These days I have been going around the recommendations about delayed introduction of nuts in children's diet. And is that my oldest daughter, three years, we have ever offered some kind of dried fruit, and she likes them a lot. So you should know why they are not recommended foods for young children.
The introduction of a dried fruit always has to be in small quantity and followed by observation, since these foods constitute one of the greatest risks of allergy. The Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition (AESAN) recommends that they not be offered until the child's three years to avoid possible allergic reactions.
Once verified that my daughter did not present any type of rejection, why not enjoy the nutritional properties of nuts.
Well, the next reason is the choking hazard. As we read on the page of the Spanish Association of Pediatrics,
Nuts, not ground, should not be given before six to seven years, as there is a risk of choking that can be serious.
The Spanish Association of Primary Care Pediatrics (AEPap) also states in its section "Prevention of accidents at home for homes with babies up to 12 months" that you should avoid giving young children hard foods, such as nuts. And, in another section of accident prevention the statement is blunt:
It is absolutely forbidden to give children under 5 or 6 years of age nuts, because if you choke on them, it can either suffocate or cause a lung injury due to the oil that these products distil. In any case, you would need urgent treatment, first for you and then in the ER. If you have nuts in your home, make sure they are not within your child's reach.
I was surprised to see the data of hospitalization for choking due to nuts, in case of serious injuries and deaths from such choking.
The data is offered to us by an expert doctor in Pediatrics and who has attended such cases in hospitals. In the previous article, he also explains what is the risk of nuts For young children. The key is that children's teeth do not yet have the capacity to properly crush these products:
Therefore, sometimes they are aspirated by the lung from the mouth to the airways instead of going to the digestive tract, which is what drives food to the stomach. Consequently, the dried fruit or one of its parts goes to the lung, sometimes producing immediate asphyxiation and other obstruction and infection of one or several areas of the lung.
So you know, for young children it is better to delay the introduction of these foods in their diet.
To enjoy their nutritional properties in a safe way, when the time comes, so that nuts do not constitute a dangerWe can offer you few and one to one quantities to control a possible allergic reaction. In addition, they must be ground so as not to cause choking.
