🍼 YummyYucky
🚫 Foods to Avoid Before Age 1
A quick fridge reference. When in doubt, ask your pediatrician.
| Skip these before the first birthday | Why |
|---|---|
| 🍯 Honey | Risk of infant botulism, even a tiny taste or a dab on a pacifier. Wait until 12 months. |
| 🧂 Added salt | Too much strains a baby’s kidneys. Do not add salt, and go easy on salty foods (processed meats, stock cubes, salty snacks). |
| 🍬 Added sugar | No nutritional need, and it shapes a sweet-preferring palate. Skip sugary foods, desserts, and sweetened drinks until age 2, not just this first year. |
| 🥛 Cow’s milk as a main drink | Too low in iron, and not the balance of nutrients a baby needs. Fine cooked into food or as yogurt and cheese, but not the main drink until 12 months. |
| 🧀 Unpasteurized dairy or juice | Raw milk, unpasteurized cheeses, and unpasteurized juice carry a listeria and bacteria risk. |
| 🥩 Raw or undercooked foods | Raw or undercooked egg, meat, fish, and shellfish. Babies are more vulnerable to foodborne illness, so cook everything through. |
| 🧃 Juice | No need before 12 months, and it displaces milk and adds sugar. Offer water from a cup with meals instead. |
| 🍚 Rice drinks | Skip rice drinks as a milk substitute for young children (arsenic). |
| 🐟 High-mercury fish | Shark, swordfish, king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, bigeye tuna, and Gulf tilefish. Low-mercury fish like salmon and cod are great. |
⚠️ Choking hazards are a separate list. Whole nuts, popcorn, whole grapes, hard raw fruit and veg, chunks of meat or cheese, and sticky globs of nut butter are risky by shape and texture, not by the food itself. Many are fine once cut or cooked safely. See the how to cut food safely sheet.
General information, not medical advice. Always talk to your pediatrician about your baby’s diet and any concerns. In an emergency, contact emergency services.
Sources: CDC (cdc.gov): Foods and Drinks to Avoid or Limit, Safer Food Choices for Children Under 5, Preventing Botulism; American Academy of Pediatrics (healthychildren.org): Starting Solid Foods, Fruit Juice, How to Reduce Added Sugar; FDA/EPA (fda.gov): Advice about Eating Fish; NHS (nhs.uk): Foods to avoid giving babies, Drinks and cups for babies.