Any tips for converting my 4 year old to vegetarianism?

maybe start to introduce vegie sausages and things like that if she eats that kind of food, Frys brand (stocked at woolies) do some really good imitation foods

I stopped at 13 of my own accord..I am the only vegetarian in my family and at 30 i'm still going strong.. I do however believe that people have their own choice. You don't want rebellion or resentment issues later from your kids! Feed them a mixture of meat and veggie stuff..educate them and explain to them when they are a bit older but leave the choice to them..they may want to be 'like mummy' but it has to be their choice..good luck with it and well done on converting yourself

OMG! i tried Frys chicken style pattys and I SWEAR it looked and tasted like chicken



Congrats by the way!

I would suggest the mock meats if they love meat. Sanitarium make some delish fake sausages, especially a  sun-dried tomato and olive one!  


at 4 I think she would understand if you explain it kindly, I have a four year old niece myself

I know this has worked before on a 5 year old boy  :  Say " Mummy doesnt eat meat because meat comes from animals and I love them too much to eat them. To eat them they must die.  Do you want to eat meat or eat the yummy stuff mummy eats? "

Just tell them the truth, but sugar coat it for their innocence

Kids are naturally more compassionate and I sure she wouldn't like to know meat is animals

I wouldn't feed her meat, if you've made the choice ethically or morally to avoid meat then you probably know better than a 4 year old not to eat the same thing as the majority of society because it's "normal". If she's as compassionate as you she'll thank you for her dietary changes when she's older and if she wants to eat meat later in life she can make her own educated choices! Anyway meats not the healthiest food around!

Pastas a pretty easy food kids seem to like, there's some good ones out there involving tomatoes n cashews for a creamy sauce (blender required)

Start reading blogs! They give you so many ideas.

I've found with kids as long as the meal itself doesn't look foreign or alien, and has a good taste, they'll hoe it down!

this particular blog is great because it's about 'vegan dad' who cookes for his wife and kids - most of the meals are easy (obviously) and he usually puts a note in about whether or not his kids enjoyed it!

http://vegandad.blogspot.com


Apart from that, as said above - the easiest way would be mock meats, although this could probably get expensive depending on your circumstances (ie. Single, multiple children, one party jobless, low income etc)

Quorn has a fun packaging and is pretty kid friendly, then you can accompany it with pretty average sides like peas and mash - at first anyway, after that just test their boundaries, and you will work out what they like and don't like

I'm like you, I converted late in life, I'm a stay at home dad who does the cooking & shopping etc. for my wife & 5 year old daughter and had to convert them also.  One of the best things you can do (in my humble opinion) is to get your 4 year old to help you.  I take my daughter shopping at both the supermarket and farmers market where she gets to taste all the samples of fresh produce, then she gets to choose some special things for dinner.  Try forgetting to put something in your basket and then when your a little bit away from the item send them to get it, it helps them remember what each veggie is and talk about all the different things you could make with that one thing.  Also when shopping we occasionally look at some of the meat & I tell her what part of the animal it was such as "this was a baby lambs leg or a sheep's heart". I'm not trying to sicken her in any way I just think it helps to keep it in perspective, I then usually go on with something like "I don't like killing animals so I would rather have some nice yummy roast veggies" etc.

My daughter also helps quite a lot with the cooking, we let her "taste" as we're preparing so she gets to try everything raw and cooked.  There will be some things that your child won't like, when my daughter says she doesn't like something (like mushrooms at the moment) we talk about it and compromise, she promises to try everything with an open mind, we try cooking the item different ways so she can understand that perhaps it's not "the mushroom" she doesn't like, it's just "the mushroom" cooked that way that she doesn't like but if she really decides that she doesn't like it, we don't force her to eat it but we will try it again a few months later as we have taught her that as she grows up her taste buds will change and some of the things that she didn't like before she might now like, but again we don't force anything, it's fairly well recognised that children will turn away new foods up to 10 times before they feel familiar with them so just keep trying and remember a mushroom isn't worth an argument.

Finally I don't stop her from eating meat.  I don't buy it or cook it in our house but if she goes over to her friends house and is offered meat it is her choice, she know my feelings. My wife was "denied" meat as a child, her father didn't allow her to eat it at all so she rebelled when she was a teenager and became a meat eater, fortunately now were all veg's.

If I can offer anymore help feel free to contact me.

Just slowly phase out the meat products. Change the sausages to vegetarian sausages, start introducing a lot more vegies into the diet, things like that. Even if you made like mashed potato with mushrooms, zucchini and pumpkin in it, that they can eat that while they're younger.
It shouldn't be too hard. Just explain to them that you don't like eating animals because they're your friends, and say to them, 'you wouldn't want to eat your friends, would you?' And hopefully that'll stay with them. And when they're older, they'll be able to understand the reason why you don't eat meat.

You sound like an excellent father! Kudos for you!

Sorry haven't read all the posts... might be repeating..

Get him or her involved in the process, start a veggie patch and get them excited about vegetables, cooking vegetarian food etc.