And as an aside, I fear the hormones, antibiotics and chemicals used in mass farming of meat animals even though I'm a bit ignorant overall on the subject.
My husband eats any meat, though in very moderate amounts. He may have a steak once a quarter and pork on the rare occasions that A) someone else made it and invited him for dinner, B) it's a hotdog at a baseball park. He's also amenable to tofu, beans and meatless dishes, but holds none of my warm, furry aversions.
So where does that place Josie?
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| Turkey and green beans |
I want her to eat what we eat, and that's been fairly easy except for this point where Mommy and Daddy diverge.
How do we introduce her to meats? Do we limit her meat eating until she is old enough to decide for herself? How do we talk to day care about what proteins we'd like for her to eat and which ones we'd like for her to avoid? Will she miss out on foods that are important to our culture or her friends' cultures? Are we limiting her palate? Are we being too controlling? Is there a compromise?
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| To meat or not to meat, that is the question. |
She's had a few meats already. She's had chicken and turkey, both foods our family eats regularly. We're holding off on fish and seafood until she's at least a year old (which, gulp, is in weeks).
And I know day care has given her a beef patty at least once. Not sure how she liked it, but there were no problems on the back end, if you know what I mean.Still, I kind of which I had come to a decision, a solution to this dilemma before that happened. Shoulda paid more attention to the day care menu, too.
I have several momma mentors who probably have considered this before. So if y'all are reading, please weigh in. How did y'all do it? Would you do it differently? Am I just freaking out again?
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| CHOMP! |
Noah has what I like to call "meat struggles."
ReplyDeleteI'm mainly a fish and fowl eater myself. Very rarely do I eat red meat. So when it came time to introduce Noah to meat, I wandered the baby food aisle at the grocery store and almost threw up looking at the weird jars o' meat they offer babies. When I called my pediatrician, he expressed his horror at them, too, and told me just to wait until Noah could eat real meats in their real form.
So I did.
However, now I worry that by not introducing them earlier, I might've messed up, because getting him to eat ANY meat is an epic battle of wills.
Basically, I can only get him to eat fish and chicken in certain forms (read that as fish sticks and Chick-fil-A nuggets)and NOTHING else. It's a hassle because the kid needs protein, and fish sticks aren't available everywhere. And also, they're gross.
So my advice to you? Figure out what meats you want Josie to have in her diet and then fix them in EVERY variety you can. It sounds like you already prepare her a great mix of foods, and that she like trying new things, which is great -- that's the one thing I would change if I could go back to Noah's early eating days.
I was going to post what you already discovered, and that is that daycare's position on the matter may ultimately trump yours -- whatever you decide, make sure they are on board! We decided to let Natalie follow her own preferences. She shows no interest in anything red-meaty, fishy or porkish. She regularly eats the Morningstar fake chicken nuggets )lots of protein) as well as the real stuff. Another favorite meal for her is vegetarian baked beans with a soy dog cut up (so, like healthy pork n beans). Don't worry about her getting every nutrient, even protein, in every meal -- it's her overall diet that matters. You've already figured out that variety is where it's at when it comes to getting proper nutrition.
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