Fish??

Karen - posted on 02/04/2011

from wholesomebabyfood.com (and found on babycenter.ca as well) :
Recommendations for introducing fish and other allergenic foods are changing! A 2008 study, and many studies done after, indicated that waiting to introduce fish to your baby may not prevent any atopic (i.e. eczema) disease(s). Many are now suggesting that babies may be introduced to fish around 6-7 months old (for those with no known history of food allergies).

if in doubt talk to your dr, but many drs will now say introduce fish with meats

Crystal - posted on 02/04/2011

If I remember right, I believe you are not suppose to give a child who's under 1 yrs. old fish.Same with peanut butter.

Erin - posted on 02/03/2011

Ive been told three things. One is the extreme of stay away from any known severe allergens (peanut butter seems to get the most publicity)
second was, eat LOTS of said allergen, so your childs immune system recognizes it as food and not foreign.
third is just eat healthy, and if you have a pb and j sandwich here and there, no harm done.

I think I will live by the third rule, since all I could stomach my first pregnancy was peanut butter on toast, and my little ones 5 and has no known allergies to anything.

Karen - posted on 02/03/2011

pretty much :) i ate peanut butter during my pregnancy and just found out last week my son has an allergy to nuts...it's just another one of those things that you can add to the list of "you have to do what you think is right"

Erin - posted on 02/03/2011

Yeah ive read some stuff like that too. But ive also read that avoiding them altogether can be just as dangerous because then your kids system doesnt know how to recognize the high allergy foods. Sooooo coin flip. ?

Karen - posted on 02/03/2011

@erin - shellfish is one of the top allergy foods so they say wait a bit (especially if you have a family history of allergies to it)...some "studies" have shown that if you eat "high allergy risk" foods during pregnancy you can actually increase the chances of your baby having the allergy

Katherine - posted on 02/02/2011

i actually didnt know you could give baby fish. just learned something.

Erin - posted on 02/02/2011

Just to clarify, is it no shellfish because of the higher contamination possibility? Like mercury and such?
I know im not allowed to eat oysters while im pregnant because of that...is it the same principle?

Shauna - posted on 02/02/2011

I started at 9 mo, Dr gave the go ahead, just no shellfish is what i was told.

Karen - posted on 02/02/2011

christina, it used to be that you were told to wait, but fish has recently been put into the "meat" category by nutritionists, gl and hope he enjoys :)

Christina - posted on 02/02/2011

Thank You everybody for your great help. I always though you had to wait until a child was a year old before you try them with fish. I've really been wanting to try my son with it bc where I live fish is a big part. My son will be 11 months old this month so I think I will try him whenever I cook it again : )

Danielle - posted on 02/01/2011

We didn't give our son fish until he started eating "regular" foods (not formula or baby food) and his first bite was a little piece of tuns fish (from a can). He really enjoyed it. Now he will have some when-ever I do...which is about once every 2 weeks. We put eggs, mayo, and pickles in our tuna, so it's not just fish :P. He's also had some salmon and catfish...If your worried about the mercury, limit it, but I think fish is normally fine to feed them when they start eating regular food.

Erin - posted on 02/01/2011

Salmon is a good low mercury fish to try out, its very healthy too!
Try not to get the canned stuff, and go for fresh if you can, its quite easy for me because of my native heritage, we live off salmon and fish it all the time up north, but its not hard to find some fresh salmon in the supermarket too, it tastes better than the canned stuff imo!

Sabra - posted on 02/01/2011

I agree that you can start giving fish at the same time as other meats unless there is and alergy in your family to it. They recommend waiting until a year old to introduce shellfish however because it is a higher risk factor for allergies. You don't want to give fish more than once a week though because it can contain to much mercury for the little once. If you are worried about this than the smaller fish species generally contain less mercury.

Karen - posted on 02/01/2011

dr told me to start fish (except shellfish) at the same time i started him on meats (which i did around 7 months)

Julie - posted on 02/01/2011

I think, unless there is history of fish allergy in your family, that it is fine to start giving it at the same time as any other food. Of course start small, but I don't think there's any problem with giving it to them at any age as long as they won't choke.

Elfrieda - posted on 02/01/2011

I started giving a bit to my son at 9 months, when we were having fish. (it was breaded. I just give him the inside.)

Adrienne - posted on 02/01/2011

I waited until my sons were 2 because my MIL is allergic to fish.

Robin - posted on 02/01/2011

i started my son with haddock... just little pieces when he was 1. my doc told me not to before then.. but he loves it