What parents actually need to know
Social media trends around nutrition are nothing new, but recently we’ve been seeing more and more trends around what we should be feeding our babies. You might have stumbled across some of these trends and been left feeling confused and possibly like you’re feeding your baby the wrong foods. One trend in particular – ‘the ancestral diet’ for babies has become really popular, and we’ve had loads of questions from confused parents.
To help clear up the confusion, we’ve teamed up with paediatric gut health specialist dietitian, Lucy Jackman, to break down the science, bust some myths, and bring some clarity to feeding your baby.
What is the ‘Ancestral Diet’ trend?
Recently, there has been a wave of online posts suggesting that parents should avoid giving their weaning babies vegetables and carbohydrates. Instead, the trend promotes a diet heavily focused on animal fats, bone broths, meat, and liver.
If you’ve seen these videos and panicked about vegetables or porridge you’ve been giving your baby, please don’t worry! It is completely understandable to feel overwhelmed. We all want to do the very best for our babies and with the wealth of information available to us on social media and online, it can feel impossible to make straightforward decisions.
So we want to break down what the evidence actually says, and what we DO know about feeding babies.
Busting the “Leaky Gut” myth
One of the main claims behind this trend is that babies are born with a “leaky gut” that needs to be healed by drinking bone broth and avoiding fibrous vegetables.
It’s true that babies are born with a naturally more permeable (open) gut lining. However, this is not a “syndrome” or something that needs fixing! A permeable gut lining allows important, protective antibodies from baby’s milk to pass directly into your baby’s bloodstream, helping to build their immune system. As your baby grows, their gut naturally matures.
Why babies need carbohydrates and vegetables
The idea that carbohydrates and vegetables are harmful to your baby’s development isn’t backed by scientific research. In fact, evidence supports the opposite:
- Vegetables, fruits, beans, and whole grains contain fibre. Fibre helps to support the good bacteria living in your baby’s gut. Offering a variety of plant foods is one of the best ways to build a diverse, and healthy gut microbiome. You can read more about a healthy gut microbiome in babies in this blog.
- Babies grow incredibly fast, particularly in the first year of life, and are incredibly active as they learn to sit, crawl, and walk. Carbohydrates are their body’s preferred, most efficient source of energy.
- Plant foods provide a whole host of vitamins and minerals (like Vitamin C, which helps the body absorb iron from plant sources) that are vital for early development.
What did our ancestors actually eat?
It’s true that looking at how our ancestors ate can give us some great healthy eating principles, like focusing on whole foods, eating seasonally, and reducing ultra-processed foods.
However, historically, human diets were not just meat and fat. They were rich and varied, including plenty of gathered plant foods: roots, tubers (like potatoes), legumes, cereals, seeds, and seasonal fruits, alongside animal proteins.
Finding the balance in weaning
Weaning should never be about fear or restricting whole food groups. The ultimate goal is balance and variety.
Meat, poultry, and fish can be a good source of easily absorbable iron and zinc, which babies need from around 6 months. They’re absolutely great foods to include in your baby’s diet, if they’re part of your family’s diet too.
Carbohydrate containing foods like softly-cooked veggie sticks or mash, porridge fingers, and fruit are brilliant for energy, gut health, and teaching your baby about different flavours and textures.
While liver is extremely nutrient-dense and iron-rich, UK guidelines advise that liver and liver products (like pate) should be offered in moderation (usually no more than once a week) because it contains very high levels of Vitamin A, which can be toxic to babies in large amounts.
To Summarise
Don’t let social media trends make you second-guess yourself. You can absolutely offer your baby nourishing meat and broths alongside fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes.
Weaning is all about helping your baby to explore a wide variety of foods. It’s not only about meeting their nutritional needs, but also about developing all of the various skills involved in eating and enjoying the social aspect of mealtimes, too. There is no one ‘perfect’ diet that your baby should be following – offering a variety of foods from all food groups is the best way to ensure that they’re getting all of the nutrition they need.
If you are ever unsure about how to feed your baby, always seek advice from trusted, registered professionals such as a registered nutritionist, registered dietitian, or your health visitor.