What do Japanese babies eat?

[malika]

I'm the mother of an almost-six-month-old, and I'm thinking a lot about how to raise a daughter with a good palette. Rice cereal (the traditional first food in America) doesn't seem like a good start-- I certainly wouldn't eat it very happily.

So I'm wondering about other countries and other traditions-- What's the traditional first food for babies in Japan?

(I'm also going to post this in the following forums: Italy, Spain, France, India, China, Middle East, and Mexico. Apologies to those who run across this question in other places!)

Edited September 8, 2006 by malika (log)

[helenjp]

okui-zomeis a ceremonial "first meal" carried out at 100 days after birth. Items of food are simply touched to the baby's lips, but usually, as in this picture, a real feast is prepared!

When baby is really ready to eat, magazines and websites like this provide recipes. Typical first foods would be a very thin rice gruel, at first "flavored" with vegetables or natto or tiny fingerling fish, and gradually made thicker with lumps of the ingredients included.

II think rice cereal is unpalatable because it is ground rice, cooked briefly. Rice gruels and congees start from normal rice, cooked in plenty of water until really soft. The flavor is quite different.

While not used as a first food, older babies also eat udon and other noodles cooked very soft with other ingredients.

[Hiroyuki]

There is no such things as "traditional" baby's first foods. My wife still complains how her father gave her food when she was a baby - He put some of his food in his mouth, chewed it, took it out, and put it in my wife's mouth. She believes that this caused her to have tooth cavities and a bad teeth arrangement.

When raising our two kids, we sometimes relied on commercial baby foods (canned and dried) and usually just smashed and watered down our regular foods.

[bruce]

Our daughter Manami started with okayu. Udon was her favorite. Almost from the beginning though, she ate nato, deboned white fish, niiboshi, various light niimono, fruit (banana, strawberry, blueberry, grapes, mikan), and strangely, umeboshi -- both real umeboshi and the umeboshi paste we picked up at costco. For veggies, daikon, nasu, carrots, potato, corn, all the other standard.

From early on the main issue was not what to feed her but rather how soft to make it so she would eat it; certainly anything we cooked to a similar texture/shape as udon, she inhaled! As her teeth came in, harder textures

She loves raw seafood, best of all ikura but also eats uni/hotate,maguro/toro and others. We started her on most of those after her 1st birthday though I recall ikura came a bit before that.

At this point (1y10m), we haven't found any one food she can't or won't eat bar spicey/hot food but she is sometimes a little picky about mixed or rough textures, eg: she loves raisin bread but insists the raisins should be picked and eaten separately from the bread; she carefully peels the skin off grapes; likes nuts and salad but not nuts on salad, etc. That said, her range keeps expanding -- she eats my cornbread and recently decided she likes my homemade falafel (yay!)

[Chihiran]

My very first foods for babies in our family are mashed udon, pumpkin, and tofu, along with grated apples. After that, anything goes. My nephew, who was about 11 months old during our wedding reception, was eating an adult platter! Spinach, potatoes, steak... we did it western style

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

There is no such things as "traditional" baby's first foods.  My wife still complains how her father gave her food when she was a baby - He put some of his food in his mouth, chewed it, took it out, and put it in my wife's mouth.  She believes that this caused her to have tooth cavities and a bad teeth arrangement.

When raising our two kids, we sometimes relied on commercial baby foods (canned and dried) and usually just smashed and watered down our regular foods.

←

Your wife is right about the cavity thing. One of the dentists that we've seen for our kids gave us a phamplet saying that sharing utensils, straws, drinks, foods transfers the bacteria that cause cavities.

[Hiroyuki]

I asked my wife, she replied she started with juice (sold for baby consumption), follwed by rice porridge, squash soup, and so on. Any food will do, provided that it's not protein-rich.

[sk_ward]

I wondered the same thing about babies and Japanese food so I'm glad that this topic was brought up! I was also curious about when Japanese children are typically introduced to green tea. I only asked one person, but she said that she gave it to her kids occasionally while they were still using bottles. Is this customary practice? I was expecting to hear something more along the lines of elementary school! I suppose I thought that the caffeine wasn't something that you would want to give to a baby.

[torakris]

I have merged this thread with a previously existing one, so you might want to start at the top again.

As to the green tea question, remember the baby could have been on a bottle for a couple years, I have seen 3 year olds with bottles....

Many babies start off on non-caffeinated teas such as hoji-cha or mugi-cha before they are even 1.

Though I didn't give them green tea as infants, I honestly can't remember the first time they drank it, my oldest almost devoured my matcha ice cream cone when she was just 7 months old.

[Hiroyuki]

I wondered the same thing about babies and Japanese food so I'm glad that this topic was brought up!  I was also curious about when Japanese children are typically introduced to green tea.  I only asked one person, but she said that she gave it to her kids occasionally while they were still using bottles.    Is this customary practice?  I was expecting to hear something more along the lines of elementary school!  I suppose I thought that the caffeine wasn't something that you would want to give to a baby.

←

As torakris clarified, hojicha and mugicha are teas of choice for babies. (Hojicha (roasted tea) contains less caffeine than regular green tea, while mugicha is caffeine-less.) And, don't forget to dilute it with a lot of water.

[Culinista]

I remember hating mugicha as a kid. I like it now. My mom used to make us coffee-flavored milk with tons of sugar.

I just came back from Japan, and two of my cousins had newborns. I'll ask about their first meals when the time comes. The baby that loved raw Hokkaido shrimp is now 10 years old His parents and I had a fabulous sushi lunch at Kyubei in Ginza. Since he was in school, the parents could finally have all the shrimp to themselves!

[GlorifiedRice]

13 years ago when I was pregnant with my son, I wanted to get lots of

ethnic baby food before he was born so I could create a diverse palate in him...

I spent lots of time on the phone attempting to get German, British, French baby food, without a computer, to no avail.

Dejected, I called foreign directory assistance for the last time and asked for Heinz corporation in Japan and I casually mentioned to the directory assistance operator what I wanted it for, and she told me I was a horrible bad mother and I was sick!

Seeing all these nice foods in this thread I just dont understand how feeding my child any of it is sick?

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

Here in the US, the doctors give you a hard time if your child gets a baby bottle much past 1 year old. Giving a very small child caffiene is discouraged here too.

My older boys don't much care for tea. My almost 4 year old daughter loves the stuff though... her favorite is jasmine tea. When we go out for Vietnamese food, she insists on having some, with a couple of ice cubes tossed in to cool it.

My youngest is 10 months old now and he'll eat anything that doesn't crawl off his high chair tray. (although he's not had soy products, egg or fish yet). He adores spicy food and cheese.

[Fat Guy]

When do Japanese babies start eating sushi? We've been feeding our American baby things like kappa maki since pretty much when he started eating solid food, however we've shied away from raw fish. Would a Japanese baby typically be encouraged to eat raw fish at a year and a half?

A scene from dinner this evening:

[Luckylies]

as a child I choked on nori. I guess I wasn't ready for it?

Do Japanese kids choke on nori? stupidest question ever?

[Luckylies]

as a child I choked on nori. I guess I wasn't ready for it?

Do Japanese kids choke on nori? stupidest question ever?

ps. cute kid, really cute.

[Hiroyuki]

When do Japanese babies start eating sushi? We've been feeding our American baby things like kappa maki since pretty much when he started eating solid food, however we've shied away from raw fish. Would a Japanese baby typically be encouraged to eat raw fish at a year and a half?

←

Thank you for posting photos of your adorable baby.

I had to google because I really can't remember when my wife and I started to feed my children raw fish, and I found contradictory views on this subject.

One pediatrician suggests three years or older because children's digestive sytem is not developed enough to digest raw fish before that age. Someone else says that her pediatrician said that children can start eating raw fish at the age of one because raw fish is easily digestable. So, to be on the safe side, I think you should start feeding a baby raw fish at the age of three or older.

[Hiroyuki]

as a child I choked on nori. I guess I wasn't ready for it?

Do Japanese kids choke on nori? stupidest question ever?

←

I have never heard of a child choked on nori... Anyone can choke on a piece of rice cake (mochi), though.

[MomOfLittleFoodies]

How old is your little guy, Fat Guy?

When we went out to dinner with my in-laws on Sunday, my 16 month old son took a piece of sushi and went to town on it. It was just a maki roll with unagi and cucumber in it, but he seemed to enjoy the rice portion of it.

[torakris]

I have choked on nori as an adult (I really need to learn to chew properly) and my son has also, though he tried to eat an entire sheet of nori at once...

In the small amount used in a roll I don't think choking is too much of a problem as long as the child has teeth.

As to the actual sushi all 3 of my kids were eating maguro (tuna) and ikura (salmon roe) by age 2. These seem to be the 2 most popular in the "raw" department for kids. If you take a look at the kid's sushi plate in any restaurant it will almost always include tuna, omelet and (cooked) shrimp. Depending on the restaurant you are also likely to find one or more of the following: ikura, squid, inari (rice pocket), some kind of hosomaki (thin roll).

[Fat Guy]

He's about 20 months now. My concern isn't so much with digestibility -- he seems to be able to digest anything from duck to small toys. I was thinking parasites. At least here in the USA, we're constantly told not to let various vulnerable people (elderly, pregnant/nursing, babies) eat raw fish. I'm sure it's mostly nonsense, especially since so much of the fish used in sushi-making has been flash-frozen at some point, but I was wondering whether in Japan anybody worries about the safety of giving raw fish to babies.

[Fat Guy]

P.S., regarding choking, I was pretty alarmed when he took a whole piece and shoved it in his mouth. I had disassembled a piece and was figuring he'd pick it apart further and eat it in bits -- that's what he has done in the past. Instead he grabbed a whole piece, inspected it, and chowed down on it. He seemed fine with it, so I photographed him on the next piece.

[torakris]

I did a little searching on google Japan and it seems to be split pretty evenly on 18 months and up or over 3 years... The sites that say 3 and over say it it because raw fish can be hard to digest for small children.

It does seem perfectly fine though to give your kids ikura and uni (sea urchin) from 18 mos though, I know my kids weren't eating that well that young.

[Hiroyuki]

He's about 20 months now. My concern isn't so much with digestibility -- he seems to be able to digest anything from duck to small toys. I was thinking parasites. At least here in the USA, we're constantly told not to let various vulnerable people (elderly, pregnant/nursing, babies) eat raw fish. I'm sure it's mostly nonsense, especially since so much of the fish used in sushi-making has been flash-frozen at some point, but I was wondering whether in Japan anybody worries about the safety of giving raw fish to babies.

←

While the risks associated with parasites are miminal, we are advised not to feed babies raw fish. The same goes for raw eggs, I think. (The Japanese like to eat eggs raw.)

[Shaya]

My kids are 6 and newly-minted-4.

My oldest has been eating raw fish (maki, nigiri, sashimi) regularly since he was 4. My youngest started with uni at a very young age (maybe 18 months) and about six months ago he started to be tempted to eat tuna nigiri and the odd salmon or tuna roll. His standby is still vegatarian, though.

I must admit that I was a very careful mother when they were very little, following all the rules regarding peanuts, strawberries, honey, ... but I've been more or less following their lead when it comes to sushi. I imagined that somewhere in Japan there had to be other small kids eating raw sushi. I must admit I am somewhat relieved to see the age-3 limit for raw fish.