Cheerios is a common snack for young ones, but is it safe for babies to eat them? When can babies eat honey nut Cheerios? A nurse weighs in.
Original Cheerios is commonly offered as a snack for little ones. Made with whole grain oats, it’s a balanced nutrition alternative, but before giving snacks to your baby, here are a few things to know. We will also look at the answer to when can babies eat honey nut Cheerios.
The American Academy of Pediatrics, along with the majority of pediatricians, believes that you should wait until your baby is 6 months of age before offering any kind of solid foods. Babies get all the nutrition they need from breast milk or infant formula for the first six months. Their immune system and digestive system also continues to develop even after they are born. We don’t want to offer new foods too early as it can lead to allergies and leaky gut syndrome.
When young babies develop the pincer grasp, they have enough fine motor skills to begin to pick up snacks. The pincer grasp is when a baby uses their index finger and thumb to pick up first foods. Always check with your healthcare provider before starting your baby on solid foods for the first time. It’s also best to start them on soft, easy to digest foods like mushed avocadoes or infant cereals. Other common baby foods are rice cereal, cottage cheese, plain yogurt, jarred baby food, baby cereals, and other soft foods. Try one food at a time so you can watch for an allergic reaction before introducing something new.
What is a choking hazard to my baby?
As an RN, I teach Infant and Child Safety classes. Many parents are unaware of some of the most common foods that children choke on. Remember, a baby’s windpipe is small. Here are the most common foods that put babies and toddlers at the risk of choking:
- Peels of fruit
- Grapes
- Grape Tomatoes
- Hot Dogs
- Potato Chips
- Nuts/ Tree nuts
- Popcorn
- Thick, sticky food like peanut butter
- Raw vegetables
- Chunks of cheese
- Seeds
When offering finger foods, always stay close to your baby. Test the ease of your baby’s ability to chew it by smushing it between your two fingers. Babies don’t use teeth to chew, only their gums. If you can smush the food easily with your fingers, they can too, and this will decrease their choking risk.
What can my baby eat at six months?
Once cleared by your doctor, continue to give breast milk or formula to your baby PLUS
- Iron-fortified cereals like oats, rice, barley, wheat, or mixed cereals (go organic if you can! Grains are one of the top pesticide-sprayed foods)
- Ripe, well-smashed avocados
- Baby food (Mom tip: start with unsweet foods. If you start with sweet, it can be tough to get them to eat other things.)
- Soft pieces of fruit mashed or cut into strips (like bananas)
- Bite-sized, soft-cooked vegetables like peas, carrots, and sweet potatoes
- Protein like cooked eggs, pureed or finely ground meats, fish, and poultry
When Can Babies Eat Honey Nut Cheerios?
Young children, under one year of age, should never eat honey or honey-containing products. This means no Honey Nut Cheerios for the first 12 months of your baby’s life.
Honey can contain botulism spores with a type of bacteria called clostridium (clostridium botulinum spores). This is also the cause of food poisoning. This can be detrimental to babies as their digestive system continues to develop beyond birth and into the first year of life. Babies are born with gaps in their intestinal system. These gaps fill as they continue to grow, but offering raw honey or snacks with honey can be detrimental or fatal to babies because their risk of botulism is higher.
According to Live Strong, “If you already fed Honey Nut Cheerios to your infant, don’t panic; honey causes fewer than 20 cases of infant botulism every year, reports the Salt Lake Valley Health Department.” Do watch for signs of botulism though. This will include unusual behaviors such as lethargy, unresponsiveness, and weak crying. Other signs are droopy eyelids, excess drooling, floppy arms and legs, and constipation. Call your doctor right away if your baby shows these signs. And ALWAYS go with your mom gut. If you feel something isn’t right, call the doctor.
When Can Babies Eat Honey Nut Cheerios?
Keep Honey-Nut Cheerios, Honey Graham Crackers, or anything else with honey out of your baby’s diet until after their one-year birthday.
Always look at the ingredients when buying snacks for your baby. Here are the ingredients for Honey Nut Cheerios:
- Whole Grain Oats
- Sugar
- Corn Starch
- Honey
- Brown Sugar Syrup
- Salt
- Tripotassium Phosphate
- Canola and/or Sunflower Oil
- Natural Almond Flavor
- Vitamin E (mixed tocopherols)
When Can Babies Eat Honey Nut Cheerios?
Honey-FLAVORED snacks are generally safe if they contain no actual honey. Usually, this is just a way for food companies to disguise added sugar in a product.
Your baby is able to eat plain Cheerios when they are picking up food with their little fingers and bringing it to their mouths, along with using the pincer grasp. Usually, this is around 9 months old. Most pediatricians advise you to give plain Cheerios as these come with whole grains and less sugar than other types of Cheerios (like muti grain cheerios).
Honey after one year old is perfectly safe. It even has benefits like soothing a cough, easing a sore throat, and boosting the immune system. It also is good for helping the medicine go down.
You may also like The Best Formula for Supplementing a Breastfed Baby.
