Vegetarian dad fumes after mum feeds hungry toddler 'pasta with meat'

The parents fell out after the mum purposefully served her hungry son from a dish containing meat, despite their choice to raise the toddler on a vegetarian diet

A mum has defended her choice to feed her vegetarian son pasta from a dish containing meat after her husband slammed her decision. The parent, who is also vegetarian, explained her rationale in a post to Reddit after she ended up in an argument with her partner. According to the mum, her vegetarian husband is against feeding the tot meat without his "informed consent".

Initially, she wanted to let the child decide if he wants to be vegetarian when he's older, but she ultimately "compromised" with her partner. "Since neither of us know how to cook meat I compromised and was like whatever, he'll be vegetarian until he chooses otherwise if he wants," she wrote.

However, they ended up needing to make a decision sooner than they anticipated after the 16-month-old child, who is a "picky eater", asked for a meat dish on holiday. The mum said her son started refusing to eat any food she offered him except "packaged baby snacks" and that he was "getting agitated from being hungry." As such, she was willing to feed him from a dish containing meat when he reached for it.

Recalling the moment, the mum claimed: "Day 1 in the country, we're on a boat, island hopping. My fam provided a few trays of veggie stir fries and of course, my boy won't eat anything. Tried offering bread, and no go. Later in the night, one of the other kids on the boat is eating spaghetti with chunks of some meat in it. My boy reached for it crying (pasta is one of his few foods he's okay with). My husband pulls him away saying no no you can't eat that. I say, the boy wants to eat the food, let's feed him. I get a bowl of the pasta and remove all the chunks of meat.

"My husband is yelling at me, asking me why. I stated well we always said he can choose to eat other foods and he was crying reaching for said food. He said 'Well if he was reaching for marbles would you hand him that?'. Then said he refused to feed him, I had to, and took him off his lap." She added: "In the end, my boy finished it and was finally happy (no longer hungry) and my husband sat furiously texting on his phone and refusing to speak to me the rest of the night."

In response to the post, titled "I gave my toddler pasta with meat in it when we're a vegetarian family", several commenters struggled to understand the dad's response. One person wrote: "Your husband is unreasonable and ridiculous. You didn't feed the kid meat, just pasta that you pulled meat out of." A second said: "With children of all ages there's only one core principle when it comes to food - fed is best," and another pointed out: "You weren't in a situation where you had a lot of choices and your child's well being should come first."

Do you have a story to share? Email [email protected]

Serve the food you really want to eat by signing up for our tips and recipes and never be bored by your cooking again