Pickles

You can offer pickles as an occasional taste once your baby is ready for solids, usually around 6 months.

Pickling vegetables is an old way of keeping food, used all over the world. Cucumbers are pickled in Eastern Europe, radish in Korea (kkakdugi), mango in India (achar), and sauerkraut comes from German cabbage. The cucumber pickle, the most common in Western cooking, is made in vinegar or fermented in salty water. Pickles have deep cultural roots in many food traditions.

A cucumber pickle has lots of water and fiber, and a little potassium and vitamin K. Naturally fermented pickles can also give probiotics that help gut health. Vinegar pickles have no live probiotics, but both kinds are nutritious.

Fermented or vinegar

Neither is necessarily healthier than the other. Fermented pickles can give probiotics, vinegar pickles do not. Both are usually high in sodium, so keep portions modest within a varied diet.

Pickled cabbage, peppers or mixed pickles in Turkish cooking can be very salty. Read the label, and still give them only as a taste.

Read the label

Pickles use herbs and seasonings such as garlic, mustard seed and dill. They are not common allergens worldwide but may be counted as allergens in some regions. Check the label first, and confirm that any common allergens inside have already been introduced safely.

Pickles carry a choking risk. Many are hard, slick and sliced into rounds. Firmness varies with how they were made.

Prepare pickles to suit your baby's age: a large whole pickle, flat slices or finely chopped. No cubes or chunks. Stay close while your baby eats and keep them upright.

Pickles are not a common allergen. Cucumber allergy is rare. People with oral allergy syndrome from ragweed pollen may be sensitive to cucumber. The mouth itches, tingles or burns for a short time, which is not dangerous.

Vinegar allergy is rare too. However, vinegars are often preserved with sulfites. True sulfite allergy is uncommon. Even so, some people, asthma sufferers in particular, react to added sulfites with symptoms that resemble allergy. If sulfites are a worry, skip products listing additives such as sulfur dioxide, potassium metabisulfite, sodium bisulfite and sodium sulfite.

Vinegar naturally holds plenty of histamine and can push white blood cells in the tissues to release more. In sensitive people, a large intake may bring rashes and stomach upset. If your baby is sensitive, give small amounts.

Acidic foods can cause a contact rash on the skin, which is not an allergy. If it happens, put a thin barrier such as pure petroleum jelly around the mouth before meals and clean up afterwards. Too much can cause or worsen diaper rash. If so, apply a thick barrier cream and avoid long contact with a wet diaper.