When is it ok to give bread?

[MissGolightly]

Does anyone know what the advice is on bread for babies? My DS (7 months) adores bread as finger food, his favourite is wholemeal toast. However a friend has said that in her opinion he is too young to have bread as it might cause wheat allergies and is too high in salt. What do y'all think?

As we are not an allergicky family I am not too worried about the wheat thing, more bothered about the salt. I do make my own sometimes, and cut down on the salt in the recipe (although I don't omit it entirely as it seems to be essential for proper rising). And I don't let DS have it every day, about twice a week is the average. Should I only offer him homemade bread? Or should I cut it out entirely? If so, when it is ok to give bread?

I was advised to not give bread before 6months, DS is just 6 months, so we've started giving him toast which he too adores. The salt level did worry me a little too. I suppose you could bake a batch of loaves, slice and freeze them and use that for DS.

it's one of those things, isn't it? there is salt in bread, but in the scheme of things if you know that he's not eating too much other salt that day then i would hazard that it's fine. it's too much to worry about every little thing, i think. but others might feel differently.
if you're largely making your own bread then i think your friend was boing too picky, to be honest.

Thank you both!

Poppy, I waited until 6 months before weaning DS and was told at that point he could have most stuff apart from the obvious allergens, so I was a bit confused when my friend told me her doc had said no bread before 9 months. Good idea about freezing slices, I hadn't thought of that, would be much easier than baking every day!

Aitch, thanks for the wise words about the salt - at the moment he isn't getting any from other souces so I am sure you are right. It wouldn't have occurred to me to worry but my friend shook me a bit as she seemed truly shocked to hear DS had toast! Thank you both for the reassurance!

Ditto what Aitch said!

Some people do say that you shouldn't give wholemeal at first though, as it apparently slows down/stops the absorption of some vits/minerals, but in the quantities that they eat at this stage, I really can't see it having that much impact.

PS Aitch, I love your BLW blog! DS is a mini control-freak (or "independent-minded" as I prefer to think of it) and we spent a month battling for control of the spoon before discovering how much more fun rice cakes were. As far as I am concerned finger food is the new puree and your blog has inspired me to be much more adventurous about what I let him tackle.

Can'tSleep, that's so true! Actually I wouldn't have believed ANY of it was going in, until I discovered rather a lot of wholemeal mush in his nappy the next morning! Mmmm, porridge before breakfast but not in a good way...

thanks missg, i've really been amazed at what dd has eaten... (chilli con carne last night, yikes... not looking forward to that nappy).

Oh I hadn't heard they are not meant to eat bread although someone I told was worrying about the choking potential which I'm not as I am right in front of him when he eats it.

DS 8mths loves toast and as its a good finger food as not too messy I give it to him most days. Mostly home made, but sometimes shop bought.

good point, rookiemum, it's a good idea to keep the bread toasted or v crusty in the beginning as it doesn't form lumps so easily.

Bit random - but our local shop sells Turkish bread which has been perfect for my twins from 6 months. It's like a long flat loaf and they can gnaw away on a chunk for ages without bits coming off. I cover it in anything gooey - avocado, cream cheese, lentils, etc. Goes everywhere but keeps them occupied for ages!

you are suppossed to avoid gluten and wheat til 12 months according to a couple of book ive got which is laugh a rusks baby porridge al have gluten