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Page 3 of 4 A Juice Warning The nutritional value of fruit juices is mostly overrated. According to the Food and Nutrition Service of the USDA, apple, pear, cherry, peach and prune juice contain a lot of sorbitol, a type of carbohydrate sometimes called "sugar alcohol" that is hard to digest and can cause babies to experience diarrhea, abdominal pain and bloating. Citrus fruits are high on the list of allergy-causing foods, so orange juice or juices containing ascorbic acid made from citrus products as a way of bumping up your baby's vitamin C intake may cause your baby to have allergic reactions such as rashes. Juices are acidic and if you give them to your baby in a bottle at naptime or bedtime the acid from the juices may pool in your sleeping baby's mouth, causing "baby bottle mouth" - a form of tooth decay that causes the front teeth to rot from the inside and then to crumble and break off. In addition, fruit juices aren't nearly as nutritionally complete as breastmilk and formula. If your baby has a lot of juices in his diet he will naturally cut back on drinking the breastmilk and formula that are so important to his nutrition. So it makes sense to offer your baby juices very sparingly and only toward the latter part of your baby's first year when his body is mature enough to handle them. Finger Foods By the time your baby reaches about eight months of age she will be eager to feed herself with her own hands. The food you let her munch on should be small enough that her small hands can manage it, and soft enough that she can chew on the bits without getting choked. Here are some suggestions: cooked macaroni or noodles, small chunks of ripe fruit such as bananas or cooked apple pieces, soft-cooked carrots, potatoes or other easy-to-chew vegetables, small slices of mild cheese, crackers, teething biscuits, Cheerios. Babies choke on round, coin-sized foods such as hot dog pieces or carrot slices because they form a perfect plug that can stop up their throats when swallowed whole. Round-shaped foods should be cut into thin strips. Whole grapes, cherries, or berries need to be quartered and any seeds removed. Chopped or ground meat is safer than hot dogs or pieces of stewmeat.
Some types of food should be completely avoided because of their history of choking babies. Here is a list: tough meat, peanuts or other nuts and seeds, hard candy, marshmallows, popcorn, hot dogs, Vienna sausage or toddler sticks, potato chips or corn chips, plain wheat germ or whole wheat kernels, fish such as trout with small bones, raisins and other dried fruits if they are uncooked, peanut butter, raw fruits and vegetables if they are hard, whole pieces of canned fruit or fruit that has seeds. How To Handle Choking All babies choke on food at one time or another. That is why it is important to stay right with your baby when he is eating so you can step in to help if something happens. If your baby begins to turn blue and doesn't seem to be able to breathe it is time to apply first aid measures. In fact, just for safety's sake, consider signing up for a baby first aid course with your local Red Cross or emergency squad. If your choking baby can still breathe call 911, but don't slap him on the back or hold him upside down. That may only cause the object to move so it seals off your baby's throat.
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