Research changes infant diet advice
DEAR DR. K: I thought I knew what solid foods to give my baby and when to give them. But the recommendations seem to change constantly. What do I need to know?
DEAR READER: Dr. Claire McCarthy, a primary care pediatrician at Harvard-affiliated Boston Children’s Hospital, said most dietary advice has remained the same. But research has recently led to three big changes:
Don’t give rice cereal.
Pediatricians used to recommend rice cereal as a go-to starting food. But then the Consumer Products Safety Commission raised concern about the amount of arsenic in rice and rice products. The rice plant is very good at pulling arsenic out of the soil. The commission’s report said that babies who get two servings of rice cereal a day could double their cancer risk over a lifetime. Opt for oatmeal or other types of baby cereal instead.
Make fish part of your child’s diet.
A study from Sweden showed that children who ate fish twice a month during infancy had a 25 percent lower risk of allergies. The researchers followed the babies until they were 12 years old, and that reduction in risk was still there.
Do give peanut products.
This is a real turnaround. For years, doctors told parents not to give peanut products until children were 2 to 3 years old. The fear was that if kids were exposed to peanuts too early, they would develop an allergy to peanuts later in life.
But a recent study showed that giving peanut products early in life — between 4 and 11 months — can actually prevent peanut allergy. Don’t give whole peanuts that can get caught in the baby’s windpipe. Ground peanuts — like peanut paste — is what to use.
Another recent study suggests that the lesson learned with peanuts may also apply for other foods to which kids develop allergies: eggs, cow’s milk, sesame nuts and oil, whitefish and wheat. Early exposure to these foods may lower the risk of allergies to them later on.