foods NOT to give a baby

[Adasmommy]

I'm looking for a list of foods that I should avoid giving my 7 month old baby. I want to know if there are actual reasons why certain foods are unsafe, but all the lists I find just seem to be "advice for parents" kind of lists that are invented by popular culture and don't specify reasons.

I'm not worried about allergies. Baby eats scrambled eggs and strawberries. We do baby led weaning.

She also sips at my cow's milk based smoothie. Do I need to stop giving this to her? What are the reasons against giving a baby cow's milk, is it okay if it's a tiny amount, what if it is cooked in foods, etc? We get raw milk, btw.

Also about honey: is it okay in baked/cooked foods or is it important to make sure she never eats anything that had honey in it (like my homemade bread)?

I've stopped seasoning food with salt since she's eating it, but haven't worried about giving her baked goods with salt (like bread), or cooking with salted butter, etc. How worried should I be about this?

What other foods should I avoid, and for what reason?

[alegna]

Other than choking hazards and large quantities of straight cow's milk, I give my kids anything I eat pretty much.

-Angela

[fruitfulmomma]

Raw honey, due to the botulism issue, would be the only thing I would be concerned about. Not sure if it is cooked out of food or not.

We do have allergy issues here, but other than those, I don't withhold any types of food from my babies once they start solids.

[pumpkinhead]

Nuts and peanuts I would definitely avoid (they're choking hazards and have a high allergy potential). Honey, both raw and pasteurized as well. It's not even safe in baked goods. In order to kill the spores or denature the toxin, you need really high temperature and pressure like prolonged boiling or the conditions in a pressure canner.

Other than that, there's nothing I would absolutely not give a 7 month old.

[pumpkinhead]

I didn't worry about the salt in salted butter or bread, personally.

[blessedwithboys]

I believe that even pasteurized honey is a concern, so I would imagine that baked goods should be a no-no for now.

Nut butters would probably not be a good idea wrt choking. Big hunks of meat, carrot sticks, things like that which can't be chewed by the gums.

[happysmileylady]

Originally Posted by alegna

Other than choking hazards and large quantities of straight cow's milk, I give my kids anything I eat pretty much.

-Angela

Basically, this. Just make sure that, as young as he is just yet, you aren't replacing too much of the breastmilk or formula with foods, he should still be getting most of his nutrion from those sources.

One thing I have done is to avoid too much in the way of dips and sauces and such. My reasoning behind this had nothing to do with the safety of feeding her dips and stuff, just in an attempt to avoid her sucking all the dip off of a veggie and not eating the veggie, like lots of other kids do.

[cristeen]

Cows milk and salt neither one are even on my radar. If your little has already had strawberries, then i think the only biggies left would be honey, if it concerns you (it doesn't concern everyone - but if it does concern you, then it is not safe even when baked), and nuts. We dont do grains either (because babies don't have the ability to digest them), but i know most people think we're whacko for that.

[Adasmommy]

I guess I should have specified that this is a "help me put dh's concerns to rest" question. We've been doing pretty much everything, but Yahoo linked to an article with the usual suspects of foods to avoid, and now dh wants to be sure we're not endangering her so . . .

I'm hoping for articles that give the info on why one food or another is recommended/not recommended, medically. Anyone got such a link?

Thanks for answering my honey question. I've given her honey a few times, forgetting there was honey in it, and I'm never worried, but we are intending not to give her honey until she's one, so I needed to know that baked goods are not exempt!

What I read of milk made me think that it would only be a problem if it was significant quantities (she has very little), but I'd like to have a more scientific explanation of it!

Dips--no way am I looking for ways to make her food even messier! Dips are not on the radar yet!

[Adasmommy]

I don't know why the "all the other moms on mothering are doing it and their kids are fine" argument doesn't work on him.

I've found this, but was hoping for something more specific:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9646449/

[SollysMom]

I also have a 7-month-old doing BLW and have been wondering the same thing. I did BLW with DS1 too but I seem to have forgotten the "rules" for solids since then. I won't do nuts/nut butters or honey before a year. The other supposedly off-limits things are egg whites, strawberries, and citrus right? Plus any obvious choking hazards? I have no reason to give the baby significant quantities of cows milk but I occasionally make him popsicles with yogurt. I remember DS1 really liked shredded cheese once he got his pincer grasp.

[angelachristin]

You've gotten great advice already. I avoid honey, nuts, and grains. I mostly focus on doing fruits, veggies, yogurt and cheese until over 1 year. The only things she drinks are breast milk, water, and sips of green smoothies.

[KempsMama]

I don't have a "source" for this other than my pediatrician, so you can take it or leave it. However he says that the only reasons docs still say "no dairy until 1" is to prevent uneducated parents from replacing BM or formula with straight milk too early, as it does not provide adequate nutrition alone for a babe under a year-he'd say under two years. I love our pedi.

[mamadelbosque]

The only thing I held off on for ds1 was milk, which he started getting ~15 or so months (when I found a source for raw organic... ds2 is 11 months and still hasn't had milk, but has had just about everything else (including lots of dairy, just not milk...)

[JessicaS]

I wouldn't give a baby nuts, shellfish, or honey until two. I don't do milk or strawberries until one.

Babies under one cannot digest the protiens in milk and it is likely to hurt their tummies.

I do worry about choking hazards, I cut up grapes, cherry tomatoes, cheese and other big chunk things.

[KempsMama]

Originally Posted by abimommy

Babies under one cannot digest the protiens in milk and it is likely to hurt their tummies.

Ok, bear with me here, because I'm no nutrition expert. BUT-if a nursing mother consumes dairy, milk proteins are passed through her milk to the baby. Milk proteins are also found in milk based infant formula. Both of which are tolerated by most infants, unless there is an allergy. So how can this statement be true just because the child is consuming the dairy directly rather than through the mother or when in formula?

Not trying to start a debate, I'm truly curious.

[alegna]

Originally Posted by KempsMama

Ok, bear with me here, because I'm no nutrition expert. BUT-if a nursing mother consumes dairy, milk proteins are passed through her milk to the baby. Milk proteins are also found in milk based infant formula. Both of which are tolerated by most infants, unless there is an allergy. So how can this statement be true just because the child is consuming the dairy directly rather than through the mother or when in formula?

Not trying to start a debate, I'm truly curious.

It's been awhile since I researched it, but I have read that cheese and yogurt are better tolerated than milk b/c of the way the proteins are broken down. I would venture a guess that mom's body also breaks them down in a similar way (ditto the formula advertised as such...)

-Angela

[JessicaS]

Originally Posted by KempsMama

Ok, bear with me here, because I'm no nutrition expert. BUT-if a nursing mother consumes dairy, milk proteins are passed through her milk to the baby. Milk proteins are also found in milk based infant formula. Both of which are tolerated by most infants, unless there is an allergy. So how can this statement be true just because the child is consuming the dairy directly rather than through the mother or when in formula?

Not trying to start a debate, I'm truly curious.

It is common for infants to have issues with dairy. A lot of people here have had to give up dairy while nursing. Of course they are broken down *some* by the mother's body but it wouldn't be completely.

Formula is broken down *some* to make it easier for babies to digest, of course it isn't the same as breastmilk but it is better than whole milk.

I don't think there is a magic change in baby guts at 12 months of age, it is just an estimate but the OP's baby is seven months which IMO is young. I do start with cheese or yogurt.

I am allergic to dairy so I am a militant with the guidelines on it.

I was one of those big fat babies that people are always harassing the mom about getting "enough" or "should give x or y early because baby is huge" My allergies are bad.

[spughy]

If you can track down the book "Real Foods for Mother and Baby" by Nina Planck, she has some good advice and some research to back it up. The most recent research on allergies I've seen shows that unless there is a severe allergy in a close relative, there's no reason to postpone the usual "allergenic" foods like eggs, dairy, nuts, soy and shellfish, but I don't know what journal that was published in. If it helps, I gave my kid all of the above by about 10 months and except for a transient skin reaction to strawberries at about a year, she has never had an issue with food. She has an aunt with a nut allergy and I was prepared for her to have issues with dairy because of genetics (my DH is half Chinese, and he did not tolerate cow's milk as a child), but neither has been an issue.

There are foods that are problematic for other reasons - bananas, applesauce and cereals can cause constipation, babies lack amylase for grain digestion so grains may cause digestive distress or weight-gain issues in children who are borderline for weight gain, and cherry stains are really hard to take out of clothes. But everyone is capable of looking at their own kid and judging whether the potential problems outweigh the child's interest in munching everything in sight. (Bananas are a big laundry problem too. But, you know, like abimommy with the dairy, I'm kind of anti-banana for various reasons. We all have our issues.)

The honey and botulism thing is a real issue, but like salmonella in chicken eggs, the risk varies with geography. West of the Rockies it's not really much of a concern - I know on my island, despite repeated testing, botulism spores have never been detected in honey. That having been said, there's not much reason TO give a child under one honey in the first place.

The other thing to bear in mind is that if your DH really objects to any particular food, there's probably no real reason to put up a huge fight about it. Foods before a year are more for fun and novelty than for nutrition, and your baby isn't likely to be scarred for life if his papa doesn't want him eating, like, oranges before a year or something. The only thing I would really recommend for babies is meat or some other source of fat and iron.

[KempsMama]

Originally Posted by abimommy

It is common for infants to have issues with dairy. A lot of people here have had to give up dairy while nursing. Of course they are broken down *some* by the mother's body but it wouldn't be completely.

Formula is broken down *some* to make it easier for babies to digest, of course it isn't the same as breastmilk but it is better than whole milk.

I don't think there is a magic change in baby guts at 12 months of age, it is just an estimate but the OP's baby is seven months which IMO is young. I do start with cheese or yogurt.

I am allergic to dairy so I am a militant with the guidelines on it.

I was one of those big fat babies that people are always harassing the mom about getting "enough" or "should give x or y early because baby is huge" My allergies are bad.

I get that allergies are a concern, but allergies are different than a complete physical inability to digest milk proteins, which was the statement that you originally made.

Also my understanding of milk allergies is that Lactose is the most likely culprit, whereas a true allergy to the protein is quite rare. And once again, this is when an allergy occurs, not in an average infant. I agree dairy elimination is quite common here on MDC, but I tend to think it's more because MDC is one of the only resources for mom's on an elimination diet to get online support, which is why we see more of it around here, not that it's that common in the general population.