Great thread Shannon! I can't believe I missed this one?! Perhaps we could start a thread (or use this one?) as a place for RAF/RPD/Primal parents to unite and share ideas, experiences etc?
You're doing a wonderful job with your children and I greatly admire you for it.
I have a 16 month old son who I'm trying to raise in a similar manner. I've been eating RAF (now VLC RPD) for 10 years myself. My partner of 5 years has transitioned now to a largely cooked Weston Price diet with as much RAF as I can encourage her to eat (raw butter, cream, milk, jerky, liver drinks etc) but is certainly not a raw paleo eater.
I've found that it's been important to compromise the diet of my son in line with i) the wants of his mother and, ii) the wants of my son! My experience has shown that it's not quite as simple as one may be led to believe by theory and dogma.
Like you, I've had difficulty getting my son to eat raw meats. I've been growing concerned that perhaps he's, on some spiritual level, a pescatarian!
For the first 12 months or so he was solely breast fed whilst paying close attention to my partner's diet. Since then, he's been offered raw meats/organs, raw egg yolks, raw butter, raw goat yoghurt, cooked fish/seafood, scrambled eggs, homemade bone broth, organic berries, natural spring water and raw coconut water. That's it. Currently, he's still largely breast-fed but usually has 1 or 2 meals per day consisting of scrambled egg with lots of raw butter and cooked fish/seafood in bone broth.
Like you, I've often tried slipping small amounts of raw finely chopped meats into his fish broth or eggs but it's always been difficult and, likewise, I don't think deception is the way to go! However, and perhaps to offer a little encouragement to you, I can declare that the last couple of days has seen him eat raw finely chopped beef/lamb as a meal alone! This has usually been dehydrated for 1/2 hour or so and, sometimes, added to cooled broth.
Perhaps patience is key and your children will, simply, eat it when ready?
Of course, it's important not to force raw meats on them at all but it may encourage them to develop a taste for it by offering them a little to 'play with'. For many months, I've been giving my son thin slices of raw beef or lamb which he happily holds and wanders around sucking/chewing - eventually handing me back the soggy mess when he's had enough. Although he would never actually eat it this way, it was a worry initially that he may choke on it but such fears proved ungrounded as we never had an incident despite him often wandering around with whole big pieces shoved in his mouth!
How is is going with your children now? Any progress?
