Is Bone Broth Before Food Good for My Baby?

1 (2m 14s):

This trend that we're seeing of offering bone broth as a pre food, so prior to starting solid foods, this is problematic because if you think about it, your infant up until six months of age, right? Breast milk or formula is sufficient to meet their needs, but they've gotta a finite amount of room in their stomach. And so if you are replacing that nutritionally complete infant milk with bone broth, which is nutritionally incomplete for infants six months of age or younger. That's where we run into problems with bone broth. Hey there. I'm Katie Ferraro, Registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in Baby-Led Weaning. Here on the Baby-Led Weaning with Katie Ferraro Podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, giving you the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using Baby-Led Weaning.

1 (3m 8s):

I don't know about you, but lately I've been seeing an uptick in questions about an interest in bone broth for babies as kind of a pre food fad. A mom in my program mentioned in an email the other day, oh I have my baby on bone broth before we started any food and I know, I've definitely had more DMs about this recently than I can remember in the past. So I think some of this peak in interest of bone broth is stemming from, you know, bone broth is just having a moment in adult food and diet culture. We've got influencers who have no formal nutrition training talking about it. Naturopaths who are selling new bone broth diet books, they're pushing it. So it's definitely in the cultural zeitgeist for sure.

1 (3m 49s):

But certainly a lot of the interest in the baby space about bone broth is being driven by processed baby food brands who are touting bone broth as a value added ingredient. So essentially these companies are marketing pouches and other processed pureed foods as being nutritionally superior and certainly more expensive because they contain bone broth. So in this episode I wanna talk about the role that bone broth can play in a balanced weaning diet, but also explore a little bit about some of the dangerous implications of utilizing bone broth as a pre food and how it can actually be harmful if used in the wrong context.

1 (4m 30s):

So I like to start these mini solo trainings with the Baby-Led Weaning tip of the day. And today's tip is yes, your baby can eat soup. I love a thickened stew or a soup made with no salt broth. If that works for you and you're, you wanna make it and your baby eats it. But please know there is nothing inherently magical about the ingredient bone broth. Okay, bone broth gets its, this is my interpretation, relatively undeserved health halo. Certainly it's higher price point because it contains more protein as well as other meat-based nutrients than standard broths. But bone broth is not a substitute for offering your baby those actual foods that contain said nutrition.

1 (5m 11s):

So you are not a bad parent if, you don't offer your baby bone broth. Okay? And in fact offering a salty drink like bone broth, it has the potential to displace infant milk. Okay? That's breast milk or formula. So as sexy as bone broth may seem to be, you can skip it entirely and your baby will be just fine. Or if you do include it, please do so in moderation and I'll show you a little bit about how you can do that in this episode. So quick story, I have a brother who lives in New York. He does not have children. We're six kids, five of us are in San Diego and we have this one brother who lives in New York, which is wonderful to have a brother in New York to go visit. So he's like very interested in nutrition from like a consumer standpoint, okay?

1 (5m 53s):

He's always asking me questions about nutrition trends and food fads. And bone broth came up yesterday 'cause he sent me a picture of a bone broth that he bought, it had 31 grams of protein per container, so that was two cups, so it was like a double serving. One serving was one cup and there were two cups in the container. And so there was two columns on the nutrition fax panel. So it said in the column for per container, which was two cups, it said it had 31 grams of protein. And he's like a protein bro. Like, oh this is so awesome. I'm getting so much protein from my bone broth. But next to 31 grams it said less than 1% DEV. So that means less than 1% daily value for protein, right? 31 grams, 1% on of protein, like what's going on here?

1 (6m 35s):

So he highlighted it in his text, he owns a graphic design firm. So he's like very visual and then he said like, doesn't that seem low? 31 grams of protein only being 1% and I looked at it, and I, zoomed in and I was like, oh my gosh, he's totally right. It was an error 'cause there's actually no percent daily value for protein. Okay? So the information on the nutrition facts label on this, like very well known national, say influencer sponsored brand of bone broth was totally erroneous. They just made it up up the idea of a percent daily value for protein. It doesn't exist. Okay? Which I guess just kind of makes you wonder like what else are they lying about on their nutrition facts panel? But yes, protein is a big part of the allure of bone broth.

1 (7m 16s):

Yes, protein as a nutrient makes you feel fuller for longer. It takes longer for you to digest proteins, fats and fibers than it does simple carbohydrates. So like if you're following a naturopath's, bone broth weight loss diet as an adult, yeah it could help you eat less other, less healthful foods. But does it then hold true that we should be pumping our babies full of protein and bone broth? No, most parents are widely mistaken about how much protein their babies actually need. I covered that in depth back in episode 193. If you're interested in protein or you're worried your baby's not getting enough protein, please go listen to protein, How Much Protein Does My Baby Need at BLWpodcast.com/193.

1 (9m 26s):

So as a dietitian, what's my concern about bone broth? My concern is about the trend of parents offering bone broth before they start solid foods. Your baby does not need anything except infant milk. That's breast milk or formula prior to six months of age. Okay? This pre feeding space is becoming more popular. Feeding gear brands are starting to sell more pre feeding, like they want you to start buying stuff earlier. That means more stuff that you're gonna buy, right? So brands oftentimes will say to me, will you promote this product? No, because you're implying that you could use this product at four months of age and it's not safe for babies to eat anything except infant milk until after six months of age. But when they call it a pre feeding tool or we're doing a breast milk or a formula popsicle, yeah, I'm okay with that.

1 (10m 8s):

Some of the variations like we're getting excited and getting ready to start solid foods, but what I don't want you to do is cease breastfeeding or formula feeding too early. your baby needs the nutrition from breast milk or formula up until six months of age and If you replace some of that with bone broth. That is not a good idea, okay? That is going to lead to growth faltering. That is going to lead to nutrient gaps. Don't mess around with your baby's diet prior to six months of age. I mean, don't mess around with your baby's diet. They're not a guinea pig for you to project your weird adult diet culture stuff on tooth throughout the entirety of childhood I believe. But this idea of doing bone broth before starting solid foods, what that says to me is, okay, all you're going to do is be taking some of that finite space in your baby's stomach that should be having exclusively breast milk or formula up until six months of age.

1 (10m 58s):

And you're going to replace it with bone broth, which is not nutritionally equivalent to infant milk, breast milk or formula. And so you're going to displace that important nutrition from breast milk or formula. It's going to cause the baby to either breastfeed less or drink less formula and that is not ideal. Now if, you wait until six months of age and you're starting other solid foods and you incorporate a little bit of bone broth into there, that is absolutely fine. If, you are doing it because it's very high in salt and it's the way that you're like tricking your baby into eating other foods. I don't love that approach. If, you are going to do a bone broth, I suggest a no added salt bone broth. Okay, there is additional nutrition in bone broth, okay? But by the way, the nutrients that are in the bone broth come from the meat on the bones that is being boiled to make the broth.

1 (11m 43s):

So like you could also just feed your baby the protein containing foods and I've got lots of tips on how you can do that safely. But bone broth does have a little bit of nutrients like calcium, some other minerals like magnesium phosphorus. But again, If, you offer your baby small amounts of animal foods like meat, they're gonna be getting those same nutrients. So it's not magical, but it's kind of getting that like magic beans mentality and parents' headspace these days. I feel like as far as preparing it, If you make your own more power to you If. you have the time to be making your own bone broth, I'm a huge fan of, of making my own broth. Every time I make a whole chicken, I save the carcass, and I, put some more aromatics in there, and I pressure, cook it in my instant pot to get some more basically free salt free broth.

1 (12m 24s):

Okay? And you can make your own bone broth If. you want to just make sure that you do that in a hygienic manner. Okay? As far as dilution, I know that some parents are like adding it to formula or breast milk. That's certainly not recommended. You should always constitute or reconstitute the formula per the instructions on the canister. You should never dilute breast milk or Infant formula with any other liquid, including bone broth. Some parents are concerned about allergies or sensitivities. Bone broth are generally not considered to be major allergenic foods. My concern would be if it's like really hot that you could potentially be burning the baby's mouth. So If, you do offer it. You wanna be doing it at a relatively, you know, room temperature, just above room temperature.

1 (13m 5s):

Something that parents use to practice open cup drinking. Okay? I like practicing open cup drinking with thicker liquids at first like breast milk or formula 'cause that is a consistency of the liquid that your baby is accustomed to swallowing. Sometimes very thin liquids like certain broths can increase the risk of gagging. A little bit of gagging when you start solid foods is typical and to be expected. But we don't want to purposely make the baby gag on thin liquids that they're not ready for yet because repeated gagging can actually cause the baby to have a negative association with food and feeding. So it's something you could do a little bit out of an open cup. If I'm making, let's say I'm making pork carnitas for a baby and I've got some of that leftover meat juice or no salt broth from the chicken broth that I just made after I did a whole chicken in the instant pot.

1 (13m 50s):

Yeah, I'll pour a little bit of that into an open cup and let the baby practice with it. But be careful I know your baby knows how to drink. We don't want your baby to be filling up and taking up that valuable space in their stomach with a lower nutrient or nutritionally incomplete beverage like bone broth when they should be getting infant formula or breast milk. But when you start solid foods, if you wanna incorporate a little bit of it into there, a little bit of bone broth in moderation is perfectly fine. Stick to the lower sodium options. If you can if you totally skip it. You are going to be fine too. There's nothing magical about bone broth and it certainly should not be introduced as a pre food. Babies don't need anything except infant milk up until six months of age.

1 (14m 33s):

I'll put a link to some of the resources from this episode on the Shownotes, which you can find at blwpodcast.com/417. A special thank you to our partners at AirWave Media. If, you guys like podcasts that feature food and science and using your brain. Check out some of the podcasts from AirWave. We are online at blwpodcast.com. Happy feeding and thanks for listening.