Monday, May 11, 2009

Vegetarian Baby?

How do you raise a vegetarian baby? Our plan is to feed Logan extraordinary amounts of meat until he implodes. Just kidding (in case you couldn't tell). Our plan to make Logan a vegetarian, or flexitarian as I like to think of myself (hey, I had to try the new KFC grilled chicken the other day) is to allow Logan to have whatever the heck he will eat, and then hope that our influence as his parents leads him down the path that we've chosen for ourselves (and not so secretly for him). With that said, Logan enjoyed some juicy chunks of cheeseburger yesterday at the Mother's Day festivities. Carly and I were happy that we found another source of protein that Logan seems to like to eat; however, now we have to buy meat and shop for it and cooking it isn't pleasant for us anymore--the power of conditioning, I guess. But we'll suffer through the aroma and satisfying texture of meat because of love. We love Logan and want him to grow up big, strong, and hearty. As long as the fire is hot enough, it doesn't matter what the fuel is, right? Anyway, ideally, of course, we'd like Logan to eat the same things we do but for now, he gets anything he wants except excessive sweets and all the processed crap out there. We are trying the whole reverse psychology thing. If we were to force a vegetarian diet on our baby, I think he'd end up rebelling eventually and be the biggest carnivore on the planet. But if we take the moderate path and let him eat meat then hopefully he'll become conscious of the food he eats and someday come to the same ethically-based conclusions we have. And if not, well, we'll be able to live with that.

1 comment:

AAWG said...

I think you're doing a great job. It's called "give my kid the most natural, whole foods possible & let his body tell him what it needs." You may both be vegetarians, but you seem to be flexible and understanding of others dietary needs.

I would suggest maybe buying a bit of ground beef or ground turkey, mixing it up with a little salt, pepper, garlic powder, parsley & bread crumbs. Make teeny Logan-sized patties & freeze them, then just pull one out for lunch or dinner, bake it or pop it in a foreman grill for him. OR - they have great all-natural kids chicken nuggets at Costco. You can pop 'em in the toaster oven for 7-10 minutes. That way, you don't have to get too-involved in the meat aspect, and stay out of the heavily-processed crap all together.

Good luck! Stay flexible and he will make up his own mind as he gets older. (Also, if you & Carly are genetically disposed to being lean & not requiring or craving much protein, he, by nature, probably will be too.)