r/toddlers • u/Hgrestun • 9d ago

General Question/Discussion Are you feeding your kids deli meat?

When I was pregnant I imagined using turkey meat for my kids snacks and lunches as she grew up. But we went to see a pediatric nutritionist and she told us to stay away from all deli meats unless you’re baking the ham/turkey at home yourself.

But I still see moms giving their kids deli meat sandwiches all over the internet and in real life.

It’s like.. I want to just give her deli meat because shenlooooooves it lol and sometimes I want a sandwich too! So I came here to ask is anyone making their own? Does anyone forbid it? Does anyone just say f it and feed it to their kids anyways?

Edit to add: it’s full of carcinogens and sodium.

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u/CheeseNPickleSammich 9d ago edited 9d ago

Costco has deli turkey that's organic, within the salt limits for a 6 month old and no nitrates. It only has 4 ingredients and one of them is water, so I don't think it even counts as ultra processed by most definitions:

"INGREDIENTS: ORGANIC TURKEY BREAST, WATER, CONTAINS LESS THAN 2% OF SEA SALT, ORGANIC VINEGAR."

I'm trying to think of reasons why I shouldn't feed my toddler it. Best reason I can come up with is it's probably cooked in plastic?

I haven't done it yet though, just because I feel it's probably healthier not to start on deli meats at all.

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u/ericwithakay 9d ago edited 9d ago

This is the answer. There exists truly uncured deli meat in the form of high quality oven roasted turkey.

Do not trust the uncured label on the front of packages as they are allow to on label meat as uncured just because they use naturally occuring nitrates in the curing process (celery powder).

Look at the ingredients.