Introducing Meat to 8 Month Old

When I made my food I would boil chicken and steam apples and carrots and mix them together. The apples and carrots give it a nice sweet flavor without it being too sweet. Pears and sweet potatoes are another good combo. All three of my little ones really liked this.
Good luck,
J.

I have found that if I give my kids meat seasoned the same way as I enjoy it (as an adult) they eat it. I am very careful that it is not spicy/hot (tricky, but doable with Mexican!) but they love sauce and seasoning just like me.

Good luck.

I actually did the gerber baby food meat which by the way stinks but she loved it. I only did it for a month for introduction. Then after that I used a baby food grinder and added the ground meat to her vegetables, cereal, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes. It just needs to be small enough to digest easily. I wouldn't give him anything too big or tough until he has molars.

blend cooked meat in blender. salt's okay but not pepper

My nearly 3 year old daughter is just recently starting to taste meat. I wouldn't worry about it. Find other sources of protein. Besides baby food meat is absolutely disgusting. I tried it after my daughter refused it so many times. It really is awful. Again, my advice, don't sweat it, it's not that big a deal.

I've used the book "baby bistro" I really loved the suggested recipes and the healthy basis of the book. I'm not sure what they had in the way of meat recipes though. What I usually did with my kids is that I have a "happy baby food grinder" and I put a portion of what we are having (chicken and vegetables, spaghetti, couscous and salmon etc.) in the grinder and voila instant baby food with minimal preperation and introduces the baby to a variety of flavors and foods. I have a soon to be 8 month old and I will begin using the food grinder in the next month or two. I found that using this makes transitioning into what we eat and the seasonings that I cook with easier and all my kids have turned out to be fantastic eaters and not picky at all. I'm not sure if this is the reason or not but it certainly has made feeding baby easy! Hope this helps. You can find the "happy baby food grinder" on ebay sometimes, at yard sales and I believe they have them at babies r us.
Have a great day.

I have found that, in my experience, babies really eat only a little meat anyway. Most meat is hard to chew for them so you can try to start with processed meats - hot dogs or vienna sausages. Meat has a very strong flavor that they will like or dislike. If you are worried about protein in his diet try checking out a vegetarian website for protein and baby food and they might have some alternatives you can try.

My daughter quit eating purees when she was about 8 months old.i found out that she loves sliced deli meats. I tore them in very tiny pieces and she ate them like they were going out of style.My mom when she comes out made deviled ham and chicken salad and she loved them all. I wish she would eat like that now, she turned into a very picky eater. I hope this heps and gl

Check out the book "Feed Me I'm Yours", the author tells exactly the best ways to puree the meat and includes several recipes. It's been my bible for making baby food!

Lindsey,
Super Baby food is a great start but you are right the author is very anti-meat. Another good book I liked was First Meals -- plus it has nice colorful pictures. I don't recall timing but I recall making sausage, I also cooked chicken (sometimes in lentils) and then pureed it.

Oh the things i wish my son would still eat.. LOL. He's 4 and just starting to try some new things again.

Good luck
There are also a variety of websites too.. this is a good one
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/

Hi L.,
A good start to meats might be the jarred baby food. It smells kinds funky, but my boy loved it. It got him used to the texture and taste, and then about a month later I just started giving him some of the meats we were eating....ground beef (mixed with pasta sauce or enchilada sauce which he loved both), or small, torn up bits of chicken, beef, turkey, etc. I'd tear them up really small so he wouldn't have to "chew" it a lot, but he seeemed to take to it pretty good. There are some days now though that he likes meat and other days he doesn't. Just a toddler I guess...but I've noticed even now (he's 2) if the meat pieces are small, he'll eat it. But if they are too big for him, he won't.

Why is it important that your little one have meat so soon? There is a lot of evidence to support that the longer we wait to introduce meat into our babies diets, the stronger and healthier their digestion their are be in the long run (right into adult life!).

It won't be long before all your toddler will want is chicken strips and tiny hamburgers and you'll be longing for the days when she slurped up green beans and spinach and all the wonderful veges she loves now!

Remember you're setting up her taste for food for the rest of her life. People who eat a diet largely based in fresh fruits and veges have MUCH lower risk of developing things like diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity later in life.

I'd say take your time and let your little one tell you when and what she's ready for. She will.

Blessings,

M.

L., I have a daughter who is raising her son vegan. He is the healthiest one year old. He weighs great, he looks great. He has never been sick. He is mostly breast fed still, and he eats every fruit or vegi he is offered. His mom and dad are very healthy. My son in law had his colesterol tested and it came back at 40 not 140. He has been vegan for about 10 years. Unlike my husband who eats meat almost daily who has a cholesterol or 240. I say let your child be a vegetarian as long as possible, and don't complain if after being introduced he refuses it. There are so many ways to get protein including vegetables. How do you think the cows get it anyway. They are vegetarians also. Congratulations on your son!

An 8 month old should still be getting most of their protein from milk/formula; check with your pediatrician if you're worried, but all babies are somewhat vegetarian at this age. As you've noticed, it's actually quite hard to prepare meat they can handle (unless you just use pre-ground stuff) which makes it all the better that they don't actually need it for a little while yet. Good luck!

I had a really hard time finding recipes for meat that my daughter could actually chew. I did find a wonderful recipe on line. If you send me a message I will get you the measurements. (sorry I am at work and it is at home). Takes Ground turkey, pureed carrots, chucky applesauce, wheat bran, bread crumbs, garlic, and a couple other items. I will have to look. Anyways you make it like a meat loaf and she loved it! Let me know!

J. S

Gerber makes these things called "meat sticks", which look like hotdogs, and come in a jar like other baby food. They make them in several flavors, are very soft, and at about 9 months my son would eat an entire jar by himself! They also have none of the chemicals or preservatives that a hotdog does, so it isn't like you are giving your kid junk food.

Also, try ground beef or turkey, or small peices of roasted chicken.

My kids loved the gerber graduate meat sticks. They mash in their mouths and are easy to get down. If he has not many teeth try the #3 chicken dinners, my kids went nuts for those.
As they got a tad older I just gave them what we were having, like shredded rotisserie chicken or very finely chopped turkey dogs. If I made ground meat with anything I put a little by itself in a seperate cup and gave it to my kids on their highchair.

Start with white meats, turkey, chicken, white fish (if no food allergies with you and your husband) then move on to red meats...make sure ALL meats are free range, grass fed, high quality...

Prepare them as you normally would for yourself (however do not use butter, salt, pepper or other spices) Then put in a food processor along with enough water to make pretty smoothe...At this point it does not have to be completely smoothe as long as there are no pieces he will choke on...

I always mix the meat in with a food that my son likes...sweet potatoes, apple sauce, etc so it is an easier transition...Good luck

D

I've made all of my one-year-old daughter's food, too. I first added meat to her diet by just chopping up (very finely using a butcher knife) a little of whatever Dad and I were having and stirring it into her pureed veggies or avocado or whatever. This has worked with chicken, turkey, tilapia, buffalo, salmon - seriously, just about anything that the adults are eating. It did NOT work to freeze ground meat in ice cube trays like I did with vegetables - it dried out too much. But it worked great to get a rotisserie chicken (get one that's MSG-free) and freeze the meat in small amounts, so I've always got something on hand.

One thing to be careful of if your baby is essentially eating what you eat is that he gets sufficient fat. Save the chicken breasts for yourself and feed him the dark meat. Or stir in some cheese.

The jarred baby food meat is nasty. And table food meat is difficult to chew. For protein introduce beans (even hummus) and then eggs once the child is one. Try peanut butter once the child is two. Hamburger or deli meat is easier to chew so you can try that as a finger food. My second son doesn't seem to like meat, yet, either. As long as he's getting protein, I don't worry about it. Babies don't need much meat. It's good that your child prefers vegetarian diet because it is healthier. But this phase will pass more than likely. Give polyvisol liquid vitamins to put your mind at ease.

Hi L.,
My son, now 21 mos, liked meat more than any other solid food. I made homemade chicken soup and put it through a baby food mill and the chicken was soft enough for this method. Ground meats also worked for him because the pieces were so small. So I just cooked ground turkey or beef with a little garlic or onion and some salt. Hope it goes well!