Tuna fish and toddlers….
With all the mercury warnings and such, I get asked fairly often if it’s ok for toddlers to eat tuna at all. The FDA says that young children should:
* not eat any shark, swordfish, king mackerel, or tilefish
* eat only two average servings (6 ounces per serving for adults, but more like 2-3 for toddlers) a week of fish that are lower in mercury, including shrimp, canned light tuna, salmon, pollock, and catfish.
Since albacore (’white’) tuna has more mercury than canned light tuna, adults should eat only up to six ounces of albacore tuna and tuna steak each week.
So, it’s up to you, it appears that a bit of tuna is fairly safe (if they want a few bites of tuna salad sandwich once in a great while, I don’t see that being a huge problem), but I wouldn’t consider it a food that I’d serve to my little guy. If he has a few bites, I’m not going to freak out or anything, but it’s not on his menu at home.
Tell me in comments how you feel about feeding tuna to your toddler….
November 16th, 2006 at 3:22 pm
Feeding as much tuna as I want to my kids is absolutely safe. They refuse to eat any of it.