The child does not eat meat: advice for mothers on what to do and how to teach a child to eat meat

Mothers go to great lengths to ensure that their child eats meat, fish, eggs and vegetables. And they grind foods that the baby hates with a blender, and mix them into porridge, and decorate them beautifully. But the baby stubbornly doesn’t want to eat, no matter what dances in front of the plate, and no matter what cartoons you try to attract. Our author, Olesya Imamova, shares tips on what to do if a child is not eating well.

Olesya Imamova, author of articles, mother

Should I be concerned about my child not eating certain foods?

“My child doesn’t eat anything!” This is one of the most popular complaints to pediatricians. And when the doctor tries to clarify with the mother her understanding of “nothing,” it turns out that the child eats a lot of fruits and vegetables, porridge, and cottage cheese. The only thing he doesn't eat is meat. However, it seems to the mother that if the child refused the cutlet in the morning and carefully selected all the pieces of meat from the soup at lunch, then this is already a catastrophe on a universal scale.

Pediatricians reassure that the child can avoid certain foods for some time. This eating behavior is explained by the baby’s growth, changing tastes, and even the peculiarities of the season. Probably every mother has noticed that in the summer the child eats less meat and dairy products, but more fresh fruits and vegetables.

Did your child eat cheesecakes and casseroles, and then suddenly stop? This is also normal. After a few weeks or months, interest in these products will return again. In any case, the child will find enough vitamins and microelements for himself in substitute products.

You should worry when a child does not eat meat, fish, dairy, or eggs at the same time. Then it’s worth contacting specialists. The child may have an allergy or intolerance to these products.

How can you interest a child?

Try cooking the meat differently than usual. Some children hate cutlets, but they willingly eat dumplings. Or they don’t like stewed meat, but they like it in pies or pasties. Children throw out pieces of meat from the soup, but eat meatballs. Experiment with flavors and serving forms!

You can interest your child if you invite him to join the process of creating food. For example, your baby can help you prepare dumplings or distribute already cooked chicken fillet onto pizza dough. Believe me, the child will certainly want to try the results of his work!

An interesting presentation will also create a big appetite in your baby! You can find a lot of ideas for original presentation of dishes online, or you can show your child your imagination. The main thing is to use only natural products for decoration, and not mayonnaise or ketchup.

And finally, set an example for your child. If you know that your baby will refuse meat, then try to taste it yourself first. As a rule, children like to copy their parents, so they will wonder why you eat something that you don’t give to them. Before you know it, the cutlet will disappear from your plate.

If your parents are vegetarians

Some parents claim that their children initially became vegetarians, refusing to eat meat from early childhood. Giving up meat is one of the most pressing and debated issues among supporters and opponents of vegetarianism.

According to nutritionists involved in children's nutrition, eating or not eating meat is a conscious choice of adults. You should not make this choice for your child. In childhood, the body needs complete proteins, which can only be fully obtained from animal products - meat, milk, eggs and fish.

The child does not eat fish

Fish repels children with a specific smell. But this problem can be easily solved if you add aromatic spices and herbs. And before serving, sprinkle with a little lemon juice. In addition, fish can be cooked with vegetables. Then the smell will not be as noticeable.

In addition to fried or baked, offer fish cutlets with cheese inside or a tender soufflé. There are a lot of options. The main thing is to find time and inspiration for your mother. Just don't try to hide the fish with something else. The child will quickly declassify you and lose trust in you.

It's another matter if the baby has allergies. Then the pediatrician may suggest eating more meat and dairy products, as well as time to take omega supplements or fish oil.

Almost omnivorous

The main reason for concern of parents whose children rarely or little, in their opinion, eat meat and fish dishes, is that the child will not receive something valuable and important. For the vast majority of children, refusal of such food is temporary and is usually due to the fact that they do not like the method of preparation. Be patient. If a child doesn’t eat something, don’t force it, don’t persuade it, don’t push it! And even more so, do not replace natural products with surrogates, as long as your child eats at least something.

A child who is reluctant to eat meat may like other animal products, such as eggs, dairy products, and occasionally eat small amounts of meat, poultry, or fish. In this case, no problems with protein and microelements should arise. For example, iron in the body accumulates in depots, and it takes several months for these reserves to be depleted. If your child is healthy and active, there is nothing to worry about.

The child does not eat dairy products

Many parents complain that their child does not eat cheese and milk cereals. However, they themselves do not eat porridge or drink milk in front of the child. Your own example is the basis. It is very difficult to impose on your child those foods that you yourself do not like. The mirror principle does not work.

If your child doesn’t like cheese in its pure form, invite him to make cottage cheese casserole, cheesecake or cheese muffins together. At home, even a child with the help of adults can bake cheese cookies or bagels. Minimum ingredients - maximum taste!

A child may not like store-bought yoghurts with fillings, as they have a chemical taste. Alternatively, buy without fillers or make your own. And when serving, add your favorite fruits. Another option is to make a fruit salad and top it with yogurt.

It’s easy to make something like soufflé or panna cotta from sour cream, sugar, gelatin and berries.

When extra iron is needed

Vegetarian children and children who observe Orthodox fasts may receive more or less iron, but what is important is how much is absorbed. The absorption and assimilation of nutrients is influenced by a huge number of factors: from genetic characteristics to the state of the gastrointestinal tract. For children and adolescents during a period of intensive growth, girls with heavy menstruation, and child athletes, it is better to have a blood test and consult a doctor about prescribing additional iron in the form of supplements.

Parents should be wary if the child looks pale, lethargic, gets tired quickly, often gets colds, has a desire to eat something inedible, his skin looks dry and flaky, and the condition of his nails and hair has worsened. Urgently see a doctor, a blood test will show whether the child has anemia. There are also indicators of the transport stock of iron, which reveal its hidden shortage, i.e. depletion of reserves in depots. Nothing can be done about this - the child will have to take iron supplements, since it is impossible to restore it to its normal state with food alone.

The child does not eat vegetables

Does a child fish carrots out of soup and pull out onions from salad? This has probably happened to everyone. But there’s nothing wrong with that, because not all adults like broccoli or Chinese cabbage.

Try making a stew with lots of vegetables. Or make fresh juices. In any case, a child can, without much fear for his health, dislike some vegetable.

Children are very demanding; they do not like the same type of dishes due to the uninteresting presentation. To feed them something healthy, you need to constantly experiment, look for new ideas, recipes and involve them in the cooking process.

Photo: depositphotos.com

If he doesn't love and doesn't want

Why might children refuse meat? There are many reasons given.

• Meat, unlike many fruits, vegetables, and herbs, does not have a pleasant aroma, color or taste. In baby food, meat is served boiled, stewed or steamed, in the form of cutlets, without spices and seasonings, which, compared to vegetable and fruit dishes, looks pale and not so bright in taste. Children's food interest is focused on those types of food that look more interesting and smell brighter.

• Children do not yet have a full set of teeth and it is more difficult for them to chew meat; even if they eat cutlets or meatballs, they need to put in more effort than when eating vegetables, cereals and other dishes. The meat has a fibrous structure, a special smell and taste, it is dense, it must first be chewed well, which children are often too lazy to do.

• Many children do not want to eat meat because of impressionability and pity for animals; after learning that a cutlet is a former cow or chicken, children may be shocked, upset or excited. This is typical for children over two or three years old; children can already make logical conclusions, but their knowledge of the world is still limited; such information can become an incentive for them to change their diet.

Many children do not eat meat, abandoning it in favor of meat products - sausages, sausages, hamburgers. This is an inferior replacement for meat and its proteins, or rather, it is not a replacement at all. Children are “led” to taste enhancers, aroma stimulants and other harmful chemicals; such “meat” products do not bring any benefit. You should not offer your child sausages or hamburgers, just so that he will eat something meaty, this is fundamentally wrong!

Meat value

Why is it so important to introduce meat dishes into your toddler’s diet?

1. It has a high content of proteins, amino acids, iron, zinc, vitamin D and B12, calcium, omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids.
2. The energy value of meat allows you to replenish the body's energy costs, and also provides substances necessary for the growth and development of the body.
3. Meat allows you to cleanse the body, it helps improve digestion, and also removes possible toxins.
4. Contains valuable fats that are not able to be synthesized independently in the body. If they are absent, the baby's growth may slow down.
5. A large number of different dishes can be prepared from this product.

Reasons for refusal

Meat complementary foods appear in the diet of infants at 8-9 months. But many mothers are faced with the fact that the baby refuses to eat meat or spits out the food as soon as it feels a new taste. This happens for various reasons.

• The child does not like the appearance of the meat puree or its taste. When a baby begins to be interested in food from his mother's plate, he prefers foods that have a more attractive appearance and smell, for example, pieces of fruits and vegetables. But many little ones find the taste, color and aroma of meat not very attractive.
• The baby has few teeth, so it is difficult for him to chew meat. This reason often causes a dislike for certain meat dishes, for example, steamed cutlets or boiled pieces of meat, while the child eats chopped meat normally. As soon as mom tries to teach him to eat pieces, the little one refuses.
• The child has an intolerance to certain types of meat or an allergy to animal proteins. With such problems, even after a small piece, a rash, nausea, and upset stool may occur.

Other reasons for refusal include poor health, too large a portion, lack of appetite, heat (in summer you want less meat).

Vegan child

I have not had such patients, but in the practice of nutritionists in Western countries, where children are raised in the principles of vegetarianism and even veganism (strict vegetarianism, excluding any products of animal origin), the deficiency of vitamins, iron and other microelements is compensated by their preparations. Possible problem areas with veganism:

• low intake of iron and zinc;
• insufficient amounts of essential amino acids;
• calcium deficiency due to exclusion of dairy products;
• depletion of vitamin B12 in the depot, which comes only from animal products;
• vitamin D deficiency in conditions of insufficient insolation.

A doctor cannot recommend a vegan diet to a child because excluding one or more food groups from the diet could result in a lack of a number of important nutrients. This can affect the growth, physical and mental development of the child. However, if the family has chosen such a nutrition system for itself, the child needs the supervision of a pediatric nutritionist, special nutrition planning and, as a rule, the addition of vitamins and minerals to food.

*More information about how common “vegetarian genes” are in the population can be found in studies by scientists at Cornell University.

Ways to teach a toddler to eat meat

Answering the question of how you can easily teach a child to eat meat, consider the following methods:

• Try to vary your meat dishes. If this is ready-made meat puree, then start buying a product with a different brand. Offer your baby different types of meat - maybe he will like one of them.
• Change the cooking recipe. The baby may not like steamed meat, but he will happily eat stewed or boiled meat.
• Involve your baby in the cooking process. If a child makes cutlets himself, he will definitely want to try them.
• Try to decorate the dish beautifully. Decorated meat looks more appetizing.
• Set a personal example for your child. Show that you enjoy eating meat. After some time, the baby will follow your example.
• Do not force the little one by force and screaming - this may turn him away from meat products even more.
• Try hiding meat pieces in a salad.
• Cook the meat until it becomes soft; for children from six months to a year, grind it into puree.
• Offer your little one pastries with meat filling.
• Try to distract your baby by reading him fairy tales or showing him cartoons.
• Just wait until the child is mature enough to eat meat.

Complementary feeding - rules and requirements

Vegetable purees are considered the optimal first food for a baby. Pediatricians believe that for a breastfed child, the best time to introduce such complementary foods is 6 months of age. If the child is bottle-fed, then vegetable purees can be given at 4-5 months.

The baby will definitely like the right puree, because it is at least a new taste for him. In addition, vegetables in an infant’s diet weaken the infant’s intestines, thanks to which it is possible to quickly overcome such an urgent and common problem as constipation.

What vegetables can be given first? Of course, hypoallergenic. The best are considered to be purees made from zucchini, broccoli, and cauliflower; the only important thing is that the puree is one-component, that is, it consists of one type of vegetable. These vegetables do not create a serious burden on the digestive tract.

About a month after the introduction of the first complementary foods, you can expand the baby’s menu - a 5-6-month-old baby can be given pumpkin puree with the addition of carrots, and also prepare mashed potatoes.

After another month, cabbage is added. At 1 year old, it’s time to teach your baby to eat tomatoes and cucumbers; at the age of 2 years, a child should try all the vegetables natural to the region in which he lives. Do not give exotic vegetables to children under 3 years of age.

You need to start complementary feeding with half a teaspoon. This applies to any vegetable at any age.

If during the day of observation the mother does not notice signs of digestive disorders and allergies, then the next day you can increase the amount of vegetable complementary foods to a teaspoon, and then to two, and so on.

The easiest way to teach a child to eat vegetables is in the first year of life. If this is not done in a timely manner, it will be difficult for a one-year-old baby and older to instill a love for carrots and cabbage.

For complementary feeding, you can use baby hypoallergenic purees. A little later, when the baby begins to eat vegetables, you can prepare purees yourself. For a baby who only needs 1-2 spoons of vegetable food, it will be difficult to prepare new purees every day. Therefore, experienced mothers advise preparing homemade purees after the portion has been increased to a substantial volume.

Ready-made canned puree has its advantages - it makes the task easier for a young mother (she has enough worries without zucchini puree!), it is convenient to take with you for a walk or on a trip, so that the child can eat at any time; Factory-produced puree is sterile, its composition is perfectly selected. But homemade food also has its advantages: the mother is calm, since she feeds her child natural food, what she herself selected and prepared.

How to improve the taste of meat puree

Patronage of a newborn - sample filling

If the reason why the baby refuses the product is the tasting quality of the offal, the situation can be corrected. True, with store-bought puree there are few options: add spices or mix with another dish.

The taste of homemade puree depends entirely on how it is prepared. You can try several recipes, perhaps your child will like one.

By scraping method

The method is simple and starts with chopping raw meat. The whole algorithm looks like this:

• taking a piece of veal, scrape off the required amount of pulp using a spoon or the blunt end of a knife;
• placed in a metal bowl;
• add a little diluted milk mixture;
• Place the container in a water bath.

When the red tint disappears on the meat, it is ready. All that remains is to puree the product and add spices.

Stew

The softer and airier the puree is, the more appetite the little one absorbs it. You can achieve this by following this recipe:

• meat fillet (40 g) is freed from tendons and films;
• cut into small pieces;
• pour in a small amount of water and simmer for 1.5-2 hours (you can add a little grated carrot);
• the meat is removed, cooled and minced twice in a meat grinder with a fine-mesh grid;

During cooking

• Bring until smooth with a blender.

All that remains is to slightly dilute the puree with vegetable broth and boil. At the end add 1 tsp. butter and, after cooling, give it to the baby.

Features of introducing meat into complementary foods

It is no coincidence that rational nature planned the appearance of the first teeth by six months. This is a signal to gradually transfer the baby from dairy foods to solid foods.

Meat is introduced into the diet in the 2nd complementary feeding, along with vegetable purees, starting with a dish of lean beef. The product supplements dairy foods with vitamins (A, B1, B2), fats, proteins, carbohydrates. It is a source of easily digestible iron, phosphorus, potassium and other minerals necessary for a child’s body.

Begin meat feeding with 0.5 tsp so that the child gets used to the new taste. The dose is gradually increased, at 8 months the baby’s single serving (also known as the daily dose) is 50 g. By the age of one year, the product is increased to 80 g.

For better digestibility by the digestive system, the meat is initially served in a puree state. If the little one likes the product, after a while the fraction is increased, using first minced meat, then cut into small pieces. Baby food departments sell canned meat purees that can be given to babies from 6 months.

Balanced product for infants

Note! If the mother plans to prepare the dish herself, then it is recommended to dilute the first portions of chopped meat with a small amount of breast milk (formula)

Is this product useful?

The answer to this question is obvious: meat is one of the healthiest foods for baby food .

A short list of the benefits of pureed meat might look like this:

• contains protein necessary for the proper formation of the body ;
• rich in vital elements such as zinc, iron, magnesium, potassium , etc.;
• prevents anemia;
• promotes healthy cell growth and normal metabolism;
• rich in vitamins B12 , which is of exceptional importance for the formation of immunity.

This list is far from complete, but it is sufficient to understand the enormous importance of introducing meat into the diet of young children.