As you get ready to start your baby on iron-fortified rice cereal -- her first baby food -- it is a good idea to know which foods you should avoid in her first year.
This foods include:
Honey
Experts advise that you should not feed honey to infants under 12 months of age. The spores of the Clostridium botulinum bacteria can sometimes be found in honey. When ingested by an infant, the spores can release a toxin that causes botulism.
Parents should also likely avoid other foods that contain honey in them, such as Honey Graham Crackers, Honey Nut Cheerios or Honey Wheat Bread. Although the honey in these foods may be processed, it may not be pasteurized, so they may still contain botulism spores.
Egg Whites
Because they are considered an 'allergy food,' infants should avoid egg whites until they are twelve months old. If you like, you can usually introduce egg yolks at around seven to ten months old though.
If your child is at high-risk for allergies, you might want to avoid eggs until he is 2 years old though.
Homemade Baby Food and Nitrates
This is only an issue for parents who make their own baby food from fresh vegetables, but they should avoid feeding their baby homemade food with beets, carrots, collard greens, spinach, and turnips. These vegetables can sometimes have high levels of nitrates, a chemical that can cause low blood counts (anemia).
Commercial baby food is usually screened for their nitrate levels. So, when considering these specific vegetables, it should be safer.
Milk
Experts usually recommend that breast milk or an iron-fortified infant formula are best for babies. Parents should avoiding substituting either of those with homemade baby formula, such as you might make with evaporated milk, cow's milk, soy milk (which is much different than an iron-fortified soy formula), or even goat's milk.
