Getting a 16 Month Old to Eat Meat!

You can always give her beans.

Kidney and pinto are my kids' favorites.

Stay away from McDonalds! I see others posted this and must warn against the high sodium they put in all their food. It's not a healthy choice at all, especially for a 16 month old baby!

Some of the children I've worked with in the past (as a nanny) tended toward being 'vegetarian' on their own. Often, this was more about texture and taste than about any of the other reasons an adult or older child might choose to go veg. Like all other food issues, this is an area I wouldn't force.
You don't want to create power struggles around food.

That said, it's also important to keep your options healthy and to remember that some decisions are difficult to change once you start. I would steer away from serving her less-than-optimal meals in order to make meat 'appealing' to her. I have seen many parents go this route and find themselves stuck with a very picky eater. Thus, don't go out of your way to serve foods your family wouldn't normally serve just to make the meat appealing.

Will she eat spinach and greens? These are an excellent source of iron.
Go online and look for other fruits and veggies with lots of iron. Yellow fruits (plums, apricot and others) are also good, and you can make green monster smoothies too, so the spinach gets mixed right into the fruit. Google it.

Oh, and scrolling down: A big shout-out to Amanda G. She's got some excellent suggestions.There are so many healthier, plant based proteins out there; don't get stuck feeding junk food because there are so many better, healthier options that are very tasty!
Best of health to your little one.

Our whole family is vegetarian and my kids don't have any problems with anemia. We eat a lot of beans -- mostly pinto beans and black beans, but also lentils (one of the highest vegetarian sources of iron!) and occasionally a great white chili made with great northern beans. (Taco Bell will put beans instead of meat on just about any item on their menu.) You've already gotten some great advice from other people about iron-rich foods, but vitamin C also helps the body absorb iron more efficiently, so if you eat something with vitamin C in combination with these other foods, it should also help. Don't forget also that many breakfast cereals are also fortified with iron (I wouldn't serve up the high-sugar ones, but my kids loved Cheerios at that age and would eat them plain by the handful as a snack anytime).

One word of caution: there are "iron supplements" out there for kids, but I would avoid them at all possible. They can stain teeth!

My kids never eat meat either, not once, and i'm going to keep it that way.

For better absorption you can try these vegetarian alternatives. Swiss chard, enriched bagels, tofu(babies love it with a drizzle of syrup), quinoa(awesome with lemon),lima beans, lentils molasses(lovely when added to yogurt), spinach(wilted on noodles), soybeans(edamame)

There are many other sources these are just the highest concentration of iron. But with her being "a little" anemic i imagine adding merely onre of these a day will do the trick.

Ditto what some of the other people said below - some kids are naturally vegetarians (or at least "lean" vegetarian), and there are sources of iron other than meat. My older son (6 y/o) rarely eats meat or cheese, while these are my younger son's favorite things (he's 4). Some days my 6-y/o will eat hot dogs or hamburgers, and he's *always* up for pizza or my home-made tacos (both of which have meat and cheese), but if you give him a choice, he's more likely to ask for apples, bananas, and raw broccoli than a hamburger. {shrug} Kids! :-)

I had the same problem with my son. He sees an occupational therapist and in one session he ate the cheeseburger! Go to McDonalds and buy the Mcdouble with no toppings and get ketchup packets. Sit her down and let her play with the food and ketchup. I know we all grew up with never playing with our food but that is changing.

My daughter was also very difficult to get to start with meats. She absolutely refused ANY of the "baby" meats no matter what I put them in. And it was quite some time beyond that before she finally started eating any meat of any kind. I am trying hard to think what it was (she is almost 10 yrs now)... She also really didn't care for eggs...scrambled or otherwise. Still doesn't. She would eat maybe 2 or 3 bites of scrambled... but that was it and that was a struggle. Same now.
Maybe it was Bacon. She absolutely LOVED fried bacon!!!

It wasn't too long after that, that she was eating pieces of grilled chicken breast meat, and thinly sliced bites off of my steak. Her favorite soon became spare ribs!

I would try not to worry too much about it. Just offer her small portions or bites of yours and let her eat cheese and green veggies (broccoli also has iron, as does spinach---and my kids will eat steamed broccoli and raw spinach and always have). The dark greens have iron also. One day you'll turn around and she'll be eating every meat under the sun.. and no sauce! My girl still won't touch ketchup! Even on french fries.

But she'll eat steak, chicken, pork (ribs, chops, bacon, ham), ground beef (tacos, meatloaf, meatballs), etc. Just no fish. My son, however LOVES all things fish and seafood! :)

my kids are 28 months old and they just start eating meat (chicken and ground meat) i made the chicken nuggets for my kids with chiecken breast and crackers ,...try lentils,brocolli,beans

i will not worry about eating or not meat when i cook meat sometimes i made beans soup for the kids it has iron and protein .

My daughter was the same way...here are a few things we tried and worked...
*Spices....sunds crazy but my girl likes tangy, spicey, bold flavors on her meat.
*Dips....A1, BBQ, Ranch, etc...she likes to dip it.
*Off the wall meats....she will eat garlic smothered steak over anything, but loves pastrami, capicollo, salami, chorizo, prosciutto, etc. plain old turkey, chicken, hamburger and pork chops don't normally cut it for her.
Hope this helps...good luck.

My daughter refuses to eat meat (except for hot dogs and chicken nuggets, which makes no sense to me) and she's 8. I think it depends on the child. You can keep offering her meat (especially if you have it yourself for meals)and she might change when she's older and start to like it. My daughter used to eat chicken and things like that, but now she won't. It seems like their food tastes change all the time. If she absolutely refuses, you can try other sources of protein like beans; those are high in fiber and healthy for you as well, so it's worth it to try. Good luck!

If she loves chicken nuggets make some from scratch, they're super easy and much healthier. You can also make fish nuggets with fresh fish or miniature country fried steak, which would resemble nuggets.
I'd also ask her Ped. about supplementing with a protein drink.

I had good luck with turkey hotdogs, fried bologna, eggs(with cheese) and refried beans (the beans were here favorite). its not the MEAT they have to eat but the protein..all the stuff above mine still doesnt eat
Pretty much every day she eat one of the above(in your question), with mac and cheese, Gogurts and fruit cocktail.

EDIT..I like Faes answer too..McDonalds is a great place. my kid LOVES hamburgers ONLY from there.

My daughter loved the idea of eating meat off the bone... rib bone of course at that age. I would help her with the bone of course. She also liked dipping everything into ketchup meat included. Now they make ketchup fairly healthy so I have no problems letting her dip veggies or meat into ketchup =)

I'm assuming you tried fish?