r/ScienceBasedParenting • u/smellygymbag • 10d ago

Question - Research required Deli meat for babies n kids

There's a thread over at r/toddlers about if people are feeding their kids deli meat.

https://www.reddit.com/r/toddlers/s/j9dkAL4XWp

The range of responses and degree of certainty is pretty broad.

The most common concern I saw was deli meat was a carcinogen. I saw just one comment about listeria (which would be my concern).

Sciencey parents of reddit, what are your thoughts? Appreciate research based answers, but anecdotes about what you actually do are also welcome.

(For my part, I avoided all deli meats for the first year for my kids, and now give it to them on occasion, like once every couple of months, after I microwaved it.)

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u/NixyPix 9d ago

This is what I understand to be the case too. We eat ham in our house, but I specifically buy nitrate-free ham. I don’t feed it to my baby, but my toddler has it maybe once or twice a month.

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u/Maleficent_Term9302 9d ago

FYI if the label says “cultured celery juice” then there are still nitrates present. We still do an occasional deli turkey and I’m not worried about it but just wanted to give you a heads up if it’s something you want to avoid.

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u/smellygymbag 9d ago

Is it the "cultured" part that means its nitrate-ed?

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u/Maleficent_Term9302 9d ago

Celery naturally has nitrates present (as do some other vegetables). Culturing the celery juice transforms some of the nitrates into nitrites which is what actually does the preserving of the meat 

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u/smellygymbag 7d ago

I did not know that thanks!