Medically speaking, it is safe to serve food that has not been warmed up. Whether you heat food or serve it cold is not so much a matter of health as it is one of your baby’s preferences.
Follow Food Safety Guidelines
Modern food safety standards for commercial foods, including baby food, ensure that it’s perfectly safe to take packaged baby food straight from the grocery shelf and feed it to your baby. The same applies to any prepared food you make so long as it has been thoroughly cooked and properly stored. You’ll want to follow the same food safety rules that you use for any food, such as refrigerating perishables, properly wrapping leftovers, avoiding cross-contamination, cooking meats thoroughly, and discarding unused items that are no longer fresh.
Try a Variety of Food Temperatures
Offering your baby food at a variety of temperatures can help them explore food in a new way, which in turn can help them become more flexible eaters. Serving cool or room temperature meals can also make feeding your child much more convenient, cut down on preparation time, and streamline the serving of on-the-go meals. While this typically refers to a variety of types of foods, temperature variations can also be a fun way for your baby to explore their preferences and to experience the difference in food when it’s cold versus when it’s warm. Some babies won’t be bothered by eating cooler foods while others will protest. Both breast milk and formula are warm, which leads some babies to develop a preference for a warmer temperature of food. If this is the case with your little one, opting for mostly warm food at a meal and offering one cooler item can be a great way to gently expose them to different temperatures. To acclimate them to cooler food, try exposing your baby to the variation gradually. It can take trying the same food 12 or more times over several weeks for some babies to grow to like certain foods or meal temperatures. While it may be a challenge at first, if you persist, your child will usually soon tolerate, or even enjoy, eating food at a variety of temperatures. Respect your baby’s preferences and ease them into trying different temperatures. There might be some foods that they simply prefer eating at a warmer temperature (which is also the case for adults). Encouraging your baby to become comfortable with a variety of food temperatures is not only helpful for expanding their palate but also for ensuring you’ll have options when you’re not home. For example, on an outing you might not be able to warm up their food, It can make life much simpler to have the option of feeding your baby food right out of the fridge or straight from the jar.
Decide When to Warm Food
It’s perfectly fine to decide to routinely serve certain foods warm. This is, of course, a matter of personal preference. But it’s worth considering that some foods may taste better warm than cold (and vice versa). While this tends to be less of a problem with commercially jarred foods, it may be a concern with certain home-prepared foods. In addition, if you’re using the baby-led weaning style of feeding, you’re likely offering your baby something similar to what the rest of the household is eating. Other family member’s preferences for the temperature of food might factor in, too. These include starchy purees, like potatoes or rice-based foods, which can have an unpleasant grittiness or mealiness when served chilled. Gravy-based foods also tend to get gluey when refrigerated and can benefit from a bit of warming to make them more palatable. If ever in doubt as to whether you should warm baby food or not, use your own food tastes and customs as a guideline. If you typically serve green beans warm, by all means, serve them to your baby warm. If your family prefers ham as cold cuts rather than baked, do the same for your baby. Again, these choices are up to you as you introduce your child to a world of cuisine options.
Heat Baby Food Safely
Serving food cool or at room temperature has the added benefit of eliminating the risk of burning your baby’s mouth. Since babies can’t test the temperature of their food before eating it, you’ll need to do it for them. Be aware that heated food might not be consistent in temperature and can contain hotspots. Always stir food thoroughly and let stand for 30 seconds before testing the temperature yourself, especially if you used a microwave to heat it. Hotspots in food are particularly common with microwaved food. There are also some foods that should not be microwaved, such as meat, meat sticks, or eggs. In addition, pureed baby foods should not be microwaved in the jar but rather transferred to a microwave-safe dish.
Serve and Store Baby Food Safely
Never feed your baby straight from the jar of baby food, as it can lead to bacterial contamination. Instead, put a serving of food into a bowl and feed your baby from the dish. Store the closed jar in the fridge. Commercially prepared jarred foods are safe as long as the vacuum seal is intact. Before opening a jar, always check that the vacuum seal has not been popped and listen for the slight whoosh of air entering as you open the lid. Once opened, any leftovers should be refrigerated for no longer than two to three days, depending on the food. Strained meat and eggs can be stored for 1 day, strained fruits and veggies can be stored for two to three days, and meat and veggie combinations, as well as homemade baby food purees, can be stored for one to two days. Discard any unused food after these periods have passed.
A Word From Verywell
The key to deciding the right temperature at which to serve baby food is to listen to your gut and your baby. Convenience, culture, and personal preference all come into play but know that, aside from following basic food safety guidelines, no other rules matter except what works for you and your baby. Enjoy this time to explore food through your baby’s eyes. While they might not be talking yet, babies can certainly communicate that they are enjoying something! Explore a variety of foods with them is not only a great way to teach them how to eat but also to share some special time with them.
