Weaning at 6 months - what foods AREN'T OK?

[ElphabaTheGreen]

DS will hit 26 weeks this weekend, so I gather he's allowed to have pretty much anything now, right? I know honey is out until he's over a year, and cow's milk is only to go in stuff, not taken as a drink. Nuts...not OK whole, but are they OK ground/chopped up in stuff? And if I go down the BLW route I believe raw apples aren't great, along with other fairly hard stuff but is there anything else I should know about?

[ElphabaTheGreen]

I sure did use the word 'stuff' a lot there, didn't I?

[AnyaKnowIt]

I just avoided honey, apples and raw carrot are great for when they are teething tho

[mosschops30]

Everything except honey
Nuts only because of choking risk, can have peanut butter.

[forevergreek]

Only avoid honey

Everything else is fine is the right sizes ( ie no whole brazil nuts but chopped/ grated/ as a nut butter is fine)

Oh and careful on salt. Don't add to food, add to yours on plate if needed

[sharond101]

What about grapes?

[stargirl1701]

Honey. It has spores that are toxic to the under 1s.

[MrsSpencerReid]

Don't want to hijack but what about pâté? DS tried to steal mine but I wasn't sure if I should let him!!

[ceeveebee]

I thought you had to cut grapes and cherry tomatoes in half?

Also watch salt content - avoid processed meat like ham, sausages

[chocolateistheenemy]

Soft cheese, salt, citrus fruits could wait a while longer, avoid kiwi til 1, peanuts. Grapes fine as long as halved/quartered. I'd avoid cured meats or smoked fish because of salt content.

[forevergreek]

Grapes/ pâté etc are fine. Just chop any chocking hazards like grapes/ tomatoes etc into half/ quarters

[BertieBotts]

Just honey until 1 year.

Choking risks - apple is okay if it's a whole apple (they can scrape bits off) but not big chunks, quarters, slices etc because they can easily break a bite sized piece off and then choke on it. Similar with carrot (although carrot is harder so not so much of an issue)

Always chop grapes and cherry tomatoes, yes, and no whole nuts.

I also found that bread was a bit too claggy until they got the hang of chewing, toast was better because it was more solid, bread just tends to absorb spit (sorry ) and stick in a big lump in the roof of their mouth and they can't work out how to get it out again and get upset, or it's still there hours later when they're playing and you shit yourself when you notice!

Paté is fine. It's just in pregnancy you're supposed to avoid it because of the vitamin A.

Salt - limit is up to 1g per day up to 12 months, 2g per day up to 3 years. If only sodium is listed on the nutrition information of your food, multiply the amount by 2.5 to get the equivalent amount of salt :)

[BertieBotts]

Oh, or you can give vv thin (paper thin!) slices of apple to avoid choking or steam chunks of it if you want.

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Why no kiwi?

[chaosandcupcakes]

I think no kiwi because it can trigger allergy. I'm allergic to it and I think it's quite common.

[PeazlyPops]

Oh I had no idea about kiwi, DS had some last week.

I had no idea about raw apples, DS loves nibbling on a Braeburn! He is 7mo and has 5 teeth though, so I'll watch him very closely.

[lindsell]

You're not supposed to give strawberries until 12mo either as can have an allergic reaction. Didn't know kiwis were the same though

[ElphabaTheGreen]

So far, DS's faves for licking and mouthing have been kiwis, strawberries and apple slices. Curses. He practically lunged at a Braeburn I was eating the other day so I let him have a good gnaw. Please don't tell me there's a problem with pineapple because that's been his hands-down favourite so far...

[FredFredGeorge]

There's no problem with Kiwi - or any other common allergen unless they are actually allergic to it, and even then it's not clear from evidence if it's best to avoid until later or to give early (indeed it probably depends on other things than just the food)

The current health advice is not to avoid alllergenic foods due to there being no evidence of it making a difference. See the ESPGHAN report - www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18162844

[forevergreek]

Kiwis and strawberries are fine. They are just one of a v long list that MAY cause a rash or something but no harm in giving and if fine continue ( it's like 0.02%) react or something

[ElphabaTheGreen]

Good. Kiwis and strawberries are staying on the menu. And I like that idea of slicing apples paper thin.

[vodkaanddietirnbru]

I used to grate apples for ds.

[BertieBotts]

I was too lazy to steam them and a whole apple used to get wasted.

[BertieBotts]

Can you grate something so juicy? I have trouble grating carrot sometimes

[JiltedJohnsJulie]

I used to cut up grapes for our pfb . Dc2 just got whatever was thrown her way

[BertieBotts]

You really should cut grapes at least until they're old enough to be taught to chew them first as the skin makes them extra sticky in windpipes, so I've read on here.