Becky, you asked about Dr. Jack's recommendation to give a baby meat rather
than cereal as an early complementary food. Your concern was with the danger
of early introduction of meat proteins increasing the risk of allergies.
There is an excellent explanation of LLL's position on this topic, including
recent research to support introducing meat as an early food.  You can find
the entire article, reprinted from Leaven, LLL's magazine for leaders, at
http://www.lalecheleague.org/llleaderweb/LV/LVDec99Jan00p130.html .

According to this article, "There is a small risk of allergic reaction to
meat products. However, 'the present knowledge on meat digestibility and
allergenicity are not enough to justify removal of meat from a child's diet
when there is risk but not clinical evidence of allergy' (Restani 1997).
Moreover, the risk of reaction can be reduced even further by selecting less
allergenic meats, (such as turkey or lamb rather than beef or chicken), by
cooking and thoroughly blending them, or by using commercially processed
(freeze dried or homogenized) meat products. Introducing meat (or any other
new food) before weaning from the breast may reduce the likelihood of
developing a food sensitivity (Cummins and Thompson 1997)."

This Leaven article was written in response to a LLL leader's question which
was similar to your experience.  I highly recommend it.

Sara Dodder Furr, MA, breastfeeding volunteer and advocate
Lincoln, Nebraska where rain briefly interrupted our drought today

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