From the YummyYucky team, founded by Nancy Nash
Can Babies Eat Hake? How to Cook and Serve
Hake is a mild, lean white fish, sold as merluza in Spanish speaking markets and often just as white fish at the counter. It can start around 6 months, and it is one of the better first fish because it flakes softly and tastes barely of the sea. The safety move is bones: hake pin bones are fine and easy to miss, so flake every piece by hand before serving. Fish is one of the major allergens, so introduce it on its own and watch for a reaction.
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- When to introduce
- 6 months+
- Common allergen?
- Fish, one of the major allergens. Introduce it on its own and watch for a reaction.
- Texture
- Soft flakes, checked by hand for bones. Mash with vegetables for early spoon feeding.
- Key nutrients
- Lean protein, selenium, iodine, vitamin B12, phosphorus, low in mercury.
Hake shows up under a lot of names: merluza in Spain, Cape hake if it came from South Africa, and often just white fish at the counter. If you have a fillet in the fridge and a baby in a high chair, you are in luck. Hake is close to an ideal starter fish: mild enough that it does not taste fishy, soft enough to flake apart with a fork, and low enough in mercury that the FDA puts it in the top tier of its chart. The part that makes parents hesitate, reasonably, is that fish is a major allergen. That is manageable, and waiting is not the answer.
Prep School: how to prepare hake for baby-led weaning (BLW) and purées
🍴 Baby-led weaning
🥄 Purées
Is hake safe? Choking & prep
Hake can start around 6 months, alongside other first solids. Three things matter. First, mercury. Hake sits in the Best Choices group on the FDA and EPA fish chart, the tier reserved for the lowest mercury species, in the same company as cod, haddock, pollock, and salmon. That chart is written for pregnancy and for children ages 1 to 11, but the underlying principle applies earlier too: pick lower mercury fish and vary which ones you serve1. Hake is an easy everyday choice rather than one to worry over, though that same advice still frames fish for young children as about 2 servings a week, with a serving around 1 ounce at ages 1 to 31. Second, allergy. Fish is one of the major allergens. Current guidance is to introduce allergenic foods early rather than to hold them back, since delaying does not prevent allergy. Serve hake plain, on its own, earlier in the day rather than at bedtime, and not on the same day as another brand new food, so that if something happens you know what caused it. Start with a small taste, then more the next time if all is well. Watch for hives, swelling around the mouth or eyes, vomiting, or a rash, and treat any breathing difficulty or sudden floppiness as an emergency and call for help immediately2. Third, bones. Hake flesh is soft and its pin bones are thin, pale, and genuinely easy to miss. Flake every portion by hand onto a plate and run your fingers through the flakes before anything reaches the tray. Do not take a boneless label as a guarantee. Buying a thick center cut loin makes this job much shorter. And skip the salted, smoked, and battered versions. Salt cod style dried hake and smoked fillets carry enormous amounts of sodium, which small kidneys cannot handle, and fried batter is a texture problem on top of that.
Trying hake today? Log the first taste and whether it was a hit, a hard maybe, or launched across the room, dated and ready for the pediatrician.
Log hake today →Free, no account needed. Takes about 10 seconds.
Nutrition
Hake is a lean white fish, which means plenty of protein, very little fat, and a soft texture that suits a new eater. Because it is lean, it carries much less omega 3 fat than oily fish like salmon or sardines do, so it is worth rotating an oily fish into the week rather than making hake the only fish your baby meets. What it does bring is selenium, iodine, vitamin B12, and phosphorus, along with a small amount of the well absorbed heme iron that animal foods contain. Cook it in a little olive oil or butter: fat carries flavor, and it also helps a baby take up the fat soluble vitamins in whatever vegetable is sharing the plate.
Goes well with
Potato · Peas · Leek · Carrot · Olive Oil · Lemon
Storage & freezing
Fresh hake moves fast, so keep it on the coldest shelf of the fridge and cook it within a day or two of buying. If it smells of ammonia rather than clean seawater, throw it out. Frozen fillets hold well for about 3 months, and thawing overnight in the fridge is safer and kinder to the texture than thawing on the counter. Cook it until it is opaque all the way through and flakes easily with a fork. Cooked hake keeps in a sealed container in the fridge for up to 2 days, and cooked flakes freeze for about a month, although the texture goes slightly woolly. Reheat cooked fish once only, until it is steaming hot right through, then let it cool to warm before it goes anywhere near a baby.
More proteins to explore
Introducing this allergen
Related reading
- Fish for babies: mercury & safe choices →
- Best first proteins for babies →
- How to cut food to prevent choking →
- Signs your baby is ready for solids →
- Baby-led weaning vs. purées →
Common questions
Is hake high in mercury?
No. Hake is on the FDA and EPA Best Choices list, the group with the lowest mercury levels, next to cod, haddock, pollock, tilapia, and salmon. It is one of the fish those agencies specifically encourage rather than one to limit. The fish to steer clear of for young children are the big long lived predators: shark, swordfish, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, bigeye tuna, and Gulf of Mexico tilefish.
How do I make sure I got all the bones out?
Cook the fillet first, then flake it apart on a white plate where pale bones show up. Run your fingertips through every flake rather than looking, since you will feel a pin bone long before you spot it. Hake pin bones sit in a row down the center line of the fillet, so pay extra attention there. Buying a thick center cut loin instead of a tail piece cuts the work down a lot.
My family has a fish allergy. Should I still give my baby hake?
Talk to your pediatrician or an allergist before the first taste, and follow their plan. A family history raises the odds enough that they may want to guide the introduction or do it in a supervised setting. What has changed is the old advice to simply wait: delaying allergenic foods is not protective, so the plan is usually a careful early introduction rather than avoidance. Do not run that experiment on your own if there is a known fish allergy in the house.
Sources
Further reading
- American Academy of Pediatrics (HealthyChildren.org): Starting Solid Foods
- CDC: Foods and Drinks to Encourage and Limit
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Start tracking for freeLast updated September 2026. Next review December 2026. How we write these: built from current published guidance from the AAP, CDC, FDA/EPA, NIAID, WHO, and other pediatric and public-health authorities, with sources cited on the page. See our editorial and medical policy for how we research, source, and update these, and how we double-check the food advice.
This is general information, not medical advice, and is not individualized for your baby. Always talk to your pediatrician about your baby's diet, introducing allergens, and any reaction. In an emergency, contact emergency services.
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