I've read everything from 6-9 mths for starting meat. My ped told us to start recently and dd was 7.5 months, she said babies need protein at this point regardless of being formula or bf'd. I started with beans and chickpeas (protein and fibre) and then went to chicken and now beef. I tried the jars of meat and it's pretty gross- looks and smells like cat food. I boil the meat and then put through the food processor with some of the water from the boil. It's smooth and pretty plain tasting, I then freeze into cubes. For variety I will add 1/2 cube of a veggie or even mango but I freeze all dd's foods as one flavour, plain so that we can mix at the meal time for variety.
If you do use the jars I would stick with the plain meats vs. the mixes ie. pasta with chicken, veggies with turkey, etc. This way they get the most protein and you can add what you want. Oh, my ped also told me to use dark meat for chicken vs. white as it's higher fat and calories for the los.
