Do you feed your baby meat?

clairmeij

I'm just really curious to see how many people feed their babies meat at this age!

nikel13

Meat purees freak me out and Lily doesn't have the teeth yet to have meat.  We'll wait until she gets some teeth.

llbta85

We regularly eat fish so she gets that and I buy organic chicken noodle soup so she gets a little from that but its nothing significant. 

ASmallWonder

I've given him the stage 2 apples and chicken.  He (just like DS1) didn't like the chunky stage 3s and he's just starting to pick up food and put it in his mouth.  I'll probably start letting him have more finger foods soon.

JANCANDANCE

I give her chicken if we are eating it. But not a purée. If I wouldn't eat it I won't give it to her lol.

needanustart

We have been adding ground turkey minced into tiny pieces to his veggies at dinner for the last week.

He has no instinct to chew so he is gagging/choking every night! It is kind of freaking me out but the pieces are so small they can't really get stuck, he is just getting use to it. I'm not sure if there is a better solution than practice? He enjoys the act of eating, just presumes everything is puree and swallows it whole. DS1's instinct was to chew so we didn't have this problem...

momofcatan

Also weirded out by meat purees (especially since I would need to make them myself since we keep kosher). I've given her pieces of chicken she chewed on from my finger and spoon fed her smal shredded pieces of beef from a strew. @nickel13 I really don't think you need to wait for teeth, FWIW I just met a 14 month old with still no teeth...

momofcatan

@steamboat1679 not rude at all. We keep 100% kosher, we only eat out at kosher certified restaurants (and only at people's houses if they keep kosher). Luckily in our city there is a decent selection, but it can make traveling more difficult.

clairmeij

We have done ground beef and chicken to add to his meals he really loves beef, especially when we mix it with sweet potato or parsnips. He also loves grilled chicken which I slice very thinly and pull apart to tiny pieces. He does pretty well chewing those.

clairmeij

CatalinaPink said:

We've let him have a go at beef, chicken, turkey and pork. Yesterday we gave him some meat purée, about a spoonful mixed with his peas, and he seemed to like it. I made DH try it and he said it tasted like tuna, so I don't think I'll be buying more.

Its really easy to make - we used minced beef and cook it then throw it in and some water in a blender until its smooth. We freeze it in ice cube trays. It takes about 30 minutes to make enough for many meals.

KacyChicago

I pureed some poached chicken, and he wasn't a fan of the texture of it plain ... But mixed with some sweet potato or squash, he was all over it. So I made some meals of chicken/mango/rice/curry powder and chicken/carrots/potatoes/rosemary. I hope those will go over better than the meat alone. We will only give him poultry, and eventually fish.

Western Diva

C's had turkey, chicken, pork and beef. I roast the meat then baby bullet it. It just kind of finely shreds it, then I mix it in with veggies like squash or sweet potatoes. It's really easy and I can freeze the leftovers in a tray.

A dietition I'd spoken with had recommended making their meat rather than buy it if you can, from a quality point of view. I'm not trying to say not to buy meat baby food and I've certainly used it with DS1, just conveying what I was told. Once they're older it's easy to shred up meat from your plate for them to eat as finger food.

Western Diva

Bump burp

amie444

I give her a piece of what we are having.  She has 1 tooth and she just gnaws or sucks  on it.  She has had steak, chicken, pork, turkey slices are her favorite.  But she pretty much eats what we are eating. 

KEK1025

Hmm our pedi said we would discuss adding meet at our 9 month appointment.  I don't remember at all when we introduced it to DS.  Regardless she isn't ready as she chokes on puffs and only eats purees once a day.  I really need to step up my game when it comes to solids.

kelly422

JANCANDANCE said:

I give her chicken if we are eating it. But not a purée. If I wouldn't eat it I won't give it to her lol.

If I went by this philosophy, LO wouldn't eat barely anything!  I've made her tons of baby food from fruits and veggies and I don't like most of it.  I'm suuuuper picky though

Mufflerlove

What size pieces do you give your LOs? I know most of you say shredded but I feel like I need a visual.

BC&LM

Yes, we have done turkey once, and chicken like four times.  We will do chicken again soon probably.  (We do it all homemade.)

cafecreme

She gets meat maybe every other day. Me and DH try not to eat meat everyday (no reason why, we just get tired of it) We only eat chicken and turkey, sometimes I eat fish, and on special occasions we order beef when we go out. No pork- we hate it. 

BC&LM

I know a lot of people said they are freaked out by meat purees.  Quite frankly, I think meat purees on their own are kind of icky.  But don't forget, you can mix things together: turkey and apples, chicken and apples, etc.  Our LO loves it mixed with other stuff, but I doubt he would like it alone.

chelsmcl

I mix puréed chicken with her veggies, she seems to like it.

clairmeij

BC&LM said:

I know a lot of people said they are freaked out by meat purees.  Quite frankly, I think meat purees on their own are kind of icky.  But don't forget, you can mix things together: turkey and apples, chicken and apples, etc.  Our LO loves it mixed with other stuff, but I doubt he would like it alone.

This exactly. Its never occurred to me to give him the meat puree by itself, but now that you mention it, I think a lot of parent's don't mix foods much at the beginning.

clairmeij

Mufflerlove said:

What size pieces do you give your LOs? I know most of you say shredded but I feel like I need a visual.

For me, about the size of one of his fingernails.

PinkPuffyHeart2

I buy the chicken or turkey mixed with veggie jarred baby food or I let her have some organic sliced turkey and she does well with that.

Greywolf12

LO gets meat once a day, either chicken or steak. I cook it and then put it in the food processor without any liquid (more appetizing that way!) I mix it with a mashed up veggies and she loves it.

HeartLikeMine3

I just tried the turkey, sweet potato with whole grains and he loves it. So yes I've just introduced it a couple times.

HelgaFunk

I treat OJ (my LO) like a little bird and will kind of chew some pieces and then give it to her. So far she loves pork chops and chicken.

momofcatan

@helgafunk I'm not flaming, but you should know that it is not a great ideas to feed babies that way. It is a lot easier for them to get sick from all of the bacteria in our mouths (compared to an adult). One of my friends in a food science major and gave me a whole lecture about this... I'm not perfect and still let DD share my apple or glass of water, but thought I should put it out there.

Beaslejl

At our 6 month appointment we had to meet with a new doctor due to schedules. She was very old school in her thoughts on feeding. She told me to begin introducing meat now, and I was like whoa well we only just started solids...

So I'll introduce it when we get to it. It's just been a slow process of introducing foods for us. We aren't in a rush.

Western Diva

Introducting meat first isn't old school. That's what's recommended by Ontario - it's the best way for them to get iron. Their iron store from the womb run out around 6 months so they need food rich in iron to replace it. ">

hjk5000

Sam likes little strips of turkey and chicken, but I only give it to him when I've already made that for dinner. After trying and trying with DS1 I'm never doing meat purees again.

hjk5000

clairmeij said:

Mufflerlove said:

What size pieces do you give your LOs? I know most of you say shredded but I feel like I need a visual.

For me, about the size of one of his fingernails.

Did you mean like the width of the shred is the width of his finger? That's about the size I make them anyway @mufferlove

Beaslejl

@WesternDiva  I wasn't saying starting with meat was old school but her beliefs on food in general. Sorry for the word confusion on my part. She was telling me it was time to begin weaning my baby off of formula.  That starting at 6 months you begin trying to take them off (slowly of course) formula. And she was insisting that it was time I begin doing that and feeding her meat.  I personally don't think we are ready for that. But Iron was her reason for insisting on the meat. We will get to it.  We are doing an iron fortified cereal as well right now. So I think she'll be fine until we build her foods up to that.....

chelsmcl

@WesternDiva I think Canada pushes the idea of giving meat right away more so it seems way more normal here.

No longer the best

I was also told to start with meat and foods with iron (here in Ontario). 

GraceInCA

araziza said:

@helgafunk I'm not flaming, but you should know that it is not a great ideas to feed babies that way. It is a lot easier for them to get sick from all of the bacteria in our mouths (compared to an adult). One of my friends in a food science major and gave me a whole lecture about this... I'm not perfect and still let DD share my apple or glass of water, but thought I should put it out there.

From what I've read, the science supports the opposite notion - premastication is probably good for babies (as is cleaning their paci in your mouth). Here's a brief article about it, with a couple of links to studies.

https://health.usnews.com/health-news/blogs/eat-run/2013/05/21/should-you-pre-chew-your-babys-food

It seems like some thought that poor dental health of mom could spread to the baby, but even that seems to have been debunked (read a study, forgot where it's from - I think Oxford).

momofcatan

@zigsperspective I think it's one of those things where more exposure = more risk. Just because you give a kiss or share something once doesn't mean she's automatically immune to all the bacteria in your mouth (And pre-chewing food is like giving them a ball of your saliva). I will admit I don't know 100% what I'm talking about, just trying to pass along the info I received from someone I trust as knowledgable.

HelgaFunk

araziza said:

@helgafunk I'm not flaming, but you should know that it is not a great ideas to feed babies that way. It is a lot easier for them to get sick from all of the bacteria in our mouths (compared to an adult). One of my friends in a food science major and gave me a whole lecture about this... I'm not perfect and still let DD share my apple or glass of water, but thought I should put it out there.

Meh, I don't stress too much about it. I'm not slobbering all over it and my parents, grandparents, and the ones before all did it. I guess it's kind of a country thing that I grew up with. That doesn't mean that it might be the safest thing in the world but there are way worse parenting decisions I could be making at this point.

Western Diva

@Beaslejl said:

@WesternDiva  I wasn't saying starting with meat was old school but her beliefs on food in general. Sorry for the word confusion on my part. She was telling me it was time to begin weaning my baby off of formula.  That starting at 6 months you begin trying to take them off (slowly of course) formula. And she was insisting that it was time I begin doing that and feeding her meat.  I personally don't think we are ready for that. But Iron was her reason for insisting on the meat. We will get to it.  We are doing an iron fortified cereal as well right now. So I think she'll be fine until we build her foods up to that.....

Gotcha!