As a reformed veggie (decided not to foist my veggie choices on Small & then ended up partaking of the lovely organic happy meat I procured for her 'coz too lazy to cook more than one meal) I am pretty cautious when it comes to meat - simply because I have never really cooked it before.

Small devoured large chunks of meat (along with accompanying carrots and mushrooms) from a stew and the bolognese-in-pasta-shell-parcels go down very well. Meat balls poached in tomato sauce are also acceptable. She wasn't bothered about chunks of roast chicken at first but seems to be getting the hang of it - especially when chunks are soaked in a bit of gravy first.

Cold chicken gets chopped up with avocado to go on sandwiches but she ate some slices of breast cold for lunch today. My own view is that she needed to get used to the texture but is now starting to feel more confident with it.

We have yet to progress to anything more scary like joints of red meat or chops or the suchlike. We might not progress there at all - my meat aversion is still pretty strong and I may leave it to her Grannie to provide the more scary end of carnivore cuisine.

Gave Smiler meat for the first time at the weekend. We were at my mum and dad's and gave her some guinea fowl breast my mum had done. She appeared to be wolfing it down, but burst into tears after 5 mins and became hysterical. When I looked in her mouth all the meat she had been shoving in was stuck to the roof of her mouth. Has anyone else experienced this? Is is better to start her on something like mince?

i don't think babybear's even had guinea fowl but i certainly felt that with chicken in the early days it was best to give her a piece of thigh or leg, you know, the bits that come away in a kind of teardrop shape? because the breast breaks up in a funny way, whereas the leg pieces stay together so the baby sucks on them and nibbles small pieces rather than takes it into its mouth. poor you, though, you sound a bit shaken, it's not nice when they get upset.
re mince; i remember giving dd some little pieces of home-made burger that i'd especially rolled into sausages and cooked for her, i thought i was an absolute genius... of course she coughed her head off as the mince broke up in her mouth so we didn't have them again for a few months.
personally if you're just starting off, try to give pieces of meat that you don't think will break up, rather than the other way around. Big fist-sized hunks of pork, lamb, beef and chicken leg is the way to go.

Thanks Aitch, I will try some hunks of meat and see how she gets on.

Thanks for answering the question about the meat. My other question is...how do I actually cook it? Just bake it? Do I need to have it a certain consistency?

Sorry for so many questions. Just nervous about introducing meat/chicken. :)

Speaking of nervous about meat... I had to email my question a few days ago as I could not find this blog on my own to refer to..... (the feedback was that I MUST post here). Any more commets/suggestions most welcome:

Subject: MEAT CRISIS

I can't figure out how to post this question on the site so hope you can help... I have been following BLW since baby was 6 months and we are getting on fabulously! Lydia will eat anything we give her which is great. Have discovered the recipe section so think it's time to expand my horizons a bit.....

I have been giving her meat which she loves. I first gave "chip" size fingers and she shoves ALL of it in her mouth (I am fairly laid back about the gag/choking thing but am v. v. v. scared with meat). I have also tried "fist" size pieces as recommended on the BLW site but she still stuffs it all in.

I am now ripping/cutting meat in to tiny pieces which she is just inhaling WHOLE - that can't be good for her (might as well give her mashed food i think).

ANY SUGGESTIONS?

good lord woman, you're making me look bad. i answered your question, chuckled a little at your capitalisations and then engaged with you in much sympathetic talk about how rough it is when they don't sleep... ;-D
i didn't say MUST, i suggested that you would get more than my opinion if you posted on here...

anyway, here's what i said, chaps. any other suggestions?

"lololol at your crisis! I’m afraid you’ve made it sound hilarious. If I was you I’d copy what you wrote to me onto the link I’ve sent as a comment, so everyone else can see.



Thing is, you have to ask yourself what happens when she stuffs all the meat in… doesn’t she just spit it back out again? Isn’t that okay? If it’s not, just hand her the biggest bit you can get your paws on and see what happens. I don’t really see what the problem is with tiny pieces either, by the way, I think the fist-sized advice is really for babies who don’t have their pincer grip yet, so if she can pick up the tiny pieces and practice her pincer grip then go right ahead. I remember Babybear loved practicing hers with everything when she got the hang of it.



Most of all, don’t worry. Nothing bad is happening, I know it’s baby led weaning but the honest truth is that you can only go with what you feel comfortable with so it’s really parent-led as much as anything else.

What would you like to do, do you think? What about making some mince and mashed potatoes for her and letting her loose on those? babybear LOVES that. "

Aitch, I love the idea of mashed potatoes and mince (or ground beef depending on which side of the ocean your on, I'd guess). Guess what the bubs is having for dinner this weekend! I'll be sure to take pictures.

Ohhhhhhhhh! Thanks for this tip. It is already a FAST favourite!

Oh, I have to laugh, Aitch - you're spreading the Scottish haute cuisine of mince and tatties across the world... Just a few more steps to world domination with salty porridge.

P had a phase of shoving in big chunks of meat and just holding them in her mouth for a bit, looking nonplussed; then it would slide out again (usually with a bit of a gag). Didn't last long - she soon got the idea of keeping hold of one end and chewing/sucking bits off.

When I gave her pieces of meat in the early days I'd wash down the splatter mat just before the meal, then pick up and return dropped bits. Otherwise the amount of waste could get a bit expensive! (Normally I wouldn't put anything from the mat back on her plate because a) we have a cat and b) I am not the world's best housekeeper.)

Stirfrying or casseroling, mainly. I tend to keep the strips of meat quite thin; anything chunky (e.g. baby fist-size) just gets licked and dropped instead of being chewed. Agree about the length of time they can keep chewing one bit; to start with I would get antsy and try to remove anything she didn't seem able to swallow at once, but this resulted in so much yelling that I gave up and let her get on with it, and she's getting more competent all the time (just the occasional big bit gets spat out after being chewed dry).

[digression] what sort of age did you start giving ham, and packaged cold meats generally? I keep picking up packets, reading the ingredients, going "hmmm' and putting them back. [/digression]

oh yes - the other thing is she's much happier with meat in a chunk than with meatballs or suchlike. I would have expected that to be the other way round.

josh much prefers meatballs, sausages and mince than chunks of meat, which really surprised me and makes me feel like i feed him junk everyday lol

I'd start with casseroles, nice and slow and tender. We've had millions in the past six months. Mink is now refusing to eat them though. She likes to see her individual bits of food. And eat them in strict order (OCD alert). Roasted meat good too.

Packaged meats have only been tolerated in the last two months ie from 14 months. She loves them now. I find M & S, Waitrose and Sainsbury's Taste the Difference are less "hummmmm". Actually, Sainsbury's do some lovely free range turkey which she had for tea and I will be eating presently. Yummy.

I've given E over the last couple of months (from about 9 months). If you buy stuff from the deli rather than already packaged, you can generally find 'proper' ham without dodgy ingredients, cooked on the bone rather than formed from who-knows-what.

It is horrendously expensive though - usually works out about a pound a slice! She absolutely loves it though, it's one of her absolute favourites.

Hi there

My daughter is now 8 and 1/2 months old and has had enormous fun and pleasure (as have I!) in being blw. However, I have been looking at your photo album of 9 month old babies now eating with spoons (!!!!) and am wondering how and when do I introduce the spoon? Sorry if this is posted to the wrong area of the board, it is all very new to me

Thanks everso ... btw (not blw ;-)) this site is an absolute gem.

Lucy xx

I'd say be baby-led with that like everything else. We never "introduced" a spoon, they've been IzzyMouse's plaything/distraction object of choice in cafe's etc for months before she started eating. But then she has an all-round cutlery fetish. I'd also suggest, and forgive me if I'm wrong, that at least some of those babes pictured with spoons will have had loaded-up spoons handed to them, which seems to be OK by consensus on this site at least as it's still up to them if they stick it in their gobs or not. My LO is just 1 and having a go at spooning up food on her own, but she doesn't get very far so we rotate 3 at mealtimes - one for her to stick into food, one for me to hand to her loaded up, and one floating for her to wave around, drop on the floor, hand to me to indicate that I'm being too damn slow etc etc. We started with thick yoghurt, I seem to remember, as I didn't want to think about how she would go about eating it otherwise...

so true, Mij, i'm inclined to think that these babes are not precisely using the spoon to scoop up the food themselves but being handed spoons which they then wave about and eventually get into their mouths... luckily their parents are on hand with a camera at exactly that moment.
Babybear used to love playing with spoons in the bath, so they were a chew toy long before actually being cutlery. she's had a fork and spoon for a few months now at every meal (she's 18 months) but is still most efficient with her hands. by which i mean really efficient. no dropping anything any more (unless on purpose) and rather lovely and neat. the cutlery is great fun, though.
to be honest i value good 'table manners' over using the cutlery, and she's good and friendly and doesn't throw or smear things and she drinks very well from an open cup. the fact that she can also fork food into her mouth and fairly good at getting yoghurt out of a bowl and into her mouth is okay by me.

I am guilty of just sending in photo of 10 month old Mlle mangetout using a spoon. She definitely does not use it to dip in her bowl herself. Rightly or wrongly we load up a couple of spoons which she usually aims to her mouth, but after that we leave her to it and she picks up the bowl and starts licking it out. I still see it as baby leading the way, but getting a bit of practice in along the way.