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What fruits to feed baby first


First Fruits for Baby | Stonyfield

Mom always said to eat your veggies, but don’t forget about fruit! Many fruits are easy to mash, dice and mix into child-friendly preparations, plus they provide important vitamins and nutrients babies need to grow strong and healthy throughout their first year. Of course, always check with your child’s doctor before trying anything new to rule out allergies or potential ill effects.

Bananas

Almost every baby’s first food is the banana, and there’s good reason why. “Bananas are mild, mashable and easy to chew. They’re loaded with vitamin C, vitamin B6 and potassium, making them a perfect first fruit for baby,” says Jill Castle, M.S., R.D., childhood nutrition expert and co-author of Fearless Feeding: How to Raise Healthy Eaters From High Chair to High School. Bananas can be introduced as early as four months of age. They can be quickly mashed and served on their own (perfect for parents on the go) or mixed with breast milk or formula. As your baby gets older, bananas can be sauteed, mixed with other fruits or combined with brown rice or hot cereal.

Avocados

Although green and commonly thought of as a veggie, avocado is actually a nutrient-rich fruit full of vitamin C, vitamin K and folate. You can introduce avocados into your baby’s diet at four to six months. “My favorite thing about avocado is its fat content,” says Castle. “Babies have rapidly-growing brains and need a high amount of fat in their diet during the first year. Avocados are a delicious way to help baby meet those needs.” One scrumptious, and surprising, way to prepare avocado is to mix and mash it with banana. It’s so tasty, you might just steal a spoonful for yourself.

Apples

An apple a day truly can help baby stay healthy. “Iron deficiency is common among babies because they often ‘grow out’ of the amount of iron they’re born with,” says Tina Ruggiero, M.S., R.D., L.D., nutrition expert and co-author of The Best Homemade Baby Food on the Planet. “Once an infant is weaned, it’s important to ensure that he or she is eating enough iron-rich food to compensate for the reduced iron intake from breast milk.” Fruits particularly bountiful in vitamin C, like apples, help babies absorb iron. Pureed or grated, they can be introduced at six months and mixed with iron-rich foods like cooked veggies, egg yolks and brown rice.

Mangoes

Added to the diet between six and eight months, mangoes are an excellent source of vitamins A, B6 and C, as well as potassium, copper and fiber. This sweet treat can simply be mashed with a fork and mixed with veggies, organic yogurt or served on its own. As babies start to feed themselves, Castle suggests finely dicing mangoes to help them work on developing motor skills.

Cantaloupes

Sweet and juicy, cantaloupes are a well-rounded fruit to introduce to your baby’s diet around nine months. This melon is plentiful in vitamins A and C and rich in antioxidants. Perfect for your little movers and shakers, it can be diced up for those starting to self-feed. Build texture into meals by combing small cantaloupe squares with brown rice and yogurt.

Overall, fruits have the double benefit of sweet taste and high nutritional value. When they’re introduced to babies at the right time, and served with other nutritious foods, fruits can help them grow up happy and healthy.

Author Bio

Paula Carvajal has been a journalist since 2007. She has worked for Malibu Magazine, Us Weekly and Cambio, covering major award shows and events such as the Oscars, Golden Globes, Grammys and New York Fashion Week. Carvajal received her Bachelor of Arts in communications and Spanish from Santa Clara University, as well as a Master of Arts from the University of Westminster.
 

What Fruit to Try First for Babies? | Healthy Eating

By Sara Ipatenco Updated December 09, 2018

When your infant is between 4 and 6 months old, you typically can add pureed baby foods to his diet. Fruit is one of the most nutritious foods, and it adds essential vitamins and minerals to your child's diet. While all fruits contain key nutrients, you shouldn't feed your baby just any variety to begin with.

Timing

When your baby can hold his head up on his own and can sit up unassisted, he is likely ready to start eating solid foods. Other indications that he's ready include watching food when it passes by him or trying to grab what you're eating. Consult with your baby's pediatrician before offering him any type of solid foods for the first time.

First Fruits

Start with fruits that are easily digestible. Applesauce is a nutritious source of vitamin C, which helps your baby absorb iron and supports a healthy immune system. Applesauce also contains fiber, which can help keep your baby from becoming constipated. Mashed bananas provide a healthy dose of potassium for normal muscle and heart functions, and pureed peaches are rich in fiber, vitamin C and vitamin A, a nutrient that promotes healthy eyesight and white blood cell formation. Pureed pears and apricots are additional fruits that your new eater can easily digest.

Foods to Avoid

Don't offer your baby highly acidic fruits, such as oranges, grapefruit and strawberries, until she is closer to a year old. Highly acidic foods can cause a painful diaper rash, notes MayoClinic.com.

You should also avoid fruits with high pesticide levels. Pesticides have been found in commercially produced baby foods, according to the Environmental Working Group. Pears, peaches, apples and plums can have high levels of pesticides. This doesn't mean your baby can't eat these fruits, however. Serve organic varieties to reduce her exposure to dangerous chemicals. Don't serve your baby dried fruit, whole grapes or large pieces of cut-up fruit. These pose a choking hazard.

Feeding Your Baby

Serve your baby one new fruit at a time. Wait two or three days before introducing another type. Watch for a reaction after you feed your baby a new fruit for the first time. If she develops a rash, diarrhea or vomiting, don't offer any more of that fruit and contact her pediatrician. Serve your child using a bowl and a spoon to begin teaching healthy eating habits. Dish the pureed fruit into a bowl and discard any that your baby doesn't eat. Saving food you dipped your baby's spoon into can allow bacteria to grow in the stored portion.

References
  • KidsHealth: Feeding Your 4- to 7-Month-Old
  • What to Expect: Best First Foods to Feed Your Baby
  • KidsHealth: Vitamins and Minerals
  • MayoClinic.com: Solid Foods -- How to Get Your Baby Started
Writer Bio

Sara Ipatenco has taught writing, health and nutrition. She started writing in 2007 and has been published in Teaching Tolerance magazine. Ipatenco holds a bachelor's degree and a master's degree in education, both from the University of Denver.

What fruits to start complementary foods with

Fruits are useful!

Fruits and berries should be included in the diet of a child in the first year of life. Their positive properties are the high content of organic acids, as well as dietary fiber to normalize bowel function. A factor limiting the consumption of fruits in large quantities is their high content of simple sugars, primarily glucose and fructose.

All fruit purees contain a large amount of dietary fiber and have a regulating effect on the work of the intestines, i.e. if your child was worried about stool retention, then after the introduction of certain fruits and berries (for example, prunes), the stool will become regular, the introduction of other fruits or berries (for example, blueberries) may have a fixing effect.

The World Health Organization recommends exclusive breastfeeding for up to 6 months followed by the introduction of complementary foods while continuing to breastfeed.

When to introduce fruits?

Your doctor will tell you when and how to introduce fruit puree into your child's diet. It is optimal if you give your child fruit puree for the first time after you completely replace two breastfeeds with complementary foods (most often morning with porridge, and lunch with vegetables and meat). In this case, it is more likely that the child will continue to eat the main foods and will not give preference to sweets.

Where to start?

As in the case of juices, it is more correct to introduce apple and pear puree first, which are light in color. They are less likely to cause intolerance reactions and are easily digested. Many fruits - peach, apricot, banana, cherry, sweet cherry, plum and berries - currants, blueberries are medium allergenic products, and they need to be introduced later. Citrus fruits and strawberries can be introduced at the age of about a year.

Choose fruit puree for your child

The first fruit puree should be monocomponent, it is better if it does not contain sugar, starch and other fillers. Fruit or berry puree in combination with cottage cheese can be introduced no earlier than 6 months, and in combination with cream - no earlier than 8 months.

How much fruit does a baby need?

The maximum amount of fruit or berry puree that a child is allowed to eat during the day is calculated similarly to the volume of juice and is equal to n × 10, where n is the number of months the child lives. That is, if your baby is 8 months old, then you can give him 80 g of fruit puree. However, in 12 months, the volume of puree should not exceed 100 g.

You need to start introducing fruits with a minimum amount, gradually increasing the volume. For example, your child is 7 months old, dairy-free cereals, vegetable, meat purees have already been introduced, and you are going to introduce fruit. It is better to choose applesauce, give 5 g (1 tsp) on the first day, 10 g (2 tsp) on the second and third days, expand the amount to 50-70 g within 7–10 days. the child had some skin rashes in the past, then the volume should be expanded to full slowly, over 10-14 days. The assessment of the tolerance of fruit puree is carried out in the same way as in the case of other complementary foods - according to the condition of the skin and gastrointestinal tract of your baby.

Fruits and berries are indispensable for food diversity. Introducing them into your diet will allow you to raise a child who prefers an apple for dessert rather than candy.

Complementary feeding rules + BONUS (approximate diet for a child up to a year from a nutritionist)

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From six months, or maybe even earlier, your baby is already ready to try adult food. Where to start, what absolutely should not be done, and how to convince the "unwilling" to try a new product? Nutritionist Maria Litvinova answers mothers' questions, and mothers share their secrets.

From personal experience

In matters of nutrition, I act rather intuitively ( experience of the leading column - ed. note ). Our little one, now 9 months old, has been interested in adult food since about 5 months old. By this time, his first teeth had already appeared, so from 5.5 months the pediatrician allowed him to start complementary foods.

Since we are very large and breastfeeding, the first began to introduce vegetable puree, and then fruit puree, a quarter of a teaspoon. Portions increased gradually, a new product came about once every 5-6 days. There was no particular enthusiasm, and carrots, broccoli, pears caused a clear disgust. Leaders - apple, plum. In the same period, they began to give a little seasonal fruit in a nibbler and a banana scraped with a spoon. Vegetables were better in the form of a thin soup with a slight addition of sunflower oil. Closer to 6.5–7 months, we got acquainted with meat: turkey, rabbit, then other types. Meat, both jarred and fresh, chopped in a blender, I liked even less. After 7 months, dairy-free cereals began. I liked rice, oatmeal, corn, less - buckwheat. After some time, they began to add a little butter to it, and after 8 months they switched to milk porridge. Monocomponent ones go well, but the test of the multicomponent one with berries was not successful: the cheeks and ears turned red. In the same period, fruit purees with cottage cheese, and then with cream, began to be eaten with pleasure. Sometimes the baby agrees to chew baby biscuits slightly soaked in water. We don’t like chicken yolk and are easily recognized in other foods, so we don’t eat it regularly. During the day, the baby drinks a little water, occasionally - highly diluted juice. After 9months, we began to gradually introduce children's yogurt, we plan to try children's kefir. In cases where the child is stubborn, co-feeding with one of their favorite toys helps, but sometimes. Otherwise, the meal is transferred, or the portion is divided into two parts.

For information . WHO suggests the following rates of increase in complementary foods: if started at 6 months, other foods together with liquids should make up approximately 25% (150 - 250 g) of the total diet by 1 year - in the event that the baby is breastfed , and he requires breasts regardless of meals . In artificial children, ordinary food quickly replaces formula feedings, one by one, all meals are successively replaced. A child's introduction to complementary foods can take up to a year.

Tatyana G., mother of many children:

– No complementary foods until six months, only filtered water, if it's hot. The introduction of complementary foods began with vegetables, then cereals, meat. I introduced fruits when teeth appeared . I introduced sour milk to my daughter immediately after cereals, the boys are allergic to preservatives, so only after a year and a half. The peasants did not want complementary foods until almost 9 months. I don't give any sweets, juices, chocolate, even cookies to the younger ones. They don’t even ask, t and to as they don’t know. In the handle a crust of bread, cucumber, dried fruit.

Tatyana D., mother of many children:

- I am against canned puree, I cooked it myself. But she didn't really force it. At least while breastfeeding. Later she gave a cucumber, a crust of bread in her hand - they got used to chewing it. Drank juices, fresh juices, fresh compotes.

Basic rules for the introduction of complementary foods

According to nutritionist Maria Litvinova , the introduction of complementary foods is a crucial stage in a child's life. Its main goal is to provide the growing body with the nutrients necessary for development. A child who is breastfed does not need to introduce additional food products up to 6 months of life.

Rule 1 Complementary feeding age

Usually 6 months is the average time to start complementary foods. With insufficient weight gain, it can be recommended earlier: at 4.5 months - for a child on artificial feeding, at 5 months - for breastfeeding. Ideally, if the baby has at least 1 tooth at the beginning of the introduction of complementary foods, the child explores the contents of the plates of mom and dad with interest, the baby is healthy and has not received preventive vaccinations in the last 3 days. However, the fundamental principle of rational nutrition of infants is maximum individualization and taking into account the characteristics of the state of health.

Rule 2. Type of complementary foods

In case of underweight, frequent stools the optimal first complementary food is porridge . With overweight, constipation, signs of rickets - vegetable puree. Then enter meat , later porridge.

Complementary feeding algorithm:

  • complementary foods are given at the beginning of feeding, gradually replacing breast milk or an adapted formula ;
  • when switching to a fundamentally new type of complementary foods (vegetable, cereal or sour milk), you should start with half a teaspoon, bringing the serving volume to the recommended norm in 2 weeks ,
  • z and one new product is introduced once
  • Complementary foods must be free of chunks in texture and should not cause difficulty in swallowing ;
  • each new product is introduced within 5 days with mandatory monitoring of the reaction, including the appearance of a rash, change in the nature of the stool ;
  • new products introducing yat into the child's diet in the first half of the day, so that the reaction can be traced until the evening.

First food "Vegetables + meat" (6 months)

The first vegetable product is usually zucchini, you can add cauliflower puree or broccoli. Then, multicomponent purees are introduced at the expense of pumpkin, cabbage, and subsequently - tomatoes and beets. From 7 months green peas are added.

5 grams of vegetable oil can be added when the volume of the main serving of vegetable puree is half of what it should be. Meat in the form of minced meat or mashed potatoes is added to vegetables in an amount of up to 50 grams per day ( this combination allows the absorption of iron ). The age of introduction is 7 months.

Up to 9-10 months it is better to use special canned meat for children.

The second complementary foods - porridge (7-8 months)

It is better to introduce the first porridge with buckwheat - one of the most useful in terms of vitamin and mineral composition. Then rice, oatmeal, millet, wheat, corn porridge. Semolina porridge is not introduced until a year old, but it is better to wait up to three years (semolina porridge has a high glycemic index, and it also prevents the absorption of calcium).

Later, porridge can be prepared with milk formula (50 ml water + 50 ml formula). Cow's milk should not be used before the age of one. Butter in the amount of 5 grams is added to porridge when the volume of porridge injected is at least 70 ml.

By 9-10 months, multi-cereal porridges are introduced, as well as baby pasta.

Third food - fruit purees (7-8 months)

Fruit should be introduced after vegetables. It is better to use seasonal berries and fruits. In summer - apple, pears, currants, gooseberries and even strawberries. In winter - industrial mashed potatoes. Fruits can be consumed separately, or with cereals, preferably dairy-free.

Fruit juices are undesirable for children, especially industrial ones, as they contain a lot of sugar. It is better to teach a child to drink water, you can give dried fruit compotes, fresh juices diluted by half with water. Herbal teas should not be given without a doctor's recommendation.

Cottage cheese is recommended from 6 months, but it is better to introduce it later, because. the baby is getting enough breast milk or formula. Up to a year, use only special children's curds. This will reduce the risk of stress on the kidneys. After a year, cottage cheese can be given plain, raw or in the form of casseroles. Dairy products are tried at 8 months. They should not exceed 200 ml per day.

Fish and offal introduced from 8 months. From 8–9 months, fish is offered once or twice a week instead of meat. The yolk begins to be introduced from 7 months (bring to the norm 1/4 - ½ of the yolk). Crackers, cookies - from 7 months.

From 8 months you can use onions and garlic, from 9 months you can use spices (white pepper, bay leaf) and spicy vegetables (celery, dill).

Approximate diet for a child under one year old:

Age 6.00 10.00 14. 00 18.00 22.00
6 months Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Vegetable puree 150 g Vegetable oil 1 tsp. Breast milk or formula - 50 ml. (meat puree - 30 g with the introduction of meat). Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Breast milk or formula - 200 ml.
7 months Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Porridge - 150-170 g Fruit puree - 30 g Yolk - 1/4 Vegetable puree 160 g Vegetable oil 1 tsp Meat puree - 50 g Bread - 5 g Breast milk or formula - 130 ml Fruit puree - 40 g biscuits - 5 g. Breast milk or formula - 200 ml.
8 months Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Porridge – 170 g Fruit puree – 30 g Yolk – 1/2 Vegetable puree 180 g Vegetable oil 1 tsp Meat (fish) puree – 50 g Bread – 5 g Breast milk or formula - 110 ml Fruit puree - 40 g Cottage cheese - 40 g Cookies - 10 g Breast milk or kefir - 200 ml.
9-10 months Breast milk or formula - 200 ml. Porridge – 180 g Fruit puree – 50 g Yolk – 1/2 Vegetable puree 180 g Vegetable oil 1 tsp Meat (fish) puree – 50 g Bread – 5 g Breast milk or kefir – 100 ml Fruit puree – 50 g Cottage cheese – 40 g Cookies – 10 g Breast milk or kefir - 200 ml.
11-12 months Breast milk or formula - 200 Porridge - 200 ml. Porridge - 180 g Fruit puree - 50 g Yolk - 1/2 Breast milk or kefir - 150 ml. Meat (fish) puree - 70 g Vegetable puree 180 g. Vegetable oil 1 tsp. Bread - 5 g Fruit puree - 60 g Breast milk or kefir - 200 ml. Cottage cheese - 40-60 g biscuits - 10-15 g Breast milk or kefir - 200 ml.

* The table shows an example menu. Porridge can be cooked on a mixture or breast milk - the volumes are indicated with this in mind. Kefir or mixture is written everywhere. Depends on the preferences of the child, can be mutually replaced. Kefir is enough once a day.

Feed the baby, mission impossible?

Elena F., a young mother:

– There was no food for the elder. They invented everything they could: they fed their favorite toys with him, and read books at the table, and watched TV, and all kitchen utensils were used in turn. And my grandmother was both a clown and a man-orchestra.

Many mothers have problems feeding their little “unwanted babies”. Accumulating numerous Internet tips and recommendations of familiar mothers, I would venture to offer a few recommendations:

It is better to feed from bright dishes.
  • The child should eat only at the table, sitting in his chair, and not in a random place, and preferably at least once a day with the whole family. And start complementary foods, only noticing its complete readiness: it is the desire to try food, and not play with dishes and napkins. Everything is very individual, and the child does not owe anything to anyone,
  • It’s good to have a separate bright dish that will be associated exclusively with food, and to instill independent nutrition skills as early as possible. in special devices, like a nibbler, or scrape with a spoon. Then you should give them as often as possible. The child must have free access to them during the day,
  • Snacks should not be allowed between meals, sweets and pastries should not be given,
  • Sweets, soda, fast food, the baby should be introduced as late as possible, 2-3, as is customary, and make a verdict - they say, "he categorically does not eat this with us";
  • Disliked foods must be masked by preferred ones. Meat and yolk are better combined with vegetables than porridge,
  • Never turn food into a game, feed after cartoons, advertising,
But without this, your child will be happy too!
  • Food should not be a source of reward or punishment;
  • It is worth showing patience, not pushing the child. He may finish eating later or even skip feedings entirely. The daily norm of the product can be divided into two doses;
  • A child has every right not to adhere to the norms of nutrition, and to eat according to his appetite: today a lot, and tomorrow a little bit. Do not force to eat;