A question for the vegetarian/vegan mamas

We've been doing BLW and as I don't eat meat or fish she has never had them. But her nursery menu is literally all meat apart from fish once a fortnight! They said they can give her frozen veggie burgers/sausages but I'm not sure if that's any better or worse than them giving her the meat options. I'm assuming although it's often home cooked the meat won't be the best quality. If I was going to give her meat I'd choose organic grass fed/oily fish etc, rather than stuff like gammon and chicken dippers. Photo of the menu below.

I should add that no judgement at all. My vegan friend has given her boy everything from the start and that's worked for them.

I’m pescatarian so he’s also pesccy at home but baby allowed to have all foods in nursery and when we eat out

We’re vegan & nope we’re not. I did give him milk formula when he was diddy, but turns out he had cmpa anyway and it was awful 🙈 i do however plan to introduce eggs, i got a bit scared after the whole milk thing & haven’t done it yet, but I would like him to be able to have a bit of cake at a party when he’s older! So will revisit the milk one day… However it will not be something that he has at home. My bestie is vegan & so is her little girl since birth, never had milk eggs or meat & her nursery have actually worked with her to come up with a vegan option for every day that she is at nursery. I think im a bit out of it as my boy doesn’t go to nursery, ive always said at school i’d put him forward for veggie options & that’d be fine with me, but again, not at home. I can’t exactly control what he does at school ahaha, if he wants one of his mates chicken nuggets, what am I gonna do about it 😂 xx

I’m vegetarian but choosing not to raise baby as vegetarian. He eats a couple of servings of meat and fish a week. But also lots of beans, pulses, tofu and so on. So plenty of meat free meals. When he’s older I’ll chat to him about my choice and eating a balanced diet for the planet and considering animal welfare etc. It’s a personal preference and I think as long as you’re confident baby is getting what they need, it’s entirely up to the caregiver to share their diet or not. I’ve been judged by veggie friends for giving meat, but I’m sure as anything I’d have been judged by others for not! 🌱

Really interesting responses (and DMs!), thank you. I'm definitely going to continue feeding her veggie at home but I'm on the fence about nursery. I weirdly feel okay with the idea of "proper" food like roast chicken but not okay with the processed stuff like chicken dippers. I'd rather she has a veggie burger than a nugget as I don't think either are great nutritionally! Good point about her maybe grabbing other food anyway! I might compromise and say when I can pick her food it's veggie (so at home or restaurants) but at nursery then I'm okay with some meat. Annoyingly they couldn't offer anything better than the frozen veggie bits. I asked if she could have a vegetarian casserole with lentils or whatever when the others have chicken casserole but it was a firm no!

@Lauren this is exactly how i feel. Either way someone’s gonna say something. Noone is perfect and we do what we think is best. xx

@Kate Not to be a dramatic veggie, but I think this is so concerning! Your daughters nursery menu is so meat heavy, I can see why you’re not okay with it. All children should be offered a balanced diet, including plant based meals, and taught from day one about health and sustainability. At the bare minimum there should be alternatives available that are healthy and not ultra processed 🤯 As stated above, I do feed my son meat and yet I would be pretty disappointed with that offering from nursery. So easy to make a cheesy pasta, lentil cottage pie or bean chilli etc. at least once a week surely! Do they have an in-house cook? If so, maybe you could ask them to bulk cook some of the above? and replace their vegetarian sausages with a few portions of something else in their freezer 🙄

@Lauren It's a slightly unusual set up in that the nursery is in the grounds of a manor house that is now a care home. And they share a chef who cooks the same meals for the elderly residents as the children. So I'm stereotyping a bit here but I wonder if this kind of food is more aimed at the older people eating it? I completely agree. My husband (not veggie) is baffled they don't even have tomato pasta because it's an easy crowd pleaser!

That is quite a cool concept - I hope they take advantage and mix the ‘customers’! Shame about the knock on effect to the meals though. It sounds like you’ve explored it with them and I totally appreciate you’ll be wanting to keep a positive relationship and not want to upset the apple cart. It is such a shame though as it could not only benefit your daughter, but all of the children 🥲 I bet there are other parents who feel the same way, or certainly could be with a smidge of persuasion and discussion. I wonder if they nursery would be as unaccommodating if your dietary choice was for religious reasons or allergies 🤔

@Lauren Yes they mix, although I think mostly it's the preschoolers but the babies get involved a couple of times a month. I'm going to wait until she's started and then see if I can influence it. Weirdly the teatime menu is meat heavy again and it's so unnecessary. So like ham and cheese sandwiches. Why can't they just do cheese? Or a choice?!

Baby's can get low on iron so I'd always choose to serve meat as an extra option. Even if that meant it happening outside of the home🤷🏼‍♀️ Ham isn't a great option, as its not really that nutritious so I can agree with your point.

@Kate Good idea to wait until she’s settled! Just thinking, I can’t imagine they’re giving the elderly folk chicken dippers? 😂 surely surely they could do a bit of tomato pasta with a sprinkle of cheese on that day! I was wondering if tea time looked the same. Feels like they’re raising a pride of lions not babies 😅 Best of luck with it, hoping you can reach some sort of balance with them eventually!

Hi! Off topic but are they giving baby desserts after every meal at nursery or is that for the older kids? Not thinking about nursery just yet but just wondering if that’s the norm?

@fatma It's offered to all babies unless you opt out. I've said she can have a yoghurt or fruit as we don't do pudding at home.