How to Safely Introduce Meat when Solid Food Training

When parents think about starting solids, meat is rarely at the top of the list.

Bananas? Yes. Avocado? Of course. Sweet potato purée? Safe. Predictable. Soft.

But a chicken leg? A strip of steak? A rib bone?

The worries of a possible choking hazards begin to creep in.

And yet, according to pediatric feeding specialists at Solid Starts, meat may be one of the most important foods to introduce early for nutritional and developmental purposes.

Eating Is a Skill, Not a Light Switch

One of the most powerful reframes from the Solid Starts team is deceptively simple:

“For some reason, when it comes to eating, we expect that like a light switch is going to flip,” says Kim Grenawitzke, OTD, OTR/L, SCFES, Senior Feeding + Swallowing Specialist. “But eating is a skill. Babies are learning to move their tongue around and chew and swallow food. And it takes time.”

When babies first sit in a high chair around six months, they are not just learning flavors. They are learning coordination. Jaw strength. Sensory tolerance. Tongue mobility. Postural stability.

The early months of solids are not about perfect plates. They are about practice.

“In the beginning, those first couple months are really just practice,” Grenawitzke explains. “All of that important nourishment is coming from breast milk or formula… the food on the table is like a cherry on top.”

Through a developmental stage, there are structural elements that need to be trained.

The Hidden Link Between Early Chewing and Picky Eating

Many parents are surprised to learn that meat refusal in toddlerhood often starts much earlier.

Kary Rappaport, OTR/L, MS, SCFES, IBCLC, Executive Director at Solid Starts, spent years working in pediatric hospitals supporting babies with feeding and swallowing challenges. A pattern emerged.

“Toddlers who did not have ample practice learning to chew early on in starting solids would tend to refuse meats because those meats were just too challenging for them to chew.”

Meat is not avoided because toddlers dislike it. Often, it is avoided because it is physically demanding.

“Meats are really challenging to chew,” Rappaport explains.

If a child hasn’t built the oral motor skills necessary to break down fibrous textures, the natural response is avoidance. Not defiance. Not preference. Skill gap.

This reframes picky eating from a behavioral issue to a developmental one.

Why Soft Foods Alone Aren’t Enough

Purees and very soft foods are accessible, convenient, and comforting to offer. But if babies are only exposed to dissolvable textures, their mouths do not get the sensory feedback required to develop mature chewing patterns.

Rappaport describes one of their favorite developmental tools: resistive food teethers.

“A food like a spare rib bone gives babies’ jaws a bunch of sensory input that helps trigger their chewing reflexes.”

When most of the meat is removed and the bone is intact and unbreakable, babies can safely gnaw and explore.

“It also gives their tongue and the roof of their mouth sensory input that gets their tongue moving and their mouth practicing the motions of chewing.”

This kind of exposure does something purees cannot: it builds strength and coordination.

Those repetitive motions — gnawing, biting, moving the tongue side to side — are foundational.

“Those skills are essential for helping them to eventually learn to chew in a really well-coordinated way,” Rappaport says.

Skill Before Nutrition

Parents often worry about whether their baby is swallowing enough meat to absorb iron or protein.

But the Solid Starts team emphasizes something critical: without skill, nutrition doesn’t matter.

“If your child does not have the interest or the skills to eat nutrient-dense foods like vegetables, meats, nuts, seeds — you can build the most perfect plate for them, and it doesn’t matter because they’re not going to eat it,” Grenawitzke explains.

You cannot force nutrition into a child who lacks the mechanics to process it.

The goal at six, seven, and eight months is not consumption volume. It is exposure and competence.

Babies may suck, spit, mash, or drop meat in the early months — and that is still learning.

The Long View: Feeding for the Toddler Years

By toddlerhood, the expectations shift. Nutrition from table food begins to matter more as breast milk or formula decreases.

But toddlers who were allowed to practice chewing earlier often transition more smoothly into eating family foods.

The difference is subtle but powerful.

Instead of rejecting steak because it feels impossible, the child approaches it as something familiar, challenging, yes, but manageable.

And that difference begins months earlier than most parents realize.