Katie Ferraro (0s):

So, the one exception to that temperature rule is meat. But think about meat. You don't take a piece of meat out of the fridge and just eat it cold. I mean, you could, but it's not that enjoyable of an eating experience. We want to heat the meat for babies because it liquefies the fat that liquid acts as a lubricant, which reduces choking risk. Hey, there I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietitian, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby-led weaning. You're on the baby-led weaning made easy podcast. I help you strip out all 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 (44s):

Hey guys, Katie here. Talking today all about temperature. Should I serve my baby's food hot, cold, room temperature? Does it even matter? We're going to break down all of the temperature tips that you need to know to offer your baby foods safely. So, as I like to do with each episode, I want to start today with a baby-led weaning tip of the day. And as you're going to learn spoiler alert, it actually doesn't matter what temp most of the foods that you offer your baby is. Do what works for you with a few exceptions, which I'll get to, but meat is the one that I do like to serve to babies on the warmer side. Right? Think about a steak, which is kind of a bad example because we actually don't feed steak to babies prior to age one, because of the potential for choking hazard. Now, some parents will give it to their baby and, you know, allow them to suck on.

Katie Ferraro (1m 25s):

And that's perfectly fine if you're observing them. But the actual texture of steak is very challenging for babies to eat until they get a tooth, or you're really comfortable with them in different textures. But if you took a steak, like let's say you made steak for dinner last night, you put it in the fridge, you're gonna have it today for lunch as a leftover, you don't just take that steak out of the fridge and eat it right? You would want to heat it back up because obviously it's going to make it taste better. But what happens when you heat it back up is that the fat has solidified when it went in the refrigerator. And when you reheat it, the fat liquefies and that liquid fat, which is ideal when babies are eating meat, because the liquid equates to a lower choking risk for the baby. So we don't want to serve baby dry foods ever, especially dry meats, which use fattier cuts of meat.

Katie Ferraro (2m 8s):

And when you reheat them to liquefy that fat again, it makes it easier for the baby to eat that protein food, which is the meat. But of course it has the fat in there as well. So when it comes to meat, do it a little bit on the warmer side, you may be reheated and then allow it to cool to the temperature that's safe to feed the baby, but let's not do cold meats for babies, cause that could pose a choking hazard and hang tight because at the end of this episode, I'm going to walk through a couple of other food related and food safety temperature tips for you guys. So, let's go ahead and dive in talking all about temperature and whether we should serve babies, food, hot, cold room temp, or does it even matter? All right, let's start with frozen foods. We're gonna move up the temperature scale from frozen to cold room, temp hot, and then finish the episode off with some food safety, temp tips.

Katie Ferraro (2m 49s):

Frozen foods. You can serve your baby frozen foods if you want, but you don't have to. Some parents and caregivers have heard, oh, well, if a baby's teething, then they might want colder foods. And as a mom of seven, I have never had a baby like frozen foods whatsoever. But I see your babies out there sometimes doing little frozen popsicles of breast milk. I heard a mom refer to that as a boob sickle the other day, which I thought was cute. But you could also do just full fat, whole milk, plain yogurt, freeze that into cubes, offer it to your baby. I've definitely tried that with all my own babies. They hated it. It was almost comical watching them eat it. I mean, it was clearly torturous for them. So I took it away. But some babies like frozen foods, especially if they're teething, it might alleviate some of the discomfort on their gums, but you don't have to do it.

Katie Ferraro (3m 29s):

Now, cold foods again, sometimes parents will say, what about like chilled cucumber strips or chilled celery strips when the baby is teething, first of all, we never feed raw celery to babies. No hard or crispy or crunchy foods for babies under age one, huge choking hazard, but cucumbers are one that I will do, especially after the baby has a tooth. I feel more comfortable giving foods like cucumber. You can peel it off. If you want to. You can also take, depending on how compact the seeds are in the cucumber, I've even scooped the really compact seeds of certain smaller cucumbers, like the pickling ones or the Persian cucumbers, and actually serve those to baby. Seeds are not a choking hazard. Just so you know, it's not one of the first foods that I would feed by any stretch of the imagination.

Katie Ferraro (4m 9s):

But once your babies, you know, maybe had 10 or 20 or 30 different foods, if they're teething and you think a little bit of a chilled cucumber might be fun for them to rub their gums with their non, obviously cucumber doesn't have any nutritional value to begin with, but it is a unique, mild taste. You can do just the strips of the seeds if you want, or some of your parents feel more comfortable cutting the seeds all out, cutting the skin off, and then just gave giving the baby this strip of the cold cucumber. But you don't need to make major adjustments when your baby is teething. Teething is not like the short finite period of time thing, where you make adjustments and then you go back to normal and teething is done because teething can be an up to three year process. So, we don't want to get in the habit of making major adjustments to the feeding schedule just because the baby is teething.

Katie Ferraro (4m 50s):

It's oftentimes it's uncomfortable for them, but it's not going to totally disrupt their ability to try new foods. And what about room temperature? I do a lot of room temperature foods for babies. Now I'll generally heat the food up or reheat it in the microwave or on the stove top or however I'm preparing it and then allow it to cool to room temperature. One note about that is with regards to the microwave, if you do use the microwave to reheat your baby's food, just be aware that microwaves reheat food with hotspots in there. So there's an uneven distribution of heat. So, that's why I always like if it's a puree, you stir it really well after to distribute the heat evenly, but then test a few places in the actual food that you're serving yourself before you serve it to baby, just so that you don't scald the baby's mouth.

Katie Ferraro (5m 31s):

But I think room temp is a great way to serve many foods. Again, with the exception of meat, we like to see that a little bit on the warmer side, there are certain foods that taste better when they're stored at room temperature. So, for example, tomatoes are a good example of that. If you take a tomato and put it in the refrigerator, you kind of take away some of the flavor and the ripening process. It may not be as flavorful as if you allow the tomato to let's say ripen or to stay on the counter. So, if there's a matter of taste, we of course on our babies, exploring a variety of different tastes as they're learning how to eat. Part of that comes with mixing up the temperature as well. But most foods do very well at room temp. We always are concerned about baby safety, so we don't want to ofcourse feed them something that's too hot.

Katie Ferraro (6m 11s):

Now, when it comes to hot foods, there aren't really any hot foods that we serve our baby. Okay? Because again, we're concerned about the potential for scalding the baby's tongue, as they're learning how to eat.Parents sometimes will ask about milk. Should I heat the baby's milk right at around six months of age, your baby can start learning how to drink out of an open cup. Now parents are like, well, what do I put in the cup? If this is a new concept to you, we generally start with formula or breast milk because that's a thicker liquid that your baby is used to drinking. We actually refrain from offering water until much later, you see a lot of misinformation out there, other people saying, oh, start feeding your baby water at six months of age. Absolutely not. If this is news to you, go back and listen to episode number 24.

Katie Ferraro (6m 53s):

It's all about water. When to offer your baby water and how much.I will link to that episode in the show notes for this episode as well, you can find all of the links in the resources I'm talking about from today's episode. If you go to the show notes, which is at blwpodcast.com/51. So back to the reheating milk, you might've been in the habit of, let's say, if you have frozen breast milk and you reconstituted or you're making formula that you would heat it up. Early on, that's fine to do. But I often and ask parents, what's your ultimate goal. If your ultimate goal is to transition your baby to cow's milk drinking out of an open cup at the one year mark, it's unlikely that you're going to be taking cow's milk out of the fridge and then heating it up to a certain temp to let your baby drink it out of the open cup, right?

Katie Ferraro (7m 38s):

There's nothing wrong with your baby learning how to drink cold milk before you make the switch to cow's milk. So babies certainly can drink cold. Now some of you have finicky babies and you're like, oh, I know my baby's not going to drink that formula or the breast milk cold. That's fine. Continue to do whatever it was that you're doing. But I would encourage you when you start to offer stuff out of the open cup, try to make it a colder temperature and see if they'll drink it. If they'll drink the breast milk or the formula at that colder temperature, there's nothing wrong with heating it up. But especially as you get closer to that, one-year mark back off of heating the milk up. If you don't intend to keep that practice up, just sounds like a lot of extra work to be heating milk on top of all the foods that you're preparing. All right. So let's talk a little bit about food safety, temperature tips.

Katie Ferraro (8m 21s):

When it comes to temperature and the hot food, we want to make sure that we're always heating the meats and the protein foods that we're making to the appropriate internal cooking temperature and the goal there is to ensure that we're killing any potential pathogens before we then serve that food to baby. Okay. So now this is using the FDA's guidelines for safe minimum internal temperatures. And the only way, you know, if you're getting a safe temperature is if you use a thermometer, okay? So, if you don't have an instant read thermometer in your house, that's something to add to your list, to get, as you start solid foods, because you will be offering, if you eat animal foods in your family, foods like ground meat and beef, pork, lamb, poultry, eggs, and those need to be cooked to certain temperatures.

Katie Ferraro (9m 5s):

So with ground meat, this is when we always want to make sure it's cooked to 160 degrees Fahrenheit and ground meats probably the most important one to ensure you're getting that safe minimum internal temp of one 160 degrees Fahrenheit. And the reason why is like, let's say you have a slab of beef, okay? And there's some e-coli that gets on the outside of it and the butcher or whoever it is grinds the meat up, which is then transporting the equal life from the outside of the steak to the inside of the burger. You throw that burger on the grill, cook it on one side, cook it on the other side. But if it doesn't hit one 160 in the middle, that e-coli that has been transferred to the middle of the burger through the meat grinding process will then potentially be harmful to your baby. Okay?

Katie Ferraro (9m 45s):

Now there's a very low risk, but of course, foodborne illness is a very real risk and we can help prevent foodborne illness by ensuring that we're cooking, especially our protein foods to the appropriate minimum internal temps. Sometimes parents will say, well then how is it okay that you can eat like a rare, rare steak? Well, let's say you have that slab of meat. Okay? And it's just in the steak form and you don't grind it. There's e-coli on the outside of it. You throw it on the grill, you sear it for a second. You flip it over and you sear it for a second. That sear will kill any of the potential pathogens. That's not a ground meat product. The ground meat products are certainly higher risk for transferring those potentially harmful pathogens. So,1 again, one 60 internal for ground meat, don't serve your babies.

Katie Ferraro (10m 25s):

Medium, rare hamburgers. It's not safe. I know they taste better than well done. We're done okay. But you can get there when a little older, we want to take extreme caution with food safety when our babies are younger. So, other internal cook temps to be aware of the FDA says one 165 for poultry products like even ground poultry. The parts of it, a whole chicken, stuffing. A lot of chefs will say, if you cook chicken to one 165, you've destroyed it. Especially chicken breast. I really recommend staying away from chicken breasts for your baby. There is no fat in chicken breasts and remember fat equates to moisture and moisture lowers the choking risk. You're already a little bit nervous when you're feeding your baby meat. Stick to those fattier cuts of meat like legs and wings and thighs. And if you have more questions about feeding your baby meat, go back and listen to episode 19.

Katie Ferraro (11m 10s):

It's all about meat and how to prepare meat safely for baby-led weaning. More tips there about the meat preparation. Okay. Another one to be aware of are egg products. I actually get a lot of questions from parents and caregivers about running yolks. Can you serve running yet of the eggs to babies? And my suggestion is when in doubt, leave it out. Okay. We want to cook the eggs until the yolk and the white are firm. Eggs can potentially harbor salmonella and other harmful pathogens. It's rare, but it's a real risk. So, I generally will cook the yolk all the way for the baby. I know I personally love runny yolk eggs, but it's something I'll wait until later to do for older children, with the exception being interestingly enough, at least in North America, in the restaurant setting, you're hard pressed to find an egg that's not pasteurized, right?

Katie Ferraro (11m 57s):

Because of litigation and food safety concerns. Restaurant operations are always using pasteurized in shell eggs. So there's no likelihood that that egg is going to make you sick. But the eggs that we get at home, especially if you're in farm, fresh eggs, or even the typical ones from the grocery store, those are not pasteurized. Pasteurization is heating a food to a particular temperature in order to kill any potentially harmful pathogens. The eggs you buy at the grocery store aren't pasteurized. The ones you eat in a restaurant are. If you were going to do runny yolks, I would say that the restaurant ones are probably safer, but again, when in doubt, just cook it until the yolk and the white are firm. All right. And I want to close out today with a feeding temperature tip. Now I know this is hard for some of you guys to hear, but a best practices recommendation for baby-led weaning is not to feed your baby naked.

Katie Ferraro (12m 40s):

I know you guys do it all the time, but if you were sitting in the same situation as your baby, would you want to have all of your clothes off? Answer the question, honestly, if it's super hot and you're sweltering. Yeah. Being without a shirt is probably ideal, but a lot of parents are feeding their babies without any clothes on. It's drafty. It's cold. It's uncomfortable. This can have a negative sensory repercussions on your baby. It could actually cause them to have some negative associations with feeding. Now, I know millions of babies throughout the world have been perfectly fine being fed naked. But if you're on the fence about whether or not to feed your baby naked, and it's a better idea not to, if your baby would normally be wearing clothes throughout the day, if you would be wearing clothes, when you're eating, then keep the clothes on your baby.

Katie Ferraro (13m 22s):

Use a full coverage bib, as a way to help minimize the mess. The ones that I like are from the brand called Bapron baby they're baby-led weaning bibs. It's a bib style. It's kind of designed more like an apron. They tie in the back behind the baby's shoulder blades rather than all up around their neck. So again, increasing or improving rather that sensory experience, like how do you feel if someone's got something really tight up around your neck, and you're trying to learn how to chew and swallow. I prefer the bib from baby style because it doesn't choke your baby off. Plus as they get older, it's nice because they can't untie the bib because it ties behind their shoulder blade. Again, those are called Bapron baby. And if you go to bapronbaby.com, you can get 10% off all of their bapron bibs with the code, Katie 10, they also have fabulous splash mats.

Katie Ferraro (14m 5s):

They have a great material, especially for the paper and you just rinse it underneath the faucet and you ring it out. You dry it on the drain board. It's ready for the next meal. You don't have to wash three different bibs a day. I use the same bib for the whole day. So it kind of helps cut down on the laundry. Definitely helps cut down on the mess. And they're splash mats that go underneath the high chair made from the same material as the bapron. An absolutely fabulous. Again, the code is Katie 10 at bapronbaby.com. And so when you guys are feeding your babies, yes, to try to put the clothes on, do put the bib on them. If you can. And the full coverage bibs are better. And a splash mat under the floor, if you can always clean up that food mess quickly, I recommend not interfering with your baby. Not touching your baby, not wiping your baby for the entirety of their 15 or 20 minute meal.

Katie Ferraro (14m 49s):

I know it's hard, especially for you type A mamas. I know I want to do it myself, but like, how would you feel if you were trying to eat a meal and there's this lady coming at me with the wet wipe again, and I'm just trying to learn how to eat. It's totally invasive and it can lead to negative sensory experiences associated with eating. So, sit on your hands, just like you do when they're learning how to gag, don't wipe your baby during the meal. But the second that meal is over. Oh, heck yeah. I got to wipe down the baby wipe down that table, wipe down that chair because there's nothing worse than dried food. To try to clean that up after a baby-led weaning meal, especially yogurt. Yogurt is probably the worst. I don't know. Spaghetti sauce, yogurt, rice, spaghetti noodles. They're all up there. It's all terrible. If it's dry, get it while it's wet. All right guys.

Katie Ferraro (15m 29s):

So, I hope you enjoyed this episode all about temperature. Should I serve my baby's food hot, cold, room temp.? I hope you realize it doesn't really matter with a few exceptions. Make sure you're hitting those minimum internal cooking temps. When you're cooking those protein foods, go for a full coverage bib, if you can. To get links to all of the references and resources, as well as the other episodes I've mentioned here in episode 51, go to the podcast show notes for this episode, those are blwpodcast.com/51. I'm also going to link to my favorite meat thermometer because remember you cannot eyeball whether or not your proteins are done. You need a meat thermometer to tell you, all right, guys, talk to you next time. Bye now.