I felt the same way and ended up just waiting until my little guy was a little older and could handle the real thing. Soon enough yours will be able to eat shredded, chopped chicken or beef.

Baby meat in a jar seems a little too vomitish.

You know, I felt the same way. It is so undesireable that nasty meat puree or ( worse) the "meat sticks". It just plain old grossed me out. So I did the soy protein nuggets and avocado pieces and hard-boiled eggs...etc. I eat meat,myself, but there is something just too unsavory about it in custard form.

BLECH.

I'm with you!  I tried feeding my daughter a few veggie and chicken blends, but even then, if I don't dare put it in my mouth, why feed it to my baby?  

I only eat chicken, turkey, and seafood, so the idea of feeding her other forms of meat grosses me out even more.

I think breast milk remains the primary source of my daughter's nutrition, so I don't worry too much if she doesn't eat a fully balanced diet otherwise.  Fruit, veggies, and whole grains among whatever else I can convince her to try will work for now.

Yeah, there's something just plain wrong about pureed meat, even though in theory it's only one step past ground beef.  Still, an important step somehow.  Yech.  I'm glad I still have 8 or so months before I have to deal with this one...

If you do want to try, I've found that the Gerber Turkey Dinner stuff is the least offensive. There is other junk in those jars (rice or maybe potato starch and veggies) so they are somewhat more processed. There's also the Chicken Rice and Chicken Noodle dinners, which are yuckier. I've also tried the plain old pureed chicken, and mixed it with my son's favorite veggies. He likes that and the turkey the best, I think.

I agree, it's a tough step to take. I'm doing it because I'm nervous about meeting his nutritional needs. It seems like if nature hasn't given him the equipment yet to process the real thing (i.e., more than just two teeth) maybe it's too early. Then again, he's handling it well. We only give one serving a day at lunch time.

There are just so many opinions out there about what's best for kids to eat that it's hard to figure out what's right for any individual kid. I guess going with your gut is the best way to handle it (pardon the pun).

I felt the same about it, I didn't feed it until they could really feed themselves. One trick was to cook ground turkey well, and then process is slightly with rice and peas or another veggie. It was crumbly and sticky, and they could pick it up with their hands. I also used garlic powder and cumin for flavoring with my second child because I found after the first that he didn't like anything with actual flavor!

I used a lot of tofu- cut it up in cubes and call it cheese!

I was surprised by this post (and interested), and even more surprised by the responses.  People (including/especially? babies) don't need to eat meat to fulfill their nutritional requirements.  If you think it's gross, don't feed it to them.  You don't even have to feed them analogue meats, or call tofu 'cheese'.  There are many sources of protien and iron and whatever else is meat is supposedly vital for.  I would stick to the tofu and expand your bean/legume repertoire.  And maybe spend some more time considering the possibility that this might be a good time to move away from meat yourself (which doesn't mean you have to be a vegetarian; it just doesn't have to be a staple in your diet).    

I agree, and not because I am a vegetarian, but meat sticks and just the thought of pureed meat is totally gross.  My ladies will be vegetarians since both me and my husband are....maybe yours will be just born-veggies.  Some kids just refuse meat.  Maybe because its just plain gross coming out of a jar.  Veggie-organic kids also have less concentrations of pesticides in thier little bodies, so isn't that just plain healthier??

I just wanted to say hi.  My name is Alyson, and I am mom to identical twin girls, Kate and Emily, born two days before your girls.  I just read your whole blog, and it's CRAZY how similar our experiences are.  It seems like my Kate is your Elsa, and Clio is my Emily.  (Cute names, btw!)  Reading through, I wanted to leave notes on a bunch of different entries but then I realized that they would all just say, "Me too!" and that's boring.  But seriously?  Me too, me too, us too, her too and, oh yeah - me too!

It's weird how exciting meeting (and "meeting") other moms of twins can be.  Through a mommy group, I've made friends with a lady who has fraternal girls born the day after mine - so the day before yours.  It's crazy how awesome it is to be friends with her.  Noone gets it like she does, we're going through the exact same thing more than half the time.

Anyway, just wanted to introduce myself.  I'll be subscribing to your blog.  I've included the link to mine, but it's really just for my husband's family in England - I don't update it too often. Anyway, my e-mail is a_shivley at  yahoo dot com, if you want to keep in touch.  

I'm right there with ya sister. I know my guys could use some addt'l protein sources now that they are olympically scurrying around the house, but it's not going to be in the form of meat frappe. I tried avacado. Emmet is not down with it. I called our pedi and the nurse told me to wait 2 weeks (until they hit 9 mo) and then start giving them some baby yogurt, cottage cheese, cream cheese. I tried the cottage cheese already. Again, Ethan was game, but no dice for Emmet. I'm interested in hearing how the egg white went over. Maybe I'll try that. By the way, what's the deal with no cow's milk until 12 mo, but cheese and yogurt are okat at 9 mo?

For the same reasons, I refused to feed my twin daughters meat until they were almost a year old.  I didn't want to feed them meat until I could just cut it into small pieces.  They were never fans of tofu, but they did eat yogurt, peas and beans.  They really liked black beans also.  So I hoped they were getting enough protein until I could feed them meat that didn't gross me out.

We had the rule with our daughter (now 3) that we'd never feed her anything that we wouldn't eat ourselves.  I couldn't even smell a jar of baby food with meat in it, let alone eat it.  We did however, make her lots of homemade baby food with meat.  I highly recommend the cookbook "First Meals".  There are a number of great recipes that are essentially stir fries or stews using ground beef or chicken or fish and loads of vegetables that you then blend down to make them smoother for the babes.  It's not at all like grinding up a single piece of meat, which the thought of makes me gag.  And, almost all the recipes can be frozen in ice cube containers so you have food for weeks.  Heck, I'm just over the border in Medford -- I'd be happy to lend you my copy. :>

Hey, it's possible that you're a vegetarian in denial.  Why not?

If you don't want to feed your girls meat, don't do it.  They don't need it.  If they like tofu and lentils, awesome!  They'll probably also like other cooked, pureed legumes.  Fake meats can require a lot of chewing, but there are lots of great options out there.

I have trouble with this, too.  My little one is 8 months old and I can't stomach the thought of feeding her meat.  In fact, I believe that my own meat-eating days are numbered:  I eat chicken and turkey right now but can't stand the thought of explaining to my daughter why I eat her barnyard friends.  Good thing my wife is vegetarian--I'm sure she'll help with my transition to an all-veg diet.    

I felt the same way too!  I started my son on food pretty early (4 months, well really 3-1/2).  For awhile all he had was cereal, fruits and vegetables.  Then I saw a jar of chicken baby food and decided to try it.  It smelled like cat food!!  (My cat thought so too.)  Just the thought of violating my little sweetie's mouth with it seemed like sacrilege.  But I gave him a little.  He made a face, like he did with every other food the first time he ate it, but for some reason, I just couldn't feed him the rest of the jar.  He's 7 1/2 months old now and I found a compromise.  I give him combo meals, like Beechnut's Turkey Tetrazzini or Chicken Noodle.  Smells better and looks a lot less like cat food.

I felt exactly the same (as did clearly many other readers). I could not buy or prepare pureed meat. Instead, we started with egg yolks, and lots of beans (the babes love pinto, red, and chick peas... they like black beans too but they're too messy). Beans started mashed and then pureed. And cheese, they love cheese for protein too.

Now that they're on finger foods we do small pieces of chicken which doesn't freak me out. And fish, they really like salmon and some white fishes. We buy organic, free range chicken which we never did for ourselves, but I'd never go back. It tastes so much better! And only wild caught fish.

So, do what works for you. As long as they're having breast milk, all the rest is gravy.

alright this was in the ancient past but my mom had the coolest contraption to feed my little brat brothers. the idea was a food mill, plastic with metal mill-parts. that way whatever the family ate went into the mill, and out came delicious potato/chicken/broccoli mush. it has to be out there somewhere, it was so genius. wait! here it is: www.peapods.com/.../4,154.html

me too, me too, me too!  I can't stand the thought of giving my 9 month old twins the pureed meats so I don't.  I do subscribe to the same rule as a previous poster, if I can't stand the smell or look of it in the jar and I wouldn't eat it - the twins aren't having it either.  I did find an organic jarred food called "my first soups" and they had a chicken soup that looked/smelled and tasted ok.  Yes, I am one of those that tastes all the baby foods!

I had trouble with the idea of meat, too, until I bought a food mill (cococobra - they still make them) and then somehow it seemed better.  E. would eat our ground up sauteed chicken and various other things put through the mill.  We even pout take-out chinese food through the food mill when E was about 13 months old - she loved it!  Meat in a jar made me gag and we had the same rule someone mentioned above - if we wouldn't eat, she shouldn't have to (with the exception of breastmilk, which she had to eat but we would never drink).

Meat-in-a-jar troubled me, and meatsticks?  Shiver.  We stuck with tofu, eggs and the like.  Our son's Babcia (Polish for grandma) busted out the sausage as soon as he could eat table food, and the question resolved itself.  

With our next one, I'm going to try a food mill ... so much more appealing than mystery protein in a tin.

well i'm not a big fan of jar food. it's great for convenience but cooking baby food really doesn't take that much effort. and you don't have to puree the meat. cook chicken cubes long enough and they start shredding as does beef and fish. i also use a lot of ground turkey and ground beef. cook it long enough and they all become mushy and easy to swallow for a 9 month old.

I never did meat in a jar-it's too processed for me...what part of the meat could be left after being pureed and processed and strained?  I waited until they had teeth, then found chicken shredded was a great teether-it's very chewy!

The oddest thing is that as a vegetarian I had no issue feeding my child pureed meat, meat sticks and small pieces of meat table food.

Speaking from a short veggie stint I'd say if your going with a "fake" meat I'd go with Morning Star! for me Bocca was just NASTY, it had a LOT of black pepper in it and I'm not a big fan of that! well that's my .02 worth. Good luck!

It was my 2 girls that made me a vegetarian. I asked myself the exact same question, "Am I actually a vegetarian in deep denial?" My answer was yes. The less I eat meat, the more disturbing the thought of eating it (or feeding it to my children) becomes.

i think you are starting to see just how, truly, disgusting eating meat is.  the notion of giving my son a dead animal to gnaw on seems completely absurd.  the very idea of feeding something that requires handling as though it were biohazard to my child seems just wrong all over.  

in the end, however, it's your choice what to feed your family!  best of luck in finding your way!

We did those nasty meat sticks in a jar - squished up chicken thingies.  They seem gross, but my son loved them.  Then we did regular meat in tiny, tiny pieces once he could chew better.  But you could just wait til they can chew - why can't they be vegetarians?  Beans are awesome.

I have to say, I don't know what you're all talking about. Meat in a jar sounds pretty good to me. I'm gonna start sneaking it to the girls when J's not around...