"What do you mean he doesn't eat meat?"

Oh boy!  If you want a boat load of unsolicited child rearing advice, strange crazy looks, and a basic commentary on what it mean to "be American," just tell folks that you are raising your child a vegetarian.  I can't tell you how many times Josh and I have heard that question..."What do you mean he doesn't eat meat?"  You would think we are killing our son by the looks we get from people.

But yes, readers, Noah is a vegetarian.
And yes, it is by our choice.  Because, well, he is 16 months old and he can't quite process that decision for himself yet.  Josh and I became vegetarians a little over a year ago.  We had done short spans of not eating meat before, but had just never made the full switch.  After spending a vacation in Boston with my brother and sister-in-law and deciding that we would eat vegetarian while there (Chad and Anna are vegetarians), we came home feeling better and ready to commit fully to the lifestyle.  There are a whole host of ethical reasons that play into our decision as well, but I won't go into those here.

So when it came time for Noah to start eating solids, we did lots of research about raising a kid vegetarian.  There are always concerns for iron levels, vitamin D, protein, etc. (whether vegetarian or not!) but the consensus seems to be that as long as you are paying attention to what you offer baby, his nutrition should be wonderfully healthy.  I am proud to say that Noah has never had low iron levels and clearly is growing well and is healthy without taking any sort of supplements!  He is also a fantastic eater.  I mean, the kid's first food was zucchini for goodness sake!  He loves fruits and vegetables, and eats tons of healthy vegetarian proteins like eggs, cheese, beans and even tofu!

I think the most ridiculous thing people say when they hear that Noah is a vegetarian is they typically look at Noah and say, "That's okay, Noah.  When mommy and daddy aren't looking I will give you a ________."  And it never fails that the blank there is filled with one of three meat items every...single...time: Hot Dog, Chicken Nugget or Steak.  Talk about commentary on American culture!  Let's choose the most processed meat products possible (if we can really even call most hot dogs and chicken nuggets meat) OR the biggest slab of meat possible that we can think of.  It's so silly, and we have grown to no longer take offense at the comments and instead just ignore them (and file away who not to leave our child with!).

Raising Noah a vegetarian really only gets difficult when we are out places.  We are positive he has had meat in some form already.  Between the potlucks and eating at restaurants, I am sure he has had something that's been cooked with chicken broth or sauteed in the same pan with meat.  But, for the most part it's pretty simple.  We have also found that there are tons of baby food products that have hidden meat in them.  Almost all of the baby yogurts and yogurt melts are not vegetarian, for example.

We have decided that when Noah is old enough to fully understand what it means to eat meat, he can make the decision for himself on whether he would like to try it.  And if he decides to go for it, we are happy to cook it for him.  But, it will be locally raised, organic, grass fed, free range, etc...and there might be a trip to the farm in store for him as well.  I know, we are such mean parents :) 

So folks, no, Noah does not eat meat, and all the animals on Old MacDonald's farm thank him for that!