After starting things off with a splash of lemon, I wanted
to know what we should actually start feeding Henry. Lemons are a great source
of Vitamin C and a squeeze of lemon juice is a nice option for flavoring other
foods, but I’m not planning to feed him lemons every day. Henry is going to
need something more. So where do we go from here?
Everyone I talk with seems to have a different approach for
introducing babies to solid foods. There are an overwhelming number of rules
and recommendations, many of which conflict with each other. Sorting through
the information is daunting and confusing. One pediatrician recommends rice
cereal first, while another says whole
grain oatmeal is more nutritious. One expert says to try homemade purees,
while another says that babies can have large finger foods. One friend says
bananas and mangoes are good starter foods, while another says to avoid fruits
first since Henry will develop a sweet tooth. Green vegetables first, then
yellow, then orange. Stick with bland food that is easy to digest or offer
lots of herbs and spices to make food more interesting. No salt, no sugar,
no nuts, no honey, no milk, no strawberries, no eggs, no citrus, no soy, no
kiwi, no shellfish, no gluten. What’s a
mommy to believe?
There are good reasons for health
concerns with giving cow’s milk, salt, honey and other sweeteners to children
under one year of age. Milk can cause internal bleeding. Salt can harm immature
kidneys. Honey can cause botulism. And sugar, corn syrup and artificial
sweeteners are empty calories that don’t provide any redeeming nutritious
qualities.
Many experts recommend introducing only one food at a time,
then waiting two
days, four
days or even a week between
new foods to test for allergens. But our pediatrician suggested that this is
both impractical and unnecessary.
First, it could take several years to introduce Henry to
food if we actually wait a week between each ingredient. I’m going to need a
giant spreadsheet to keep track of every food he tries. If I make my signature
carrot cake for his first birthday, it will take three months just to test out
each of the 14 ingredients. Additionally, our
pediatrician said that most food allergies typically take several exposures and
a few weeks to show up so it can be very difficult to pinpoint which food caused
a reaction.
Second, it’s very unlikely Henry will be allergic to the
vast majority of foods, especially meats, fruits and vegetables. I can
understand being careful with foods that have a higher chance of allergen – for
our family that’s shellfish, peanuts, and dairy. Overall, peanuts, tree nuts and
seafood are the most likely foods to cause serious, even life-threatening,
allergic reactions. We’ll be cautious with those foods, but otherwise the advice
to introduce only one food at a time seems overly paranoid.
The other recommendations about which foods to start first are just suggestions. There are no hard rules that parents need to follow. It does not matter whether Henry
starts with grains, meats, fruits or vegetables. Once he starts eating foods,
it is most important to offer him a wide variety of delicious, healthy food.
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