Is It Safe for My Baby to Eat Garlic?

Baby girl  wearing a chef hat with vegetables and pan. Use it for a child, healthy food concept

Perhaps you’re a parent who’s hip to the many health-promoting benefits of eating whole natural foods and nutritious home-cooked meals. And maybe you know what a marvelously healthy and nutrient-packed food garlic is. So, you’re anxious to introduce garlic to your baby. But how long should you wait?

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends waiting until your baby is at least six months old, before starting solid foods. The purpose of that is to help prevent the development of food allergies in your child. So, you want to wait until your infant is at least six months to give them garlic.

Beyond that, it’s also best to keep foods sort of boring and bland for a while, once your infant starts eating solid foods. This is to help him or her get used to the vastly different taste and texture of foods, compared to milk. That then means that it may be best to wait at least a couple of months or so after your baby starts on solids, before introducing such a flavorful and pungent spice as garlic.

You should also bear in mind that a few people are allergic to garlic. As such, you need to treat garlic as a “new food” — meaning that you want to introduce it for the first time only in foods that your baby is already eating, and which are not producing any allergic or sensitivity symptoms. That way, if your baby turns out to be allergic to garlic, you’ll be able to pinpoint it as the likely culprit of symptoms that develop.

To introduce a new food safely, doctors advise parents to wait at least three days before introducing another new food. That gives the previous new food time to be assimilated into the system; allergic or sensitivity symptoms generally arise within moments, a few hours or a couple of days after eating the food in question.

Symptoms of a garlic sensitivity can include: stomach gas, cramping and nausea. Symptoms of a garlic allergy include: diarrhea, blood in the stool, eczema, hives, rashes on the cheeks, vomiting, or swelling of the mouth, tongue or lips. If your baby experiences any of these allergic symptoms, call your pediatrician right away. In rare cases, allergic reaction to garlic can involve anaphylaxis, where the person’s tongue or throat can swell to the point that breathing becomes impossible. This is a life-threatening condition and requires immediate medical attention (in such an event, call 911 or take your baby to an emergency room immediately).

The best precaution to take, to avoid an allergic or sensitive reaction to garlic, is to give this herb to your baby in small amounts in the beginning. And start out giving the infant cooked garlic, instead of raw, as cooked garlic is less likely to produce allergic symptoms. (But don’t overcook it, as that decreases its potency.) In addition, you don’t want to give your baby minced or chopped raw garlic until they’re older and are able to chew foods; otherwise, fresh chopped garlic could be a choking hazard.

At about 9 months, once your baby has been eating cooked garlic with no problems for a little while, you can start crushing garlic cloves and adding a tiny bit (about 1/8 of a large clove or 1/4 of a small clove per serving) to the vegetable or meat dishes that you give your little one. Some parents report online that their babies are so fond of garlic, that it actually makes the babies love a food that they otherwise wouldn’t eat!

A cousin of onions, garlic is easy to grow and can be harvested year-round, meaning that if your family and your little ones enjoy this wonderful health-giving food, you might consider growing it in your home, and you never have to be without it!

The many nutrients in garlic include:

  • Vitamin C
  • Vitamin B6
  • Calcium
  • Iron
  • Potassium
  • Phosphorus
  • Magnesium
  • Manganese
  • Selenium
  • Zinc

As for the health properties of garlic, natural-health enthusiasts have known about them for thousands of years. We know that garlic has strong antibacterial, antiviral and anti-fungal properties, which is why it’s used to fight everything from the common cold to infections to cancers. Garlic also has anti-inflammatory properties that help prevent and improve conditions like asthma, eczema, heart disease, stroke, high blood pressure and arthritis. When there are no sensitivity or allergy issues, garlic is also great for promoting good digestion; therefore, it will help your baby digest other foods.

Fresh garlic is much more powerful than powdered garlic or garlic salt; but that’s not to say the powdered varieties are slouches. Whether fresh, cooked or powdered, garlic enhances the taste and health-promoting benefits of the foods it’s in. As such, powdered garlic can be an excellent way to start your baby eating garlic at about 8 months, adding a couple of light shakes to the baby’s vegetable dishes you prepare. If you buy powdered garlic, get the kind with no additives; avoid silicon dioxide, an anti-caking non-nutritive substance. And be sure to talk to your pediatrician before you introduce garlic in any form into your baby’s diet.

By Lisa Pecos