Toddlers and Spicy Foods?

[AnnaNova]

so the other day we were at a mexican restaurant, and my son who is 17 mo reached out for a corn chip, so i gave it to him, but then he wanted to dip it into salsa and when i said no started fussing and crying and stuff, so i though, fine ill give it to him, as soon as it touches his mouth, he will realize its too spicy and won't want it again. BUT not only did he eat it, but he reached for seconds and was just licking it off of the chip!!! i finally asked to remove the chips and salsa coz i was getting worried about his little tummy!!!
and ive noticed in general, he's become very much into spicy foods! his favorite breakfast lately is a piece of toast with tomato-garlic goat cheese on it, not very spicy, but pretty garlic-y!
not that i mind his sophisticated palette, but im afraid it might hurt his tummy!
anyone else have a spicy food lover?

[pbjmama]

My dd in particular likes spicy/flavorful food and my ds does too to a lesser level. My kids have been tasting that sort of food since birth thru my breast milk I think its pretty normal and let them eat what they like. I think bland food for kids is a fairly new thought.

[Skippy918]

My son was loving the salsa at the Mexican restaurant and he was also licking the bbq sauce at the BBQ joint off his fingers. The BBQ sauce at this place had a bit of a kick to it. He was also enjoying some of my Panang (thai) curry, which was a little spicy for me, but he was loving every minute of it. I had gotten up out of my seat to wash him off and next thing I see was him getting into my seat and double fisting the rice soaked curry in his mouth. Right now, he's into dipping food in sauces so when we're out we give him some on his plate and whether he dips food or fingers in it is fine with me. He hasn't gotten sick so I don't think there's anything to worry about. I wouldn't give him habanero sauce or tabasco since that might be too spicy.

[earthmama369]

Kids in traditionally "spicy" food cultures eat spicy foods from a very young age. Doesn't seem to hurt them, and I wanted to encourage a broad palate range, so when my kids were toddlers and wanted to try something with a lot of flavor or spice, I absolutely let them. The only thing I watched out for was small fingers with spicy food on them rubbing their eyes. If we were at, say, a Mexican restaurant, I just kept a wet wipe on hand to use as a napkin if they started to get tired and made a move to rub their eyes.

At 4 and 5, despite food allergies in my son and the normal developmental stage of being picky that my daughter is going through, they both have a really wide range of foods and flavors that they will eat. Sushi is hands-down their favorite food. Mexican and Indian food run a close second.

[fruitfulmomma]

Totally normal for that age and I've never had one get sick but they usually grow out of their like of it at some point.

[34me]

My now 11 year old started his love of spicy food at an early age in exactly the same was. He has his own bottle of hot sauce in the fridge now because it's too spicy for me.

[tabrizia]

We eat a lot of spicy food in our house and both my 16 month old and 3 year old have been eating it from a young age. Neither of them has ever had an issue with it. I figure they will let me know if they don't want something spicy. We have never had any tummy issues with spicy foods.

[BeanyMama]

All three of mine absolutely love salsa (we are Texans and they're 25% Mexican...) My older two will take down super spicy salsa picosa but our tot sticks to the mediums. She loves buffalo wing sauce as well. We don't eat wings, but she'll take it slathered on tomato wedges

[SubliminalDarkness]

We eat a lot of spicy stuff, too, and both our kids have liked it from early on. I wouldn't discourage it. Just go with it. If it's too much for them, they'll let you know.

[butterfly_mommy]

Yep we have another spicy food lover! DS has been eating Salsa, Tzatziki, and super garlicky dressing that I make since before his first birthday.

He also now at 2.5 loves hot sauce on stuff, jalapeños in quesadillas/burritos, hot wings anything garlicky, spicy thai noodles, etc

I just let him know that the thing he wants to try is spicy so he may want to try a little bit at first. His favourite place to go is for Mexican food and he eats tons of Salsa. He has never had an upset stomach due to spicy/flavourful foods. He has reacted by crying and wiping his tongue a few times and saying "I don't want to taste it" after insisting on tasting some spicy foods before. Then we tell him to have some dairy to help counter the spicy food and he is fine

[rightkindofme]

In my opinion assuming that children need bland food is one of the worst things a parent can do for a kid. I would *not* be interested in being stuck with blah bland food on the menu forever. My kid likes some spicy stuff that is over my ability to process and I absolutely encourage her to keep going with it.

[Sierra]

My ds used to drink the salsa -- yes DRINK -- one bowl at a time for as long as he could get the waitstaff to keep bringing them, whenever we went out to eat somewhere with free chips and salsa. My dd would eat lemon slices from our water. Weird because neither is into either item now. I guess it was a phase.

But we always fed our kids what we were eating, spices and all. The only thing that would have caused us to intervene would have been if their tummies had gotten upset, but it turned out that watermelon and anything with refined sugar were the only things that upset their tummies.

[swd12422]

My son was this way with spicy food, too. We had trouble getting him to try solids and he refused most things til he was 18 months old. When he finally did start eating, he liked the spicy/well seasoned stuff, nothing bland, and he wouldn't even look at anything white (rice, potatoes, cauliflower...). Then I realized that maybe he was gagging on solids so much when he was a baby b/c he hated the blandness. To this day he won't eat an avocado, and when we have Mexican food, he demands a little puddle of hot sauce on his plate.

[Drummer's Wife]

My kids all love chips and salsa - and my 3rd (he's 5 now, but even as a toddler) liked spicy foods. He once drank the juice out of a can of habanero peppers!

I think living in NM, many kids at least eat mild green chiles.

[tankgirl73]

Originally Posted by rightkindofme

In my opinion assuming that children need bland food is one of the worst things a parent can do for a kid. I would *not* be interested in being stuck with blah bland food on the menu forever.

:

And : to most of the comments on this thread too. It's completely accurate -- babies in spicy food cultures eat spicy foods from the beginning and they don't think twice about it. I'm not even sure what aspect of spicy food would even cause an upset tummy... A burnt tongue, yes, but our tummies are made of tougher stuff.

The 'bland food' thing is a thoroughly western and modern invention with no basis on actual baby biology. I suspect it stems from the whole idea that you "have to" start with rice cereal, which itself only become the norm because early formulas couldn't have enough iron added to them but they could add iron to pablum, so babies got pablum in their bottles from an early age... rice cereals could be fortified to make up for what was lacking in formulas... and since the babies needing the cereals were too young for 'real' solids, they had to have runny, bland food only, because they're 'programmed' to only drink milk at that age, no interest in other food, so they had to be essentially tricked into downing that stuff...

Anyway, that's my suspicion. Ever since learning about baby-led solids, I've had some strong opinions on baby food! But we're not even talking about a baby here, the OP is talking about an older toddler. I was giving spicy foods to my daughter when she was 7mo... 17mo is no problem at all!

Really, the surprising thing here is that so many people are still surprised that kids don't need bland food. But then they complain so much when the kids continue to only want bland "kid food" (white bread, macaroni, and hot dogs every day) even when they get older... Big shock, that's because it's what they've learned they're supposed to like!

[crunchy_mommy]

17mo DS has eaten spicy food from the moment he started solids. He loves curries, salsas, garlic, plain ginger, etc. and the only way he eats bread is if it's soaked in hot sauce!

It never occurred to me to give him bland foods (I hate bland foods & he always eats what I'm eating). He hasn't had any tummy issues with it.

[SpottedFoxx]

DS was eating very spicy guacamole from the time he was a year old. He loves spicy black beans too (he's 5 now). I agree - giving kids bland foods serves no purpose but to dull their palette.

[sweetcheeks]

I have to agree that not exposing kids to spicy foods does nothing but dull their palette. When DS1 was little, we were so careful to not give him anything spicy in fear that it would upset his tummy. To this day, that kid (7) will not eat anything with any hint of spice! He even says ranch dressing is "too spicy." What the.... ?!?!

DD (5) and DS2 (2) were exposed to spicy foods before age 1 and they both can't get enough of spicy food. They both love curries, spicy chili, buffalo wings, hot sausage, anything with lots of garlic, salsa etc. I still remember the day DD and I shared some beef vindaloo leftovers from an East Indian restaurant in town. It was the spiciest dish they had on the menu and it was so spicy, I could only eat half at dinner. The next day for lunch, DD wanted some and she loved it! She got mad when it was all gone.

[2ID_Wife]

All my kids have had spicy food from the start.
One of my dd's fav meal has been since she was not even 3, rice with kimchee she would eat it daily if I would let her and could find good spicy kimchee in NY.
But then 3 of my kids were born in Korea where 80% of the food is spicy, course 10% is rice so.

[limabean]

Originally Posted by fruitfulmomma

Totally normal for that age and I've never had one get sick but they usually grow out of their like of it at some point.

That's been my experience so far. DS was quite an adventurous eater as a toddler, but from age 2.5-4.5 his range of foods really narrowed and I had one of those typical bland-food-loving kids. Around age 4.5 he started to try new things again, and now at age 5.5 he'll eat a pretty wide variety of foods, though not nearly as wide as when he was a toddler!

Now my 2.5-year-old DD is the adventurous eater in the family -- we'll see if that starts to decline soon!