What age can children start to eat 'spicy' food?

[SmileItsSunny]

I'm sure I'd heard that their guts weren't mature enough to handle hot spicy food initially; but now I come to look I can't find any evidence for that.

just added far more curry powder to a chicken dish than I meant to

What do you think babies in countries like India eat?

I gave mine spicy food quite early on - definitely about 1-ish. No chilli in it though - more a combination of different spices - cumin/coriander/ginger/garlic - that type of thing.

Six months in this house. Always mixed in some yoghurt to the DCs to soften the spicing though. Plain rice and a glass of milk with it too of course.

Bean chilli was both DCs favourite meal as soon as they developed a pincer grip...

what bigtilly said

seriously though I have tried DD with spices but she just can't and she is nearly 6...

My DDs both went to curry house regularly from 12 mths onwards and ate whatever we ordered - sometimes produced more "interesting" nappies than I anticipated, but on the whole no problems!!

I didn't give DS even vaguely spicy food until he was about 18 months but will be doing it sooner with the next one - mixed in with yogurt as Procrastination said. Maybe this will make her like it more? DS hates pretty much all spicy food, and I wish he'd eat my dahl...

Mine both ate spicy food from 6 months and loved it, although from the age of about 2 they seemed to prefer it a bit milder. Not sure if taste buds change around that age or if it was just to do with being an awkward toddler!

I know bigTilly but I don't eat much spicy food myself so it wouldn't have been coming through in the breast milk etc... does that matter?

Has no one else heard the rumour about immature gut, etc? Maybe it was just my mum confusing me

The chicken dish wasn't even that spicy in the end, but I'd already made some boiled eggs for them. Still, there are plenty of leftovers - p'raps I'll try again tomorrow. I can imagine DS (1) eating it, but not DD (2) - but then she is quite fussy, despite my efforts.

Thank you all, sorry can't namecheck you all - but your replies are appreciated!