Vegetarianism in childhood

[dharma_rebel]

Does anyone have an explanation to this?  Why does a child become vegetarians without a cause?  I mean, they didn't know anything about animal rights yet, as adult vegetarians do.  Is it just simply a difference in taste buds? Maybe.

Maybe a texture thing? Even today (at 32) I can't eat yogurt. I just can't stand the feel of it in my mouth. Same with jello and pudding. Blech. Ground beef? Weird texture.

Also, even when I ate meat, I couldn't touch it before it was cooked. Nasty, slimy, raw muscle. Sooooooo gross. Or maybe I'm just really weird. Okay, I'm really weird.

[spooky2012]

I say a texture thing. I actually became more bothered by textures as an adult (I went veg at 15) than I was as a child (I was the most non-picky child on the planet). It could also be a flavor thing. My mom remembers when my sister was a baby, her screaming bloody murder when given baby food chicken. I guess it just depends on the kid.

I was and still am the only vegetarian in my family, and it was weird at first, but now we have it figured out and we just go with it.

[buffalogirl]

I grew up wuth a vegetarian mother but she cooked meats for us...she always made the comment that vegetarianism is a personal choice and that she'd not force it upon us...i didnt change my eating habits until i just couldnt take being sick anymore, and i mean literally sick.  Redmeats have me in the bathroom for hours (sorry to be graphic).  But when i became pregnant i changed my diet completely...cooked meats were the first things i could not be around while PG...When my son was born i made the same decision as my mom, let him make his own decisions.  He tends to just mimic me and will choose veggies over meat.  He will actually spit out his chicken and eat my salad instead or his veggies (nothing im advocating here!) ..they test his protein lvls @ the docs and it's perfect... Again, i think with children most of the time they are a product of their enviroment and will tend to mimic their parents..and no, i dont spit out my chicken lol...

[tldx]

This was an issue that I stressed over during my pregnancy.  I am a strong believer that vegetarianism is a personal choice and that it would be wrong to force it on my child but at the same time how can something so important to me be cast aside?  Eventually I started polling everyone I knew, vegetarians and meat eaters alike, just to get their input.  Oddly enough, the only person who told me to feed my daughter meat was a vegan!  (We carefully avoided asking the grandparents for their opinions because they still give me a hard time for being veg).So we’re a vegetarian household, except for the cats.  My daughter is 7 ½, only a foot shorter than I am and as healthy as anyone could hope for.  She loves food and begs to help in the kitchen and seems to have a real grasp of nutrition.  I think that I made the right choice.

As for kids who won’t eat meat…I was one of them.  Long before I’d even heard the word vegetarian or understood where that meat on my plate came from, I’d eat around it.  It was a combination of taste and texture.  I did eat sausage, but dreaded chicken and simply would not touch steak or pork.  Apparently that aversion didn’t hurt me, despite the fact that my parents didn’t know what to do to supplement my protein, but I did resent my parents attempts to force me to eat foods that I really disliked.

[CraftyChef]

In my chef days, I found more people who couldn't stand the taste or texture of veggies than meat. Legumes? Yuck, for most people. Soy? If they could stand the taste they couldn't stand the gas. It's not just a one-way street. There are plenty of vegans who don't like every vegetable, too. There's one of everything round the dining table!

[rubylynns]

My husband and I very rarely eat meat, typically only if we are out to eat, and have many vegan meals a weeks. My son is 2 and I was torn like a few of you personal choice or make him.  In our case when he turned 2 I decided I'd let him try some meat and he won't touch it.  I'm fine with that, as he gets older if he chooses to eat meat I will let him. I won't touch raw meat though, so we never cook with it, and that's not going to change.  I don't know that he will ever eat meat at home.  I've never really ate any meat either.  I honestly don't think I've ever ate hamburger.  When i was younger the only meat I would eat is chicken breast and still if I do eat meat that's all I will eat.