When you think about holiday family gatherings, what’s the first thing that comes to mind?
Connecting with relatives?
Polarized political conversations?
All the food to feast on?
Regardless of whether your family dynamics are healthy or dysfunctional, holiday gatherings are often centred around the food!
Traditional holiday feasts are what core memories are made of and you may be excited to start passing these moments down to your little one. But before you jump all in and feed your baby the whole meal deal, read on to discover what is safe and nutritionally sound for your baby, and what we’d recommend you skip until they’re a little older.
Roast Turkey
Starting off with some positive news!
Yes – your baby can enjoy some turkey. Choose a piece of dark meat as it has twice as much iron as the white meat. Additionally, it tends to be softer.
For a six month old, you can offer a finger size piece, provided that it squishes easily between your thumb and forefinger. Alternatively, you could chop it up finely and combine it with some mashed potatoes (spoiler alert!). For a baby who’s working on their pincer grasp, you can offer small, soft, pea-sized pieces.
This goes for all ages, but it’s particularly important for babies with developing immune systems. For food safety, you’ll want to ensure that the internal temperature of the turkey at the thickest part of the thigh and breast reaches a minimum of 165°F. This temperature is sufficient to destroy food-illness causing bacteria. However, Canadian guidelines are more conservative to allow for a larger margin of safety – in Canada we recommend a minimum of 180°F.
Ham
Unfortunately, by nature of how most hams are cured or cooked, they are incredibly high in sodium. Babies don’t need all that salt so we’d recommend that you avoid serving it to your baby.
You may be interested in: Is Salt Bad for Babies?
Stuffing
We’d recommend skipping the stuffing until your baby is twelve months old as it’s high in sodium. At this age, you’d want to watch out for some tricky ingredients that are in some stuffing recipes such as dried cranberries and nuts. These could pose as choking hazards for beginner eaters.
Gravy
As gravy is also high in sodium, we’d suggest skipping it too. If you need a liquid to moisten some food, you could use a bit of milk instead.
Cranberry Sauce
Cranberry sauce has added sugar. Since added sugar can easily take the place of key nutrients babies need to grow and thrive, it’s recommended to avoid foods containing it until your child is two years old. Instead, maybe serve your baby some apple sauce you might have kicking around!
You may be interested in: Babies, Sweets, and Sugar – the complete 411
Mashed Potatoes
While the potatoes will likely have a little bit of salt added, it’s usually fairly minimal. As such, we’d welcome your baby to enjoy some mashed potatoes!
For whatever reason, sweet potatoes have become the poster child for baby food, but regular old white potatoes are nutritious too! They contain Vitamin C, fibre, & potassium, among other nutrients. Not only that – mashed potatoes are the perfect texture for a baby. If your mashed potatoes are more rustic (aka the skins are left on), you’ll want to choose a dollop without any skins, as those would be a difficult texture for your baby to consume.
Sweet potato casserole
There are a lot of different versions of sweet potato casserole, many of which include added sugars and good ol’ marshmallows. While the texture is mostly safe for a baby, they don’t need all that added sugar.
Instead, consider setting aside some plain cooked mashed potato or cooked finger size shapes for your little eater. You can season it with cinnamon which is festive this time of the year, plus, it’s a bit of a sweet spice!
Green bean casserole
This green dish often makes it to the table for holiday dinners. Most recipes call for the green beans to be baked in canned mushroom soup. Again, we hate to be downers but most canned soups are very very high in sodium. The verdict? Not ideal for a baby.
As an alternative, set aside some green beans and steam them until tender. You can offer them as finger foods BLW style for your baby or mash them up with the back of a fork!
Pumpkin Pie
Honestly, look no further. We wanted a reason to include our own babies in the pumpkin spice life so we created a pumpkin pudding recipe so that the adults can enjoy the real deal pumpkin pie…because sorry, the added sugar is no bueno for babies.
Suggested reading: Baby’s First Pumpkin Pie
Pecan Pie
We hate to end on a sour note but.. the pecans pose as a choking hazard for your baby and the added sugar is something we’d recommend skipping. Try our pumpkin pudding recipe or even the banana baby custard instead to give your baby a dessert!
Food - it unites us all!
Did we miss anything? Let us know.
Truthfully, we know that the holidays are such a special time for gathering and maybe even “firsts” if you’ve got a baby.
You want the experience to be memorable and fun, like it probably has been for years. There’s something special about food–it unites us all over the best of times.
We hope you feel inspired to adapt your favourite family recipes to include your little eater but also serve food that is both safe and developmentally appropriate for a baby!
Do you have fears or worries about feeding your baby?
We know that starting your baby on solids can feel overwhelming and you may have worries such as…
- I’m afraid my baby will choke!
- I’m afraid my baby won’t be getting enough of the right nutrients!
- I’m afraid my baby will have an allergic reaction!
- I’m afraid my baby is not eating enough… too much!
- I’m afraid my baby will be a picky eater!
We’ve created a FREE guide for you to address these fears and most of all, help you work through them! Just enter your email below and you’ll get the guide sent to your inbox.
