At what age can I feed my daughter seafood? Prawns, mussels, shellfish, sushi, etc.

[tobyiana]

I was just wondering as we are going to Japan for holiday and know there is crazy good seafood there. My daughter is 5.

About 4.5 years ago

6 months so you’ll be fine

Mine enjoyed shovelling in a variety of seafood from as soon as he could hold it to get it in his mouth

Cooked seafood is ok from 6 months. Not sure about raw fish/sushi but I'm sure 5 is probably old enough

Exactly. She's FIVE and you've never fed her seafood or fish? Why on earth not?

Mine started eating fish and seafood when they started eating meat.

Lol, I live in Japan. From the moment she can eat solids hun

DD's lifelong love affair with prawns started before her first birthday.

Too young for raw fish, you have to accept sushi/sasimi that are raw seafood will have some parasites that adults can deal with, but not children. Even Japanese dont feed raw fish to children. No problem if cooked regardless of age, but just be careful with fish bones - they will cook the whole fish rather than fillets so if you don't know how to pick out bones (especially those with tidy bones like sardines), then best to avoid. If kids somehow swallowed fish bone, just ask them to eat a whole spoon of rice and swallow, then the bone will get mixed up and unstuck.

Something not very well known in western media is the seafood from Fukushima that Japanese gov is trying to push. Obviously you cannot ask every restaurant if their ingredient comes from Fukushima but at least from Supermarket they will have to state the origin.

It’s all absolutely fine. All fish destined for sushi is frozen at source which kills any nasties.

My DC have been eating maki rolls since weaning age, and were ok with sashimi once their teeth came in later.

In Japan most fish sushi is made from frozen fish, and the fresh stuff would have been inspected meticulously.

6 months onwards.

@AnaphylaxisAnaphylaxis

Sashimi etc is from 18 months here, I've got a link below (in Japanese though).

https://www.town.rifu.miyagi.jp/kosodatesite/mokutekibetsudesagasu/2/2/1494.html#:~:text=%E7%94%9F%E3%82%82%E3%81%AE%E3%82%92%E9%A3%9F%E3%81%B9%E3%82%8B%E6%99%82,%E6%9C%88%EF%BC%89%E4%BB%A5%E9%99%8D%E3%81%8C%E7%9B%AE%E5%AE%89%E3%81%A7%E3%81%99%E3%80%82

Enjoy your trip OP

Not Japanese, but my kids were happily tucking in to all sorts of seafood in Italy (and here), from 1 years. They always loved vongole, mussels, calamari, octopus, even the tentacles. Seafood salad and seafood soup being two favourites.

Wow maybe I was being far too cautious. I've fed her fish since she was a kid but was always petrified about shellfish. Definitely will be avoiding sashimi though. Thanks

I thought this 😂

Does freezing really kill bacteria? I thought it just kind of ….. suspends it and then it reanimates when back to room temp. Have no idea how correct that is but I thought that was why you shouldn’t have ice in countries where the water isn’t sanitary.

If freezing killed bacteria we wouldn't have to worry about salmonella from frozen chicken. It just stops the further growth of bacteria until the defrosting process.

Ours has been eating seafood and sashimi from around 6m. I thought it was only honey you can’t give them until 1yr?

Mine were eating cooked fish/seafood from weaning and sushi from 1 or so

Sashimi isn't frozen to kill bacteria - it's to kill parasites like tapeworm.

Start giving her seafood now, to check for any allergies.

Don't wait til you're abroad to try a new food like this - I speak as someone whose child is allergic to shellfish! It's a reasonably common allergy I believe and you don't want to discover it while away. Introduce it at home.

My DD was greedily guzzling shellfish by 18 months.

When she was about that age we were on holiday and I ordered a plate of mussels for myself, but ended up barely getting a look in as she loved them so much!

It‘s much more dangerous to have avoided it, from an allergy perspective. Exposure early is best.

Start introducing shellfish now, in small doses. Do not wait until Japan, as she may have developed an allergy- and you don’t want to deal with that on holiday.

When in the UK totally fine to feed raw fish as part of weaning. But other countries even ones that speak English have different food safety rules. Where fish is fished from, stored and packaged all play a part.

Probably not fool proof but check out what a countries advice is for pregnant women and children.

In NZ our baby formula is free from bacteria so can be made from cold tap water as long as that is from a safe source. But our deli meats are not as safe to eat as the UK so a no go for pregnant women.