** What Foods to Avoid **
When introducing new foods to your precious little angels, you should avoid feeding your baby foods that they are not physically ready to eat and foods that could harm your baby. We do not offer these foods here at Miranda's Kitchen due to the sensitivity and concerns with each and every different child.
First, there are foods that your baby should not have until a certain age. If your baby consumes these foods, immediately contact your physician or other medical help.
Foods to avoid from birth to 4 or 6 months:
- Everything – babies should only have breast milk or formula until this age
Foods to avoid from 4 to 12 months:
- Honey – it can cause infant botulism, which can be a life threatening condition
- Cow’s milk and soy milk – babies are too young to process the proteins in found in these milks.
- Choking Hazard foods – Large food chunks (peas-sized or larger), hard food (such as nuts, seeds, popcorn, candy, and cough drops), soft & sticky foods (such as marshmallows and gummy candies), and peanut butter are all choking hazards for young babies.
Second, there are some vegetables that naturally contain nitrates. If infants consume too many nitrates, they can get a dangerous type of poisoning called Methemoglobinemia. When serving homemade baby food, you are not able to accurately monitor the levels of nitrates in your food. So, use these nitrate-containing vegetables with caution:
- Beets
- Spinach
- Squash
- Green beans
- Carrots
- Collard greens
- Turnips
Talk to your doctor for more information about homemade baby food with these vegetables.
Also, avoid adding salt and sugar to our products. These foods can cause childhood obesity and have been linked to hypertension and diabetes in adults. Miranda's Best already has so many new tastes and textures that it does not need any “additional” flavor from salt or sugar.
Last, your baby may have food allergies that you do not know about. You should only introduce one new food to your baby every 2 – 3 days so that you will know what food(s) if any cause an allergic reaction.
If you take the necessary precautions described above, we believe that Miranda's Best will make your baby happy, healty and a well balanced and open minded child to all kinds of foods in the years to come. Just as Miranda.
~Loryann
