When to give baby meat?

Question

My 6mo. old takes bottles, but also some solids (baby food stage 1) such as squash, sweet potato, peas...Well, I saw Chicken Stage 1 at the store yesterday and bought it. I haven't given it to him yet. At what age did you feed your baby meat?

Answer 1

Around six-seven months.  Chicken was one of my baby's first foods.  Roasted dark meat. Nice and tender, with lots of iron and protein.  

I just cut it up small, and she went to town.  We did baby-led feeding.

You don't need to do food groups in any particular order, although grains are a bit harder for some babies to handle, so you might want to hold off a little on those (on the othe hand, some babies handle them fine).  Just watch your baby's cues - if it looks like something about the food is upsetting him (he doesn't want to eat it, he spits it up, his stools get watery, or he gets really gassy), don't feel like you have to keep giving it to him.

FTR, at six months, if your baby is showing signs of readiness, he can eat just about anything you make or have around the house.  Purees aren't necessary.  Obviously, you probably don't want to give him whole almonds or something, but, if you're making a roast chicken with boiled potatoes and steamed broccoli, just cook the broccoli a little longer than normal to make it tender, cut it into small pieces, and let baby eat it if he chooses.  Cut up the chicken and potato.  Baby will probably not eat all of it, might not eat any of it, but is learning what textures foods have, how to manipulate food with his mouth/tongue/gums, etc.   Plus, fresh sweet potato, roasted and cut into small pieces, tastes a LOT better than the watered down puree-version.  If you want a kid who eats a lot of different foods, tempt him with the good stuff.

Answer 2

My daughter's paed said that a baby's digestive system isn't mature enough for meat until 7-8 months.  

Answer 3

my son's first meat was salmon that i made somewhere between 6 and 6.5 months

Answer 4

I tried my son on meat when he was 6 months, and loved it. if you cook it yourself, just make sure you cook it thouroughly

Answer 5

I weaned my two at 4 months then introduced protein in the form of meat and cheese at 6 months.

Answer 6

She had pieces of chicken and hamburger at 7 months (yes pieces, not jarred mush) So im sure the jarred stuff is fine

Answer 7

You need to get through the veggies, then the fruit then the meat. My grandbaby didnt like the meat by itself but eats the stage 2 dinners.

Answer 8

Never.