When I had my first born, like many new mothers, I was overwhelmed and though I purposefully thought twice about many things, what to feed my son as his first food was not one of them. I was duped into the train of thought that a grain cereal, like rice or oat was the way to go.
By the time my daughter was born I had done my research and when she was ready to start eating solids at nine months, we started with some homemade vegetable purees. Though not a bad first choice, I now know that there is something better, which leads me to my third child, who started on his journey with food this morning. Enter the egg yolk.
Before getting into the whys, let me start by explaining some things. First, breast milk by far contains more nutrients and brain building substances than any solid food, so I don’t recommend starting solids until a baby is fully ready. I also believe that breast milk should be the main source of ‘food’ for a child’s first year of life and that the longer a child is nursed, the better off he or she is as far as receiving the benefits from the wonders of human milk. Second, we all do the best we can with the information that we have, so though I wish I had never given my firstborn junk in a box, rice cereal, I do not beat myself up about the choice that I made.
WHY NOT RICE CEREAL?
Any form of grain-based infant cereal should be avoided. “When flour is refined to make cereal, the most nutritious part of the grain is removed, so the flour essentially becomes a form of sugar”(Mercola).
According to Dr. Mercola, the Weston A Price Foundation, and many leading experts in the alternative health fields, “Feeding infants cereal has been associated with an increased risk of type 1 diabetes and may prime your baby’s appetite for a lifetime of processed carbs in the form of white bread, cookies and cakes. A diet based on these types of refined carbs is responsible for many bulging stomachs and fat rolls in thighs and chins, and even worse, high insulin levels that lead to diabetes and suppress two other important hormones — glucagons and growth hormones — that are responsible for burning fat and sugar and promoting muscle development, respectively. Insulin from excess carbohydrates promotes fat, and then wards off your body’s ability to lose that fat. Excess weight and obesity not only lead to heart disease but also a wide variety of other diseases later in life”(Mercola).
In addition, a baby’s digestive system is immature and does not produce a sufficient amount of the enzyme required to break down the carbohydrates of the grains (Nourishing Traditions).
WHY EGG YOLK?
Egg yolks supply essential nutrients important for the development of the brain, as they are rich in choline, good cholesterol and iron.
“Egg yolk supplies cholesterol needed for mental development as well as important sulphur-containing amino acids. Egg yolks from pasture-fed hens or hens raised on flax meal, fish meal or insects are also rich in the omega-3 long-chain fatty acids found in mother’s milk but which may be lacking in cow’s milk. These fatty acids are essential for the development of the brain. Parents who institute the practice of feeding egg yolk to baby will be rewarded with children who speak and take directions at an early age. The white, which contains difficult-to-digest proteins, should not be given before the age of one year. Small amounts of grated, raw organic liver may be added occasionally to the egg yolk after six months. This imitates the practice of African mothers who chew liver before giving it to their infants as their first food. Liver is rich in iron, the one mineral that tends to be low in mother’s milk possibly because iron competes with zinc for absorption” (Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD).
HOW TO PREPARE THE EGG
What you need:
1 Farm fresh, free range, organic egg. It is super important to make sure that the eggs you use come from healthy chickens on a grass fed diet. See more about this here: Drugs pumped into supermarket chickens.
1 pot of boiling water
optional – 1/2 teaspoon grated, frozen liver (frozen for at least 14 days)
How to cook a soft boiled egg:
Bring the water to a boil, place the egg in the water and set a timer for 4 1/2 minutes (time will vary depending on altitude). When the 4 1/2 minutes are up, take out the egg and run it under cold water so as not to burn your hands when peeling. Peel the egg and separate the egg white from the yolk, which will still be runny. Make sure that there is no white on the yolk. Grate the liver on top if so desired (as recommended by the Weston A. Price Foundation).
Feeding Baby:
The egg yolk is very rich, so do not give the whole yolk to the baby during his/her first time trying it. Start with one baby spoonful and increase by one spoonful each day until the baby works up to eating the whole yolk.
Yes, he likes it!
RECOMMENDED READING*: Nourishing Traditions and The Nourishing Traditions Book of Baby and Childcare
Works Cited
Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD. Nourishing Traditions. Washington D.C. New Trends Publishing. 1999.
Mercola. Get White Rice Out of Baby’s First Foods. December 2010. Web.
Sally Fallon and Mary Enig, PhD. Feeding Babies. December 2001. Web.
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Our baby is 4.5 months old and is very interested in eating. We gave him very small bites of avocado and banana a few times, and he enjoyed it. Is it too early to give him egg yolks? My wife doesn’t like the idea of runny yolks. Would it be okay to give him hard boiled egg yolk, or even egg yolk cooked in butter?
Why frozen liver ?
There is evidence to suggest that freezing it for at least 14 days will kill any pathogens.
I’m really at a loss as to what nutritious breakfasts I can give my 9 month old son other than egg yolk. Any suggestions please?
yes, look at some of the baby led weaning books! https://amzn.to/2KnhbLK
I’m having a lot of trouble separating the egg yolk from the egg white and get trace amounts of the egg white when I make the soft boiled egg. Is that fine? Also, is there any reason I couldn’t give a raw pastured egg yolk occasionally? That’s so much easier to seperate
As long it’s organic, either is fine.
How often should I give egg yolk? Everyday? Shaved liver? Everyday? Every few days? Thanks
2 or 3 times a week on the egg yolk, liver, 2 times
Good day, my baby is 5months old I breast fed her for just 3months due to the severe sore on my breast it started bleeding so I had to stop her and from that day I sorted giving her cereal and milk but my problem now is that she doesn’t grow well at all, she looks very slim and light, I have tried all I could but she isn’t increasing in size at all, I give her egg yolk 3times a day is it healthy? I feed her 8times everyday old I want her to increase in size old what can I do?
I wouldn’t give the egg yolk every day – once a day. If you are on FB let me know and I will give you a link to join a group that can give wonderful advice.
I feed my 5 month old with egg yolk prepared with cereal in liquid form, serve him with feeding bottle, he like and enjoy it, no reaction.
Hi! I started my dd with egg yolks at 10 months. The first 3 times it was just a little inside her bottom lip. No reaction. The 4th time (a few days later after the 3rd attempt, I noticed she had a little bit of hives just on her wrist about an hour and a half after ingesting half a teaspoon of mashed yolk with her fruit purée. We were outside on the grass prior to me noticing the hives. Could it be the egg or the grass? The hives disappeared maybe 10 minutes later on its own. I’m scared to give her yolk again in case it is the one that caused the reaction
Hello! It could be either. I would hold off on the egg yolk for now.
wow is nice giving my baby yolk,him like it so much bt him does nt have fat in his body what should I do
how old is he? what is his weight? You are concerned that he’s not eating fats?
I am considering feeding my baby egg yolks, but have read about increasing amounts of dioxines in organic eggs due to pollutions of our environment. It doesn’t seem a good option to feed my baby yolks just yet, as dioxins are accumulated in the body and is especially harmful for little ones. Authorities in Sweden, where I live, are looking into this, but I’m pretty certain this is a global problem as pollutions are everywhere and travel outside borders.
honestly, this is something that I have to look into!
Hello again,
I wrote to the authorities who are conducting these tests and their reply was that the increased amounts of dioxins in organically farmed eggs were due to the hens being fed a mix with fish in it to increase the amount of omega 3 in the eggs. If the hens are not fed fish then the level of dioxins are not as high.
Informative thanks for sharing im feeding egg yolk to my baby at five months and he is enjoying found no problem
I recently gave my 7 mo old soft boiled egg yolk for the first time – just a couple tastes from my finger tip. The next day he was vomiting all day and then had diarrhea. The Dr thought it was a virus since it lasted so long and it’s going around. A week later, I gave it to him again and he vomited 2 hours later. Now that I’m pretty sure he’s actually allergic to eggs, and I had to cut dairy from my diet when he was 6 weeks old because they found he was intolerant of that as well, I’m starting to be concerned that I’m going to have a whole host of problems with his health. Any tips you can give as far as avoiding future allergies? He’ll be 8 mo this week and so far as had avocado, sweet potato, butternut squash, pear, plum, peas and green beans. Also, he’s breast fed.
post this on our FB page for answers from the community 🙂
My baby girl has been eating egg yolk and homemade bone broth/stock for about a month and will be starting to go to Mothers Day Out in a few weeks. How can I prepare the yolk to take to school with her? Can I soft boil it the night before and refrigerate it or should I just wait to feed her when we get back home? I can’t find any information on preparing yolk ahead of time.
Thank you!
I honestly don’t know about the best way to prepare to eat later on…
Okay. Thank you.
Hi there I was wondering in reagrds to the raw liver, does it matter if it has been frozen for a few months? can I stiill grate this raw over my sons egg yolk I give him every morning? He loves egg yolks! I usually put some grass fed beef and some avacado and mix it all together to make a healthy scrambler for him and he loves it!!
Thanks! 🙂
yes, a few months frozen is ok!
Thanks so much! 🙂
how come you waited for 9 months to feed your baby egg yolk? if you go to radiantlifecatalog.com, Nourishing Traditions says that you can feed baby egg yolk at 4 months. also, how come you waited 8 months to feed your baby veggie puree? I’ve always heard you can start feeding baby food like that at 6 months.
these are just questions for my own knowledge. I am a new Mom, my baby boy is currently 3 months old. just want to make sure I’m doing things right.
…just want to add in I’m not able to breastfeed, he’s drinking formula
just saw this 🙂
Hello – up until babies are close to a year, breastmilk is all they actually need. Fed too soon is when issues with gas and poor digestion can occur. I waited until they were ready and started showing some interest. I’d wait til he shows interest, at least at 6 months…
Hello
Nice info. …I have just started giving yolk to my 9months old baby.
Can egg yolk be given daily?
Thanks in advance
I did it daily in the beginning as at that point you are starting with what’s just a spoonful. As you introduce more foods you can mix it up a bit.
My wife is very worried about the nutrition and the growth of our baby. I showed her this article and she started to make this.
There are some people who eat the white part of the egg but avoid taking the yolk. If they know the benefits of the yellow part, they will surely start to eat the yolk also.
Thank you !
My baby just turned 4 months a week ago and my pediatrician told me to mix egg yolk into her cereal cause of the iron and she needs alot of iron since she was a month premature. The doctor says she’s doing perfect since her birth cause she was 4 pounds and 4 ounces and now she is 11 pounds ! 🙂 but im not exactly sure how i should give her egg yolk? Any ideas?
you can give it plain like I describe in the post – beef liver is very high in iron too!
Just make sure eggs are a good organic brand!
I have been wanting to start this with my 5 month old daughter but I’m wondering if all the bacteria is killed when soft boiling. I have heard before that it doesn’t kill the bacteria unless the yolk is cooked completely and I can’t find to either confirm or deny that…any help out there?
I’m curious about this too, joining thread.
Interesting article. my LO is 6.5 month old and egg intolerant (found out after 2 months of crying) but not allergic. would that be ok to give him egg yolk then?
also I don’t understand this negativity towards rice, all asian’s first food is rice, including yours truly, rice with everything. and rice is low allergen. I don’t see too many obese asian kids compared to the west. would love to hear any thoughts out there. thank you!
As far as the egg, I do not know the answer, I would think no if intolerant – you don’t know which part he is intolerant to. As far as the rice, it doesn’t offer much nutrients (mind you, I am a big fan of rice as a side dish). In addition the rice being refereed to is the infant rice cereal, which is over processed and not used in the body the same way as whole rice.
I am Chinese with a 5 mo. I think historically, Asian cultures fed rice to their babies in the form of congee and perhaps properly soaked as well. My mom says the congee needs to be made in bone broth to offer nutrition. She agreed that rice doesn’t have that much nutrition. I am definitely serving congee over the supermarket rice cereal marketed to mom’s!
And thank you, Dawn, for this article. I’m excited to start giving my daughter a little egg yolk!
I have started giving my almost 5m old egg yolk 1x a day after her lunch feed. I am back at work and not able to breastfeed solely, so she is on some bottles of formula, and is a very hungry baby so I am hoping the egg yolk will satisfy her hunger. Any idea how long to go on like this before adding other foods? We are vegetarians, so I would probably start with butternut puree or something like that. And then would you do, say, butternut after the morning feed, egg yolk after lunch feed? Thanks
depends on the baby – 8 months is when I started with mine – yes butternut squash is a good one!
Can I give my baby 11 month, two egg yolks and can that be all for her breakfast beside breast milk?
yes!
my baby is not growing well.should i give her cod liver oil thanks
What does your doctor say and what do you mean by “not growing well”? Length, weight, etc? And how old is your baby? What does your baby’s daily diet look like?
i started giving my son egg yolk from the six month. i tried to give him softboil egg yolk but he refused it n he loved runny egg yolks.so i continued giving him runny yolk.now he is 1 yr n i m still giving runny egg yolks daily.so should i continue giving it or stop it.
you can keep giving it though, you don’t need to do it every day – 4 or 5 is good!
Hi. Over the weekend, we introduced egg yolk mixed with breast milk to our 5 1/2 month old. She loved it! I’m wondering, though, whether egg yolk and breast milk can be made into a puree and then frozen? I would like to be able to make a batch ahead of time so that she can enjoy her puree at day care. Thanks in advance for any advice!
sounds like a great idea!
On a blood test, I was shown to be slightly sensitive to eggs, but I’m not entirely sure what that means–to the white, the yolk, or the entire thing? I’m wondering if it is an allergy and if it is common to people to be sensitive to eggs? I love the idea of feeding our LO eggs, but I am hesitant…
My baby ia 6 months and we’ve decided to start her with egg yolk as her first food when she is ready to eat solids. I want to cook it soft boiled like your recipe but am reading about how soft boiled eggs aren’t fully cooked and and there could be a risk of salmonella. I wanted to hear your thoughts about that. We have a whole foods store where I can purchase a higher quality organic egg but it may not be from a local ranch. Thank you.
I just made a recipe that calls for the whites only, so I have some yolks leftover. How do I cook the yolks enough without soft boiling the entire egg?
My baby is 13 months old and I am trying to give her egg yolk but she refuse. Does anyone have any ideas that I can mix the yolk with?
avocado… peas, butternut squash
My baby is 4 months only 11 pounds for some reason not gaining wait. She is very alert very active. Trying to sit. I started boiling 3 tiny quail eggs and giving the yolk would that help plump her up a little. She wasn’t born tiny 2 oz, from 8 pounds. Thanx.
Thanks for sharing. I will be trying egg tomorrow with my 6.5 month old. When placing the egg in the boiling water wouldn’t it crack?I always thought the egg needed to be placed in cold water, then boil together?
I haven’t had that happen yet…
If baby does not finish the whole yolk do you discard what is remaining or is there a way to save it for the next time?
I do not save it – I eat it lol.
Does it have to be prepared soft boiled? My daughter rarely eats from a spoon and is used to feeding herself avocado and banana chunks. If the egg is hard boiled enabling my daughter to pick up the yolk to feed herself, will she still receive the same nutrients?
no, the nutrients are not the same. You can read more here: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2012/03/19/caged-vs-free-range-chicken-eggs.aspx
Dr. Mercola recently posted an article about eggs stating that scrambling eggs is the worst way to prepare them. That was how I always made them but I tried cooking them over-easy the day I read it and my 5YO and 3YO loved them. I cook them this way for my 7MO, give him the yolk and eat the whites myself. Education truly never stops!
I love you so much right now! I am so happy to see there is another mommy out there who knows this, than you for writing this article and doing your research! Creating awareness, especially about the pure sugar cereals is a must, we are creating future health problems. Adele Davis says in one of her books, you might as well place a bowl of sugar in front of your baby. Well done, I am officially a fan!!!
I found it very difficult to make sure no egg white was in it. I would try cooking my egg longer and then it would get too hard. I would feed as much to her as possible without getting the egg white but I feel a number of times she did get some egg white. I hope I haven’t set her up for an egg allergy. She was 6 mths when I first tried but 9 months when she started. She will not take egg now at 11 months. She broke out in hives the other day and it wasn’t a day I gave her eggs but could an allergy have a delayed reaction?
no, would not have been a delayed reaction – the allergy would show while eating it. Sometimes kids get tired of the same foods. I have been giving my son a scrambled whole egg for a couple of months now and he is not yet 1 year. My pediatrician says that it’s fine and he does well with it.
how old was your 3rd when you first started giving him yolk!?
7 months
I have just started my lil 20 week on egg yolk 3 days ago. How often should I feed the egg yolk daily and should I continue everyday until she can start eating other foods at 6 months?
I forgot to mention my baby is currently EB… I was thinking of also introducing organic banana, what do you think? Is it safe as this age?
I would start with something that needs to be cooked. Her digestive system isn’t developed enough to break down the cell walls of food properly, where as cooking something helps to start that process. You can wait 2 or 3 more months for food, unless you think she is hungry for it.
Once daily. Yes, you can continue ever day 🙂
Is it safe to give yolk at around 7 pm?
Not sure exactly what you are wanting to know? Would this be the first time introducing it?
No .my do is 11 months now and he has been eating it from 8 months. I give it at around 7 pm before his dinner and heard that it isn’t good to give it that late Coz of digestive issues. But I have been giving him for long and he is just find.so just wanted to know ur opinion
great info! can i give my 5month old baby cod liver oil? i will give her the egg yolk today and see how she takes it. i gave her cereal and it gave her bad constipation, i have stopped. she breastfeeds and refuses formula
Hi, Fab info 🙂 I started my daughter at 6 months on egg yolk she started really well and enjoyed it but has all of a sudden refused to eat it are there other options as to mixing the egg yolk with something else so she can still get all the nutrients? thanks
I separate the fresh yolk, mix with small amount of homemade chicken and vegetable stock as well as some soft tofu. Mix well and sift. Then I pour the mixture into a ceramic bowl and steam it. It become a lovely silky custard like consistency my baby loves to eat!
Great idea!!!! Thanks for sharing. How do you steam it?
How do you cook the liver and where do you find it?
You need to make sure it’s grass fed and organic – whole foods sometimes has it, or local organic farms. There are also farms who ship organic meats. You have to call around and ask what’s local to you. In the raw form – the most nutrients. Has to be frozen first for at least 14 days. That will kill any bacteria.
Did you mean, ‘need to make sure it’s grass fed and organic’? I thought in general, it’s best to avoid grain fed animals?
in my comment – grass – I fixed it – was typing while nursing – not a good mix for many reasons and something I do not usually do (feeding baby while in front of a computer)!
This was very nice info! Thanks! 🙂 My youngest is 11mo and BLW and breastfed, but the discussions about egg comes up now and again in mum groups. 🙂 Thank you for sharing. 😀