How much fish and meat should a baby eat?

[Mareta]

I am a veggy so don't have a clue of the minimum of fish and meat DD (almost 7 months) should be having per week. I know it can seem silly me being a veggy and giving DD meat and fish but I guess it is a compromise I have to do as DP isn't and all his family as well as mine thinks is very important that she eats everything. So I thought fine, she will do but as I am the one feeding her I will put the rules.

Today I went to weigh her and asked the HV and she said she should be having twice a week fish and the other days meat. I thought that was too much as I know that DD eats a lot of proteins and iron from other sources other than meat. I guess I just want to know who much she should be having. I don't mind that much giving her fish as I really think it is very good, even me hating the smell of it , but meat it is something I really believe to be unnecessary (at least that is my point of view). I just want to stop listening my parents in law about how important is meat and fish on her diet and have enough information to tell them "Look she is having a minimum of meat and fish and she is doing fine".

I tried a couple of weeks ago to give her some chicken and it work better than expected when I gave it to her as finger food. However when I did a puree with it she kept spitting it out and I ended covered of chicken, disgusting!!!!! Now I know that chicken is for finger food only. Last night I gave her some fish, it was plaice and she didn't seem to like it too much. Any new food she has had excluding fish and meat she has loved it. She does not seem very interested on fish and meat at the moment which make me a bit happy .

Any advice would be great. TIA

Do you cook for your DP or does he cook his own meals? Our dd eats with us and if we have meat so does she, normally fish once a week and meat 4 or 5 times. Sometimes she eats it, sometimes she doesn't. Maybe your dd could have some of what your dp is having.

This is what Babycentre says about a balanced diet:

High iron and high protein foods

Offer these at one or two meals each day. They include meat, fish, eggs, nuts and pulses. Pulses are foods such as kidney beans, chickpeas, hummus, lentils and dhal. Offer soft, tender cuts of meat as some toddlers find hard, chewy meats challenging. Choose good-quality sausages, meatballs and burgers that have a high lean meat content and a low salt content. They are popular and nutritious for toddlers.

Vegetarians or children who refuse to eat meat should have some pulses, eggs, nuts or beans at two or three meals each day to get enough iron.

I wouldn't tie yourself in knots worrying about exactly how much protein she eats and when, as long as she is offered a reasonably varied diet across the week. As she gets older you will probably find she goes through phases of refusing everything you offer anyway!

We are in the same boat as you (ie we're veggie but let the DC (3y and 10m) eat meat/fish if they want to). In practice they hardly ever eat meat but both have fish a couple of times a week, DS2 loves lentils (DS1 sadly allergic to them) and they can both eat their bodyweight in cheese which is also a good source of protein.

DP will have once a week fish and rarely some meat at home. He will mainly have some meat when we go to his parents' or if we are out. If he is having it at home he will cook it himself. What we have done once with chicken and once with fish is he has cooked it for him and left some for DD so the next day I could give it to her. He is never at home for lunch either dinner as he is working. I cook everything that has not move before to arrive to my plate . What I mean is that I won't cook fish or meat although I think I may have to start thinking of doing it at some point which I am not very happy about it.

I think DD has a very balanced diet at the moment. She will eat anything that I eat for lunch so we can have the same thing and share it. Or dinner she usually has purees. She loves pulses and beans as well as cheese and almost everything else except meat at the moment .

I was just wondering how often I should be offering her fish and meat per week. I think I will stick to meat and fish for lunch as it is when we do BLW at the moment.

Thank you very much for all your comments

I agree with MegBusset - my son didn't always have fish, he is a brilliant eater but I found fish to be quite a strong flavour for him. He used to like fish pie so I would make small little ramerkins (sp) of these to freeze. I used the Annabell Karmel recipe.