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Vegetarian pre-teen questions


Pink Cherry Blossom

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Pink Cherry Blossom

Hi,

My 12yo DD has informed us that she would like to eat a vegetarian diet. We are fine with this, just need to do some planning around meals and substitutions. My main concern is around nutrition and making sure she is getting adequate protein, iron etc.


Does anyone have any advice on easy meal ideas and how we can make sure she gets all the nutrients she needs for her growing years?


Thanks

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Hi OP. As long as your daughter is willing to eat legumes, eggs, etc, she should be okay. But yes, a dietician would be an excellent investment to make sure she doesn't end up with any nutritional gaps.


My son is not vegetarian, but he eats very little meat. Won't even eat chicken (doesn't everyone like chicken??). So he's wound up with low iron, and is now on a supplement. He's also taking one for Vitamin D. I feel really bad that I wasn't able to solve this with food alone, but His Majesty is so fussy. We had to engage a dietician in the past, so his current fussiness is actually an improvement!


By contrast, I'm a lifelong vegetarian. My iron levels were always fine, until I went vegan. Now I take a multi that contains iron, a B12 chewable, and 2000IU of Vitamin D. All recommended by doctors. I haven't been able to eat enough protein (because vegan protein sources, like legumes, are also high in carbs, but I'm prediabetic so I can't eat much of those), so I've had to add vegan protein bars to my diet. We'll see how that goes. Bottom line is, being vegan isn't really a normal thing for us humans to do lol.


Hopefully, if your daughter is not so fussy, and she can rely on food alone. If she is fussy, that's even more reason to see a dietician who can work around those constraints - and perhaps even solve some of the fussiness!


Good luck with it all. :)

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Now I take a multi that contains iron, a B12 chewable, and 2000IU of Vitamin D. All recommended by doctors.

 

Can I ask which one? I tend to be low in iron and vitamin D, despite not being vegetarian or vegan, so this sounds like it would be really helpful.


I have a feeling DD is going to try going vegetarian or vegan at some stage, this is such a helpful conversation to prepare for if/when it happens.

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I would strongly suggest you take your DD to a nutritionist.

 

No don't see a nutritionist, see a dietitian. Dietitian's have a governing and registration board, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.


As DirtyStreetPie says, as long as they are happy to eat legumes, eggs and other proteins then they should be fine. I grew up vegetarian, I don't think I ate meat until I was 8-9 or so. We ate a lot of tofu, beans, chickpeas, eggs (I loooove tofu but my kid's won't eat it. I used to visit mum just to get her to cook me her tofu burger and wraps :lol: Funnily I don't like egg much at all, but mum use to add it to things so it didn't taste like egg is that makes sense. Because I was a fusspot child who only like plain fried eggs or her curried eggs on toast). I also had no idea that most mexican dishes had meat in them, the first time I ate nachoes and discovered it was made with meat I just about gagged :lol:


We eat a number of vegetarian meals during the week even though I am not one now. The kid's actually prefer my pumpkin and blackbean tacoes then chicken/beef ones.


[mention]DirtyStreetPie[/mention] I don't really like chicken. I will eat chicken breast but that's about the only part of the chicken. And usually is involves something to make it less, well chickeny flavored...

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Can I ask which one? I tend to be low in iron and vitamin D, despite not being vegetarian or vegan, so this sounds like it would be really helpful.


I have a feeling DD is going to try going vegetarian or vegan at some stage, this is such a helpful conversation to prepare for if/when it happens.

 

I take Blackmores Sustained Release multi. My iron level was only a bit low, and this multi was enough to address that - my last blood test showed normal levels.


For Vitamin D, I take Blackmores. Each one is 1000IU, and I take two of these.


For B12, I take one Blackmores chewable.


When I was vegetarian, I was able to have good levels of everything (except Vit D) without supplementation. So it is definitely possible to achieve good nutrition as a vegetarian. It was only going vegan that derailed this. Other vegans might get annoyed by me saying this, but being vegan isn't really a normal thing to do. It's not normal for us human animals to not consume the products of other animals. The vegan diet is incomplete, literally; there is no plant-based source of B12, and the only way to get it is via fortified foods (it's added to soy milk) or via supplementation.


In a nutshell, veganism needs to be managed very well! Vegetarianism is lot easier nutritionally, in my experience, because a low-GI veggo can at least eat cheese and eggs.

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Fair call to my comment on nutritionist, happy to be corrected - I too would like to say see a dietician. We took our little boy to a pediatric dietician at our local hospital as we are vegetarian and wanted to make sure we did it right for our son (he is now a teen meat eater by choice, but still enjoys tofu!!)


The reason I suggest this, your daughter is entering her teen years so its really important she get enough protein and iron plus other important vitamins, minerals and trace elements. Its really about getting some pointers, tips and suggestions to make sure her needs are met. Its about how to support her.


Dirty Street Pie, did you know it is common for diabetics to be B12 and Vit D deficient? I just mention this as you say you are pre-diabetic.

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Dirty Street Pie, did you know it is common for diabetics to be B12 and Vit D deficient? I just mention this as you say you are pre-diabetic.

 

No, I didn't! That's interesting. I'll look into it.

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I'm watching this thread, my 19 year old dd has dabbled in and out of vegetarianism for a few years, now she wants to again. I don't know many recipes but I also don't eat much meat as it gives me digestive problems. I'm ok with chicken and fish. Plus meat is expensive.

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I am a vegan dietitian.

Being vegetarian is relatively easy. Veganism is a bit harder.


We haven’t been vegan for all that long (2 years) but (mostly) vegetarian for quite a long time now.


I would look specifically for a dietitian skilled in vegetarian/vegan diets. Not all dietitians are equal.


May be able to assist with finding you one if you want to PM.

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I would strongly suggest you take your DD to a nutritionist.

 

No don't see a nutritionist, see a dietitian. Dietitian's have a governing and registration board, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.

 

I didn’t realise there was a difference! thanks for the info :)

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I would strongly suggest you take your DD to a nutritionist.

 

No don't see a nutritionist, see a dietitian. Dietitian's have a governing and registration board, anyone can call themselves a nutritionist.

 

I didn’t realise there was a difference! thanks for the info :)

 

All dietitians are nutritionists but not all nutritionists are dietitians.


Technically anyone can call themselves either a nutritionist or dietitian but only a qualified/registered dietitian can call themselves an Accredited Practising Dietitian.


There are ‘proper’ qualified nutritionists with a 3 year nutrition degree or masters in nutrition but there are a lot of people who do a 12 week woo course and call themselves a nutritionist.

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I was vegetarian from my pre-teen years until 27. If your child is not a fussy eater and will eat a good variety of fruit, veg, legumes and things like tofu, eggs and some dairy products they shouldn't end up lacking in anything. I was vegetarian through two pregnancies and never had any issues. When I had DD all of a sudden I wanted red meat of all things (steak or burgers ha!). So now I am mostly vegetarian but eat red meat about once a week. I don't like chicken or fish at all. DP also used to be vegetarian, but our kids all eat meat.


I agree seeing a dietician is a good idea, just to reinforce the variety of foods they need to eat. The message is generally better received when it's delivered by someone other than Mum or Dad!

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I've been vegetarian for over 40 years, since I was an early teen. My son was a vegetarian from birth. At 12 your daughter is old enough to be involved in making healthy food choices so I would take her to a dietician and then let her work with you to design a menu that meets her nutritional needs. It would be great if she could gain the skills needed to maintain a healthy diet.

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  • 3 weeks later...

I'm almost a life long vego.

I kinda agree re the dietitian. My only hesitation is that I've been to one amazing one and three completely useless ones. One literally just read the fodmap diet book to me. So not all are created equal.


The dietitian I saw who was fantastic, I believe was involved with the Sanitarium people recipe guide.


https://www.sanitarium.com.au/recipes

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