It's an incredibly popular cuisine, but is sushi safe for kids?

The right way to order and prepare sushi for your little ones.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla –  If your child is one who does like sushi, it's important to be safe. the f-d-a recommends that children under five don't consume raw fish or shellfish, and dietician susan mitchell agrees.   
 "In children, their immune system is not completely developed until they're about five years old. So if a child younger than five eats raw fish and gets food poisoning, it could really be catastrophic," says Susan Mitchell, Registered Dietician.
 
 Eating cooked sushi is the best option at a young age.  

 "Sushi in itself, if it's using lean fish and vegetables and avocado, can be very healthy," Mitchell.
 
 Chef Ryan Leto believes cooking sushi at home is a good way to introduce children to healthy eating.   

 "We're going to be demoing our shrimp and avocado roll," says Leto.
 
 "First thing you're going to do is take your soy paper, which is an alternative to the seaweed that you would usually use," says Joshua Vandenberg, Sushi Chef,Roy's Restaurant Tampa.   

 He says to keep your fingers wet because the sushi rice can be sticky.   

 "Take a ball of rice, a little bit smaller than a baseball, and you would spread it out across the top," says Vandenberg.
   
 Lay the avocado down across the soy paper and then the fully cooked shrimp.
 "We're just going to fold it over and make it touch on that backside, and then come up, and roll it all the way over," says Vandenberg.
   
 Once everything's on there, pat the ends, and sprinkle sesame seeds.  

Make sure an adult does the cutting.    

 "Anything you make at home and you get your family involved in the kitchen, mix tradition, is a wonderful way to bring the family around the table,"  says Mitchell.

A fun and safe way to introduce sushi to your kids.

Tuna is considered to be one of the easiest fish to digest, and normally safe for children. like any seafood, beware of consuming too much mercury. Raw shellfish is considered the most dangerous to eat because it's most likely to be contaminated.   


About the Author:

Anchor on The Morning Show team and reporter specializing on health issues.