Can babies have raisins and dried fruit?

The verdict

It depends where you are, and this is one of the widest splits on the site.

The UK permits dried fruit with preparation. The NHS says do not give whole raisins or dried fruits to babies under the age of 1, and always cut them into small pieces. Elsewhere it treats dried fruit as an ordinary part of the fruit and vegetable group, saying it is good to introduce lots of different types from around 6 months, whether fresh, frozen, canned or dried.

Canada does not. HealthLink BC says that until children are at least 4 years old, do not offer foods that are round, hard, sticky and difficult to swallow, and names dried fruit like raisins in that list. The Canadian Paediatric Society is equally direct: do not feed your baby whole nuts, raisins, popcorn, gummy candies, hard candy, or fish with bones.

New Zealand's Ministry of Health places dried fruit on its list of high-risk foods to exclude altogether at early learning services for children aged 1 to 6, in the group it defines as having the highest choking risk while being either impractical to alter or of minimal nutritional value.

The AAP does not name raisins specifically, but its general threshold is to keep high-risk foods from children until 4 years of age or older.

Why a raisin behaves badly

A raisin is small, dense, sticky and tough. Those four properties together are what puts it on choking lists.

It is small enough to be swallowed without chewing, but it does not break down in the mouth the way a soft fruit does. It is sticky, which means it can adhere to the wall of an airway rather than being cleared by a cough. And unlike a grape, which is at least visibly round and obviously needs cutting, a raisin looks like an already-small food, which is why it so often goes into a pot of finger foods whole.

Dried apricots, dates, dried mango, banana chips and dried cranberries all share the same profile, and some are worse: date pieces are stickier, banana chips are hard and brittle.

How to serve dried fruit, if you serve it

If you are following UK guidance, the instruction is to cut, not to halve. The NHS says always cut raisins and dried fruits into small pieces for babies under 1.

Chopping a raisin into two or three pieces removes the intact sticky bead. Snipping with kitchen scissors is easier than a knife for something that small. Soaking dried fruit in warm water until it plumps and softens is the other standard approach; it swells the fruit and reduces the stickiness that makes it cling.

Dried fruit cooked into food is a different proposition again. Stewed into apple, blended into porridge or baked into a plain muffin, dried fruit is no longer a discrete sticky object, and that removes the choking concern entirely while keeping the sweetness.

The sugar and tooth-decay problem

This runs alongside the choking issue and applies in every country, including the ones that permit dried fruit.

The NHS is specific about the timing rather than only the amount: dried fruit, such as raisins, should be given to your toddler with meals, rather than as a snack in between, as the sugar they contain can cause tooth decay. It repeats the point under sugar, saying the sugar in raisins and other dried fruits can also cause tooth decay and it is best to give these with meals rather than as a snack in between.

The mechanism is that drying concentrates the sugars and the fruit becomes sticky, so it sits against the tooth surface for far longer than a piece of fresh fruit would. Frequency of exposure matters more than total quantity for decay, which is why the advice is about when rather than how much.

Ireland's HSE takes the same general line on sugar, telling parents to avoid sugary snacks and drinks because sugar can encourage a sweet tooth and lead to tooth decay when a baby's first teeth come through. The NHS adds that babies under 12 months do not need snacks at all, and that extra milk feeds are the answer if a baby seems hungry between meals.

Fresh fruit does the same job better

Almost everything dried fruit offers a baby, fresh or cooked fruit offers without the choking profile or the concentrated sugar.

The NHS lists apples, bananas, blueberries, kiwi, mango, melon, nectarines, oranges, papaya, peach, pears, pineapple, plums, raspberries and strawberries as suitable from around 6 months, mashed or blended for younger babies and given as finger foods once a baby is ready, with harder fruits cooked to soften them and pips, stones and hard skin removed.

If the appeal of raisins is portability, soft fresh fruit cut to size travels nearly as well in a pot, and stewed fruit in a small container works for a car journey. Bear in mind HealthLink BC's separate rule that children should not be given anything to eat or drink while sitting in a moving car, bus or stroller.

Sulphites, which is a smaller point

The NHS lists sulphur dioxide, sometimes found in dried fruits and fruit juices, among the substances that can trigger an allergic reaction. Reactions to sulphites are much less common than reactions to milk or egg, and the NHS notes that reactions to ordinary foods are far more common than reactions to additives.

Unsulphured dried fruit is widely available and is usually darker in colour. If your baby has asthma or has reacted to a dried fruit before, that is worth raising with a GP or health visitor rather than experimenting.

Where guidance differs

The gap here is unusually wide and worth being clear about.

The UK permits dried fruit from around 6 months provided it is never given whole to a baby under 1 and is always cut into small pieces, and asks for it to be served with meals rather than as a between-meals snack.

Canada says not before at least 4 years, treating raisins in the same bracket as popcorn and whole nuts.

New Zealand excludes dried fruit from early learning services for ages 1 to 6 and offers no preparation method that makes it acceptable there.

If you want a single rule that offends nobody: cook dried fruit into food rather than serving it as pieces, and use fresh or stewed fruit when you want something a baby can pick up.