BLW: meat

[Blessed1]

I was reading in the BLW book that you can give babe pieces of meat...but how big are the "pieces" supposed to be?? What kind of meat did you feed your babies?

Today we had "sloppy joes" for dinner and our LO was not happy with her apple, so I put a few small pieces of ground beef in front of her and she ate it all up and I actually heard her swallow!!! LOL It was so cute.  She carefully picked up the tiny pieces with her fingers and put them in her mouth.  I was a little hesitant to give her more because I really didn't prepare it with her in mind (spices..etc). 

I really can't imagine my little one chewing meat (bigger pieces) effectively....  ??

I am making pot roast this week and I am wondering if I can give her the really tender meat? Will she really chew and swallow it? Or at this stage, will she just practice chewing and gag it out? Should I stick to big strips of meat (i just keep imagining her choking on it).

I am kinda freaked out about giving her meat...

Any advice would be helpful!!!  thanks mama's!!

[dogretro]

DD2 is nine months old & I give her v tiny pieces of meat that I tear up for her.  Today I did hand her half of a sausage patty.  I was sitting right next to her & pointed out, happily, to dh that dd2 was taking such little bites.  She really was controlling for herself!  Ground beef, it's like a little splooch on the high chair tray.  Chicken, I tear up tiny b/c it is harder for dd2 to chew & it will start to make her cough.  I would not worry about spices, that is part of the point of blw.  If she eats it, likes it, and has no adverse reaction, go with it!  Feeding a baby this way is so much fun!

[Knitting Mama]

Cecilia's nearly 10 months old, and she started getting meat after her 9 month WBV showed that she was anemic. I was going to wait until a year for most protein sources and stick with just fruits and veggies 'til then, but I am okay with the meat. I mostly give her stuff that has been made in the crock pot, though yesterday she begged for some of the garlic chicken I rotisseried (new verb...) and ate pieces of it with absolutely no problem, so I think she's ready for meat that's less soft than the crock pot. But I would think your pot roast would be perfect since it will be quite tender.

[samikashi]

Both of our boys first meats (8-9mos) was shredded pork. Place any cut in a slow cooker with apple juice... about 6 hrs later, voila, nice BBQ meal for the whole family!

As long as it's tender don't be freaked out. Keep a hawkeye if you need and let her show you what she thinks.

[Knitting Mama]

Apple juice is how I cook my corned beef too; can't wait to give that one to Cece! It happens to be my favorite meat...

[MJB]

We give our 6 mo. old pieces of beef and chicken, I'd describe them more as slivers than chunks. They actually seem to be digested well because unlike veggies, they don't appear in her diaper the next day. We didn't give meat to my older kids as babies (started fruits/veg at 6 mos) and they were both anemic at 9 months. This time we started solids at 4 mos. and meat around 5 mos. She really likes meat, too. Hopefully her iron levels will be good at the 9 mo. check!

[AislinCarys]

We gave DD long sticks of meat (like the veges, according to the Rapley method), we actually tried the whole one, like her hand, as the book says, but she found that harder to hold properly. Started that at around 8 months, when we introduced meat. I'd be more worried about shredded meat or mince at that age, actually. DD did fine, despite no teeth, chewing away, getting tiny pieces off, and leaving at then end a floppy gray mess (still together), having ingested some of the actual meat, and all of the juices. She loved it!

[peaceful_mama]

I have done very small torn up pieces of meat and very small chopped ground beef from around probably 8 months?  I'm now having a hard time remembering exactly LOL.  I'm thinking DS2 must have been more like 8 months because I remember taking a little vacation at 7 months, and he was still 99% nursing, like I barely gave him solids on that trip because we were eating out and most of it was not appropriate for a baby.  (DS2, the third child, is the first one I did absolute no-spoons with myself, my mom did spoon-feed oatmeal in the morning sometimes, but she's also really good about watching cues for when they're full.)

My DD I know I mashed up meat with potatoes in stew-type dishes and fed that to her at around 6.5-7 months.  (I probably did this for DS2 too but instead of spoon-feeding it, I'd just give him a mashed-potato-carrot-meat bits-clump to feed himself.  (sounds oh so yummy doesn't it  :P but actually does not taste bad when it's a stew thing anyway lol)

looks like from your siggy 7 months old?  I'd say something like well-cooked pot roast is fine in little bits.  The ground beef sounds like it went just fine too.  :)

[peaceful_mama]

mine sucked on bigger chunks of tougher meat too--DH cooks a lot of lamb and thinks nothing of handing a baby the bone to hold with meat on it...has worked out fine for us.  ;)

[octobermom]

 My baby loves meat. At 10.5 months she is still completely toothless but she handles all kinda of meats fine chicken ground beef steaks stew meats, fish, ect.. I eaither give her very small bits or really big ones like still on the bone type pieces. Its amazing what those gums can do though.

Deanna

[Blessed1]

Great!   I am going to give her some pot roast tomorrow and see how it goes. 

Thanks for all the input ladies.  Gives me some confidence :)

I can't wait to try crockpot meat with apple juice!!! Thanks for the idea! :)