As your baby grows, you introduce more solid foods, fruits, and snacks to the diet. Your child is learning to eat, so; the two of you will have fun exploring likes and dislikes. However, there are dangerous foods for babies, which can cause severe allergic reactions or choking. Hence, to ensure safety, here’re some unsafe foods to give your baby.
- Honey is dangerous for children below one year since it contains bacteria that the child’s underdeveloped immune system cannot handle. The bacteria cause botulism, a severe illness that leads to constipation, dehydration, and lethargy in babies under 12 months.
- Kindly avoid sticky and hard foods. Most parents in Kenya give matoke to their babies. However, if the food is not well prepared, it’ll stick to your child’s mouth, which is not safe for the young one.
- No matter how much you love popcorn, please don’t give it to your baby until he is old enough for it. There’s too much salt in the snack, and it can easily choke the child.
- Whole grapes and raisins will not dissolve in your baby’s mouth. Thus, they can choke on such foodstuffs. Even after the child develops molars, serve grapes and other berries under strict supervision.
- Processed meats like sausages, smokies, and bacon have too much salt, chemicals, and bad animal fats, which aren’t suitable for your child’s kidneys.
- Sweets, processed juice, and chewing gum. How many times have you seen Kenyan mothers use sweets to console their children? In most cases, when traveling, you’ll see little ones sucking on lollipops, juices, and the occasional chewing gum. Your baby is too young to take sugar. His taste buds don’t need the sweetness in juice and soda. Plus, these things cause tooth decay and tonsils.
- Peanuts, nuts, and seeds. Although these are full of proteins, they also cause allergies in many children. If you must introduce your baby to nuts and seeds, do so in small servings and under stringent supervision. Remember, they can choke on them too.
- Resist serving raw and undercooked eggs. Babies can eat eggs after six months, but they have to be well cooked.
- Seafood contains high amounts of mercury that can trigger unpleasant allergies. Mercury will also ruin your baby’s nervous system, and no one wants that.
To protect your child from allergic responses, you could try the following:
- When you start giving solid foods, introduce one food at a time. Then wait two to three days to be sure that the young one is not allergic to it. If you see rashes, swelling, diarrhea, or breathing problems, go to the hospital immediately. Allergic reactions can be fatal.
- If you’re not sure how to prepare a particular food for the baby, consult the experts.
Conclusion
You now know the unsafe foods you should not give your baby. Babies have sensitive immunity; hence they can only handle some foodstuffs when old enough. Kindly don’t treat allergic reactions without consulting a doctor.
