Picture a one-year-old gnawing on a ribeye like it’s a teething toy. That’s the reality for a growing set of parents who are raising “carnivore babies”—infants who skip purées and go straight to slabs of beef, sticks of butter, and whipped bone marrow.
In New Jersey, Angelena Minniti-Stampone told the New York Post her daughter, Capri, started lunging for meat at six months. “She literally snatches the meat out of my mouth,” Minniti-Stampone said.
Capri’s appetite has since become a family trademark, one her mother believes will help her grow up free from the body-image baggage of the ‘90s diet culture she remembers all too well.
Parents posting these meat-heavy baby meals see them as primal, nutrient-dense, and immune to the processed junk marketed to kids. Evelyn Flores from Sunnyside recalled craving chops through her pregnancy and now feeds her 10-month-old son Kai tomahawk steaks and hunks of butter as snacks.
In Las Vegas, Taryn and Billy Frenzel have raised their three children on a strict carnivore diet since 2022. “They don’t want pizza, cereal, or French fries,” Taryn said. “They want meat.”
Parents Are Feeding Babies the Carnivore Diet—and Doctors Are Freaking Out
Not everyone applauds. The carnivore diet, popular with influencers and marketed as a shortcut to energy and weight loss, has been linked by researchers to kidney stones, digestive issues, and higher risks of colon cancer.
Pediatric experts worry about balance. Bridget Kiernan, a pediatric gastroenterologist at NYU Langone Health, told the Post a meat-heavy diet can work “in moderation” but stressed that infants also need carbohydrates, fiber, and sugars from fruits and vegetables. “We want to give children a balanced diet with all of the macro- and micro-nutrients,” she said.
That gap between medical advice and viral content fuels the backlash. Parents in these communities report ridicule, accusations of neglect, and even threats to involve child services. Critics see babies chewing ribeye as reckless; families call it healthy rebellion.
Every generation has its controversial parenting trend. This one just happens to come with bone marrow and ribeye fat instead of Gerber jars.
The post Carnivore Babies Are a Thing Now. Doctors Have Concerns. appeared first on VICE.
