TW- starting meat

[GingerNut]

I'm trying to get meat into DD. I've tried pureed chicken mixed with butternut squash (her favourite) and it makes her gag every time. She's able to handle a bit of texture in some foods - the odd lump in mashed banana is okay, for instance. But chicken just doesn't blend in well enough with the veg.

Is there a better way to do it? Or should I just wait a while, get her more used to lumps in other things (we only started banana yesterday, so we could keep doing that for a while and see if it helped)? Or do I try buying commercial babyfood in the hope that they do meat better than I do?! (I'm reluctant to do that; I couldn't tell you why but I've a total mental block about it, I don't want to start her on bought stuff unless I have to)

 

[emsiee]

Have you tried adding gravy?

When I do meat and veg for LO I add a bit of gravy which makes it smoother and easier to digest. Or I will always do a sauce with meat as it isnt the easiet in the world to blend, such as chicken casserole. There will be some gagging, but she will get used to it eventually.

 

[ouchwithNo.2]

going along with the sauce thing, if you like casseroles / stews etc how about cooking a joint of meat like lamb shank long and slow with stock, veg and mash and when it is out the oven the lamb just melts away into little bits, mix it all up and you will have a slightly lumpy (from the veg) but soft meal with strips of meat that you can easily break down with a fork and some stock x

 

[lisa9999]

going along with the sauce thing, if you like casseroles / stews etc how about cooking a joint of meat like lamb shank long and slow with stock, veg and mash and when it is out the oven the lamb just melts away into little bits, mix it all up and you will have a slightly lumpy (from the veg) but soft meal with strips of meat that you can easily break down with a fork and some stock x

I've done this, Sophie loves it!
Also, if you buy a lamb steak, cut it up and pop it in a casserole dish with some veggies, a couple of tomatoes and stock, it purees up really nice.
It'll make about 6 portions too x

 

[GingerNut]

Thanks, I've got some stewing steak at home so I'm going to try a casserole with that this evening. Hopefully it'll go down better because I was starting to get a bit freaked out.

Solids are more complicated than I expected

 

[katy1310]

We have just started introducing Sophie to meat - she started with Annabel Karmel's "one pot chicken" recipe which blends fairly well - I think it has butternut squash, sweet potato, leeks, stock etc and she did gag at first if there was a bit of chicken that hadn't completely blended down but she copes ok now...

I did try to get her used to banana slightly less well mashed etc first and she coped with that.

Last week I made her some little individual shepherds pies and just mashed the potato instead of blending it this time, and the mince didn't totally puree away so there were still mince-ish bits in it (lol!!) and I was a bit worried in case she'd choke but she managed really well. I also made her "my first beef casserole" out of the annabel karmel book and that pureed down well.

 

[deobi]

I used to mix chicken with avocado. The buttery feel helped take the dryness off the chicken so he didn't gag. You could also add a little olive oil to help a bit - same idea as gravy or sauce.