The fruit It is a food rich in fiber, vitamins, minerals and sugars. Ideally, the fruit Let our children eat be fresh, or packaged, or powdered.
After six months they can start eating all the fruits, including strawberries and those that are considered more allergenic, and we know as "hair fruits", such as peach.
As I commented a few days ago with vegetables and vegetables, the fruit should always be offered behind a milk intake or between shots, so as not to harm the milk supply, more important than the fruit until 12 months both nutritionally As at caloric level.
Together or apart?
It is usually "pautar" a multifruit porridge (a piece of banana, a piece of apple, a piece of pear and a splash of orange juice), however the taste of this porridge is usually little accepted by babies (and for adults ... I wouldn't eat it).
The ideal start is to offer them separately to recognize possible allergies and intolerances and, once tolerated, put them together if you want, although there is no real reason to put them together.
It is the same to eat a piece of each fruit every day than to eat banana Monday, apple Tuesday and pear Wednesday. In fact it is the way to give a defined flavor to each of them (the banana tastes like banana, the apple tastes like apple ...), a color and a texture.
The moment we mix them the fruit tastes like "something weird", it has a strange color and a frothy texture. As adults do not eat the fruit like this, the most logical thing is not to accustom them to eat fruit in this way (the most likely also is that at 4 or 5 years, if they ask us for the fruit like that, we get angry with them for not eating it to mouth and one by one).
On the other hand, picking up a piece of each piece of fruit means opening four fruits a day, which multiplied by seven days means opening 28 fruits a week that either we will eat or we will throw them in the trash (or both) and I don't know about you , but my family economy doesn't allow me to spend so much money on fruit (and although I could afford it, I don't think I ate so much fruit or like to throw it away).
If instead we give them a bit of a fruit every day, there are 7 pieces that we open and our body and our pocket will thank us for the gesture (and our son, of course, who will be able to know each fruit according to its characteristics).
We should not add sweet foods
I am aware that a cookie or something similar was added to the fruit for a long time to change the flavor and that we ate it. I guess then we did eat them, but I know few adults who really eat fruit every day. Perhaps the invention did not go well at all.
Do not add cookies, sugar or condensed milk. There are some fruits that, due to their flavor or texture, are rejected from the beginning but that over time are accepted, patience, little by little.
Adding sweet elements deceives the palate and promotes preference towards sweet foods (Babies already have that innate preference and it is preferable not to enhance it). If we do, tomorrow they will tell us: "Mom, Dad, I don't want fruit, I want cookies, that this fruit doesn't taste like cookies."
Will eating fruit porridge get more weight?
Like vegetables, the fruit has few calories and that is why it is recommended to offer other foods at the same time. In this way, in addition, iron is better absorbed from other foods (meats, legumes).
The apple has 52 Kcal per 100 grams, the pear 59, the orange 54 and the banana 90. Recommend the fruit replacing milk for fattening can produce the opposite effect (breast milk: 70 Kcal).
How to prepare it
The fruit can be crushed to make a porridge, but it can also be offered from the one we are eating:
- The apple or pear can be grated or cut into thin slices. The ripe pear can also be cut into pieces so that each baby can take it in their hands, since it practically melts in their mouths.
- The banana, whole or crushed with the fork.
- Orange or tangerine can be offered in segments that we can cut in half, so that the child sucks.
- The plum can be cut into large pieces.
Fruit yogurts are not fruit
There are mothers who offer strawberry, banana, etc. yogurt to their children. so that your children eat fruit. It's a mistake, flavored yogurts do not carry fruit and it is also advised not to give them yogurts until 9-10 months, and then offer natural yogurt.
What if I give it a juice?
Freshly squeezed fruit juices retain many nutrients but they lose the fiber of the piece of fruit. By this I mean that they can drink juice, because they are not poison, but a little grace is lost by providing less benefits and causing some risks.
Being liquid, they probably end up drinking too much, so they should be offered in small quantities so as not to displace breast milk.
They have a high cariogenic potential (produce cavities) so they are not advised between meals and They should NEVER be given in a bottle (they would stay in contact with the teeth for too long).
In case it is going to be given a maximum of 120-180 ml of juice per day is recommended up to six yearsI repeat years. This equals half a glass or a little more. This concludes that children do not need to drink juice, but eat fruit.
The reason for these restrictions is that juices provide calories and therefore energy, however these calories come from carbohydrates and sugars and fill the stomach without providing fat or protein and constituting a poorly balanced diet.
Excessive consumption of juices is considered a factor that favors childhood obesity (especially if they are packaged).
Juice, better natural than packaged
The packages carry high doses of sweeteners such as fructose or sorbitol that are not absorbed and can cause gastrointestinal symptoms such as diarrhea or abdominal pain. As a consequence children may be more restless and nervous.
Natural juices maintain a good part of the vitamins of the fruit and do not carry risks if taken in moderation.
How much fruit do they have to eat?
It is common for babies to start eating enough and that little by little they are eating less and less fruit, although it is also common for many to start eating little and continue to eat little.
The amount we must prepare will tell us themselves. We already talked long and hard about it in other entries, so I will not extend too much: out of respect for their tastes and their desire to eat, and so that they learn little by little and accept the novelties according to their rhythms, we will give them until they close their mouths or turn their faces. If we force them we can get them to hate the fruit, and that is not the goal.
Photos | Flickr (skippyjon), Flickr (Upsilon Andromedae), Flickr (Jeroen Kransen)
In Babies and more | Summer fruits: characteristics and recommendations, Fruit porridge: a matter of patience, Fruits suitable for children
