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🍗 Sea bream

Meat, fish & eggsFrom 7 months

Allergen note

Sea bream is a fish, and fish is a common allergen. From 7 months, offer a small amount of well-cooked bream on its own, watch for hives, swelling or vomiting, and keep offering fish regularly once tolerated; talk to your pediatrician first if your baby has severe eczema or a known food allergy.

How to serve

At 7–8 months, offer soft flakes of bream mashed with potato or vegetables, or larger moist flakes to pick up. From 9 months, offer small pieces your baby can pinch; from 12 months, serve flaked bream with rice, pasta or vegetables. Sea bream is low in mercury and can be one of the family's weekly fish meals.

Preparation

Steam, poach or bake the fillets, or the whole fish, with a little olive oil or lemon and no salt, until the flesh is opaque and flakes easily (145°F/63°C). Remove the skin and every bone, including the fine pin bones along the center of each fillet.

Texture and choking risk

Sea bream has firm pin bones and sharp rib and fin bones, so run your fingers over each flake to find any that were missed. Offer only flakes you have checked, skip the crispy skin, and have your baby eat sitting upright with an adult right beside them.

Sources: cdc.gov · cdc.gov · healthychildren.org · healthychildren.org · nhs.uk · nhs.uk

Starting ages are typical guidance for healthy, full-term babies who show signs of readiness. Your paediatrician may advise differently, especially where there is a family history of allergy.