Kosher for 2 years old

Hello rabbai, I'm living in Egypt along with my Moroccan wife and our 2 years old daughter, I have a very spiritual story but let's save your time, we observe the Shabbat, already finished reading Tanakh and reading sefer zohar, we found Hashem, we only eat fish and vegetables to keep our food kosher, but my daughter, she's 2 years old, she's showing early signs of anemia because she doesn't eat iron rich food so can I cook for her in her own pot some meat or she should keep all her food kosher as well? Thank you and sorry for the long question

Shalom!

Thank you for your question.

It is vitally important that you keep your children’s food kosher, just like your own. There is no minimum age. Children should keep kosher from birth.

Indeed, it is forbidden by the Torah to feed children non-kosher meat, or anything else for that matter.

Based on the verse, “Do not make your souls disgusting by eating the creeping and crawling creatures….they will cause you to become” our sages teach us that this means that one a Jew consumes non-kosher food, his/her heart becomes spiritually contaminate and was prevents holiness from descending upon oneself.

One of our great rabbis, the Rashba, even writes that a baby who nurses from a no-Jewish woman may cause the baby to become cruel. This is because the non-Jewish woman consuming all forms of non-kosher food which is then passed on in the milk the baby drinks.

I will add, however, that there is no obligation to make a child at this age of 2 years wait between meat and milk. As such, as the age of your daughter, a child may be given milk after eating meat, No waiting period is necessary. Just make sure your daughter’s mouth is clean from any meat residueת it is le'chatchilah (optimal) that the child should eat something parve (any food besides flour dates and leafy vegetables like lettuce since they do not clean the mouth) and then drink something in between, and be sure to never serve meat and milk at the same time.

Make no mistake, it is vital to ensure that your baby is getting 100% of the iron that she needs. However, there are plenty of kosher way to do this.

Yoma 39a; 80a, OC 343