More guidelines? Many parents roll their eyes and groan to hear that the American Academy of Pediatrics has come out with yet another set of new guidelines to feeding their baby solid foods. If remembering the long list of off-limits foods wasn’t hard enough, there are more?! But wait, it’s not as bad as you think!
Within the last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently revised its safety guidelines on introducing solid foods to infants. I’m glad they came out with these guidelines before I started introducing solids otherwise it would have been a total pain in my rear end remembering all the foods that could supposedly give my daughter allergies if I introduced them too early. I went to an infant nutrition class held by my lactation consultant in November 2012 and she told me to throw out everything I had been told so we could start clean.
Foods containing eggs, strawberries, peanuts, and cow’s milk are now considered OK to give your baby as soon as they start eating solids! According to the AAP, there is no conclusive evidence that delaying these solids will have any impact whatsoever on your child’s chances of developing an allergy later in life. However, it is recommended to delay or keep extremely close eye on your infant while introducing specific solids if you have a family history of the particular food. (Note one rule that still remains the same is no honey for babies under 12 months due to the increased risk of botulism.)
And now you can relax when it comes to feeding your baby any food with added spices or flavors. Many Americans think the blander the food the better and more tolerable it is for infants, but there is no research to back this claim up. If your baby is breastfed, the flavors of the food you eat are passed through the milk anyways so your baby may not even be eating as bland of a diet as you once thought! The next time you’re making your little one some cooked carrots or potatoes, add a little pizazz to them with flavors from the spice rack and see your his or her reaction.
I’m still intrigued to hear how many parents are still going by traditional guidelines. When I mentioned what sorts of foods I feed my eight-and-a-half-month-old daughter for breakfast (scrambled eggs, toast, strawberries, blackberries, etc.), some parents are shocked! Some are even afraid to move their eight or nine month olds off pureed sweet potatoes and rice cereal. As long as you eat a well-balanced, varied, and nutritious diet, go ahead and give your baby a little taste of everything you are having — they’re probably feeling left out otherwise!
