Hazel decided to raise her daughter Connie on a plant based diet, so she shares her top tips for bringing up a child as a vegetarian.

Vegan on Female First

Vegan on Female First

'I've been vegetarian for life and my partner decided to go veggie when my daughter Connie was born, so we are bringing her up as vegetarian. We're exploring new foods together while trying to make sure we all get a balanced and varied diet. We love family meal times and we're always looking to find more quick, go-to healthy meals and snacks we can enjoy that fit in to our hectic family life.'

My top tips:

  1. We followed a baby led weaning approach and thoroughly enjoyed getting to watch our little girl develop skills for feeding herself week by week, picking up various different textured foods, and eventually mastering a bowl and spoon.
  2. It's very important to me that my daughter eats well, and that I know what ingredients are in her food. So to start with I made everything myself, trying out different fruits and vegetables in stick shapes, then moving on to some carbs like thick porridge sticks, pasta and toast.
  3. Life with a little one can be hectic and as my little girl mastered holding her own food I started to try out a few shop bought baby foods for convenience. I was delighted to find how few ingredients were in the Organix finger foods, so their foods seemed perfect for us and became a staple part of our weekly shop! They are also suitable for vegetarians which is great.
  4. Being vegetarian- I want to make sure our family get a balanced and varied diet. I make a pancake batter with whole wheat flour, then add a big handful of fresh spinach and blend it up. It makes lovely bright green pancakes and my little girl loves them. I make a big batch and freeze them to make a quick easy snack.
  5. Weaning and introducing new foods can be a bit worrying, but we try to relax and let our little girl be our guide. We don't force her to eat anything and we make sure meals are relaxed and fun occasions.
  6. Our little girl loves to play with her green veggies but never quite eats them on their own (although we do keep trying) so instead we make soups, curries and those spinach pancakes which she loves.
  7. She loves mushrooms, so I chop up the whole box and roast them all and she munches her way through them over a few days.
  8. We make a vegetable, quinoa and lentil soup, and a lentil and chickpea curry every week or so. Because they are nice and thick, our little girl has managed them really well by herself, even before she mastered the spoon! Quinoa and vegetable patties are also a favourite.
  9. Yoghurt has the bonus of being thick, which has really helped our little one to feed herself. At first we handed her the spoon loaded up with yoghurt and she would wave it around for a while before it got near her mouth. The Greek yoghurt was so thick meant it stayed on the spoon and survived a great deal of waving without spilling! Although there have been a few mishaps- all part of the messy fun of weaning!
  10. We've joined the Organix No Junk Journey, which is providing lots of support, advice and recipes to try so we can help our daughter explore and enjoy good food.

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