How impotant is it to?

Question

How important is it to give your baby meat when they are less than 12 months of age?

My daughter is on three meals a day consisting of Fruit, Vegetables and Yougurt.

She is also on 4-5 Breast feeds a day.

I was told that you shouldn't give your baby meat if they are less than one year old and i tend to agree, since they are getting all the nutrition they need from breast and the variety of fruit and Veg.

Can anyone give me some good information on this?

Or if you do think i should introduce meat now, could you please leave your reasons why?

My daughter is almost 8 months old.

Answer 1

hold off on the meat until she is over a year old. she is getting plenty of the protein she needs from the breastmilk.

the only things I did allow my daughters to have when they were babies (about 9 months) were those gerber meat sticks. they fell apart easily so they were easy to chew and decreased the chocking hazard.

if you are overly worried about it-why not increase your protein intake since you are breastfeeding?

but I think she's doing just fine. your pediatrician would be a great person to discuss this with further

Answer 2

your child should have meat.

at 6 months of age the need for iron in an infant is high.

all you need to do to add meat is cook it and add it to the meals she already eats (the vegetables)

if you dont have a food processor, cook the meat and chop finely or grate (when its cool).

leave shell fish till well over 1, but plain white fish is ok (bones removed of course)

Answer 3

My son is 7 months old and he eats meat and fish, he eats what i eat (obviously without salt or sugar added) i make all his meals myself and it was my health visitor that suggested i started him on meat and fish mainly because he is a big strong lad (he is in the 98th percentile for his height and the 90th percentile for his weight) and she thought that he would benefit from the extra nutrition. But it all depends on how you feel. If you don't feel comfortable giving her meat then its not necessary to do so.

I just feel that giving my son small amounts of meat and fish will be doing him no detriment and getting him used to eating a wide range of different foods will hopefully make him less of a fussy eater when he is older too.