A newborn baby is growing rapidly, he needs proper nutrition, enriched with useful trace elements. Up to 4 months, for full nutrition, breast milk is sufficient, which contains all the vitamins and minerals needed for growth and strengthening the immunity of infants.
If there is not enough milk, the pediatrician will recommend the mixture. It is impossible to feed juices and fruit purees in the first months of a baby’s life.
The rest of the assortment of fruits should be left for later and introduced into the diet when the child is older. Read more about breastfeeding babies?
Why shouldn’t fruit puree be given to a child for up to 4 months?
Let’s look at the main reasons why complementary foods are introduced after four months of age:
- The child within 9 months of fetal life was fed through the umbilical cord. All this time, the baby’s gastrointestinal tract did not work at full strength. After birth, the baby will have a difficult adaptation not only in the surrounding world, but also in the new nutrition system. When breastfeeding a newborn, painful colic is often tormented, indicating the accumulation of gases, and what happens if you give the child fruit puree even difficult to imagine.
- Up to 4 months the baby’s digestive system gets used to absorb milk. Accordingly, the child’s body is not able to digest solid food. Fruit puree has a viscous consistency, so serious digestion problems can occur.
- The fruit contains acid, which can become a gastrointestinal irritant and cause severe dysbiosis in the baby or diarrhea leading to dehydration.
- Feeding fruit at an early age can cause allergic reactions, which can worsen in the future and lead to serious health problems.
What fruits to make mashed baby?
At the age of 4 months, you can diversify the baby’s diet with fruit puree.
You must choose fruits that are less allergenic and easier to digest:
- Green apples (red and yellow can cause diathesis);
- Pears
- Bananas
How to cook applesauce?
Take an apple of green varieties, necessarily a fresh crop grown in Russia, because for long-term storage apples are treated with special substances that may contain harmful trace elements.
Wash the fruit under running water, you can even use household soap to probably get rid of pathogenic bacteria. Peel the apple, peel the seeds, cut into small cubes. Take a clean enameled pan, pour chopped apples into it, pour in a little water (about 2 tablespoons) and simmer for 4-5 minutes. Beat applesauce with a mixer or blender, or rub through a strainer to remove lumps that the baby can choke on. Serve this dish warm.
In a similar way, mashed potatoes for infants from other fruits are prepared. You can try to mash several ingredients, for example, mix an apple, a banana and a pear.
Sugar during the preparation of fruit puree does not need to be added. The child will be happy to eat a new dish without flavoring enhancers that do not contain useful trace elements, but rather can harm the children’s body.
Rules for feeding pureed fruit for a baby :
- Introduce fruit puree into the diet gradually. You need to start with 1 teaspoon, then slowly increase the amount so as not to harm the digestion of the child.
- Giving fruit puree in the morning before meals, so as not to cause fermentation.
- After serving a new dish, monitor the reaction of the body. If redness appears on the cheeks and pope – this is diathesis, which suggests that the body has not accepted a new product. In this case, you should exclude this ingredient for a while and try another fruit.
- Pay attention to the baby’s stool, if mucus or green feces appears in it, then the new dish is poorly absorbed by the body of the baby. It is necessary to reduce the number of servings or to postpone the feeding.
Should I give my child fruit puree bought at the store?
On the shelves of modern stores you can find a wide range of goods with baby food of various kinds, which are analogues of food prepared with your own hands:
- Mixtures;
- Porridge
- Mashed vegetables;
- Fruit puree;
- Meat puree;
- Children’s juices.
It is possible to introduce fruit puree from a jar into the child’s diet, but carefully. When buying baby food, you must carefully familiarize yourself with the content of the product and the release date so as not to purchase food that is unsuitable for food. You need to choose fruit puree without preservatives or flavor enhancers. Carefully look at the condition of the package, it should be without damage and swelling, which indicate poor quality of contents.
Ready meals for babies significantly reduce the time they take to cook food, and enable mom to set aside time for rest, instead of daily cooking for the baby.
