First Meats to Feed (And How?)

I bought some soups with meat in them (chix noodle, beef/veggie) and used the meats from there, they're super tender (you may want to rinse them as they CAN (but not always are) be a little salty. My daughter liked the tenderness of them as well as the extra flavor.

Hi R.,

Here are some web sites:

http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/meats.htm

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=2008072217215...

Hope this helps.

My daugther's pediatrician gave me a recipe for "Chicken Soup Dinner" when she was about 9 months.

Try to use as much organic food as possible.
Boil a Whole Chicken then when it is cooked separate all the meat and reserve the broth.
Cooked white rice - about 2 cups
Cooked Carrots - just add what you think looks good, same with the peas
Cooked Green Peas

Blend all the ingredients together, adding broth as needed, until pureed.

This recipe makes a ton of food that can be frozen in ice cube trays. I would start with one meal a day and see how it goes. Her doctor said she could have this three times a day every day! She loved it and I can't wait to make it again for my 6 month old!

Rachel,

We started with chicken when DD was about 8.5/9 months old. We're doing a modified version of baby led weaning so I just gave her small (pea sized) pieces of the chicken she was desperately trying to rip out of my hand and of my plate.

She's a few days shy of 11 months old now and has had chicken, ham, turkey, and a small bit of hot dog (which was a huge, huge hit) all introduced in the same manner.

S.

Hi R., To be honest IMO I do not think it is nessassary to start any baby on meat. All three of my girls did not eat meat or really any type of junk food (cakes, fries, nuggets etc) until they were over the age of 2 except for their first "smash" cake. I think it has benefitted them in the long run. When we introduced meats we started with chicken, turkey, fish, pork then beef. Our girls as a result (I think) eat leaner, healthier, better portions of meats on their own now that they are older. Great food habits & choices start with not only the first veggies & fruits, but how long you can control and maintain those standards. Best wishes & good luck!

I started out with meats around this same time, I think my son was around 9 months. I started with the number 2 (Gerber) chicken and gravy, and gave him a small amount every few days. He seemed to like it but I couldn't stand the smell! I ended up making my own, adding small amounts of unseasoned chicken breast (I either baked or cooked in a crockpot) and juice or gravy (I used the instant kind that you add water to) in a processor until I got a consistency that looked good for him, making sure there were no long 'strings' of pieces. I tried turkey too but I think he might have been a little bit allergic at first, because he always got a little bit of a diaper rash after eating it! (We do occasionally eat turkey now at 2 yrs. and he's fine with it now) I held off on red meat until he was closer to a year, doing the same thing with roast beef. We started small bits of cod fish and tuna also around 1 year.

I would use your Magic Bullet and puree the meat you are serving for supper. Chicken is a good starter, because the flavor isn't too strong. Turkey would be easy, too. But I wouldn't worry so much about which comes when, just be sure that whatever you're serving is cooked all the way through. :-) When you puree the meat, it will be kind of lumpy and dry. You can add water, or mix it into the veggies or something. The other thing you can do, is puree the meat, then add a bit of water and put the extra into an ice cube tray to freeze it. Then you have meal-sized portions you can take out for days when you are eating pizza or something spicey that you don't want to puree for your daughter. (Once the cubes of food are frozen, I would put them in zip lock bags, so they don't dehydrate like ice does in a frost-free freezer. That way they will taste better.)

good job, Mom !! :-)

I found the jarred meats disgusting, smelled like cat food, so we made our own. I started with chicken around that time. I used a specific recipe for babyfood, but basically it was a bland chicken soup with veggies (no noodles) and then I pureed it in a blender. Even blended it smelled just like the actual soup! They loved it.

We started my son on meat quite early (as LLL recommends)and he loved it. Between 6-12 months babies need a fair amount of protein and LOTS of iron, and meat is a great way to get that. We feed chix, turkey, beef, and lamb, but hold off on pork because it is a bit more allergenic. We started off pureeing it or getting the bottled kind (my kid will eat ANYTHING, LOL, but they are a bit gross). I also would add either home made chix broth or the low sodium broth to think it down a bit. Now, at 10 months, I just cut the pieces up very small and he eats it that way.

I echo the other moms' advice to make sure it is cooked very well. I also would suggest considering organic/pasture-raised meat, since commercially-grown meat has lots of antibiotics and pesticides in it. It is expensive, but the first year or two they don't eat that much, and their bodies absorb relatively more of the pesticides than adults do.

pureed with vegetables as the meat can be dry.

When enough teeth and able to chew little bit more can try Stage 3 with peices but still too early.

Whether or not to puree it depends on a couple of factors. The important ones I would be looking at are the number of teeth your daughter has and the consistency of the meat you are serving.

My son has been eating meat since he was about 6 months old. (He is the third child and his siblings didn't have reactions to food. His doctor had us start him on baby food at 4 months old.) If it is ground beef, turkey or chicken, then it usually breaks up easily enough and is chewable with gums. I wouldn't puree those, I would just break them up very small. Chicken, I usually cook by boiling in chicken broth with spices. We then use the broth to make soup or rice. Occasionally, I will use the broth to cook noodles, drain some of it off and add cream of mushroom soup to it. My 8 year old daughter calls this scrumptious sauce. When the chicken is boiled like this it is very tender and almost as easy to gum as the ground meats. I have both just cut this up very small and pureed it. When I pureed it, I added some cooked carrots and noodles or stuffing. This way it was a stuffed chicken stew or chicken noodle stew. My son really enjoyed it. He enjoyed it so much his older brother (4) and his older sister (8) asked to taste it too. I then had to do the same with their meals that evening.

Until they can chew (and will chew) more thoroughly, I would avoid pork roasts, pork chops, steak or roast beef that isn't pureed or shredded very finely.

Turkey if cooked moistly and not dried out, breaks up nicely and is easily gummed. Ham is another choice that is fairly easily gummed unless cooked til it is hard or dry.

Which you start with is completely up to you.

Anyhow, I hope this helps. Good luck with your little girl.

Although just the sight of them gagged me, my son loved the little meat sticks in the jar (baby food). I think you can start any meat (chicken, etc.) as long as she is interested and it is small enough not to pose a choking hazard. Have you tried the babyfood "dinners"? They have meat, pasta, veggies altogether and may be a good way to see what she prefers.

My son loved pureed ham and pineapple, chicken with sweet potatoes, and chicken and peas. I added organic broth if it was dry. Good luck!

It's funny....my sister-in-law and I were just talking about this subject. When my children were babies, I would take whatever I had prepared for dinner (example: chicken and potatoes) and toss it into the food processor and serve it to them. As they got more and more used to it, I would blend it less and less (leave it chunkier) until they were ready to eat it right off of the plate.
I would start your daughter off with whatever is for dinner tonite! Have fun.

My daughter started off with of turkey meatballs(cut small) in her pasta at 8 months. She loved it. Up until then she had just had the dinners- I tried her on the Gerber pureed meats but she hated them. She now loves bits of hamburger and chicken too. She only has one tooth but as long as the meat is cut small she is fine eating it so I don't think you need to puree, just chop it up small and watch her carefully.
Happy Eating! :-)

Gerber/Heinz both have 1st foods with pureed meats at the grocery store. You can start by adding them to some applesauce ,as they can be a tad dry to the taste. I've always warmed it up a tad too. 3 of my 4 children loved them, my last one, hated them, lol, so by 7 mos he was eating very small pieces of whatever meat I made for dinner.