Are Meat And Fish Wholesome Baby Food?

Baby food in America hasn't changed a lot since I was sitting in a high chair eating it 60 years ago. In 1956, the most popular brand of baby food in the United States was Gerber's. In 2016, the most popular brand of baby food in the United States is still Gerber's. A socially responsible company that makes a reliably wholesome baby food although not especially tasty product, Gerber's and similar manufacturers had made billions of jars of strained carrots, strained peas, strained peaches, and applesauce, in addition to billions of boxes of zwieback.

About 20 years ago, however, I was watching my nephew eat his own Gerber's baby food in his high chair, and he inspired a different point of view. My nephew was eating strained carrots. The rest of the family was eating loin roast, potato salad, and sauerkraut. My nephew said, "Want real food." I asked a little too capriciously, "You want kraut?"

This was not the right question.

My nephew misunderstood. "Cat!" he screamed. "Not eat cat! Love kitty!" As the uncle, I realized it was my moment to retreat. I'm not sure when his parents introduced him to meat, but I'm sure it wasn't at that meal. However, meat and fish are generally safe for toddlers, even though parents don't often offer them.

Meat Important for Babies Entering the Weaning Phase

When it comes time to introduce babies to foods other than milk, many parents try to stuff their babies with rice puffs and runny cereals and strained vegetables. Parents who are fans of "real foods" tend to focus on kale and avocado and yams. Even gourmet baby foods made by companies like Sprout Organic Baby Foods, which packages its infant meals in bisphenol-A free resealable pouches that cannot be microwaved provides lentil Bolognese without the meats, roasted bananas and brown rice, and strained squash with Parmesan, recipes that are demonstrably tastier for adults but still vegan.

A growing number of studies, however, find that the best baby food, at least for part of an infant's diet, is meat, and not necessarily just fruit and vegetable purée.

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• A Chinese study found that infants who were fed meat in addition to other traditional baby foods starting at the age of six months experienced better, steadier growth than infants who were fed a variety of cereals in addition to rice.
• A study of babies who were fed meat at weaning had zinc levels that were twice as high as babies who were not fed meat. Zinc is critical in eye and thyroid health, and in recovery from viral infections and diarrhea.
• Another study found that babies who were fed small amounts of red meat, which is a source of readily absorbed heme- iron, had higher levels of oxygen-carrying hemoglobin in their bloodstreams.
• A study of babies in Denver, Colorado found that infants who were fed meat in addition to other traditional baby foods grew faster but not fatter than infants who were not offered meat at weaning.

A Powerful Argument For Including Meat In Weaning Diets

Even a vegan-friendly anthropologist published a study finding that including meat in infant diets, after weaning, offered major advantages over plant-based diets. As most parents (and some aunts and uncles) discover, it can be hard to get babies and toddlers to eat. They simply are interested in too many things to focus on food just because it's meal time for everybody else. If there is a limited amount of food that a baby or toddler can be persuaded to eat, it is best to make sure that the food is dense with all the nutrients the child needs. Plant foods aren't really nutritionally dense for the simple reason that they contain fiber. This fiber is great for feeding probiotic bacteria and for keeping baby regular, but it interferes with the absorption of minerals from both plant and animal foods. Limiting the amount of fiber consumed by the child makes it easier for the young digestive tract to absorb the minerals and amino acids provided by meat.

This doesn't mean that babies should only be fed meat, or even that they should be fed mostly meat. There's no need to put an infant on a Paleo diet. It just means that meat is part of what a very young body needs for its early stages of development. Even foods that not all adults enjoy, such as (well cooked) liver and egg yolks, are especially concentrated sources of vital nutrients for growing nervous systems and digestive tracts.

Another food that is helpful for children in the second six months of life is yogurt. Most of the scientific research has looked at yogurt as a "therapeutic food" rather than as a major source of protein and calories, but there is good evidence that probiotic yogurt, with live cultures, helps prevent toddler rashes and wheezing, and can be used to help stabilize diarrhea.

Introducing bones-free fish in the ninth month of a baby's life can help prevent eczema and asthma later in childhood. Smaller oily fish such as herring are less likely to accumulate heavy metals from seaborne pollution, but they are an excellent source of omega-3 fatty acids, including the DHA that is so important to brain and eye health, zinc, and iodine. As a bonus, if you can get a little kid to eat sardines, you can probably get that kid to eat anything.

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How do you determine the very best diet for your baby or toddler? The best source of information for diet planning are children themselves. Just as my nephew was quite adamant his diet was going to be kitty-free, your child will let you know which foods work well for him. If your child has an intense aversion to a "healthy" food, don't try to force it. There are always alternatives that are equally alternative.

What is the second best source of information for planning the diet for your child? Take you cue from other babies, or, even better, let your baby take a cue from other babies. In social settings, offer babies a variety of foods. When your baby sees another baby enjoying liver or sardines or herring, your baby will probably at least try them once. With a little luck, you can share your success with other babies in social hours at which every baby is fed.