when to give meat?

[hazlinh]

after some apprehension on my part, dd is now 6 months and has been happily slurping down her fruit and veg purees for a couple of weeks now.

When is it ok to start giving her meat? and how do i do it, do i puree the chicken/beef?

when is it ok to introduce fish?

have received conflicting advice, as most books say to wait til about 9 months but some ppl say its ok from 6 months.

I think they say that the baby's iron stores that they had from birth are depleting around about now so that is why it is good to start them on meat at 6 months.
My DD is 6 months and 9 days old (not that I am counting and she has had chicken and beef in the last week. I have done the same with her as I did with DS (who is now 4.8 yrs and loves most food)

Simple Chicken Casserole:
2 leeks (white bits only)
1 large carrot (peeled and diced)
Half a small chicken breast cut into small pieces (no skin or bone and trim any fat off)
1 medium sized potato (peeled and diced)
1 small swede (peeled and diced)
3 small courgettes (chopped)

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil in a pan and saute the leeks and carrot until soft. Add the chicken and saute till sealed. Add the potato, swede and courgette and stir. Add enough boiling water to just cover (Don't do too much otherwise it will be too runny ...). Cover and simmer for 20 minutes until all the veggies are soft.
Puree and put into ice cube trays.
Leave to cool and then freeze.
When frozen pop them out and put them into freezer bags ...
Hey Presto, easy, healthy convenience food for the baby and not a jar in sight

After DD ate that for 3 days I did the same with lean minced beef ... and added different veggies: sweet potato, brocoli (basically you can put in any kind of vegetable that your baby has tried before ...) Then she had that for 3 days and now is alternating.

I will do a lamb on next week, and maybe put in some parsnips and green beans ...

She usually manages 2 cubes (quite large sized cubes) with a cube of some or other vegetable.

HTH

wow ghosty, thanks for that. you make it all sound so easy! am inspired now!

anymore??