Hello, my fellow parents and those interested in the art of rearing babies! Let me sincerely welcome you to our established parenting blog !! We hope you are a regular reader of our blog, but if you aren’t, we warmly welcome you to ThinkBaby.org and hope you enjoy reading what we have to say about being a parent.
If you’re here, chances are, the parent inside of you is probably interested in gathering knowledge about all of the tips, tricks, and rules when it comes to raising children properly.
Don’t worry this doesn’t necessarily mean you’re an inexperienced or bad parent.
Oh no, no, no honey! It’s the exact opposite.
This action is actually an indication that you’re one of the best kinds of parents! The type willing to go the extra mile to ensure the happiness and healthiness of their offspring.
Raising kids can appear to be quite a daunting challenge, especially when it comes to their nutrition, but never fear, but today’s blog post is meant to support you, inform you, and help you along the way as we go through new experiences together! The following article will certainly help you when it comes to nourishing your baby properly.
Now before we dive into new information, let me introduce myself. If you are a regular follower of our blog, you will already know loads about me, but for the newbies, here goes…
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My name is Zoe. I am a proud mom of 3 children and a strong cloth diaper advocate (Save the environment for the future generations people!). My kids’ names, listed from oldest to youngest, are; Daisy (age 4), Poca (age 2), and Sebastien (Age 1). Having three kids, people often assume that I am just a very fertile woman. However, contrary to expectations, it wasn’t easy giving birth. Prior to my three lovely angels (sometimes devils), I was actually infertile for three whole years. Yea, I know.
Luckily, thanks to a reverse of fortunes, diet, and the advice of my doctor, I was able to give birth! But just because I finally gave birth doesn’t mean that the job is done when it comes to ensuring my baby’s health.
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I still have to take care of their mental health, fitness, and education (I seriously recommend Teachmet.com, really helped me in regards to teaching my children better!! Might do an article on it soon) and nutrition.
Related:
♥ Top 5 Most Harmful Baby Products (Stop Using These Now!)
♥ Why a Baby Brezza is Ranked in the Top 5 Purchases of Parents
♥ Parenting on a Budget: Best & Cheapest Baby Products You Need
With nutrition being stated, let’s get on to the main topic of the day. What are the foods to feed your infant, or to be more accurate,
The 10 Foods That Should NOT be Part of Your Babies’ Meal Plans!!!
*** And no, I am not just talking about the regular sock/remote/other non-edible objects that need to be taken out of the baby’s mouth. I am speaking of actual foods that we don’t realize aren’t safe for infants. ***
1. Cow or Soy Milk
When I was growing up my mom would always tell me stories of when I was a baby.
One particular story stands out whenever I talk about this subject.
Back when I was an infant and my mama was still young and inexperienced, she, uninformed, that it wasn’t safe for babies, fed me cow’s milk; since there was no more baby formula in the house and it was sadly quite expensive (for us at least).
Little did she expect that I would end up with painful and bloody diarrhea. Too bad there weren’t blogs about learning to be an awesome mom through other’s mistakes like the blog, FromBeertoMaternity during that time lol.
Don’t worry, it went away after a while, but don’t let your kid go through that if you have the choice!
Infants under the age of one aren’t capable of digesting the proteins and enzymes found in cow’s milk; while the minerals within can be harmful to their kidneys. It’s best to stick with breast milk or formula if you want to provide all the nutrition to your baby (which cow’s or soy milk doesn’t offer) without hurting their organs.
Two great brand products for baby formulas I recommend are:
♥ Enspire by Enfamil (Rich in all nutrients needed for babies, without any added artificial sweeteners) and ProSobee a baby formula made by the same company.
♥ Earth’s Best Organic Infant Formula is a mom favorite amongst competitors since it has a much milder taste and smell compared to other formulas and is 100% organic.
2. Whole Nuts/Seeds/Peanut Butter
Sure babies love to drive their parents nuts, but that doesn’t mean you should be feeding them actual nuts!
These little guys are hard and pretty small. Their physical qualities thus make them excellent food for choking and blocking your baby’s airways.
Aside from that, when it comes to major allergens (such as tree nuts, fish, eggs…), please check with your baby pediatrician in regards to the foods your infant can consume.
If you have a history of past allergens in the family, this is especially important when wishing to give your baby a little bit of PB along with her jelly.
If the doctor gives you the all clear, start off with smooth peanut butter (a little at a time!), it is an excellent weaning tool to get your baby into solid foods considering it also contains a good amount of protein and fats.
***Again, do not feed your baby anything but formula until 6 months of age***
3. Citrus Fruits
Citrusy fruits like oranges, pineapple, and grapefruit… are too acidic and can possibly incur rashes and upset an infant’s sensitive stomach.
For more parenting information, please check out the blog, TheModernLunchbox for a ton of information on parenting, recipes and all that mom stuff. Plus, if you are currently breastfeeding but are looking to start introducing foods into your baby’s diet, this baby led weaning article here has all the info you need.
4. Sugary Treats
Growing up, babies are still developing their flavor palette and are more easily establishing preferences for certain foods.
Babies naturally tend to lean towards sweets already, but it’s important to vary their palette (sweet, sour, bitter, tangy…) and help them develop an affinity towards healthier foods not particularly sweet.
Allowing them to indulge their taste buds is fine as long as it’s not every meal. This being said, stick to fruit when need be and keep sugary junky treats off limits until their first birthday. This is especially true with chocolate, which contains caffeine (See #8 below).
5. Honey
In any form!
Not only does honey possess a thick and gooey viscosity that makes it a potential choking hazard for babies, it can also lead to paralysis or the even death of infants.
What?!!
Yes, you read that correctly. This sweet condiment can foster Clostridium Botulinum, which may result in the creation of Botulinum spores.
So what?
Well, these worm-like buddies can manifest a serious illness in your babies’ body called botulism (commonly referred to as a poison), whereas symptoms appear within 18 to 36 hours on average.
The spores secrete toxins that can induce poor sucking, constipation, slurred speech, muscle feebleness, muscle tone reduction, paralysis, and worst-case scenario, death when left untreated.
NO. I know what you’re possibly thinking. BOILING/COOKING DOES NOT KILL THEM. Raw or not, these bacteria are very resilient and will not be removed from foods through physical means once contaminated. They are heat-resistant and thrive in low oxygen environments.
If you wish to sweeten up your food try mashed fruit or unsweetened applesauce. I use Great Value unsweetened applesauce since it get’s the job done at a low price. Maybe check out HeidisHomeCooking for some cooking ideas catering for your baby and the entire family while you’re at it.
6. Seafood High In Mercury
Under the sea~! Under the sea~!
I seriously don’t know how many times that song from the little mermaid movie was replayed in my house, thanks to my lovely, Disney obsessed children.
Really makes me LOVE fish even more than I already do (In case you didn’t know, I’m not the biggest fan of it).
ANYWAYS! Putting my outlandish, first world, mom problems aside, let’s talk about seafood rich in mercury. The FDA recommends staying away from and, if possible, avoiding fish high in this chemical entirely. It is especially important to avoid feeding it (or any type of fish/shellfish for that matter) to babies before they reach 6 months.
When introducing seafood into their diets, it is still advised to stay away from those abundant in Mercury (Mackerel, Tuna, Swordfish..) to avoid increasing their chances of all sorts of illnesses in the future.
I would say wait until their 1st birthday and as long as you limit his/her intake.
7. Blueberries, Grapes, Cranberries…
Most fruits of from the berry family or at least have berry in their name (I’m looking at you strawberries), are tough on the digestive tracks of infants.
This is in addition to the fact that the small little fruits can be potential choking hazards.
If you plan on introducing your baby to the berry family (Why does the wording make it sound like the berry family are actual people?), make sure to start off with cutting the little guys into small pieces before giving it to your child.
For other ways you can help the process of weaning your child off breast and formula milk and introduce solid foods into their diet, take a look at Anita’s blog and how see weaned her child off breast milk with the help of essential oils here.
8. Caffeinated Food & Drinks
I would assume this goes without saying, after all, who would want their baby to have the energy to stay up even longer than usual at night.
Forget resting at 2 am, you’ll be awake until 5!?
No, but seriously, do not feed your baby caffeine.
Now you may be like…
“Of course not! I’m not going to feed my baby coffee!”
But…
Parents sometimes forget and feed their child chocolate, which has caffeine in it as well (And tons of added sugar). Try not to give her/him chocolate until his/her first birthday.
9. Unpasteurized Foods
Unpasteurized foods possess that risk of carrying dangerous bacteria, which would normally be otherwise removed through the pasteurization process. All in all, a seemingly harmless forkful of sauerkraut, raw cheese, kimchi or seafood can lead to a serious illness in young children. Stick with pasteurized foods for the time being.
Save the unpasteurized foods for your older children, hubby and yourself. I also regularly get asked what sort of food I cook for my family. Whilst my children are still young, I tend to cook two meals. One meal that is safe for my young children and another that my husband and I can enjoy once the kiddies are in bed. I’ve been following the food blog, comecookinfrance.com for some time. My husband and I have been enjoying following Louise’s recipes on a Sunday night when we both have the time to enjoy cooking and eating something special together.
10. Salt
Technically, you can’t really consider salt a food, more like a spice but I still think this is important to know even though this avoidance “food” is in the grey zone.
Why?
Well, a TINY bit of salt is necessary for their health, but more than that and you could give your baby’s kidneys some serious problems to cope with (Oof).
They usually get all the sodium they need from breast milk and formula until they’re 6 months old. Following this period until they reach 12 months, the weight of salt they are allowed to consume remains a paltry amount of 1g (0.4 g of sodium).
So keep it easy on the lays and prepackaged meals meant for adults!
If you wish to use broth/stock opt for the low-sodium variety.
Well, not much to say here! Just remember to always ask your pediatrician and seek guidance from him or a baby nutritionist when it comes to the foods your infant can consume. This list is a simple guide that may or may not be helpful to you and take it as a caution advisory rather than a strict guideline.
