In this article you'll learn about 9 common foods that should never be given to babies.

Quite often these unassuming foods in our pantry or fridge look like perfect foods and drinks to give our little ones, but many come with risks that you should be aware of.

These 9 foods should all be avoided, regardless of the method you're using to introduce solid foods to your baby.

Whether that's baby led weaning (BLW) or any other method.

Some of these foods are just unhealthy, while some can make babies sick and cause other health problems.

This is why it's important to be aware of them.

In the article you'll learn what each of these foods are and why it's recommended to avoid them.

As always, my goal is to help inform and educate parents to empower them to make the best decisions for them and their babies.

9 Common Foods You Should Never Give a Baby (Whether Baby Led Weaning or Not)

1st Food to Avoid

There are certain foods that you should never give to your baby before the age of one, or if you do you need to modify them a lot to make sure that they're safe for your baby.

A lot of these are often quite surprising to parents when they first hear them especially the first one, which is honey.

Honey, can contain the spores of Clostridium botulinum which should not be given to babies or infants under the age of 12 months.

When a baby ingests these spores they can develop infant botulism, which is characterized by weak muscles, a weak cry, difficulty breathing and difficulty feeding or sucking.

Infants who have infant botulism actually require treatment in hospital.

After the age of one, your child can have honey because their digestive system has matured to the point that it's able to effectively remove that Clostridium bacteria out of their body before it can cause harm.

2nd Food to Avoid

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, fruit juice is not as nutritious as whole fruit and too much fruit juice can reduce one's appetite for more nutritious, solid food.

It can also cause gastrointestinal symptoms like diarrhea, flatulence, and distension.

And it can also result in increasing the risk of dental cariers or erosion due to the acidic nature of fruit juices.

3rd Food to Avoid

Now, the next food that you want to avoid giving your baby under one year of age is going to surprise you.

But before we cover what that is, if you haven't already make sure you download my free mealtime essentials list which you can find by clicking the link in the description box below and in it you'll find everything that I recommend to make mealtimes a little bit easier when you're introducing solids to your baby.

The third food that you want to avoid giving your baby is cows milk as an alternative to breast milk or formula.

Small amounts of cows milk in products such as custard, cheese, yogurt, or on cereal is fine.

And you can start that at six months of age but the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend that breast milk and formula continue to be the main source of milk for your baby until they turn 12 months of age.

Compared to breast milk and formula, cows milk is not as nutritious.

So it's very high in sodium or salt which isn't great for your baby's kidneys.

And it's also low in iron and iron is required for your baby's development.

4th Food to Avoid

Undercooked eggs are also another food that you want to avoid giving your baby under 12 months of age.

Eggs can be given to a baby at six months of age, but undercooked eggs should be avoided because they can be dangerous for babies due to the risk of salmonella.

A salmonella infection typically causes nausea or vomiting, abdominal cramps, diarrhea, fevers, and headaches.

And unfortunately for babies a salmonella infection can be quite dangerous and they usually develop more severe complications as a result of that infection.

5th Food to Avoid

While we're on the topic of food poisoning another food that you want to avoid giving your baby is raw or smoked fish because that also increases your baby's risk of developing food poisoning.

6th Food to Avoid

Continuing on with fish, you also want to avoid giving your baby fish which is high in mercury.

Now fish itself is a really nutritious food.

It contains protein, minerals, as well as omega-3 fatty acids which are important for brain development.

But some types of fish are too high in mercury and having too much mercury can harm a developing nervous system and should never be given to a baby.

Fish that is high in mercury include shark, tilefish, swordfish, king mackerel, orange roughy, marlin, and bigeye and bluefin tuna.

7th Food to Avoid

You also want to avoid giving your baby foods which are high salt.

Now, although humans need sodium, too much salt is actually harmful for babies.

A diet which is high in salt can lead to your baby's kidneys becoming damaged because they aren't yet able to filter out the excess salt.

It can also lead to your baby preferring saltier food which can result in them having unhealthy food choices in the future which can increase the risk of them developing obesity.

And it can also lead to high blood pressure later on in life, which increases the risk of heart disease as well as stroke.

To reduce this risk, it's recommended that babies have less than one gram of salt per day up until the age of one.

Therefore, it's really important that you avoid adding salt to your babies food as well as buying products which are high in salt.

8th Food to Avoid

The eighth food that you want to avoid giving your baby is cheeses made from unpasteurized milk.

Now cheeses contain protein, minerals, and vitamins and babies can eat cheese from pasteurized milk at six months of age, but it's best to avoid cheeses which are made from unpasteurized milk because of the risk of listeria, which can cause serious illness.

9th Food to Avoid

Now, most importantly, you want to avoid giving your baby foods which they will choke on.

And unfortunately, babies are at higher risk of choking on foods.

And there are two types of foods that they are more likely to choke on.

The first one is hard, round shaped foods and these include whole hot dogs, whole nuts and seeds, popcorn, dried fruit, string cheese, and hard lollies.

The second type of food are hard fruit and vegetables that your baby can bite but they're not yet able to chew properly.

And these include raw carrot, raw apple, whole grapes, whole blueberries, loose corn kernels, as well as celery.

Now, obviously you will want to give your baby these fruits and vegetables in their first year of life, but you should prepare them in a way that it will minimize the risk of them choking on it.

So when you are giving your baby carrot, apple or celery always make sure it's either peeled, cooked or mashed.

And when you're giving them corn make sure you give it to them on the cob.

As this will encourage them to munch on the corn as well as gnaw on it before they swallow it.

And when you're giving them grapes, they should always be cut in length ways and quartered.

And with blueberries, you should be squashing them to make into a disc-like shape.

The reasons these foods are dangerous to babies unless modified is because babies, firstly tend to bite off larger pieces of food and they don't yet have their molars which are the teeth right at the back of the mouth which is required to kind of gnaw and grate that food down into smaller lumps and their airways are really narrow.

So if this large piece of food goes down the wrong way then it can block the airway and result in them choking.

Now, introducing solids to your baby can be a really tricky.

And I'll see you next week where I'll share more parenting tips and tricks.

Baby Development