Bringing Up Baby

If your child isn't old enough to eat solid food, do not 'prechew' food for him or her'that's the message from a new study presented at the 15th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. Researchers say they've documented three U.S. cases of HIV transmission to infants through prechewed food, likely due to small amounts of blood in the food from the moms' gums or mouth sores. Prechewing may be especially dangerous when infants are teething and have breaks and cracks in their gums through which HIV can enter the bloodstream.