'I feed my toddler son a raw meat diet and he loves it'

"Everyone thinks that it's going to make you sick and give you salmonella," the proud dad insists.

A man who found fame eating raw testicles online has revealed that his 14-month-old son has now got in on the action - and he absolutely loves raw meat too.

When Pauly Long, 31, first discovered that he was going to be a dad in October 2021, he hadn't yet developed a love of raw meat, but that all changed in April 2022 when he decided to eat raw testicles for the first time.

The proud dad, who claims to have eaten every part of an animal, explained that his son has a largely whole foods diet, and the first 'proper' food he ate was cooked liver at five months old.

"I think babies know have a natural sense of knowing what's good with food," Pauly, from Pennsylvania, USA, gushed. 

"The first thing my son tried raw was liver and that was when he was about a year old. He then tried raw testicle a few months ago. He loves it. It's like actually one of his favourite things.

"He's not talking yet, but when he wants something he points at it.

"I don't force raw meat on him. I've never forced anything on my kid, and I never will. I let him figure it out."

Want to join the family? Sign up to our Kidspot newsletter for more stories like this.

The one year old devours raw meat. Images: Caters

An experiment that stuck

Explaining how he got into eating raw meat himself, Pauly said: "It just started as like kind of a joke slash experiment.

"Then it turned into, 'I'm going to do this now and see what it does to my body.' There's a lot of pros and cons, but overall, eating raw meat has had a really good effect on me.

"I think the cons are more mental than anything. I think it's really healthy for you. I love food, and sometimes I crave a nice cooked burger.

"While I was a full carnivore for a while, my diet now is a lot more varied - and so is my son's.

"The first solid food he ever had was liver, at around five months old, and it was cooked."

Pauly, who now lives in Bali, Indonesia with his wife and son, claims that he did extensive research into the risks of eating raw meat before eating it himself and giving it to his son.

He added: "I did my research - I made sure I was very, very confident with my decision before letting my son eat raw meat. This was not an experiment with him.

"A really common myth about consuming raw meat that everyone thinks is that it's going to make you sick and give you salmonella.

"It's very unlikely actually because most raw meat has very active enzymes in it, which are really good for your body. You lose a lot of those in the cooking process.

"What I've learned is that if you get your raw meat from a quality source and it's preserved properly, 99% of the time you're fine.

"I had food poisoning about three times last year and it was always from restaurants."

RELATED: ‘My anxiety makes me pick my thumbs until they look like raw meat’

The baby loves raw meat

Pauly said his son has never had any issues consuming raw meat as a baby - and he actually believes that it's had some benefits.

He said: "When it comes to food, if babies don't like something or it doesn't feel right, they're going to spit it out for the most part.

"It's been months since my son first tried raw testicle and raw liver, and he's never had any issues. In fact, the first time he had raw testicle, he slept really good that night too, which I thought was pretty cool."

However, while Pauly had no qualms about feeding his young son raw meat, he admits that his wife wasn't so keen on the idea at first.

He admitted: "She was a major sceptic about it. I actually wanted to start him on this stuff earlier. But she would not let me - it was a 'happy wife, happy life' type situation, so we waited a little longer.

"When he first tried liver, it was because he saw me eating it. I was sitting there eating it, and he would not back down. So I said, 'Here you go,' and he just ate it right up. Then he asked for more and more."

Pauly's son is now enjoying a diet that includes steak, raw milk, and chicken drumsticks, and the proud dad admitted that his son is growing very fast.

The full-time content creator said: "He's tall. He's much bigger than other kids his age.

"He's just a little machine and he's always hungry. He will walk over to the fridge, tell us to open it, and then he points to all the fruit on the on the bottom shelf.

"If I take a steak out and he sees it, he'll chirp for some.

"But the point is that we're not feeding him junk food. My wife will give him a little a little rip off of like her toast or cinnamon bun or whatever, and I'm like, 'Don't give him it.'

"When I was his age, I used to eat chicken nuggets and all that sh*t.

"I grew up with such a f**ked up diet, and I think it had a lot of long term health effects on my body. I don't want to see my kid have to deal with that.

"My dad would feed me junk, but then also try to make me eat healthy, and I never wanted to."

The dad swears his son eats better than most men. Image: Caters

RELATED: How to change the mind of a fussy eater

Is this the solution for fussy eaters? 

Pauly said that unlike his younger self, his son enjoys all of the foods that he's given.

He added: "He really enjoys his diet. For the most part, he's eating whole foods and that's how we intend to keep it for as long as we can.

"Obviously, he's going to get to a point where he's gonna make his own decisions, but at least while he's young, I want him to have as good of a diet as possible."

When asked if he could ever see his son becoming a vegetarian or vegan, Pauly joked: "I think he likes steak too much for that to happen, so I'm not worried."

Dr. Lawrence Cunningham from UK Care Guide said of feeding toddlers raw meat: "Feeding raw meat to toddlers is not recommended due to the significant health risks involved.

"Infants have sensitive and developing digestive systems that may not effectively handle raw foods, especially meats.

"In addition, consuming raw meat can expose infants to harmful bacteria, leading to potential foodborne illnesses. It's always best to thoroughly cook meats to ensure they are safe for babies to consume.

"Whilst meat has usually been introduced by this point, raw meat hasn't. The risks I outlined, particularly around choking and bacteria, still exist, so on balance, I'd still recommend waiting until they are older."

Originally published as 'I feed my toddler son a raw meat diet and he loves it'