Who is the Veggie Baby?
The Veggie Baby is my daughter Evelyn. She was born in May 2007, and she’s my first child.

Who are the Veggie Parents?
I’m Rachel, the Veggie Mummy. I’ve been a vegetarian since I was about 14. I normally work as a Midwife, but at the moment I’m on maternity leave, which should theoretically give me plenty of time to lovingly prepare wholesome, homecooked meals for the Veggie Baby.
My husband Newt is the Veggie Daddy, he’s been a vegetarian since he started University and financial strife forced him to make a choice between beer and meat. Beer won. No contest really.

Is there anyone else?
Well, there’s the Non-Veggie Grandma, a confirmed carnivore who would quite happily never eat another vegetable again, and who seems determined to coax the Veggie Baby to take meat off her plate in restaurants. The Veggie Baby remains disinterested though.
There are also two cats – Holly and Tiswas – who are still pretending that the Veggie Baby doesn’t really exist.

Why Veggie?
Well, for me, initially it was because I couldn’t bear the thought of killing lovely, fluffy animals for food. While I still don’t like the idea, there are lots of other factors that now influence my decision to boycott meat. For example, I dislike the conditions that many animals are kept in. Admittedly this is often not too much of a problem in the UK, particularly if you buy locally and know the farms etc etc. But not everyone can do that, and standards in other countries aren’t always as good as they are here – hence the cheaper meat.
Aside from moral issues, I don’t think I was ever that keen on meat. Some meat tastes good, I grant you. But I hated any food with bones in it, like fish; I hated fatty meat; I didn’t like pork, lamb, duck, turkey…the list goes on. So really, it was a no-brainer for me to become veggie.

Why are you forcing your child to become Vegetarian, can’t she make up her own mind when she’s older?
Sure she can. And she will. But until that point, she won’t eat meat. I can’t cook it anyway, so the risk of me poisoning her would be far too great!
But if you really think I’m being mean and horrible and forcing my views on her, before you email me about it, please take a moment to think about how you impose YOUR views on YOUR child. After all, from my point of view, you’re forcing them to eat meat, when in the future they may not want to. What about views on bedtime, how much TV they can watch, what clothes they wear. The fact is, children have little choice about many aspects of their lives, and all parents are going to impose their opinions on their children, food is just one of these things.

Can I link to the Veggie Baby’s blog?
But of course! That’s what blogs are all about.