Help please!! Kidney beans to 1 year old??

lemonade_money

Hi all, whilst talking to a friend earlier, I mentioned that I was cooking chilli con carne for dinner - and she asked if my son would be eating it too. I said yes of course, as I no longer cook separate meals for him. She told me he cannot eat kidney beans as, at his age (he's a few months over one), he is too young Is this true?

I'm scared to add the kidney beans...........and dinner is cooking....! What do you suggest please???

Trow

Pay no attention. I haven't heard of this, and my kids survived kidney beans.

I did a search just in case there was anything, and came across this site:
http://www.bounty.com/Articles/Bounty/PDF/Your%20New%20Born/The%20first%20taste.aspx

Which recommends red kidneys beans between 6 and 9 months as a weaning food.

lemonade_money

Thanks for that. Will throw in the kidney beans now. I couldn't think of a reason why they would be 'bad'!

Barneysmom

I think she might have been paniking?
As you know kidney beans have to be boiled for 20 minutes to kill of any toxins, but that's true of a lot of beans.

lemonade_money

thanks Barneysmom, they're out of a tin I'm too scared to use packet ones but one day I will be a convert, they're much cheaper than the tins

Barneysmom

I do tinned ones too, smartprice, a bean is a bean.

thriftlady_2

Barneysmom wrote: »

I think she might have been paniking?
As you know kidney beans have to be boiled for 20 minutes to kill of any toxins, but that's true of a lot of beans.

Ooops, I always thought it was 10 minutes. We're about to eat some that I fast-boiled for only 10 mins -think I'll risk it though;)

Total nonsense about not giving them to 1 year olds -mine all survived them too.

Barneysmom

I just found this

Health note: Red kidney beans contain a toxin called Phytohaemagglutinin (Kidney Bean Lectin) that causes severe gastric distress, including nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Under-cooked beans can be more toxic than raw and it only takes 4 to 6 beans to bring on symptoms. Cannellini and Fava beans also contain this toxin but in much smaller amounts.
Kidney Beans are perfectly safe if properly prepared. First, soak Red Kidney beans for a minimum of 5 hours and then drain and discard the soaking water. For stovetop cooking, add fresh water or broth to a level about 2" higher than the beans, bring beans to a boil and boil briskly for at least 10 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until thoroughly cooked, about 2 hours.

http://www.wholefoodsmarket.com/recipes/kitchentips/beans.html#kidney

Mander

I'm just wondering if anyonw has ever actually had this problem. Maybe slow cookers in the UK tend to be a lower temperature, but I've been eating kidney beans all my life and I've never even heard of this toxin problem until I moved to the UK. My parents, and my Mexican neighbors (I'm American) always just tossed dried beans (kidney, pinto, navy, white, whatever) straight from the packet into the crock pot, and I've never had any problems beyond what you might expect from eating a lot of beans for dinner.

I don't doubt that the problem exists, I just wonder how common it is. I got some beans from Waitrose, I think, with a rather alarming warning, but that was the first I'd ever heard of such a thing. I'm just curious if anyone has actually experienced any trouble.

MRSTITTLEMOUSE

My children and grand children have all eaten kidney beans from being babies and they never got sick.I even used to cook them from raw as tinned used to be quite expensive years ago and no one was ever poorly.I think your'e friend is being a tad over anxious.Take no notice and if your'e using tinned they are ready to eat anyway so why the worry.