Frozen fruit is a nutritious and convenient way to eat fruit. However, how can frozen fruit be incorporated into your baby’s diet safely?
Overall, babies can safely have frozen fruit that has been cooked, heated, or defrosted until it is very soft and easy to mash. Additionally, do not give babies frozen fruit for teething because it is hard and can increase the risk of choking.
In this article, we will dive deeper into the safety of frozen fruit and how to include it in your baby’s diet. Read on for more information!
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Is Frozen Fruit Good for Teething Babies?
Frozen fruit is not a good idea to soothe a teething baby because of the increased risk of choking. Frozen fruit is often very hard and can become lodged in a baby’s throat – it’s best to wait until your child is a few years older.
If you would like to give cold fruit to your baby who is teething and at least ten months old, you can give them frozen fruit that has been cooked or heated, then cooled, or just defrosted in the refrigerator.
In other words, once your baby is ten months old, they can have frozen fruit that is soft, bite-sized, and easy to mash (source: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia).
If the fruits are small and round, like blueberries, for example, mash them flat with a spoon or fork to make them less likely to pose a choking risk.
Can Babies Eat or Chew on Frozen Fruit?
As mentioned above, in order to provide your baby, who is at least ten months old, with frozen fruit to chew on or eat, it must be very soft, thawed, and bite-sized to prevent choking, whether or not they have teeth.
Avoid giving your baby frozen fruits with large seeds, such as cherries, pomegranate seeds, and others.
Is it OK to Puree Frozen Fruit for Babies?
If your baby is six months old, you can begin by providing them with puréed frozen fruit that is thin and watery (source: Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia). You could even add a bit of breast milk or infant formula to make the puree thinner.
Start by providing just a tablespoon or two at each feeding. You can cook the fruit before pureeing it, but you can also blend it from frozen until smooth.
When your baby is seven to nine months of age, you can provide a thicker consistency puree, such as mashed potato consistency.
At this time, you can increase the amount to up to four tablespoons at each feeding. Finally, at ten months of age, you can begin giving frozen fruit as finger foods, which can be great for baby-led weaning.
Similar to frozen vegetables, many believe that frozen fruit is less nutritious than fresh fruit. However, after a fruit is harvested, the nutrients begin to die until they are eaten.
This can be a long process since fresh produce needs to travel from where it was harvested all the way to your grocery store shelf.
So for frozen fruit, there is likely more nutrition because they get frozen just a few hours after harvest, and fewer nutrients can die (source: Cleveland Clinic).
A research study confirmed this when it found that the vitamin content of frozen fruits and vegetables was comparable to and often higher than that of the fresh versions of the produce (source: Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry).
In conclusion, I hope this article helped break down the safety of frozen fruit for your baby.
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