How can a child care provider best respond to a request from a parent to introduce a potentially inappropriate food to an infants diet?
Food introduction guidelines have changed over the years. It is now believed that introducing foods too early can trigger food allergies or intolerance. An infant’s capacity to digest complex protein foods such as eggs may not be fully developed. Encourage the parent to discuss nutrition and feeding at the next visit to the child’s health care provider, which should occur at 6 months of age. Suggest that the parent consider avoiding introducing the food in question until that visit, and ask the parent for a note from the doctor giving permission to add the food to the infant’s diet. Child care providers can look to several sources for guidance on this topic, beginning with the Healthline at (…) …-…. (CA Only) and the Community Care Licensing regulations. There is no mention of infant feeding in the family child care regulations, but the regulations for infant centers provide some excellent guidelines and are based on the American Academy of Pediatrics recommendations: Birth–12 mo
