When Can Babies Eat Tuna

It is safe for most babies to eat tuna and other types of fish by the time they are six months of age, though there are some concerns which you will want to take into consideration before giving your child any of this fish.

Your 1-year-old can eat canned tuna as long as you limit his intake and choose the tuna lowest in mercury levels. Fish also has high allergenic potential. When you start feeding your child tuna, watch carefully for signs for an allergic reaction and don’t start any other new foods for at least three days.

Tuna has lot of mercury. Mercury is bad for your blood, and can give you something called mercury poisoning. It call be fatal. Also, eating 1kg of any animal every day is definitely an excess of protein. You should only be eating an amount of protien the size of your palm every meal at the most.

How much canned tuna is safe to eat weekly? The United States Food and Drug Administration recommends keeping the consumption of albacore (white) tuna to under 4 ounces per week and skipjack (light) tuna to under 12 ounces per week. These amounts should be lower for children and women who are or may become pregnant.

6 to 24 months old: It is our opinion that it is best to skip tuna and serve other canned fish that are lower in mercury (such as canned salmon , sardines, or North Atlantic mackerel ). 24 months old and older: If your child is older than age 2, and you’d like to introduce tuna, start by purchasing low sodium “canned light” or “skipjack” tuna.

When can my baby eat fish? Fish can be a healthy part of your child’s diet soon after he begins to eat solid food, usually when he’s around 4 to 6 months old. But if your baby has chronic eczema or a food allergy, talk to the doctor first.

But there are some concerns when it comes to tuna, especially for pregnant women and young kids. That’s because the fish is known to contain mercury. If you’re a fan of tuna, then you may be thinking about giving it to your baby after you introduce your little one to solid foods. But you want to be safe, of course.

Also, you don’t have to introduce foods to your child in any special order. If you want to give your baby a taste of tofu at age 6 months, go ahead, even though it’s not listed on our chart until age 8 months. And while cereal is a traditional first food in the United States, it’s fine to start with pureed fruits, vegetables, or meat instead.

Canned tuna fish is easy to serve and a healthy option for your child, but don’t feed him fish every day because it contains mercury, which could pose a health risk to your little one. Fish absorb methylmercury, and your body absorbs it when you eat fish. A serving size for a 1- to 2-year-old is 1 ounce.

Can a 1-Year-Old Eat Canned Tuna Fish? You can offer fish to your baby as early as 6 months of age, reports pediatrician Frank Greer on the BabyCenter website 1 6. Tuna is an excellent choice because it’s packed with nutrients.

Give no more than two child-sized servings per week of canned, light tuna and no more than one serving of albacore tuna. A serving size for a 1-year-old equals 1 ounce of fish. While albacore tuna has a higher mercury content, it also contains more omega-3 fatty acids, which makes it worth eating as long as you keep it within suggested limits.

Limit your 1-year-old’s intake of chunk light tuna to two servings a week and albacore tuna to one serving a week. A serving size for a 1- to 2-year-old is 1 ounce. Albacore is a larger fish, so it has a higher mercury content than the skipjack fish used to make chunk light tuna.

A high intake of mercury can inhibit an unborn infant’s nervous system development and can also be harmful to young children, so pregnant women should avoid eating it or feeding it to babies and toddlers. Fresh tuna, as well as swordfish and other large, fatty fish, is also high in mercury.

However, up to 6 ounces (one average meal) of albacore tuna per week is safe. Check local fish advisories: Locally caught fish should be checked with local health departments. If no advice is available, eat up to 6 ounces (one average meal) per week of fish you catch from local waters, but don’t consume any other fish during that week.

Adults and children over six can eat this type of tuna once a week without issue. If you eat more than the recommended amount, you could get mercury poisoning. High levels of mercury in tuna can have side effects. Symptoms of mercury poisoning include loss of coordination, memory problems, numbness, pain, problems with vision, seizures and tremors.

Mercury can build up in your blood over an extended period of time. If you continuously consume mercury-rich tuna, you might gradually start having problems with your vision or hearing. You may have trouble focusing, see blurry objects or struggle to hear someone conversing with you from a close distance.

Since albacore ("white") tuna has more mercury than light tuna, when choosing your 2 fish or shellfish-based meals, you can safely eat up to 6 ounces of albacore tuna each week (which is a healthy serving of tuna for one average meal). Get more information about mercury in our food.