It is not possible to completely avoid heavy metals lurking in your baby’s food and snacks. But here are a few steps you can take to lower your baby’s risk of ingesting too many metals in their diet.
– Serve them a wide variety of food that is rich in nutrients. Feeding them with a wide variety of nutrients help limit the risk of long-term exposure to heavy metals. You can start with pureed vegetables and fruits.
– Limit the rice cereals and snacks made with rice flour. Rice absorbs 10 times more arsenic than other grains. Go for whole grains instead, like barley and oats.
– Instead of processed snacks, give your child whole foods as much as possible. Snacks that are low in heavy metals include apples, unsweetened applesauce, avocados, bananas, barley with vegetables, cheese, grapes, beans, hard-boiled eggs, peaches, strawberries and yoghurt.
– Choose to breastfeed over formula milk if possible.
– Get your home’s water tested for lead, if you use it for preparing the formula or cereals. Metals can get in tap water, especially if it comes through older pipes. You can use bottled water to make your baby’s food.
– Avoid giving them fruit juice. No juice at all for infants and no more than 4 ounces per day for 1-3 years old, recommends the American Academy of Pediatrics.
– Limit their carrot and sweet potato intake. These two usually have heavier metals than other ground vegetables. This is because they are grown in the ground.
