Katie Ferraro (0s):

Sardines. Yeah, I know. Everyone's like, oh, gross. But they're an amazing baby food. They're packed with nutrition. Easy way to introduce your baby to the potentially allergenic food fish. Great taste texture opportunities for your baby. Like sardines are a win-win. Here's how you do them safely for babies. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered Dietitian, college nutrition professor, and mama of seven specializing in baby led weaning. Here on the Baby Led Weaning Made Easy podcast I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leaving you with the competence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (42s):

Hey guys, welcome talking today about sardines. Now, if you clicked into this episode, I know many of you are probably skeptical about sardines and you're like, let me see what she has to say about sardines. I promise you if you are not a huge fan of sardines yet, by the end of this very brief episode, you're going to be, and I know when people hear sardines, they kind of scrunch their nose up and they're like, Ugh, gross. But that's because we as adults have become conditioned, maybe not to like sardines. Now, some of you may like sardines already, but if I had to bet, I would guess it's not a food that you regularly eat, but sardines are a wonderful food for babies. And in this episode, I'm going to walk you through some tips on how to safely offer sardines to your baby.

Katie Ferraro (1m 23s):

Fish is one of the big eight allergenic foods. Those are the eight foods that account for about 90% of food allergy. And so not only are sardines packed with nutrition, but they're also a really easy way for you to knock out one of the allergenic foods, which is fish and get that off the list too, and hang tight because I'm also going to be sharing a few recipes with you using fish and seafood that I think you're going to like, well, if you're not a fish person, you might not love them, but your baby is definitely going to love them. I have 15 different ways for you to feed your baby fish. So stay tuned for that. So let's go ahead and dive right in. Here's the lowdown on sardines and how to offer sardines safely for your baby. Now, before we get started, I have to tell you guys a quick story about sardines and babies. When my quadruplets were starting solid foods, I was just learning about baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (2m 3s):

I had struggled a ton with spoonfeeding, my oldest child, their older sister. And so this whole BLW thing was new to us. I wasn't really sure what I was doing. And I've shared in the past how my mom was not entirely supportive of me doing baby led weaning with my quadruplets. Like they were premature. We've gone through a lot to get them and get them here safely and keep them alive for six months. I remember her saying she's also a dietician like me. And so she had six kids and she used to her thing was always like, I fed you guys with the spoon. I spoonfed all six of my kids. They're totally fine. I don't get what the big deal about baby led weaning with. So my mom is kind of scoffing at the idea of baby led weaning, as I'm trying to teach the quadruplets how to eat real food. And it was like a very painful first few weeks as any of you who started baby led weaning. No, it's really slow, but eventually they did start to get the hang.

Katie Ferraro (2m 43s):

And I remember my mom was over one day in the closet, eating dinner and there was beats and sardines on the plate. I remember that vividly. I can't remember what the third thing was, but it's probably like some starchy food I'm sure. And so later that night I caught her on the phone, like in a different room and she was talking to another one of her dietitian friends and she was bragging about her grandkids and all the foods they were learning to eat. She was like, oh my God, Ellen, you wouldn't believe it. Claire's eating beets. And Dylan's over there eating sardines right off the plate. And they're acting like it's totally normal. So just a gentle reminder that even the biggest baby led weaning doubters will eventually come around. That might be your mom right now, or your mother-in-law or your partner. But seeing really is believing when it comes to babies, learning how to sell feed.

Katie Ferraro (3m 23s):

So you keep up the good work. Everyone is going to be bragging about your baby eating sardines shortly as well. So let's get on to the sardine stuff. Starting first with what are sardines. Sardines are technically a variety of fish and it means that they're tiny, soft bone fish. So unless you're like an avid fishermen, you're probably not out catching your own sardines. They're actually overfished in some areas, we generally get sardines in canned form. Now our sardines safe for babies will, yes, they're very safe. It is safe to eat the skin. It is safe to eat the bones. There's actually a lot of extra nutrition in there. We're going to talk about in a second, but from a mercury standpoint, if you think about sardines, because they're a very small fish, they're lower on the food chain. So the risk for mercury with sardines is very low.

Katie Ferraro (4m 4s):

Sardines are actually listed as a best choice fish on the joint, FDA, EPA guidance and advice about eating fish for pregnant women or women who are about to become pregnant or small children. So you don't have to worry about sardine safety. Now, why would you want to feed a baby sardines? You might be asking, I've got a few reasons for you going to start with nutrition. Sardines are a type of fatty fish that contain omega three fatty acids, and omega-3 fatty acids are important because your baby needs them for growth and development. And they're essential, which means there's something that the body does not make. We have to get them from our diet, but there are not a lot of foods that are good sources of omega threes naturally, but fatty fish are, and sardines are a type of fatty fish sardines also contain iron a three ounce portion of sardine.

Katie Ferraro (4m 46s):

So for most brands, that's the size of like one tin or one can of sardines has almost two milligrams of iron. And to put that in context for you, that's almost the same amount of iron in the can of sardines, as you would get in a similar sized cooked ground beef portion. So you guys know, you sometimes hear like meat, fish and poultry are great sources of iron, not all fish and seafood has a lot of iron that's actually misnomer, but sardines are one of the ones that do sardines also have potassium and calcium. You actually can eat the really soft bones in sardines, which you probably, maybe also think sounds gross, but it's actually just another organisms, calcium deposits. So it's a food that contains calcium. And I would say one of the most overlooked nutritional advantages of sardines is that they're super high in vitamin D. Now vitamin D, as you may know, helps your body's bones absorb calcium, and you can have all the calcium in the world, but if you don't get enough vitamin D to help the bones absorb it, it doesn't matter.

Katie Ferraro (5m 32s):

So outside of fortify, dairy foods, there's like almost no foods that are naturally high in vitamin D except certain fish like sardines. Then another random source of vitamin D as an aside are mushrooms. If they're grown under a particular type of UV light, I'm going to do a whole separate episode about feeding mushrooms to baby safely, because they're an awesome food, but let's just suffice it to say that sardines are a nutrition powerhouse. So another reason why you might want to feed your baby sardines is because it's an easy way to introduce your baby to the potentially food fish. Sardines are type of fish. Fish is one of the big eight allergenic foods. Canned fish are a great way to introduce your baby to fish protein, which we want to do early and often, I actually covered the safe introduction of fish for allergy introduction in a whole separate podcast episode.

Katie Ferraro (6m 12s):

That was episode number 31. So if you have more questions about fish, go to the episode called fish, how to safely offer your baby fish. That's online at blwpodcast.com/31 for episode 31. So we've got nutrition as a reason. We've got the allergen introduction as a reason. What about taste and texture? Another benefit of feeding baby fish is for this taste and texture experience, right? We know that babies who are exposed to the greatest variety of foods and flavors and tastes and textures early and often, they're more likely to be independent eaters and less likely to be picky eaters. And so babies have what I like to call the honeymoon feeding phase. It's this period from it extends from six, until some babies. It's 15. Some of the resources save and up to 18 months of age where babies will like and accept all types of foods.

Katie Ferraro (6m 53s):

And I was testing some sardine stuff in my kitchen for baby led weaning the other day. And my seven year old walked in and said, Ooh, gross sardines. And I had to remind her that that's a conditioned response. Like all the other kids at our house, they ate sardines growing up from because we did baby led weaning with them with my other six kids. And they all to this day, love sardines. I'm not saying she doesn't like them because I spoon fed her, but she's just as an older child one now he's like, I don't know. I don't really like the sardines now. How do you buy sardines? You personally might not spend a ton of time in the canned fish aisle at your grocery store, but it is a fascinating place. You should spend more time there, especially if you're at a bigger grocery store with a wider selection, you can find sardines that have no added salt. But the reality is most of us have an aisle at the grocery store, which if it has canned fish, it's like 95% tuna.

Katie Ferraro (7m 34s):

And there might be like one thing, a clamps, one thing of sardines, one thing I anchovies, you don't have a ton of choice. Sardines are one of the few baby led weaning foods that I'll buy online. I like the brand wild planet. This is not sponsored or endorsed by them. They just have really good, low sodium can see food options. So wild planet has wild sardines with no added salt. And they also make a sardines that are skinless and bonus. I'm going to talk about the difference. So the wild planet, no added salt, wild sardines, I'll link to them in the show notes for this episode, if you want to buy some BLW podcast.com forward slash 85, even though they're no added salt, they still have 70 milligrams of sodium per serving. Now serving as a whole key on a baby's knocking needle, can somebody, these will like your older baby will eat three ounces of sardines, no problem, but keep in mind that all seafood is high or in all minerals and sodium is a mineral.

Katie Ferraro (8m 18s):

So people will be like what? There's no added salt, but there's still 70 milligrams of sodium. My general rule of thumb is when I'm buying a packaged food for a baby. I look for those that have less than a hundred milligrams of sodium, but sardines. There's no added salt in there. And there's still 70 milligrams of sodium that's from the actual fish itself. It's not added. So read the ingredient list, try to buy the lowest sodium possible version that you can. While plan, as I mentioned, also makes the sardines that are skinless boneless and served in oil. I like these because yeah, you can eat the skin and the bones for sardines, which is great. You have to play it by ear, depending upon what brand you have. But most of them they're really soft and totally safe for babies. If you do the wild planet, skinless boneless ones, there's a smidge more sodium. They have 200 milligrams compared to, but these are packed in oil. And I like that because babies need fat to help.

Katie Ferraro (8m 59s):

They're still developing brains, but also adding additional fat makes meats easier to swallow and less of a choking risk. So if you're starting for whatever reason, look dry and they should not, because sardines are a fatty fish to begin with and you can add additional oil or just buy them already packed in oil. Again, looking for the lowest sodium brand. You can find I like wild planet, but there's more out there. You can get started and you can also buy them smoked. They taste really awesome if you like the taste of smoked food, but usually there's a lot more salt in them. You can also get them in tomato sauce. There are some brands that have tomato sauce, but most of them would have more salt and more sugar. So you make the call, read your labels, try to keep sodium low, no added sugar, and then adding tomato sauce or adding oil is sometimes like a flavor thing or smoking them. How exactly do we serve sardines to babies?

Katie Ferraro (9m 40s):

Okay. It's kind of a, no-brainer at you. Open up the, can you take a few pieces of sardines? And you put the strips in which they come in strips. You put them in the baby's bowl or in the baby's mat here, baby scoops for picks them up and feeds it to themselves. And they love sardines. You can also smash and serve sardines on toast or low-sodium crackers as a way to moisten these dry bread products up. Just keep in mind that any dry bread product or any dry protein food, to be honest, any dry food for that matter can be a choking hazard. So a high fat fish, especially if it's packed in olive oil, like sardines is great for baby led weaning. All right, so there you have it. A few tips about safely feeding your baby sardines. I'm going to link up the brands I was talking about on the show notes for this episode at blwpodcast.com forward slash 85, order yourself some sardines.

Katie Ferraro (10m 22s):

You might rekindle your love for sardines yourself, but your baby is definitely going to love them. And once you try the sardines, if you're looking for additional ways and creative ways to feed your baby fish, I have a free download for you called 15 ways to feed your baby fish. It has 15 different baby led weaning recipes. Sardines are in there too. It's free, and I'm going to link it up for you. On the show notes, you can grab 15 ways to feed your baby fish at blwpodcast.com/85. Be sure to tag me in all of your videos on Instagram of your babies, eating sardines at baby led weaning team and happy feeding. See you next time!