"Mom, I'm not eating meat anymore." It's entirely possible that your grade schooler has already made this declaration of dining independence—or may in the near future. While the data is scarce, recent polls suggest that 6 to 10 percent of children age 6 and older don't eat meat or are self-declared vegetarians. And some experts think this is a trend. "In my twenty years working with schools, I've seen an escalation in kids making vegetarian meal choices," says Connie Evers, MS, RD, a child-nutrition consultant (www.nutritionforkids.com) and the author of How to Teach Nutrition to Kids.

Why are kids going meatless? New research from Harvard University indicates that most school-age vegetarians do so for moral reasons ("I don't like the idea of killing animals") rather than health or social ones.

It's hard enough to get dinner on the table every night after work, so you may not relish fixing a separate vegetarian meal. But your veggie kid could have strong feelings and convictions about this, so be positive when you discuss it, suggests Evers. Ask why she's made this choice and, importantly, what foods she plans to omit from her diet. For nutrition reasons, you should know the four levels of vegetarianism: a flexitarian diet includes dairy, eggs and occasionally meat, poultry and fish; lacto-ovo, dairy and eggs; lacto, dairy but not eggs; and vegan, food of plant origin only. "Most kids decide on lacto-ovo and above," says Evers, "but if yours is vegan, you must make sure she gets calcium and vitamin D with-out dairy food."

Serve your family things like veggie burgers instead of meat ones, vegetable lasagna and other meatless pasta and rice-and-bean dishes. Other times your veggie kid can eat just side dishes. She'll get plenty of protein from whole-grain rice, a vegetable and a salad with added beans, along with milk, soy milk or yogurt. Also serve cheese or baked beans on the side. And offer fortified breakfast cereals—"which are like taking a multivitamin pill," says Evers.

The good news: "Vegetarian kids usually have a diet that's closer to the USDA food pyramid, which now features more plant-based nutrients," says Evers. "So if you gear meals toward your vegetarian child even a little, your whole family will probably eat more healthfully." What a delicious thought! 

The Right Food Stuff
Here, basic nutrients a vegetarian diet might fall short on and where to find them, from Connie Evers, MS, RD.