14 August 2026 · Veronica Chi
Business & Product Director · Mum of two
Chinese New Year Foods for Babies and Toddlers
Reunion dinner is the largest, saltiest, most crowded meal of the year, and it arrives at a table where somebody's grandmother is already reaching for your baby with a spoon. Most of what is on it is unsuitable for an under-two, and a fair amount of it is a genuine choking hazard rather than merely a salty one.
None of which means the baby should be excluded. It means deciding in advance what she can have, bringing her own bowl, and having a sentence ready for the offers you are going to decline.
What can a baby actually eat at the reunion table?
| Dish | Under 1 | 1–2 years | Why |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steamed fish | Yes, flaked | Yes | Check every flake for bones. Rinse off the sauce |
| Plain rice or porridge | Yes | Yes | The safest thing on the table |
| Steamed or blanched greens | Yes, chopped | Yes | Rinse the oyster sauce off first |
| Braised mushrooms | Chopped small | Chopped | Slippery and round — quarter them |
| Yusheng | No | Small taste, no nuts | Raw fish, crushed peanuts, sugar, crackers |
| Pen cai / poon choi | Picked-out items only | Selected items | Very salty broth; many hard items |
| Bak kwa | No | No | Sugary, salty, and tough to chew |
| Pineapple tarts | No | Half of one, at most | Sugar. Not a nutritional loss |
| Nian gao | No | No | Dense and extremely sticky — a serious choking risk |
| Tang yuan | No | No | Glutinous, round, and a documented choking cause |
| Love letters, kueh bangkit | No | Broken small | Hard, crumbly, dissolve unpredictably |
| Whole nuts, melon seeds | No | No | Choking hazard until at least four |
Nian gao and tang yuan are the two to be firm about. Both are glutinous, both are the right size to block a small airway, and neither breaks up when a child panics.
How much salt is too much?
A baby under one should have less than 1g of salt a day — around 0.4g of sodium — and a single serving of most restaurant CNY dishes exceeds that on its own. Under-ones cannot process much sodium; their kidneys are still developing. Between one and three the limit is 2g of salt a day, which is still less than one bowl of pen cai broth.
The practical version: rinse anything sauced under hot water before giving it to her, serve rice or plain porridge as the base, and do not add soy sauce, oyster sauce or stock to anything she is eating. Nobody at the table will notice, and it is a great deal easier than arguing about it afterwards.
On portions and stage
What are the real choking risks?
- Nian gao. Sticky rice cake is dense enough to obstruct an airway and does not break apart. It causes choking deaths in adults every year in several countries — it is not a cautious ban.
- Tang yuan. Round, glutinous and exactly airway-sized. Not before four, and quartered even then.
- Whole peanuts and melon seeds, which sit in a bowl on every coffee table in the country for a fortnight. Round, hard, and at toddler height.
- Prawns with tails, and fish with bones. Both appear in dishes that look baby-friendly.
- Lup cheong and other cured sausage — tough, salty, and cut into coin shapes that are the wrong size.
- Mandarin orange segments with the membrane on, and any grape-shaped fruit served whole. Quarter lengthways.
- Jelly cups and konjac jelly, which are a well-documented choking cause and should not be given to small children at all.
How do you manage the relatives?
Bring her own bowl, visibly, and put food in it yourself. A baby with a full bowl in front of her is a baby nobody needs to feed, and the object does more work than any explanation. Suction bowls also survive being pushed toward a great-aunt.
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Maison Q Bib 2 Pc - CarnivalS$21.90Shop nowWhen something is offered that you would rather she did not have, the line that works is not a nutritional argument. It is "she is not on that yet, the doctor said after two" — brief, unarguable, and it moves the conversation on. Nobody wants to debate a paediatrician at reunion dinner.
The other useful move is to arrive with something she can have and to offer it around. A container of plain steamed sweet potato batons put on the table turns you from the parent saying no into the parent who brought something.
What about the visiting fortnight?
Fifteen days of open houses is where the sugar actually accumulates, not the one dinner. Every home has a tray of pineapple tarts, love letters, kueh bangkit and bak kwa at exactly toddler height, and each visit is individually reasonable.
- Feed her properly before you leave, so she arrives full rather than grazing.
- Carry her own snacks. A toddler with something in her hand is not looking at the tray.
- Pick one treat per house rather than negotiating each item. It is a rule she can learn in two visits.
- Watch the drinks. Packet drinks and cordial are the largest hidden sugar source of the whole period.
- Keep the routine where you can. Most CNY meltdowns are about a missed nap in a loud room rather than about food at all.
The rest of the fortnight
Questions parents ask
Can babies eat nian gao?
No. Sticky rice cake is dense and glutinous, does not break apart, and is a documented choking cause. Avoid it for babies and toddlers entirely.
Can a baby eat yusheng?
Not under one — it contains raw fish, crushed peanuts, sugar and hard crackers. A toddler can have a small taste of the vegetable strands with the nuts and crackers left out.
How much salt can a baby have at a CNY dinner?
Under 1g of salt a day below age one, and 2g between one and three. A single serving of most restaurant dishes exceeds that, so rinse sauced food and use plain rice as the base.
What CNY foods are safe for a one-year-old?
Plain rice or porridge, flaked steamed fish with bones checked, rinsed steamed greens, and quartered soft mushrooms. Bring her own bowl and serve it yourself.
How do I stop relatives feeding my baby sweets?
Give her a full bowl of her own so there is no gap to fill, and use a short unarguable line — "she is not on that yet, doctor's orders" — rather than a nutritional argument.
Sources
- HealthHub — Ministry of Health Singapore
- NHS — Foods to avoid giving babies and young children
- NHS — Salt: the facts
This guide is general information, written to help you understand a topic and ask better questions — it is not medical advice and does not replace your own doctor, midwife or paediatrician. Anything that worries you about your baby belongs with them.