Stainless steel cookware is made up of a mixture of different metals. It is generally considered to be very safe -- but you shouldn't use it to cook your baby's food if it is particularly pitted or dented. You should also avoid scrubbing your stainless steel cookware with an abrasive substance, because this can cause small quantities of nickel and chromium to be released into food.
You should avoid cooking your baby's food in non-stick pans because the non-stick coating may chip off and end up in the food. It is also believed that toxic fumes can be released by heating a non-stick pan to a very high temperature.
No one knows exactly how hazardous these types of cookware are to health and research has yet to come up with any conclusive evidence. Some experts think that the risk is very low, or that only people who are sensitive to certain materials will react unfavourably.But what would be considered a small risk to an adult may be significantly greater to a baby, so it's probably a good idea to look to safer cookware alternatives when cooking for your little one.
Cooking with iron cookware is actually beneficial to health. When you cook acidic foods (like tomatoes) in iron pots, the foods actually "pull" the iron from the pot. This boosts the important dietary iron in your baby's food.
The FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition consider ceramic, glass and enameled cookware to be safe. You should avoid using older enameled cookware, though, because it may contain cadmium. Cadmium is a toxic substance which is no longer used in the manufacture of cookware in the US. You should also be careful of glazed ceramic cookware from overseas, where the regulations for the inclusion of cadmium and lead in cookware may not be as stringent.
For the sake of your baby's health AND your own, always make sure that your cookware is kept in very good condition - and don't use pots that are cracked, peeling, chipped or pitted.
Christine Albury is a mother of four and the author of Homemade Baby Food Recipes - your complete guide to solid feeding during baby's first year. Christine writes for many other parenting sites and a regional UK magazine. Homemade Baby Food Recipes, which was recently featured by the BBC, includes a very active blog - keeping parents up to date with all important baby food news - plus a free monthly newsletter.
