introducing meat into baby's diet

[puffingirl]

DD eats a few fruits and veggies and we'd like to start offering her meat as well. I found some organic, grass-fed ground beef at our local health food store and bought it but can't figure out how best to prepare it for DD. She doesn't have the pincer grasp yet, so she needs big stuff to hold or things she can grab with her fist. Any ideas?

[St. Margaret]

Put it thru a babyfood grinder and let her fist-grab the pureed meat? I think this is similar to, say, mama chewing meat, then giving it to her baby . We haven't gotten around to meats quite yet, but just an idea.

[amelhu]

Spaghetti is always a winner! Thru the blender of course.

[acp]

What about giving her chunks of meatball? That should be big enough that she can pick them up, but would still be easy for her to chew with or without teeth. DD is 8 months, and we started giving her little bits of meat a few weeks ago. She hasn't had tons, but she's had bites of my turkey sandwich, bits of DH's corned beef hash while we were out to breakfast, bits of a hamburger I was eating, and some bits of my chicken when I was having some. She has the pincer grasp down, which makes it easier - I just give her relatively small pieces. She doens't have any teeth yet, but still seems to manage it pretty easily.
However, if it's soft enough (like ground beef) I dont' see why you couldn't just give her the same size chunks you do with fruits or vegetables, so she can pick it up on her own and then bite off the amount she wants.

[amelhu]

Kaelin looooves meatballs! Turkey burger chunks, too!

[Mere]

We've given ds2 salmon a few times now - LOVES it!

[MamaE]

My son just turned 10 months and is just now starting to really eat. (He refused any attempts at being fed - will only self-feed.)

I am ready to intro meat as well and, like you, found some grass fed beef at our local Whole Foods. Here is my plan for it: slow cook it (possibly with some onions for flavor); chop it fine in the food processor; mix with warm oatmeal; let the mixture cool and congeal; cut into fine cubes for him to pick up. Hmm, now that I write that out it sounds like a lot of steps! He likes cold oatmeal cubes though, so I think he'll go for it. I'm starting to get worried about his iron levels and my supply seems to have dipped (either that or he's just having a growth spurt and seems really, really hungry!

The meatball idea is a good one too, I just don't know how I would make the meatballs stick together since we don't do eggs yet. I guess just plain cooked ground meat would be OK too, wouldn't it?

I was so excited when I found the grass-fed meat in a store, weren't you? I couldn't bear to give him even corn-fed organic. I'm such a food snob... Ah, the things I can only tell other Mothering moms!

[yukookoo]

mesh feeder? I was thinking of putting some chicken in a mesh feeder for DD, but of course that way they dont really get a whole lot, just taste it ....

[dancebaraka]

I just offer dd a few tiny tastes of whatever meat I am eating. So far she has tried buffalo and chicken. I'll hand her a small pinch and she'll eat it or I'll put a few solid strands or bits of food on her tray and she goes to town. She loves it.
:

[elmh23]

We started with (tiny) stripes of chicken. Ds loves it!

[Ks Mama]

Just wondering why you want to start offering meat? It's not necessary to the human diet... and is difficult to digest. It's certainly good that you found hormone-free, but I'd wait a bit - from the date, your babe is not even 8 months yet, right - can't pick up food on her own... in my opinion, it's really too early.

Of course, I don't believe babies should really be eating solids until they can manage to get them to their mouths themselves anyhow --- so what do I know?

[puffingirl]

Actually, DD is quite adept at getting food to her mouth by herself. She makes do with a pretty good fist grab and really enjoys the process of eating. I'd like to offer her meat because we eat it and want to offer her the things we eat, as she is ready for them. We also want to offer her meat for the protein and iron in it.

[mamadelbosque]

We just give DS little ity bity bites of whatever we're eating and let him chew on it... if your DS doesn't have the pincer thing down yet you can try popping a little piece into his mouth an see what he does - if DS doesn't like it, he tends to reach in and take it out an look at you like 'ahem, wtf?'

[Mrs.Bufford]

Just last night we gave DD her first 'meal' with chicken in it. I just slow cooked it in the over and then cut in in small pieces and let her go crazy with it. She loved the chicken, and since we eat meat I feel that its appropriate to start her on it.

[SparklingGemini]

I just want to add that if your baby doesn't have a pincer grasp yet, you can give her a bigger, fist sized chunk, to hold onto and gnaw at. It works wonders!

When we had turkey burgers, I just made a patty smaller than our, and gave it to my DD. She LOVED it. I never add salt to her things but I don't cut out the spices. I'm hoping that she will have a well varied palette and won't be picky later in life!

[Miss 1928]

This is what I did.
I'd cook it then grind it again in a baby food grinder then spoon feed mixed with some plain, full-fat yogurt.

However I wasn't informed about baby lead-feeding.

Now DD gets what ever meat I cook for dinner, spices included -but no salt. I just cut up her meat in very fine strips --cutting against the grain to make digestion easier.

The suggestion about making meat balls that she can hold in her little fist seems pretty good, but I'd make sure that the meat is ground or mashed up really well before making the meat balls.