Warning: Avoid These Foods with Baby

Your baby will probably eat almost anything you offer her, so do your best to make sure that the foods you offer her are safe. Foods to avoid include:

• Citrus fruits (due to their high acidity)
• Strawberries and other berries (common allergens)
• Tomatoes (high acidity)
• Peanuts and other nuts (choking hazards and allergens)
• Eggs, even just the whites (allergens)
• Cow's milk and milk products (allergens)
• Wheat and corn (allergens)
• Fish and shellfish (allergens)
• Chocolate (allergen)
• Salt (too much can strain or damage an infant's kidneys)
• Other spices (can cause indigestion and may be allergens)
• Sugar or sugar substitutes (difficult to digest)
• Soda (high sugar content)
• Butter or other added fat (difficult to digest)
• Honey (may cause botulism in infants and one-year-olds)
• Alcohol and caffeine, of course (both are drugs)

Your baby doesn't need any of these foods before her first birthday. But if you have a particular desire to see how your child likes any of them, you can start introducing most of them around eight months. (The exceptions are alcohol and caffeine, which you should avoid giving your child altogether; honey, which you should avoid until your child is two; and dairy products, which you may be wise to avoid until your baby's first birthday.)

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Bringing Up Baby © 1997 by Kevin Osborn. All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. Used by arrangement with Alpha Books, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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