Vegetarians feeding EGGS to toddlers

I come from a pure vegetarian family. I don't eat eggs even in cakes. But when my daughter was very young (around 3, now she's close to 6) I used to give her hard-boiled egg thrice a week to improve her weight based on her pediatrician's advise . Egg has colin which is great for the little brains, egg has balanced amino acids which we don't get it lentils unless we complement it with some grains.

In recent few years, I have stopped giving or even bringing eggs home due to religious reasons. I felt that its not necessary for me to feed egg to my DD if I have other choices. She drinks 16 oz of milk and takes curd in atleast one meal, we eat dhal/tofu almost everyday and ofcourse whole grains. That compensates her protein/calcium requirement. And 4 to 5 servings of fruits/veggies takes care of iron, zinc and other vitamins and minerals. As a matter of fact, she herself refuses to eat egg or egg based foods these days.

Now its your choice. There's nothing good or bad in giving egg to kids. Its just another form of food. Even my parents who are hardcore vegetarians themselves, tell me to give egg everyday to my little one, because of the nutrition richness in egg. If you don't feel like giving eggs, then match it up with other protein/vitamin rich foods.

-Uma

Redapple:
The secret to getting enough protein is to balance your proteins. Meat and eggs are naturally balanced so they are very effective protein sources. (By the way...chickens produce eggs daily when they are laying whether or not the egg has been fertilized so one can eat unferilized eggs with no possibility of interfering with a life.) It is possible to balance vegetarian meals but you must use several sources of protein in order to do that. An example: idlis made of urad dal and rice is a good protein source but add a glass of buttermilk or a bowl of curd to that meal and it will be much better. Dairy added to vegetarian protein meal is very helpful to balancing protein. Its my opinion that one shoudl have at least one protein meal a day where things are well balanced and then the other two meals can be less stringent. The USDA recommends for an adult woman to have for protein 2 servings a day and one serving would consist of about 100 g of meat or 2 eggs or one cup (250ml) of cooked beans. Then add the other items to balance if you are eating the beans such as wheat roti, rice, dahi, etc. (go for three sources)

Indians do not reach their genetic height potential so some attention on this should be followed. Also there are other ramifications: Indian women reach menopause on average at age 44 and western women reach menopause at average age 55...this is due to difference in protein consumption.