Starting your baby on solid foods in the best way
You can’t eat real processed cheese food (cheese spread or cheese food) because it contains some colby and cheddar cheese along with additional milk fat. Cheese food is not a real cheese because it doesn’t contain enough milk to be labeled real cheese, but none the less contains some aged cheeses.
Starting your baby on solid foods is the beginning of lifelong eating habits that contribute to his or her overall health. For this reason we have some general guidelines that can help you start your baby out on the right track to a healthy life.
A key to understanding why you can’t have any aged foods begins with understanding why your food choices are restricted when you are taking Nardil. This drug is a monoamine oxidase (MAO) inhibiting (MAOI) drug. MAOs are enzymes in the intestinal lining (mucosa) and in the liver that detoxify certain amines. If these ‘pressor’ amines (tyramine, dopamine, serotonin and norepinephrine) are not detoxified, they can be harmful to one’s health.
Breast milk or infant formula supplies all of your baby’s nutritional needs for at least the first 4 to 6 months of life, so don’t be in a rush to start solid baby foods. Starting solids too early can cause your baby to develop food allergies. Your baby’s intestinal tract is not as fully developed during the first few months and introducing solids at this time can be too much to handle
Therefore a person taking an MAOI, like yourself, becomes vulnerable to any foods, drinks or other drugs which naturally contain these ‘pressor’ amines. When you eat a food containing these substances, the toxic levels amines are then not detoxified, causing your blood vessels to constrict (vasoconstriction), which can lead to high blood pressure (hypertension) problems.
Another reason for not giving solid foods earlier than 4 to 6 months is unintentional overfeeding, since younger babies can not offer you signals when they are full, such as turning away or showing disinterest.
A third reason for holding off on solids is your baby’s inability to swallow solids correctly before 4 to 6 months of age and this can potentially cause choking. And contrary to the popular myth, starting solids early will not help your child to sleep through the night.
The following table should help you make wise food choices in the future. This diet should begin when the drug is begun and continue for at least two weeks after the drug is stopped.
When offering a new type of food, always feed it for several days in a row before starting another new food. This makes it easier to detect food allergies, which can present with diarrhea, vomiting, coughing, hives or a rash. Do not offer mixed ingredient foods until you are sure that the baby isn’t allergic to any of the individual ingredients. Also, don’t add any seasonings to your baby’s foods.
* Foods to Avoid: beer, red wines
* cheese: aged and processed except cottage, ricotta cream or pot cheese
* smoked or pickeled fish
* liver or aged meat
* sausage, dry, pepperoni, summer or hard salami
* yogurt or sour cream close to expiration date
* Chinese pea pods, Italian green beans, fava beans
* ALL over-ripe fruits, avocado in large amounts
* soups made with meat extracts
* Brewer’s yeast
* soy sauce in large amounts
Other practices to avoid are putting your baby down for a nap or sleep with a bottle of formula or juice, as this allows sugar to pool in your baby’s mouth and can lead to cavities. Don’t feed your baby cow’s milk, honey or egg whites until your baby is at least one year of age. Also, do not give carbonated or caffeinated drinks, candy or other foods that your baby may choke on.
Remember, these are general guidelines and the amount and types of food that your baby eats may vary from day to day.
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