When can babies eat meat?

[dukie41181]

My daughter is almost 11 months old and she's never had chicken or any sort of meat. I noticed a friend was saying her son (10 months old) was eating chicken and it go me thinking about introducing meat to little ones. I suppose it just makes me nervous...I don't want her to choke on it!

[catroddick]

We started DD on meat at 9 months. I pureed until a couple of weeks ago. Now that she is doing finger foods, I just cook it well and chop it up into small pieces (pea sized). She has a blast feeding herself.
I started her with turkey, I think poultry is a milder place to start.

[KrisM]

We started around 8 or 9 months. I pureed it just as I did everything else.

[lilycat88]

8ish months here as well. Just cut into pea sized pieces. DD didn't have any teeth until she was 12 months and she could still eat meat with no problem.

[pb&j]

8sih months. It was one of the first solid foods she really enjoyed. I cut it into small pieces, as we didn't do purees for very long.

[Tondi G]

DS1 ate chicken at 6 months. DS2 ate chicken at 7 months. They both handled fruits and vegis well so our ped gave us the go ahead on chicken. We made chicken soup... pulled some thigh meat off and put it in the blender with some of the carrots from the soup and pureed. They both loved it!

[JBaxter]

8 or 9 ish months. Teeth have nothing to do with it. My oldest was a big meat eater and didnt get any teeth till he was a year old. Just chop it up small

[maestramommy]

I think Arwyn started around 7ish months (she was the only one to eat meat the first year). I started her on beef. Whenever I made meat like pot roast I'd run it through the food processor. She loved it. I'd mix with rice and veggies. Chicken she didn't like as much, esp. white meat. I think it was too mealy for her taste.

I think I remember reading in Dr. Sears's baby book that there is no standard "first food," and some people begin with meat. I thought it was pretty wild at the time, but I guess there's no real reason why you can't start it earlier than later.

[arivecchi]

8 or 9 ish months. Teeth have nothing to do with it. My oldest was a big meat eater and didnt get any teeth till he was a year old. Just chop it up small:yeahthat:

[Katigre]

My DD has had meat for since 7-8 months. Fish is another great thing to offer b/c it's soft and flakes easily.

[brittone2]

DS was not a huge fan (well, of any solids to be fair), but did like chicken sausages sliced into rounds and then into 1/4s. He liked the hormone/antibiotic free chicken/spinach ones, etc. DS did best w/ finger feeding and this was one of his favs from maybe 9 months on.

DD loooooved meat LOL. She loved ground beef crumbled up fairly fine, etc. that she could finger feed herself from about 8-9 months.