Should fruit supplements be steamed? Which ones are prone to allergies? How to add? One article to understand!

Babies can start adding complementary foods after 6 months, and fruit is a good choice at this time. Fruit is rich in vitamins, minerals and dietary fiber and comes in a variety of flavors and textures. Many mothers also like to eat fruits for their children. But how should fruit be added? When the weather gets cold, should I steam and heat fruits before eating them? Which fruits are susceptible to allergies? ······Are you still troubled by these problems? Learn about it in today’s article! If you are worried about \”cooling your stomach\”, do fruits have to be steamed? Whether you want to steam it or not really depends on the situation. Many mothers think that boiled or steamed fruits can be digested better, but they do not worry about their babies being \”cold\”. Indeed, after many fruits are steamed, a lot of the fiber in the fruits will become soft or completely broken, making it easier to mash into puree, which is also said to be better for digestion. Therefore, except for bananas and avocados, \”raw\” fruits are indeed not as easy to digest as cooked ones. But if your baby is already 6 months old, you don’t need to steam the fruit before adding it to your baby. In fact, many babies at this age can already absorb uncooked, so-called \”raw\” fruits very well. To sum up, most babies after 6 months can accept \”raw\” fruits very well, and there is no need to pursue cooked fruits. If you are not sure, be sure to \”cook\” it. Steaming can preserve the nutrients of the fruit better than boiling. For fruits with a hard texture, mothers can steam and cook them appropriately, because before the age of 5 (many institutions have inconsistent recommendations, ranging from 3 to 5 years old), they should avoid eating hard fruits to prevent the risk of choking on the trachea. But also avoid overcooking to reduce the loss of vitamins. Therefore, ripe and soft fruits such as bananas, avocados, apricots, mangoes, papayas, and peaches can be peeled, cored, and seeded, then scraped with a spoon or mashed into paste for the baby to eat; fruits with a harder texture can be eaten by the baby. Fruits, such as apples, pears, and melons, usually need to be cut into pieces and boiled or steamed with a little water. Do you have to remove the peel? For children under 1 and a half years old whose digestive system barrier function is not yet complete, or who are prone to gastrointestinal infections, it is recommended that they be eaten without the skin. At the same time, in order to avoid the problem of pesticide residues from the root, it is recommended that mothers go to regular supermarkets to buy fruits. After buying it home, soak it frequently and wash it frequently. However, when washing fruits such as strawberries and grapes, do not remove the roots to prevent the water used to wash the fruits from getting into the \”wounds\” and endangering the health of the baby. Also, be sure to clean the fruit knife before using it! How should fruits be added specifically? Like other complementary foods, when you first start feeding fruit to your baby, you should also follow the principle of adding a small amount (increasing the amount gradually) and only introducing one new food at a time. When initially adding complementary foods, wait about a week before adding new types to your baby. During this period, pay close attention to whether your baby has intolerance or allergic reactions, such as diarrhea, rash, vomiting, etc. As the baby\’s chewing and swallowing ability improves, the roughness and thickness of fruit complementary foods can be gradually increased between half a year old and one year old. Transitioning from fine purees (6 months) to thicker purees (7-8 months) to soft, small fruit strips/chunks(8~12 months). When you first start feeding your children fruits, ripe bananas, apples, pears, apricots, melons, plums, avocados, papayas, and peaches are all good choices. After your baby is eight months or older, you can try other fruits. When is the right time to add fruit? It is not recommended to add fruit immediately after a meal. Because if you eat fruits immediately after a meal, the sugars and organic acids contained in them will react with food ingredients, and pectin will also increase the burden on the stomach by absorbing water and increasing the moisture content of chyme in the stomach. This will not only affect the absorption of nutrients, but also cause fermentation, causing bloating, burping, acid reflux, bad breath and other phenomena. It is not recommended to give your baby fruit in the morning on an empty stomach. You must avoid eating tomatoes, oranges, pineapples, persimmons, black dates, bananas, lychees, hawthorns and other fruits. They can cause stomach pain, acid reflux, formation of stomach stones, irritation, damage to the gastrointestinal mucosa, nausea, vomiting, etc. Various health effects including inhibiting cardiovascular function. The correct time to eat fruit should be 1-1.5 hours before a meal, or about 2 hours after a meal. This can shorten the time it stays in the stomach and reduce adverse effects while properly replenishing water and calorie consumption. Can canned fruit be an option? If you don’t have fresh or frozen fruit, you can only use canned fruit, and choose pure canned fruit without added sugar. Babies need and can absorb the natural sugars in fresh fruits, but all sweeteners including sucrose should be avoided, whether eaten alone or added to food. Sweet foods are often high in energy, which can easily eliminate hunger and affect the baby\’s appetite. However, sugar itself does not contain nutrients such as protein, vitamins and minerals, and has low nutritional value, which is not conducive to the growth of the baby and can easily lead to dental caries. Is it better to eat more? How much fruit should you eat every day? If the baby eats too much fruit too frequently, it will affect the meal. At the same time, a large amount of sugar in fruits may also cause dental caries in babies, so no matter how nutritious the fruits are, they should be eaten in moderation. The Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) supplementary nutrition program in the United States recommends that babies aged 6 to 8 months can eat up to 55 to 110 grams of fruit per day; babies between 8 and 12 months can eat up to 110 to 170 grams of fruit per day. After the child is one year old, according to the recommendations of the New South Wales Department of Health in Australia, the recommended daily amount of fruit is as follows: 1-2 years old 1/2 serving 2-3 years old 1 serving 4-8 years old 1.5 servings 9-11 years old 2 Servings 12-18 years old 2 servings (Note: One serving of fruit is 150 grams, approximately equivalent to a medium-sized apple.) Should you eat puree or juice first? Considering that juice can be \”suffocating\”, many mothers feel that juice is easier for their babies to accept and absorb than puree, so some mothers choose to feed their babies juice! It is not recommended that children drink fruit juice before they are one year old. The method of squeezing juice also damages the nutritional content of the fruit itself. There are actually two methods of fruit juice extraction: one is toJuicing that preserves fruit residue, and the other is juicing (or pulping) that preserves fruit residue. Juicing will destroy the nutrients in the fruit. Only some water-soluble vitamins remain in the juice, while the water-insoluble dietary fiber, calcium, iron minerals, and polyphenols on the cell wall are all left with the fruit. The scum was thrown away. Moreover, to squeeze a cup of juice, you generally need 2 to 3 fruits. When a child drinks a glass of juice, he actually consumes the fructose in 2 to 3 fruits. Too much fructose in the body will lead to a lack of copper in the child\’s body, affecting bone development and resulting in short stature. In other words, as the saying goes, \”You will not grow taller if you eat too much sugar.\” Beating also destroys the nutrients in the fruit. When the blade rotates at high speed, plant cells are destroyed, and at the same time it comes into contact with the oxygen drawn in by the vortex quickly and efficiently, causing extremely serious \”enzymatic oxidation\”. Simply put, during this process, more than 80% of vitamin C will be lost immediately, and polyphenols will also be rapidly oxidized and discolored (the main reason for the discoloration of apple pulp). Therefore, letting children eat fruits directly is the best way to retain all nutrients. When the child is young, it is recommended to use a spoon to \”scrape\”; when the child is older, you can cut it into suitable small pieces (be sure to pay attention to the appropriate size to prevent choking on the fruit!), or let him chew it directly, which can also exercise his teeth. Chewing ability and stomach digestion ability, killing two birds with one stone! What should I do if I have diarrhea after eating fruit? The \”cold to the stomach\” mentioned at the beginning is actually a worry that the baby will have diarrhea after eating cold fruit. In fact, if it must be fruit that causes diarrhea in a child, either the child is intolerant or allergic to the fruit, or the fruit is contaminated by germs. In order to prevent fruits from being contaminated by pathogens, parents should choose fresh and safe raw materials and pay attention to cleanliness during the production process. Fruits used for making complementary foods should be washed, peeled and cored with running water. Fruits with peels like bananas also need to be cleaned with running water to prevent germs on the peel from contaminating the fruit during processing. Just like making other complementary foods, you must wash your hands with soap or hand sanitizer before preparing fruit for your baby, and wash your hands before your baby eats. Use clean kitchen utensils and cooking surfaces, and the preparation process must be separated from raw meat and other ingredients to avoid contamination. Ensure that the ingredients are fresh, the preparation process is hygienic, and they are properly stored. There is no need to cook the fruit, and the child will not be infected with bacteria and suffer from diarrhea after eating it. If you are intolerant to fruits, in addition to allergies, it may be that the fructose in them plays a \”laxative\” role (this is also the truth behind the \”laxative\” effect of honey). Many people will have varying degrees of fructose intolerance, that is, they cannot digest fructose well, so their intestinal movements will be abnormal. Some people will have abdominal pain and loose stools, while some people will have mild symptoms, and some people will not have it at all. If the child does not show any discomfort and it is just because of one or two loose stools after eating fruit rather than persistent diarrhea, no treatment is needed. How long can prepared fruit supplements be kept at room temperature? Fruit that has been peeled, cut or steamed, like other prepared complementary foods, needs to be eaten within two hours if left at room temperature, otherwise it must be stored in the refrigerator (if the room temperature exceeds 32 degrees, the storage time cannot exceed one hour). In addition, unfinished food on the baby\’s plate or bowl should be thrown away, because harmful bacteria in the baby\’s mouth may contaminate the leftover food through saliva. Even if it is refrigerated and reheated later, it will not prevent the bacteria from continuing to multiply, which can easily lead to The baby is vomiting and has diarrhea. How long can prepared fruit supplements be refrigerated or frozen? The prepared complementary foods should not be stored in the refrigerator (≤ 4°C) for more than 48 hours (note: livestock, poultry, fish, and eggs should not be stored for more than 24 hours), and the freezing time (≤ -18°C) should not exceed 1 months. Will freezing affect the nutrition of fruits? Freezing can be said to be the best way to preserve the nutrients of fruits. In some cases, frozen fruits are even \”fresher\” than fresh fruits. This is because fresh fruits have to go through picking, transportation, and sales before they are eaten in our mouths. Many times, fruit farmers do not wait until they are fully ripe before picking, but pick them in advance, allowing the picked fruits to mature slowly during transportation and storage, ensuring that they remain \”fresh\” before they are eaten in our mouths. Unripe fruits are often not as nutritious as ripe fruits, so if they are not freshly picked fruits on the market, they may not be as nutritious as those fruits that are ripe and immediately frozen. If you buy fruits that cannot be eaten while they are ripe and still fresh, freezing them is the best way to preserve their nutrients. How to freeze baby\’s fruit food? If you freeze a large bag directly, not only will it take a long time to thaw, but the baby may not be able to eat it all at once, so it is best to divide it into packages before freezing. The method is very simple: use a spoon to put the food into the ice cube molds one by one. If the mold itself does not have a cover, cover it with plastic wrap. The use of tinfoil is not recommended because small pieces of tinfoil can easily remain in food. Once the food is frozen, you can take it out and put it into sealed freezer bags for further freezing, which saves space in the refrigerator. Finally, don’t forget to label the freezer bag with the date of storage and the name of the food. When there are a lot of frozen things, it is difficult to tell which is which, so it is necessary to write the name of the food. How to defrost your baby’s fruit food? Melting ice in the refrigerator is the best way to thaw. Put the food for your baby in the refrigerator the night before (keep it sealed). You can also defrost in cold water, make sure the food is in a well-sealed bag, submerge it in cold water, and change the water every 30 minutes or so. Food defrosted in cold water and in the microwave should be consumed as soon as possible. Be careful not to defrost food directly at room temperature to avoid deterioration. If the complementary food is not consumed in time after thawing, it is not recommended to freeze it again. The thawed fruit puree can be heated in water or in a microwave. Stir thoroughly when heating. You can pause stirring every 15 seconds to allow the food to be heated as evenly as possible. When heating over water, be careful not to let water spill into the container holding the food. Note that freezing has almost no effect on the nutrition of the fruit, but high temperatures will destroy the nutrition of the fruit, so it is not recommended to heat the fruit to too high a temperature. The temperature at which the baby eats should be controlled below 32~48°C, and the temperature should be tested before feeding the baby. If adults use their mouths to test the temperature, do not talk to childrenChildren should share the same tableware to avoid transmitting oral bacteria to their children.