Seafood Recommendations for Kids

Disclosure: This post is sponsored by the Honey Smoked Fish Company . My family has loved this product for years, so I am thankful for the chance to partner with this company to share more about seafood intake for families. As always, all opinions are my own.

 

Many infants are started on omega supplements due to the importance of omega-3 fatty acids for brain and eye health. However too often, after infancy, families forget to assume a food-first approach to ensuring their child’s nutritional needs are met. Once solids have been introduced and common allergens (like fish and shellfish) have been deemed safe to consume, a toddler’s diet can expand to regularly include a variety of seafood, including Honey Smoked Salmon.

 
seafood recommendations for kids.png
 

This article will help parents better understand the nutritional benefits of seafood, as well as what amount is both safe and suitable for meeting your child’s nutritional needs (while addressing concerns like mercury exposure and added salt). Additionally, we discuss delicious ways to include Honey Smoked Salmon in your upcoming holiday gatherings (no matter how big or small they are this year). So whether you are learning to like salmon for yourself or wanting to expose your child to some new, nutritious foods over the school break, you will also find plenty of healthy ideas the whole family can enjoy!

 

Winner, Winner SALMON Dinner

Fatty fish, like salmon, is a good source of omega-3 essential fatty acids in the diet for families who choose to eat it. But for adults who haven’t learned to like seafood or haven’t started including it into their children’s weekly diets, there is a missed opportunity to use foods first for filling such critical nutritional gaps. Offering an excellent source of protein and varying amounts of other important vitamins A, B, and D as well as minerals like selenium, iodine, zinc, and iron, every age and stage of the life cycle can benefit from eating the recommended amount of seafood.


Seafood Recommendations for Kids

Based on the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, adults should eat 8 ounces of a variety of seafood weekly. This translates to one 4 ounce serving approximately two times per week (based on a 2,000 calorie diet).

For children ages 2-11, the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) recommends serving fish 1-2 times per week. Based on a child’s age, calorie intake, and nutritional needs, a serving is 1 ounce at age 2 and increases with age to 4 ounces by age 11. On average, the FDA suggests a serving size is as follows:

  • 2 to 3 years: 1 oz

  • 4 to 7 years: 2 oz

  • 8 to 10 years: 3 oz

  • 11+ years: 4 oz

Unfortunately, despite the nutritional benefits of seafood (like salmon), the USDA reports that the average intake of seafood in adults is 2.7 ounces per week (or one-third of what is recommended). With parents not consuming the recommended amount of seafood, it is no surprise that children are also falling short. Recent trends show that only 6% of kids ages 2-19 are consuming seafood at least twice weekly. A technical report from the American Academy of Pediatrics reports that, “most fish, with some notable exceptions, have favorable nutritional and overall health qualities compared with other forms of animal protein.” However, families continue to struggle to include seafood as a regular part of their families diet.

So why aren’t more families eating more seafood? A few reasons are commonly seen in the research and often sent to me as inquiries. I will address five main areas regarding seafood consumption and more specifically Honey Smoked Salmon below.


How much seafood is safe for kids?

Mercury in Seafood

Starting when a woman first becomes pregnant and is advised against consuming seafood high in mercury, mothers in particular seem to have a high level of fear and uncertainty around what seafood is safe to eat - first for themselves in their child-bearing years and later once introduced to their children in infancy and thereafter. However, such misinformation and confusion is a big reason why women do not consume enough seafood during pregnancy, children are not exposed to seafood early on, and later families do not consume the recommended amount.

That’s why we want to consider a few important factors. One, the Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend a variety of seafood weekly. Just as we want to diversify the types of protein we eat and all other foods we offer, we also want to be aware that we can lessen the risk of mercury in the diet by eating from a variety of seafood options. Rather than live in fear over such options, download this simple guide as a reference for what your best seafood choices are. This will advise you on which your safest options are, including seafood like salmon.

You can learn more about the contaminants in fish here.

Sustainability of Seafood

As more seafood intake is recommended, sustainable seafood practices are also necessary to keep up with the supply and demand of seafood - including salmon (second only to shrimp). As the majority of salmon consumed in the United States shifts from wild-caught to farmed, consumers want to consider the quality of the seafood they are consuming including the sustainability practices being used by such fisheries. Products like Honey Smoked Salmon are becoming more and more widely available in stores like Costco, HEB, Kroger and Walmart. However, Honey Smoked Salmon is sourced from BAP certified sustainable ocean farms. The eco-friendly aquacultural certification practices used by the Honey Smoked Fish Co allow them to participate in responsible farming processes that allows fish to be sustainably raised in parts of the ocean that are free from the kinds of toxins, metals and pollutants that have become a problem with wild fish. The Honey Smoked Fish Co works with Salmon farms are also continually relocated to avoid overfishing and allow ecosystems to return to their natural state.

You can learn more about such third-party certification here.

Sodium in Seafood

According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, seafood like salmon can be added to your child’s diet when solids are first introduced. However, early on in infancy the priority of introducing fish and shellfish is several fold. We want to expose them to a variety of types of seafood, ensure they are free from allergic reactions, and offer seafood in forms that are safe for developing self-feeding skills. However, with an infant’s sodium recommendations being only 400 mg per day, this leaves very little room from processed or packaged seafood. Since breastmilk and/or formula contributes some sodium to the diet (around 200 mg), seafood introduced under one year of age should include options like freshly prepared seafood seasoned with sodium-free herbs and spices. If you are offering a canned or premade seafood option, opt for one with no-added salt.

You can learn more about how to limit sodium in infancy here.

After age one, sodium recommendations increase and become a bit more liberal to account for the increase in calories also consumed. Such sodium recommendations include:

  • 1 to 2 years: less than 800 mg

  • 2 to 3 years: less than 1,500 mg

  • 4 to 8 years: less than 1,900 mg

  • 9 to 13 years: less than 2,200 mg

  • 14+ years: less than 2,300 mg

While the US sodium standards are set higher than in places like the UK, the goal isn’t to consume more sodium but rather quite the opposite. Seeing how some data suggests a 9-fold increase in sodium intake between 12-24 months, our goal in transitioning our infants into young children is to continue to expose them to a variety of nutrient-dense foods that positively shape their taste preferences for health. So, although you may begin to season your child’s foods with more commonly used herbs, spices, and sauces - including those with added salt, ultimately we want to remain mindful of what premade, packaged, or prepared foods we purchase at the store or choose when eating out at restaurants.

Top sources of sodium in the diet include bread products, savory snack items, pizza, soups and sauces, cheeses and other dairy products, and cold cuts like processed meats to name a few. When we consider how seafood fits into such sodium recommendations, we ought to consider nutrient-rich and yet high-sodium options like canned tuna or salmon, fish sticks, and smoked fish as well as other high-sodium lunch staples that often come into the diet during this impressionable window.

Per serving (as listed on the package), Honey Smoked Salmon contains 420 mg sodium per 2-ounce (56 g) serving. Noting the serving sizes of seafood for kids, a younger child may eat only one ounce (equaling half this amount of sodium per serving) where an older child may consume a larger portion (as their caloric needs and sodium recommendations also increase).

Because the percent daily value of sodium listed on a nutrition facts labels is indicated for a 2,000 calorie diet (being higher than what many young kids need), it is better to be evaluating your child’s diet in terms of the balance between the foods you are offering that have no sodium (less than 5 mg per serving), low-sodium (less than 140 mg per serving), or high-sodium (600 mg sodium per 100 g serving). As with everything in the diet, parents ought to weigh the nutritional benefits of the foods being offered to best maximize the nutritional real estate such options take up in their child’s diet. Offering foods that are higher in sodium, like Honey Smoked Salmon, maximizes the nutritional benefits of seafood over other commonly offered items.

Including some high-sodium seafood options amidst freshly prepared (or leftover homemade) seafood dinners is a great way to balance what is nutritionally ideal with what is more commonly the reality of families needing nutrient-dense, ready-made options as well. I encourage families, as I practice with my own, to enjoy Honey Smoked Salmon as a delicious option on rotation in place of other high-sodium foods that offer fewer nutritional benefits. For example, Honey Smoked Salmon is my husband’s go-to to offer our three kids (ages 2, 4, and 6) when I am out of the house at lunchtime because it’s fully cooked and  ready-to-eat right out of the package. Knowing the alternatives would probably be other options like grilled cheese or quesadillas otherwise, having Honey Smoked Salmon on hand is always my preferred dietitian mom choice.

 
Sodium in Smoked Salmon.png
 


Taste of Seafood

Sometimes helping our children (and ourselves) learn to like new foods requires us to branch out beyond the most simple (and low-sodium) options. This might include items that are more flavorful, including those that have been smoked, cured, or processed like Honey Smoked Salmon.

While taste preferences are set early on in life, so are parental feeding behaviors (like bribing, pressuring, forcing, or permissively feeding less nourishing options in the face of defeat). We want our children to learn to like fatty fish from an early age and that starts in infancy with including home cooked, no-salt-added salmon when solids are introduced. As infants grow and exert their own food preferences (for better or worse), the habit of regularly including seafood in our diets needs to remain. Offering foods that may be more palatable to kids (like Honey Smoked Salmon) may help us to regularly offer seafood in these formative years when families need accessible, ready-to-eat, nourishing options.

For most processed meats, the American Institute of Cancer Research suggests limiting consumption of red meat and eating little, if any, processed meats like deli meat, hot dogs, and breakfast sausages. Foods like Honey Smoked Salmon, however, are a more healthy alternative and effective option for introducing children to the nutritional benefits of seafood (when say they might be learning to like grilled or baked salmon). Honey Smoked Salmon is hot smoked in small batches (120lbs at a time) over natural hickory wood. The smoke box is cured with honey so that a sweeter, honey taste is in the smoke without adding added sugar to the product we eat and enjoy.

Additionally for picky eaters (such as my own) who do not eat enough foods high in omega fatty acids, Honey Smoked Salmon  offers a food-based alternative to an omega supplement. This allows me to expose my children to the nutritional benefits of seafood as they learn to like a variety of other fish and shellfish options. Additionally, with a less fishy taste or smell than some freshly prepared seafood, it can be a helpful way to change kids (and parents!) minds about fatty fish so that it becomes a more accepted and even enjoyed part of the diet.


Cooking Seafood

The reality is, many families are unfamiliar with how to cook seafood. While certain companies have taken the guesswork out of buying it and providing suggestions on how to prepare it, many parents still hesitate to spend money on fresh seafood only to not know what to do with it. This brings us back to the fact that many families are not eating enough seafood each week.

While I have a variety of favorite homemade preparations for salmon specifically, many recipes for seafood have high amounts of added sodium (including this favorite recipe). So as with everything, we need to be aware of both the sodium we are adding to our foods as well as that which has been added during food processing.

For those who want seafood they don’t have to cook, you can find Honey Smoked Salmon as a ready-to-eat option now available in a variety of stores local to you. This holiday season, consider challenging yourself (if not yet a seafood lover) and your children to trying more seafood, including salmon and smoked salmon.

Particularly if you or your children are learning to like salmon, the following recipes can help you to experiment with flavor combinations that make Honey Smoked Salmon a more neutral-flavored seafood option. Additionally, as a ready-to-eat store bought option, you can impress family members or guests by offering it as a simple holiday dish. This makes for easy entertaining and a straight-forward way to make sure no salmon gets wasted as your family learns to like it (if it takes you any time to, that is!).


Here are some simple ways to offer and enjoy Honey Smoked Salmon:


In Closing

Salmon is a food that ideally all families learn to like. If you are intimated about where to start or how to prepare though, look for Honey Smoked Salmon as a ready-to-eat option at a store near you. This gives you a delicious, nutritious way to introduce your kids (and yourself!) to salmon at breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks, as well as a crowd-pleasing, low-effort option for holiday entertaining. So as we close out a weird 2020 and get closer to welcoming a fresh start and healthy focus for 2021, be sure to plan your own winner, winner salmon dinner with Honey Smoked Salmon.

Ashley Smith