Can Babies Eat Ice Cream?

Oct 19th, 2009 by Christine

We’ve been asked a few times whether or not it’s safe for babies to eat ice cream.

Usually, this hasn’t been because Mom or Dad has been thinking about regularly offering ice cream to their little one as a dessert! Instead, it tends to be because a well-meaning relative has given ice-cream to their baby as a treat… without checking with Mom or Dad first!

The question we are usually asked, then, is ‘will the ice cream make my baby sick?’.

As a rule, the odd lick of ice cream sneaked to your baby by Granddad really shouldn’t do any harm, so don’t panic if your little one has been given any (although it’s worth pointing out to Granddad that you’d like him to speak to you first!).

But, of course, ice-cream certainly isn’t recommended as a suitable food for baby’s first year.

For one thing, it contains sugar – and you really don’t want to encourage a sweet tooth at an early age. For another, it may contain ingredients that could cause a reaction. For example, it could contain nuts, or ingredients made from nuts – even if it’s not immediately obvious. Some varieties of ice-cream also contain artificial colours or flavours.

Whilst most ice creams that you buy in stores are pasteurized, the ice cream that you buy from ice cream trucks or dispensing machines may NOT be safe to eat. It is common in the UK for pregnant women to be advised to avoid soft serve ice-cream from machines, because it can become contaminated with Listeria (a possibility if the tubes on the machine are not kept scrupulously clean). This same precaution is advisable for very young children, too.

Once your baby is over a year old, then you may offer a little ice-cream now and again – compared to other treats, a good quality ice-cream is our ‘dessert of choice’ for our older children as it does, at least, provide some calcium.

But it’s still important to bear in mind that it also contains sugar and fat, both of which should be limited throughout life.

In particularly hot weather, there are plenty of other nice things you can offer your baby to cool him off – and provide some nutrition at the same time!

Frozen fruit slices are ideal, served as finger foods, placed in a mesh feeder, or even crushed in a bowl. You can also try freezing yogurt, then pureeing with your baby’s favourite fruit and a touch of vanilla!

Here in the Bahamas, the soaring summer temperatures make icy treats a bit of a ‘must have’… and one of our favourite things to do is make a simple banana ‘ice-cream’.

All you need to do is cut a ripe banana into slices, pop it into the freezer until firm, then throw the frozen slices into your blender and whiz them up! The result is AMAZINGLY close to real ice cream, both in texture and taste – the natural sweetness of the banana does away with the need for any sugar!

You can create different flavours by adding other ingredients to your banana ‘base’ – a tablespoon of blueberries and a teaspoon of wheat germ, for example, provide wonderful colour and lots of goodness.

Do you create your own ‘ice -cream’ with healthy ingredients? Please share your ideas and recipes!