Children's dietary taboos

The risk of foreign bodies getting stuck in the throat of children under 3 years old, the metabolic burden of all children long-term intake of large amounts of high-sugar, high-salt and high-additive foods, the intake of allergens/taboo ingredients for children with specific physical constitutions/underlying diseases, and other so-called "taboos" must be specifically judged based on the child's age, constitution, and consumption.

Last week, I was doing dietary guidance at community child care. I met a grandma who was holding half a bag of freshly cut mangoes and trying to stuff them for her 2-year-old grandson. She said, "Online information says that you should eat more mangoes to supplement vitamin A." When I stopped her, I learned that the child ate less than half a piece of mango last month. Her mouth was red for three days and she developed a rash. This is a typical mango allergy. , grandma turned around and said, "Oh, that mango is a taboo, I will never eat it again." You see, this is how many people's misunderstandings about "children's dietary taboos" come from: either they give it to them regardless of their physical constitution, or they just put a certain food on the blacklist after an incident, without even trying it.

There was a fierce argument in the parent group over "Can children drink soy milk?". Two groups of people were arguing: one group said that soy milk contains phytoestrogens, and drinking it will cause precocious puberty. Their children have not touched it until they are 6 years old.； The other group said that their children drank a cup of 200ml freshly ground soy milk every morning and there were no problems during the physical examination. In fact, there is a consensus in the academic community on this matter: soy isoflavones in soybeans are phytoestrogens, and the human body's absorption rate of them is less than two thousandths. Unless you give your baby more than two liters of concentrated soy milk every day, it will not reach the dose that affects the hormone level. As long as the child does not have bloating or allergies, it can be drunk by the child over 1 year old. On the contrary, it can supplement high-quality plant protein.

Speaking of this, I suddenly remembered a 2-year-old baby who was transferred to the emergency department last winter. Her mother fed her a whole pistachio. When the baby was laughing, it sucked it in and got stuck in the main trachea. When the baby was brought here, his face was purple, and it took him half an hour to save him. The swallowing reflex of babies under 3 years old has not yet developed well. Don’t give them round, slippery, and hard-to-bite things directly. Whole nuts, unpitted winter dates, whole grapes, and jelly, especially jelly, which is soft. If you are not careful when inhaling, the whole thing will slide into the trachea, and it is not easy to pinch out. I have seen too many children stuck in jelly in the clinic. If you really want to eat it, grind the nuts into powder, cut the grapes into quarters and remove the stones. Just don't buy the jelly at all, so as to save the child from worrying about it.

Many parents ask me if children must not eat snacks. Are all snacks a scourge? A mother complained to me before, saying that her 4-year-old child had never eaten candy. The last time she attended a child's birthday party, she snatched three pieces of cake from others and stuffed it into her mouth. She choked and coughed. Do you think this child is weird? Not allowing children to touch them at all will easily lead to excessive curiosity about this type of food. Nowadays, academic circles do not advocate that children should be allowed to eat snacks completely. Instead, they should "pick and eat": the first three ingredients in the ingredient list are natural ingredients (such as wheat, milk, and fruits), and sugar, salt, and additives are listed at the back. It is perfectly fine to eat them occasionally. My own child is 3 and a half years old, and we have a "happy snack time" once a week. I give him a small lollipop or cookie, which not only satisfies his curiosity, but also won't affect his meals if he eats too much.

In fact, if it really counts as an "absolute taboo", it is basically targeted at specific groups of people: for example, children with phenylketonuria cannot metabolize the phenylalanine in ordinary milk powder, rice, and meat. They must not touch it and must eat special low-phenylalanine foods.； There are also children who are lactose intolerant. If they are forced to drink regular milk, they will only have diarrhea. However, if they switch to lactose-free milk or yogurt, there will be no problem. ； Children with allergies should remember their allergens. For example, if they are allergic to peanuts, don't touch peanut products. You can eat other foods as long as you are not allergic. Don't listen to others who say "seafood is a hairy thing and children can't eat it" and refuse to give it a bite. Last time, a mother brought her baby for a check-up. The baby had never eaten seafood when he was 5 years old. The allergens showed that he was not allergic at all. He went home that day and cooked shrimp. The baby ate three in a row and said, "Mom, this is too delicious." You think it is a loss or not.

In fact, you don’t need to be so nervous when raising a baby. There are so many black and white “taboos”. Didn’t the spicy strips, popsicles, and crispy noodles you bought secretly when you were a child have grown up so healthy? As long as you don’t fall into the pitfalls of throat congestion, allergies, and eating high sugar and salt every day, it’s really not a big deal to give your baby some “junk food” in your eyes once in a while. Don’t be frightened by the messy lists on the Internet and you won’t even know how to cook, right?