BLW - is it ok to give a 6mth old quorn?

[LexieH]

I have made some veggie chillie with quorn and my DS loves it but just feeling paranoid that quorn may not be ok?

I believe alergic reactions are rare but not unknown (but a lot less common than foods you wouldn't think twice about), the protein is complete and similar to egg (there's egg white probably in it too btw) but there's no reason why it's not entirely appropriate. Like always, a variety of foods is a good idea, but I can see no reason not to give Quorn.

Quorn is high in fibre and low in calorie. It doesn't do them any harm to give quorn, but it's not a good thing. Have a look at this from the NHS. As long as it's a one off and not a regular occurrence it's ok.

If you are making veggie chillies, you can easily make one without using meat substitues. Do you have the River Cottage veg everyday book? It has lots of lovely veggie chillies with beans. DD loves the pinto bean chilli we made last week!

Pinto beans contain more fibre per calorie than Quorn though (9g vs 5g typically)? so if your concern is filling the stomach without getting the calories substituting beans in for the protein is not a great choice?

per weight I mean with the 9 vs 5, there are slightly more calories in beans (non protein ones) and they bring it closer than that but still 6 to 5.

a one off is fine, but I would tend to avoid processed for at that age.

FredGeorge pinto beans has more fibres, but it has more than 3 times the calories too. (Which is what the NHS page says - "low in fat, high in fibre and doesn?t contain many calories".

From the packaging listed on ocado, Quorn mince vs Pinto beans.

Quorn
Typical values per 100g
Energy 397kj
Protein 14.5g
Carbohydrate 4.5g
of which sugars 0.6g
Fat 2g
of which saturates 0.5g
Fibre 5.5g
Sodium 0.1g

Pinto beans
Typical values per 100g
Energy 1473kj
Protein 21.4g
Carbohydrate 62.6g
of which sugars 2.1g
Fat 1.2g
of which saturates 0.2g
Fibre 15.5g
Sodium 0.1g

And a piece of lovely beef steak for comparison

Typical values per 100g
Energy 821kj
Energy 197kcal
Protein 18.9g
Carbohydrate 0g
of which sugars 0g
of which starch 0g
Fat 13.5g
of which saturates 5.8g
Fibre 0g
Sodium 0.06g

You're quoting the dry UNCOOKED Pinto bean there, all beans change a lot with soaking, cooking etc. You need to compare pinto beans which are ready to eat here has some data on beans post cooking, which is per 100grams 143 calories and 9g of fibre and 9g of protein. Very similar - just a few more calories and less protein, although it actually depends exactly how you cook the beans, tinned ones tend to come in even lower in calories, but just as high in fibre.

Interesting, I didn't know about that advice from the NHS. We eat Quorn about twice a week and DS has been eating it since around 6 months (he is 9 months now). He loves the chicken style pieces, but isn't particularly fond of the mince. If I had known about the NHS advice I probably would've held off giving it to him until 9 months, but since he's BLW he only eats very small quantities anyway and it doesn't seem to have done him any harm.

Thanks everyone... very interesting... well i have only given him a little bit as that's what we make our chillie with but will hold off for a while thanks x

Fred I have no idea if the packs info is for cooked or uncooked pinto beans. But that's the ones I used.

I'm on my phone so doesn't have flash, but I'm not sure where your calorie number comes from. I see 1027kj per 171g on the site you link. That works out at 600kj for 100g. I didnt use calories but kj for energy because the quorn mince doesn't have calories normalised to per 100g. Anyway looking at the numbers, pinto is more complex carbs than protein.

But all very interesting. I have to confess I seldom look at the food labels!

bung some cheese on top...

Quite a lot of people do get sick from quorn, I think. I'd tend to stick to less processed food for littlies.