Can Babies Eat Kraft Mac & Cheese? This Comfort Food Is Safe For Your Little One

Can Babies Eat Kraft Mac­a­roni and Cheese Babies and tod­dlers present par­ents with plen­ty of dietary chal­lenges, like keep­ing them well nour­ished with a vari­ety of whole­some foods that lit­tle ones will hap­pi­ly eat. Some­times it seems like the moment they’re ready for eat­ing in a high chair they start spit­ting out every sec­ond item they’re fed! What’s a par­ent to do? Mac and cheese – both the home­made kind and Kraft Mac­a­roni & Cheese – are pop­u­lar choic­es in house­holds nation­wide. After all, babies and tod­dlers love this deli­cious com­fort food, usu­al­ly, and it’s one of the most eco­nom­i­cal options on gro­cery store shelves these days. Even teens and young adults love Kraft Din­ner (as it’s called in Cana­da, while it’s called Cheesey Pas­ta in the U.K.), espe­cial­ly dur­ing those col­lege years when 20-some­things leave home and start cook­ing for themselves. But should you give your baby or tod­dler Kraft Mac & Cheese? Is it a safe alter­na­tive to home­made mac­a­roni and cheese? Or should you be giv­ing your lit­tle one mac and cheese at all, regard­less of whether it’s store-bought or homemade? These are ques­tions many par­ents are ask­ing, par­tic­u­lar­ly those who are par­ents for the first time, as well as those who are deal­ing with a very fussy eater. Here at Seize Your Life Today we decid­ed to take a good, long look at this top­ic and tell our read­ers what we’ve learned. We want you to know every­thing we dis­cov­ered about babies, tod­dlers and nutri­tion, and whether this quick and fill­ing meal option is healthy for your baby or tod­dler. Let’s dive into what the experts are saying!

At What Age Can You Give Your Baby Mac and Cheese?

Accord­ing to the Unit­ed States Drug Admin­is­tra­tion (USDA) it’s safe to offer your baby mac and cheese once they are about eight months old. If they can almost stand up by them­selves and walk from table tops to chairs pulling them­selves along, it’s fine to give them pasta. Some babies reach that stage at sev­en months, but the key thing to remem­ber is this: experts say don’t offer it to them before they can hold them­selves in a ver­ti­cal posi­tion. If your baby is small or was born pre­ma­ture­ly, you might want to wait a month or two longer. As always, if you just aren’t sure, ask your doctor.

Is Kraft Mac & Cheese Safe For Your Baby or Toddler?

The short answer is yes! Mac and cheese is a nutri­tious, quick meal for your baby or tod­dler, and gives them plen­ty of nutri­ents to keep them going for hours. Most recipes for mac and cheese (includ­ing Kraft Din­ner) call elbow mac­a­roni, cheese, but­ter, milk and a lit­tle salt. If you’re con­cerned that your lit­tle one may choke on pieces of mac­a­roni that are too large for them, by all means, cut up the pas­ta into small pieces until you’re con­fi­dent they can swal­low a whole piece.

Should You Worry About Additives?

At one time, Kraft Mac­a­roni & Cheese did con­tain cer­tain preser­v­a­tives that mod­ern par­ents, con­cerned about giv­ing their babies and tod­dlers the most whole­some food pos­si­ble, might have shied away from. For­tu­nate­ly, that is no longer a con­cern with Kraft Mac & Cheese. In 2016, Kraft Heinz (the par­ent com­pa­ny of Kraft Mac & Cheese) altered its list of ingre­di­ents for this much-loved prod­uct. It removed all dyes, preser­v­a­tives and addi­tives and put in their place nat­ur­al spices like papri­ka and turmer­ic to main­tain the flavour and colour. Accord­ing to an arti­cle in CNN Busi­ness in March of that year, the irony was that no one – not con­sumers and not indus­try insid­ers – even noticed. This world­wide favourite menu sta­ple tast­ed exact­ly the same as it always did, but it’s been even health­i­er for years. That means Kraft Mac­a­roni and Cheese is now an even health­i­er meal for your baby or tod­dler than it was when it was first brought to mar­ket in 1937.

What About Allergens?

Kraft Mac & Cheese, just like home­made ver­sions, is made with cheese, but­ter and cow’s milk; these three ingre­di­ents are added once the mac­a­roni is cooked. Should you wor­ry about giv­ing these poten­tial aller­gens to your kids? The cur­rent think­ing pro­vid­ed by the Amer­i­can Pedi­atric Asso­ci­a­tion says there is no need to wor­ry. At one time, not all that long ago, the pre­dom­i­nant atti­tude in chil­dren’s nutri­tion cir­cles was to avoid foods that could trig­ger an aller­gic reac­tion. Peanuts and peanut but­ter are a prime exam­ple of this attitude. But that think­ing on this has changed. Most experts now rec­om­mend that par­ents give their chil­dren a vari­ety of foods that once were off the menu, start­ing as soon as they’re ready to con­sume things oth­er than mom’s milk or for­mu­la. Cow’s milk is a good exam­ple of this. Pedi­a­tri­cians and nutri­tion­ists these days sug­gest let­ting your lit­tle one try every­thing; in fact, this is a way you can help build their immu­ni­ty and low­ers the risk that they will devel­op aller­gies. How­ev­er, this approach to let­ting wee ones try every­thing is not uni­ver­sal­ly accepted. Some stud­ies sug­gest wait­ing until your child is a year old before intro­duc­ing them to poten­tial­ly aller­gic foods, includ­ing dairy products. If you have any mis­giv­ings about prepar­ing Kraft Mac & Cheese for your baby or tod­dler or mak­ing it your­self, talk to your doc­tor or pedi­a­tri­cian. They will address your con­cerns and offer you the lat­est research into any pos­si­ble aller­gic reac­tions that could arise from mac and cheese.

Try These Additions To Kraft Macaroni & Cheese

Does your baby or tod­dler love Kraft Din­ner, but do you think adding a lit­tle vari­ety in the type you serve might be good in terms of nutri­tion? You’re not alone! Serv­ing mac and cheese with cer­tain veg­gies or even a wee bit of meat is per­fect­ly fine. Here are sev­er­al ways to add extra nutri­tion and vari­ety to your lit­tle one’s lunchtime meal of Kraft Mac & Cheese:

• Add a Little Cooked, Chopped Broccoli

Steam a few flo­rets and chop them into small bite-size pieces. This is a great way to ensure your child gets extra nutri­tion from veg­eta­bles – plen­ty of vit­a­mins and minerals.

• Add a Little Meat

Whether it’s diced chick­en breast or a lit­tle ground beef, putting in a small amount of meat gives your child extra pro­tein that keeps them going for hours.

• Use a Little Shredded Mozzarella In Your Mac and Cheese

Even if you’re mak­ing the Kraft ver­sion, sprin­kle a bit of moz­zarel­la on top, just for a change. It’s got a mild flavour that most kids love, and it lends a slight­ly dif­fer­ent taste to the meal. Now that you know that Kraft Mac­a­roni and Cheese is a deli­cious and nutri­tious meal option for your baby or tod­dler, you might want to stock up and keep sev­er­al box­es on hand for those days when you’re pressed for time – and let’s be hon­est, when are par­ents of lit­tle ones not pressed for time? Kraft Din­ner is an excel­lent choice for either lunch or sup­per, and you need­n’t feel guilty that it’s “store-bought.” Every­thing in it is whole­some and nutritious. Occa­sion­al­ly, how­ev­er, you might want to make a ver­sion of mac and cheese from scratch. For those times, we offer here an easy recipe for you, which you can make in larg­er amounts so a few por­tions can go in the fridge or freez­er. We found this stove­top recipe online and offer it here because it’s fast, easy and kid-friendly!

Stove Top Mac & Cheese For Kids Of All Ages

Ingredients:

• One pound of elbow macaroni.
• 4 table­spoons of butter.
• 3 table­spoons of all-pur­pose flour.
• 2 cups of whole milk.
• 8 ounces shred­ded cheese – we use cheddar.
• 1/8th of a tea­spoon of gar­lic and onion pow­der. (Option­al).
• 1/2 tea­spoon of salt.

Preparation instructions:

• Cook the pas­ta accord­ing to the pack­age ingre­di­ents. Once cooked, drain and set aside. We use elbow mac­a­roni, but oth­er short noo­dle types work nice­ly too. You can always cut them up before serving.
• Melt the but­ter in a large saucepan under low heat. Add flour slow­ly, whisk­ing con­stant­ly. The mix­ture will thick­en and start to bubble.
• Add the milk and sea­son­ings. Keep whisk­ing until the sauce is thick and smooth. If the milk is cold, turn the heat up slight­ly under the pan.
• Once the sauce is ready, pour it over the cooked mac­a­roni. Stir vig­or­ous­ly, and serve immediately.

This recipe makes a big enough batch that you’ll have left­overs on hand for the next day.

In Summary

We know that as a par­ent, you’re mind­ful of how to feed your baby or tod­dler the best foods, ones that they’ll enjoy and ask for time and time again. Mac­a­roni and cheese is def­i­nite­ly one of those foods! Mak­ing Kraft Din­ner or occa­sion­al­ly mak­ing a slight­ly dif­fer­ent home­made ver­sion is an excel­lent way to ensure your child gets all the nutri­tion they need. And old­er kids love it too, so if you’re feed­ing a brood of dif­fer­ent ages, Kraft Mac­a­roni & Cheese is always a pop­u­lar option. Is there an ingre­di­ent you add to mac and cheese we haven’t men­tioned? We love hear­ing from our read­ers, so let us know, and we’ll be sure to pass it along!

Easy 3‑Ingredient Mac and Cheese Recipe (One Pot)