The Complete Guide to Baby Food and Product Safety

LabelBaby exists to make two different jobs easier for parents: knowing what's actually in the food, formula, and snacks you feed your baby, and knowing what's in the diapers, wipes, and other products around your baby every day. This guide is the starting point for both — pick a topic below.

Feeding and nutrition

Start here if you're working out when to introduce solids, which cereal or formula to choose, or how to judge a baby-food brand's ingredient list.

• 6 Month Old Eating Plan — a simple first-month schedule for starting solids.
• Baby Cereal — when to start, which grain to choose, and how to read the label.
• How to Judge Baby Food Brands — what actually separates a good jar from a bad one.
• Yogurt Melts and Baby Snacks — which ones are worth buying.
• Enfamil vs Similac — how the formulas actually differ.

Product safety

Start here for the products that touch your baby's skin and immediate environment rather than what they eat.

• Are Diapers Toxic? — Pampers, Huggies, and Honest compared honestly.
• Baby Wipes Ingredients to Avoid — what "chemical-free" really means.
• Gripe Water vs Gas Drops — what's the difference, and which should you use?
• How to Check if Baby Food Is Recalled — where recalls are posted, matching lot codes, and getting alerts.

Foods and drinks the CDC says to avoid or limit

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention lists several things to avoid or limit for infants and toddlers. Honey should not be given before 12 months because it can cause infant botulism, and cow's milk and juice should also wait until after 12 months. Infants and young children should have no added sugars, sugar-sweetened drinks and caffeinated drinks should be avoided under 24 months, and unpasteurized milk, yogurt, cheese and juice should be avoided. The CDC also advises avoiding high-sodium foods and the highest-mercury fish, such as king mackerel, marlin, orange roughy, shark, swordfish, bigeye tuna and tilefish from the Gulf of Mexico.

For the reasoning behind each item, see our first-year ingredient guide and toddler ingredient guide, where every rating has a written explanation and sources.

None of these guides replace your pediatrician's advice, especially for a premature baby, a diagnosed allergy, or a specific feeding or medical plan. For a specific product on your shelf right now that isn't covered here, scanning it with LabelBaby gives you the same ingredient-level, age-appropriate analysis in a few seconds.