What not to feed your baby

All parents here get a little handout showing 'good' foods to feed a baby. Unfortunately there are few explanations on there as to the foods chosen. Personally there is no way that I would ever feed a baby mini sausages (being full of MSG and colourings and low quality meat), luncheon sausage (ditto), processed cheese (have you read the ingredients), rice crackers or rice biscuits (MSG and more). The crackers shown on the handout are high in sodium, trans fats and contain flavourings and MSG. The dried apricots shown are beautifully orange/apricot colour - so of course contain sulphur dioxide - not the scraggy brown colour that you get if they are just packed. So is this really a good start to nutrition? Dried apple rings also contain preservative, finger jellies usually are coloured with artificial additives, chicken nuggets are high in trans fats and often contain very low grade meat and ham has sodium nitrite and can have honey extracts as well as milk products and MSG.

I have two books which are full of recipe ideas for under two's. One has lots of short cuts - using packets from the pantry and stock cubes! What is wrong with real food?

It actually makes things a bit dull when it comes to finger foods. There really isn't a lot you can feed a six month old that they can manage. Most of my friends give cookies (like ginger nuts) and flavoured crackers to their babies to gum. Maybe if there was more explanation of the handout about why certain foods should be avoided then parents would be more likely to follow the advice. I give rusks and the crusts off white toast. And an occasional plain cracker if bubs won't stop screaming whilst I prepare her tea. Soon she will be getting plain breadsticks and bits of fresh fruit too. However I make up for it when it comes to her real food. I wonder what effect all those additives have on such little bodies?