Has anyone else come across a HV advising the parents to give their baby a Chinese takeaway ??

[Ceebee74]

My friend's sister has an 8 month old DS - HV just been round for the 8 month checkup and firstly told her off for pureeing his food - HV is obviously an advocate of BLW (which is great) as she said that the mother had to just give him bits and pieces on his highchair and let him pick. Which is fine but upset the mother a bit as apparently the HV was quite harsh with her about it and implied she was damaging her DS by only giving him pureed food

And then, she turned round and said that if the parents were having a Chinese takeaway, they must (and she did use the word 'must') let the baby have some aswell - is it just me or does that seem shocking advice??

Think of the levels of salt in a takeaway!!

No way would I give my 8 months old part of a chinese takeaway. Over 1 maybe. But not 8 months.

Very odd.

hmmm, the 'must' sounds a bit weird. although i've got photos of dd noshing away in Wagamama by eight months. you just choose things that aren't salty (steamed edamame... mmmm) and suck the sauces off pieces of meat and hand 'em over. personally i never got that fussed about salt because i was making everything for her to eat and wasn't adding salt, so a bit of salt in food when we were out never bothered me.

Was the health visiotr perhaps using it as an example, admittedly not a very good example, but meaning "if your eating x,y,z then give baby soem to try".

If the mother was upset as you say she was she may have misinterpreted what the HV was trying to say

depends on the chinese takeaway. SOme of them are quite healthy with strips of vegetables and meat that are easy for a baby to hold and chew on. Plain rice and noddles are also very healthy.

Not a bad idea actually. Just have to be careful of fat and salt content, but if you drain away the sauce I don't see a problem.

My HV said EXACTLY the same thing - she said "if you have a take away curry, as long as its not too hot, then give DS some!!!"

I dont think so!!!

my dds love curry from about the age of one year.

oooh, dd loves curry, always has. loves a bit of dal and rice, does my girl. agree with saltire and belgo, apart from teh 'must' bit it's not such bad advice.

The HV sounds a bit dogmatic, but Chinese food in itself is fine for babies (Chinese babies have it, after all!). Some take-aways might be v. greasy and high in salt, but small tastes not going to harm an 8 mth old, who might quite enjoy the noodles and some of the meat and veg. Social mealtimes are important!

"Chinese babies have it, after all"

To be fair, chinese babies have REAL chinese food ... not what most UK chinese takeaways pretend is chinese food.

i think she just wanted to mean, dont let baby feel left out, and there is no need whatsoever to cook different foods from what the adults are having.

noodles and rice would be ok IMO

it depends on the takeaway. some takeaways are healthier then others. chinese food is usually more healthy then other sorts of takeaways.

IMO its better and easier to make your own chinese meal

takeaways are mingin anyway

But Chinese babies don't eat Chinese food which is "designed" for hte English takeaway....

But I don't actually see the problem in letting them taste selecte dishes.

sounds normal to me.
my dc were all having bits and pieces from my plate at 8months. however as we never got chinese takeawys, never really problem.
though 8.5 month old dd did love her seekh kebabs

gettin a baby to eat rice with their fingers is grerat for their fine motor skills development.

our local chinese and indian restaurants are v trendy and abhor msg, colourings etc. and they also charge abot five times as much, of course. we don't have them very often but they are delish.

Hmm... we have allergies in my family, and I specifically avoided eggs (for example) for the first year.

I have NO problem with babies having what you're having if you made it yourself (and ds2 certainly had things like shepherds pie etc that I'd made that had salt in the stock... but obviously not very often).

I would be more careful with processed stuff to read the labels very carefully.

With a takeout, you don't have labels and no guarantees as to the contents. And considering the amount of food poisoning that originates from takeaway food then I would not be comfortable with such a young baby eating a chinese takeaway - even selected bits.

But then each to their own, I guess.

Considering the furore that came out when people were pureeing macdonalds and feeding their baby smash... I'm surprised so many have said a chinese takeout is fine. But then it's the PUREEING that's bad isn't it, silly me.

although good point about the peanut oil etc, kerrymum, that's worth thinking about i'd have thought.

the chinese takeaway near my parents in England is great. Makes me homesick for England. There is such a huge amount of choice with food in the UK.

pureed macdonalds? Its far easier to stick a chip in each hand and get them to dip it into a pot of ketchup.

don't be prickly, rubberduck, you've made some very good points. for the record no-one's said pureeing is bad, but if you don't want to do it, you don't have to, that's all.