course people shouldn’t be “taking” more food than they can/want to eat but usually children aren’t determining the portion size.
Interestingly, the Dutch are some of the healthiest and longest-living peoples in the Western world.
I don’t think it’s because they’re all part of the clean plate club.
Maybe discuss with him why he feels like he does, and what triggered those feelings. Go from there and see if you can work some compromise with him.
Seems like the obvious compromise would be to eat a healthy diet from non-meat sources. Everyone wins.
There are no problem children Colin, only problem parents.
you, yes you, you know what the good book said, Don’t steal laddy!
tridork - who was doing the training? Seems like they got what they wanted didn’t they. Why do people have to eat meat? Let them be individuals.
My wife and I were doing the training.
We desired a particular behaviour (ie being good at the supermarket) and we got it. Most other parents also want good behaviour but ACTUALLY encourage bad behaviour by buying the badly behaving kid the candy at the checkout. You will note that the bulk candy we bought (and we slowly weened the kids off the expectation of the candy, but occassionally skipping past the bulk candy section) fromthe bulk isle was considerably less in quantity and price than the full size chocolate bars at the checkout. We got the desire behaviour, for less money and this eventually dropped off to next to nothing after they were trained.
We also had the added benefit of actually giving the kids less candy overall and that decreased over time as noted above. We would substitute other treats for the kids. Like telling them we would take them to the library (even though we would have taken them there anyway :-). The added benefit was that with less candy, they were more likely to eat more of the “good” food that we also desired them to eat.
Pure genius really, even if I do say myself.
Why should kids be taught that they get something when they behave? They should behave for the simple reason that it’s expected of them. I understand that you got the desired behavior by giving them the candy, but you taught them that they always get a reward for being good. Life’s not like that. They should behave because you expect them to. If they don’t, then privileges are taken away. If my kids misbehave, then they go to bed early or they get something else taken away from them. They learn quickly.
To the original poster, I would discuss this with your family doctor. I know many people thing that vegetarian eating is more healthy, but in practice it’s often not.
D.
very good reference
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