Foods to Avoid Under One

How to use this list

Most avoid-lists are alphabetical, which makes them impossible to remember. Grouped by reason they collapse into six ideas, and once you hold the six reasons you can work out a novel food yourself.

Several of these items have their own dedicated safety answers on this site, where the evidence, the exact ages and the edge cases are set out properly: honey, cows' milk, salt in baby food, sugar in baby food, whole nuts and choking, fruit juice, rice and arsenic, and water under six months. This page is the working checklist that sits above them.

Reason one: botulism

Honey, until twelve months. The NHS explains that honey occasionally contains bacteria that can produce toxins in a baby's intestines, leading to infant botulism, which it calls a very serious illness. The CDC's instruction is broader than most people realise: do not add honey to your baby's food, water, infant formula, or dummy. Honey is also a sugar, so avoiding it helps teeth too.

Reason two: choking

Whole nuts and peanuts, until five years. Nuts are still encouraged from the start of weaning, but crushed, ground, flaked, or as a nut butter spread onto something. Nut butter should not be given on its own, because the texture itself is a choking risk.

Hard, round, sticky or gooey foods. NHS Best Start in Life names popcorn, jelly cubes, marshmallows, boiled sweets and any hard, gooey or sticky sweets including cough sweets, chewing gum, and ice cubes. The CDC keeps a separate list of choking hazards for the same reason.

Shape is a factor in ordinary foods too, which is why grapes and similar round foods are cut lengthways and why the NHS asks you to think about size, shape and texture when preparing food. Supervision is not optional: stay with your baby while they are eating.

Reason three: bacteria in food

Mould-ripened and blue-veined soft cheeses. Brie, camembert, ripened goats' milk cheese such as chèvre and soft blue cheese such as roquefort carry a higher risk of listeria. Cooking kills listeria, so baked brie in a recipe is a safer option than the same cheese cold.

Unpasteurised milk and cheese. Check labels. The CDC extends the same rule to unpasteurised juice, yogurt and cheeses.

Raw and lightly cooked shellfish. Babies and children should only eat shellfish that has been thoroughly cooked.

Fresh pâté, of any kind including vegetable, because of food poisoning risk.

Raw eggs without the mark. Hens' eggs stamped with the British Lion mark, or produced under the Laid in Britain scheme, are fine raw or lightly cooked. Eggs without that mark, and duck, goose or quail eggs, should be cooked until both white and yolk are solid.

Reason four: heavy metals and contaminants

Shark, swordfish and marlin contain high levels of mercury, which can affect a baby's developing nervous system. The CDC's list of high-mercury fish also includes king mackerel, orange roughy, tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico and bigeye tuna. Lower-mercury fish are actively encouraged.

Rice drinks, until five years. Not as a substitute for breast milk, infant formula or, after one, cows' milk, because of arsenic levels. The NHS is careful to add that this does not mean rice itself is off the menu, and that there is no immediate risk to a child who has already had rice drinks.

Reason five: kidneys, and salt

Do not add salt to your baby's food or cooking water, and do not use stock cubes or gravy, which are often high in salt. Salty foods to avoid include bacon, sausages, chorizo, salted chips, crackers, crisps, ready meals and takeaways. The CDC's parallel list adds processed meats such as lunch meats, hot dogs and ham, and some frozen meals and toddler snack products.

This is the rule that most often bites when you are sharing family food, so season the adults' portion after the baby's has come out.

Reason six: teeth, and sugar

Babies do not need sugar. Beyond added sugar in food, three drink categories matter.

Fruit juice and smoothies are best avoided before twelve months. If you do offer them, dilute one part juice to ten parts water and serve with a meal in an open cup or free-flow beaker.

Squash, fizzy drinks and flavoured milk are high in sugar even diluted, and diet or reduced-sugar versions are not recommended for babies and toddlers either.

Anything sweet in a bottle. Drinks flow slowly through a teat, so a sugary substance stays in contact with the teeth for far longer. Bottles and trainer cups should hold only breast milk, formula or water, with nothing added.

Milks that are not suitable as a main drink

Cows' milk can be used in cooking or mixed with food from around six months, but is not a main drink until twelve months, because the balance of nutrients does not meet a baby's needs. Follow-on formula, growing-up milks and goodnight milks are, in the NHS's assessment, not suitable under six months and unnecessary after. Goats' and sheep's milk follow the same main-drink rule as cows' milk.

Two newer additions

Slush ice drinks. The NHS advises that children aged seven and under should not have them, because of glycerol levels; too much glycerol can cause headache, nausea, dizziness or low blood sugar.

High-fibre foods as the default. Not a safety rule but a nutritional one. Foods very high in fibre fill small stomachs before the calories arrive, so the NHS advises not giving only wholegrain starchy foods before age two.

When to get advice

Ring 999 if a baby is choking silently, cannot breathe, or turns blue, grey or pale. Seek urgent help for signs of an allergic reaction such as swelling of the lips, mouth or tongue, wheeze or difficulty breathing. See a GP if your baby has ongoing vomiting or diarrhoea after eating, blood in their stools, or a rash that keeps recurring after particular foods.