jam!

[lilypaige]

Hi, has anyone ever had any bad experiences with jam? I gave my 8 month old dd a tiny scraping of strawberry jam on her toast this morning, shes always been fine with strawberry in purees.
After she ate some jam she came out in a red angry rash all around her mouth and nose, it worried me and safe to say she wont be having it again! The rash faded after 20 minutes and she is fine. Has this ever happened to anyone else? I felt awful!

It's more likely the strawberry than the jam perhaps. I think a lot if kids have a bit of a reaction at some point.

If she's ok with fruit purees, then just use those instead of jam. Probably healthier anyway.

Strawberry purée?!

Has she tried whole strawberries? They can cause allergic reactions anyway - thats the only way you'd really know.

Sorry. I would avoid jam anyway as full of sugar (you can get sugar free stuff).

It was a reduced sugar jam, only a tiny scraping and the first time she had tried it. She hasnt had whole strawberries yet, she is still building her confidence on finger foods. She has had strawberry in other things yoghurts and ellas pouches etc. Do you think it was an allergic reaction? Wont be giving anything strawberry related in the near future thatsfor sure!

Sometimes younger babies can react to acidic fruits and come up with a contact rash where it has touched them. Strawberries, tomatoes, citrus fruits etc are acidic (my two reacted like this) - they grew out of it past one).

Sometimes it can be a proper allergic reaction.

But I'm wondering if it was something else in the jam. What are the ingredients?

You could put a dab on the back of her hand to test -just a tiny bit. I used to do it with hummus for example. If it comes up red, it could just be a contact reaction. Try rubbing a tiny bit of fresh strawberry on her hand too.

If it was reduced sugar jam (a bad idea I think for adults let alone babies) then there's a possibility it had an artificial sweetener in many of them do so it could've been an allergy against that.

Reduced sugar jam does not necesssarily contain artificial sweeteners. I would avoid the weight watchers thou, that one is full of additives (at least last time I checked it about 5 years ago!) But I agree it could be a reaction to the pectin or any other conservative in the jam.

TortilllaDeMaiz Commercially produced low sugar jam has to have things other than fruit and sugar in though - since the sugar is required to preserve the fruit - at a minimum they generally put Potassium Sorbate in as another preservative, and even then the shelf life is significantly reduced. None of the stuff added is going to be bad for you normally, just think simple food is generally better.