When Dariya Quenneville’s infant daughter was ready for solid food, she skipped the mushed up avocado and banana. On the menu instead? Raw egg yolk and puréed chicken liver.
“She would just teethe on that and soothe herself,” said Quenneville, 31.
Schizandra is what her mom calls a “carnivore baby.” Most of her diet is meat, along with other animal-sourced foods like eggs and butter. “She’s an easy baby,” said Quenneville of her daughter, now almost 2. “I believe that the food in the diet is a very, very big piece of that.”
With the carnivore diet rising in popularity among adults, babies and toddlers are getting in on it, too. Moms swap tips—think directions for whipped bone marrow—on Facebook forums with names like Carnivore Motherhood.
Some parents say they’re inspired by social-media stars: A handful of doctors who are raising their own carnivore babies have YouTube channels with hundreds of thousands and even millions of subscribers. Rising interest in protein and concerns about ultraprocessed foods are causing some people to look at carnivore-style diets. Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a carnivore champion, has loudly expressed his affinity for beef tallow.