6a Fruit...getting started and making it edible
Description
This article is from the Solid Food for Infants FAQ, by David M. Poduska poduska@cis.ohio-state.edu with numerous contributions by others.
6a Fruit...getting started and making it edible
>>One friend suggested *peeled* grapes and bits of melon cut very small,
>>because they're slippery and easily swallowed. Is this okay?
Even unpeeled grapes can be a choking hazard! As for melon, make
sure to cut away ALL of the rind or hard part near the rind.
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>Just a nifty trick we discovered: to peel grapes (for feeding to a
>molarless infant), slice them in half and then scoop the good stuff
>out using one of those small melon-ball gadgets. Works like a breeze!
The only thing we watch out for is choking hazards, and grapes
would be one - we slice them if we have the time/knife, or just spilt them
with our fingers if we are in a hurry/don't have a knife. Never bothered
removing the skins, and he doesn't seem to mind. (We also leave the skins
on potatoes).
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From: nancy@chemistry.Stanford.EDU (Nancy Hansen)
Some folks recommend waiting to introduce fruit until after lots of
veggies, thinking that kids will reject the veggies for the sweeter
fruit. We did this with Thomas, and he still rejects the veggies :-)
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From: sjm@eng.cam.ac.uk (Stephen Mounsey)
Someone asked:
>Hello; I have a 5 month old who weighs in at 21lbs and doesn't seem to
>fill up with the stage 1 foods. My question is about processing table
>food {blender} or canned fruit. Can it be done at this stage? Can I use
>canned fruit? Obviously it would be a great advantage to feeding time.
Absolutely. At 5 months old our son was pretty much exclusively fed on
home processed food - _steamed_ fresh vegetables, fresh fruit (avoid
strawberries due to allergy risks and oranges due to their laxative effect -
good fruits to try are nectarines, peaches and kiwi fruit (Chinese gooseberry)),
and some tinned fruit (especially apricots) in juice not syrup. Good vegetables
are marrow, courgette (zucchini), broccoli, potato, cauliflower (watch out for
wind!), lentils, peas, carrot...... And stewed apple or pear is great (mix in a
bit of baby rice if you want more body). Some things are fairly obvious but
deserve repeating - _never_ add salt or sugar at any stage. And chillis are
probably out :-)
-Stephen.
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From: poduska@cis.ohio-state.edu (David M. Poduska)
If you want to give your baby fruit, but live someplace where fruit is
prohibitively expensive, or even unavailable (at certain times of the
year), you can use canned fruit. Del Monte even has all natural peaches,
pears and fruit cocktails, so you can avoid the sugar in the syrup of
many types of canned fruit.
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