Chinese food - at what age?

[Hulababy]

Dh was asking me if we wanted to go out for a chinese as we have one of those new buffet type places recently opened. But DD is only 20 months and I am sure I have read that children shouldn't eat chinese food.

Out of curiousity, at what age can children have chinese food? And, are chinese restaurants likely to have any form of alternative for DD? I have never read to see if the menu has other things on - not had to before.

Thanks!

Both my dds have had chinese food since around 18ms. They like the rice/noodles and satay chicken. Or other "plainer" chickem dishes. I only avoid seafood really as we have some allergies in our family. I didn't know kids weren't supposed to have it! Why?? IMHO the buffet ones are great as the kids don't have to wait/can see the food before they pick it/can go back for more etc. And the "puds" are on show as bribery for messing about. HTH and enjoy!!

When my DD was 6 or 7 months old I gave her spare ribs to chew on, as she was teething so badly. She loved it and it seemed to help....but they were chinese...She had rice and noodles as soon as she had pasta, but I would steer clear of seafood (she loves Lemon chicken!)

I can't help thinking ... what do Chinese children eat if they can't eat chinese food??????
Where did you read that children shouldn't eat chinese food?

I was told that it was something to do with what they use in the sauces? Or is that only in takeaways? Don't know now.

Might just take her and see what she likes anyway.

Maybe the concern is over MSG (monosodium glutamate)? It's had various health concerns but I don't know if proof of any of the alleged risks actually exists. Some Chinese restaurants don't actually add MSG; you could ask....

Have to say, I wouldn't worry about giving MSG as a one-off to my child over 1yo. Now, making sure the rice was properly cooked -- that's a real health concern!

Just did a quick search. Apparantly chinese sauces are often high in sauce so maybe this is part of the reason. So need to look for plain things without too much soy or oyster sauce.

Other thing I found was to do with monosodium glutamate (MSG) which is found in chinese food. Some research found that it may be linked to damage in retinas but it doubted that the occassional chinese would be harmful.

I am sure what I heard was something to do with monosodium glutamate (MSG) no I think about it.

maybe it has something to do with the monosodium glutenate (I know I have spelled that wrong somewhere!) added to chinese food.

All in all, you don't eat chinese food every day so there shouldn't be great harm in having it. My ds twins love all types of food and as long as they have all the good stuff added in at some point I can see no harm in letting them have treats every now and again.

I would think there is more rubbish in a McD or BK or food in a place like that.

My SiL is Thai and encourages dd to eat everything (and heaven knows she needs encouraging !) when we're there but they don't use the additives as much as here.

I'd avoid stuff like Sweet & Sour sauces cos they're usually coloured and very gloopy and stick with dim sum things with the clearer dipping sauces - so they have chilli in but as Ghosty says, Chinese kids eat too !

Go for it, as long as it's part of a 'balanced diet' (like mumsnetters aren't obsessed with them already !) have a good time and enjoy family lunch.

Zebra is very wise,

the temperature of the rice is the only thing to worry about, not just in Chinese food but in any thing that is 'Buffet' style as you have no idea how long it has been sitting there and if it is kept at optimum temperature. Same with the chicken and prawns.

I agree with the others about it being a one off thing in terms of salt and msg.

So enjoy it and if you can get fried rice and egg down your kids you will never be more that 20 minutes away from a good meal. My DS1 would eat it three times a day.

We have one of these Chinese buffet places near us and have been letting DS2 eat the food there from about 12 months with no adverse effects (actually I think before he was a year he would have a few prawn crackers, probably shouldn't have had those should he?). Just to echo the others as long as your DD has no alergies I would have thought it would be OK, obviously the salt levels and MSG wouldn't be good in a regular diet but as a one-off I think it would be OK. We are fortunate in that we know the owners of the restaurant we go to and know that they are trying their best to comply with all the food regulations etc so don't have much worries about the rice. If you go I hope you have a lovely time, it is one of our DS' favourite places to eat, DS1 (almost five) loves going to the counter to pick out his food (particularly loves the starters) and likes a go with the chopsticks, have fun!

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THanks all. DD has no allergies that we are away off. She has had prawn crackers loads vut not really any other chinese food. She enjoys noodles from the noodle bar downstairs, and rice though. So, maybe we will go anmd give it a go.

oOH! That's very nice of you to say, SuzyWong. Almost makes up for about a million other unpleasant things I've been told/called on Mumsnet.

the title of this made me laugh - after all, Chinese kids have "chinese" food from a very young age! Anyway, my family is Chinese, and for quite a long time, whenever we went out to a Chinese restaurant I used to order fried egg and chips.

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