Toddler - lamb & pork

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My 14 month old hasn’t had any lamb or pork.

We don’t eat it ourselves (apart from my partners love for bacon) so I’ve never given it to him, but whilst looking for some recipe inspiration for toddler I’ve come across lots of sausage meals, pork chops etc

The idea of giving him it feels a bit gross from a nutritional perspective, so I’m curious how much of it your toddlers eat.

Is there any reason to include it?

We made a lovely lamb and lentil curry with rice night before last, DC (10m) loved it too he had two bowls 😂.

There are some great vegan sausage alternatives available now. No need for anyone to eat lamb, pork, beef or chicken if you have a varied healthy diet.

It only seems ‘gross’ to you because you do not eat it.

@MrMeSeeks Not really. Have you looked at what is in most sausages? Not to mention the sat fat content.

Well, yeah, but pork doesn’t equal sausages.

Pork mince goes nice in a beef lasagna for instance.

Oh God! THAT’S what wrong with my DC!

I sometimes fed them sausages!

@FTEngineerM Very true. I could try that for some variety I suppose!

DD loves sausages, she has sausage pasta probably weekly as it’s her favourite and we use pork mince regularly too. Roast pork we don’t have very often but DD has eaten it.

Lamb mince in shepherd pie is also eaten frequently, and we have roast lamb occasionally and lamb and pork steaks on BBQ.
If DD has something processed like sausage, then I try to balance out the salt content over the rest of the day.
But we never cook specifically for DD, she always has what we have, so if I didn’t eat pork or lamb I wouldn’t bother cooking it just for her. I can’t see the point in that. They can try it when they are older.

@Megan2018 Makes sense!

It’s just been an interesting journey so far. He’s my first and initially I was weaning him veggie, but I ran out of ideas very fast.

My partner eats lots of crap and I eat low carb (lots of salads mainly or really spiced up stuff to make it interesting) so I cook separate meals for the baby. It’s a pain!

We use veggie sausages and have never given them pork or lamb. Mainly because we also don’t eat it.

Sausages and bacon are only one type of pork. DS very occasionally has sausage (because he loves them) but I try to limit them. Other types of pork and lamb are fine though - DS loves roasts or things like lamb kofte. We also use pork in stir fries / Chinese dishes which he loves too. That said, if you don't eat it, you don't need to make it for your baby. Neither are essential!

My son eats pretty much what we eat, apart from fish- I make sure he eats a lot of fish despite my dislike of it, because it ensures he has a balanced diet.
If we’re having homemade lamb kofte wraps, he has one, if we’re having sausages and mash, he has some. He actually LOVES minced lamb, and it was probably one of the last meats I introduced him too. Definitely prefers it over beef, perhaps as it is a slightly sweeter meat.

I'm veggie and ds mostly is just because it's what I cook. He loves to help at 2.5 now so we do things he can saftey help with so putting things on trays and mixing.
He loves dumplings on veg stews so we do that a lot as he likes making them. I add lentils, beans, and spices to make things interesting. Veggie sausage cassolat or toad in the hole he likes o due to mixing the batter etc.
Although tbh he'd eat chips every meal if permitted so its important to give variance.

Don’t forget not all sausages are the same! Go to a butchers and they will be much higher quality than some of the supermarket options.

If you don't eat pork or lamb, then baby doesn't need to either.

It's not 'nutritionally gross' though. That's a very simplistic view of a natural food.

Fats are necessary for good health. Fats from meat can be a lot healthier than veggie solid (hydrogenated) fats. Babies and children shouldn't be on low fat diets (low junk, yes).

And I was veggie and raised my child as a veggie for 11 years, so it's not that I think any meat is an essential part of a diet. But believing pork and lamb are intrinsically unhealthy is not accurate.

...if you don't eat them....don't serve them.

Of course there's no "need".

And there's nothing wrong with a decent sausage.

Well they don't need it, but why os it gross? I get sausages aren't great bit that's not the only form of pork, and what's wrong with lamb?

Lamb mince makes some lovely burgers, add some mint,also I make lamb koftes and have done since mine were little. I think the best thing to avoid creating fussy eaters is to give as much variety as possible, even things you think are a bit gross.

Yeah, so gross was probably the wrong word. Sausages definitely are, but as you say, not the rest.

Why don’t you specifically eat lamb or pork?

Babies and toddlers really really need fat (saturated or otherwise) for brain development. This is why you have to give toddlers full fat cows’ milk and not skimmed or semi skimmed. They also need quite a lot of iron and it’s often hard to get enough into them. So yeah, nutritionally lamb and other read meat would be an excellent thing to include in your toddler’s diet. You’re right that the salt content is a concern with things like sausages, but unsalted meat is a good thing nutritionally, even if it’s high in saturated fat.

Raising a child to think sausages (or any other food) is gross is much more likely to cause issues than the odd sausage!

They are rare breed livestock keepers who make sausages from the whole animal not just the rubbish bits. I’d just roast meat and pull it then serve it.

So you and your partner are veggie? Why aren’t you raising him veggie too, at least at home? I would’ve been very confused if my vegetarian parents kept cooking meat for us whilst saying why they didn’t eat it. Thankfully they kept it coherent, but feeding the baby meat if you’re veggie is a bit strange.

Pork is very versatile which is probably why its in a lot of toddler (and adult) recipes. I wouldn't give my baby sausages due to the salt nd fat content but things like pork chops, loin, mince are basically like chicken.