Infant dietary taboos

There are four dietary red lines that must not be touched for infants under 1 year old - honey, foods with additional added salt/sugar, foods with a high risk of choking, and fresh/raw milk that has not been standardized. Most of the other statements spread online such as "allergenic foods must not be eaten" and "cold fruits cannot be touched" have no unified standards and need to be judged based on the individual situation of the baby and do not need to be generalized.

Let’s talk about the least controversial honey first. Regardless of whether the elderly say honey is soothing throat or laxative, babies under 1 year old must not touch it, not even a lick. The baby's intestinal flora has not yet been fully established and cannot resist the botulinum spores that may be present in honey. Once poisoned, it may cause vomiting and diarrhea in mild cases, or may affect neurological development in severe cases. This is not an alarmist. I met a mother in the pediatric care department before. She licked some home-made honey to soothe the throat of her 6-month-old baby who had a cold. The baby had diarrhea for ten days. Fortunately, she was sent to the doctor in time and nothing serious happened. The doctor scolded her until she shed tears. I have also read about some bloggers using honey to moisturize their baby's lips, but don't imitate it. The baby will just take a few licks and eat it, so you can't take the risk.

Then there is salt and sugar, which is the most common pitfall for the older generation in the family. Many elderly people always feel that complementary foods are bland and tasteless, and their children don't like to eat them. They secretly pinch some salt into noodles and porridge, or give their children a few bites of cakes and preserves that they eat. The clear nutritional advice is that babies under 1 year old do not need to add additional salt and sugar. Whether it is breast milk, formula milk or natural complementary food, the sodium and natural sugar can fully meet the growth needs. Adding additional salt and sugar will not only increase the metabolic burden on the kidneys, but also raise a baby with heavy tastes early, which will give you a headache in the future when it comes to picky eaters. Of course, I have also encountered many elderly people who retorted: "We fed our babies this way before." In fact, it was not the previous method that was right. It was because there was no more reliable choice before. If the complementary food is really tasteless, add some crushed pumpkin, dried shrimp skin powder, and chopped blueberries to make it fresher. It is much healthier than salt and sugar. My mother-in-law secretly added salt to the baby before. Later, I showed her the trace element report of the baby insurance and found that the baby was lacking everything, so she gradually changed this habit.

I only remember foods with a high risk of choking after I stepped on them. I fed my 7-month-old baby an uncut grape. The baby choked and his face turned red instantly. I used the Heimlich maneuver for a long time before spitting it out. I was scared to death. Whole peanuts, melon seeds, pistachios, and slippery gelatinous foods such as jelly and QQ candy must not be given directly to children under 1 year old. Jelly must be eaten by an adult under the age of 3 and cut into pieces. That’s not to say that nuts can’t be eaten. Grind them into powder and add them to rice cereal and noodles. Unsaturated fatty acids can also help the baby’s brain development. My baby is now 1 and a half years old, and I still break nuts into pieces the size of millet grains before giving them to her. Last year, a grandmother in the community fed a whole pistachio to her 10-month-old baby, and it got stuck in the trachea and sent him to the emergency room. It took him two hours to get it out. It was so painful.

Fresh milk is also controversial. Many people say that when there was no formula milk, children grew up drinking fresh milk. Why can’t it be done now? Objectively speaking, the casein molecules in fresh milk are too large to be digested by the gastrointestinal tract of babies under 1 year old, which can easily cause diarrhea and allergies. Moreover, the calcium to phosphorus ratio does not meet the nutritional needs of babies, which will increase the burden on the kidneys. If you can drink formula milk, there is really no need to take this risk. If you encounter special circumstances and cannot buy formula milk, you should also choose pasteurized fresh milk. Boil it completely and let it warm before feeding. This can only be used as a temporary emergency and cannot replace formula milk for a long time.

As for the rest of the things that are said on the Internet, "You must not eat mango, kiwi, and seafood" and "You cannot touch cool fruits such as watermelon and dragon fruit", there is really no need to take it too seriously. The latest feeding guide now no longer recommends deliberately delaying the addition of allergy-prone foods. As long as you add a new food each time and observe that there is no rash, vomiting, or diarrhea for 3 days, you can eat normally. My baby ate a small amount of cod at 8 months old and had no problems at all. The corners of his mouth became a little red when he ate mango for the first time. I stopped for half a month and then gave him a piece as big as a fingernail, and then he completely tolerated it. On the contrary, if you deliberately postpone allergenic foods, you may increase the probability of allergies when your child grows up.

There are also small details that many people tend to overlook. Don’t feed your children the food you have chewed. Helicobacter pylori in adults’ mouths can easily be passed on to babies, which can cause diarrhea, which can range from mild to severe, and can affect gastrointestinal development.； Don't give your baby a bite of snacks such as potato chips, chocolate, and spicy sticks that adults eat. They only seem to be a little bit, and the sugar and salt content has already exceeded the standard. After eating them for two or three times, your baby will no longer like to eat light complementary foods.

In fact, raising a baby really doesn’t have to be a college entrance examination test. There is no need to check off a long list of taboos one by one, stick to a few core red lines, and just observe the baby’s condition for the rest. After all, we are raising living children, not products produced according to standards. If other people’s children eat it and it’s fine, your child may not be able to tolerate it. If others say you can’t touch it, your child may not have any reaction at all. Flexible adjustment is much more useful than rigidly adhering to dogma.