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Stronger taste, crunchy texture … making your little one love raw vegetables can turn into a chore: it radically changes the cooked vegetables and fruits he ate until then. However, once his body is able to digest them, it’s all good for his health! Tips for a smooth discovery.
How to give vintage to baby?
When it comes to diversification, your leitmotif is cooking for your little darling, and you are right. Why ? Because cooking softens fruits and vegetables, making them easier to chew and more digestible by reducing their fiber content and eliminating bacteria and parasites.
Indeed, the digestive system of a toddler would not support something raw from the start of diversification, not being mature enough: a food raw too high in fiber would not “pass” into the intestine. It would be directly eliminated, without being digested. This can then lead to colic or diarrhea accompanied by stomach aches. In addition, raw vegetables irritate the colon and can transmit parasites if improperly washed.
It is therefore necessary to introduce them a little later in feeding an infant, once his immune system is more established and his digestive tract is stronger. Subsequently, raw vegetables provide a large number of advantages: some waterfor hydration, fibers to digest well, minerals and vitamins galore like vitamin C, but also other elements depending on their species. Carotene, for example, found in carrots, spinach, apricots, tomatoes, broccoli or peppers, turns into vitamin A when digested and is beneficial for the skin while boosting human immunity.
Baby: at what age to start raw fruit?
But when will baby finally be able to go raw? First point : he must be able to chew pieces. No mystery, even with only two or three teeth, it’s easier! In addition, you should know that raw fruits and vegetables can put your child off for several reasons: the tasteis more exacerbated than cooked, the texture is harder, it is sometimes more acidic or more bitter and above all, it is new. So many reasons that can make him push his plate away from the first bite.
To 9-10 months, you can start to introduce the sweetest raw fruits, choosing them very ripe as bananas, apples, peaches, nectar, pears or apricots. Mash them on a plate with a fork after washing, peeling, seeded or pitted.
To 10-12 months, you can increase the range of fruits with plums, rhubarb, melon, watermelon, blackcurrant, fig, grape.
No need to add sugar, a ripe fruit naturally contains enough and above all, your little one must feel the true taste of each food to form his palate. He likes that ? So much the better ! But if that repels him, we do not insist: it is simply not the day! Don’t panic: it sometimes takes ten tries for him to finish his whole plate in the end! Retry the experiment three days later and present him with another fruit in the meantime. The key is not to hold it up.
12 months: the age of the first raw vegetables, carrots and raw radishes
Around 12 months, in general, we can offer baby raw vegetables cut into small pieces: grated tender baby carrots, beetroot, radish cut into very small slices, peeled and seeded tomato, cucumber stripped of seeds and grated, salad in thin slices or a little avocado… The best is to offer them at noon, because of the abundance of fiber, so that the stomach has time to digest them. Serving them with starchy foods can also help them better assimilate.
prefer seasonal fruits and vegetables : they are fresher and their taste much better developed, to the delight of baby. Note that preparing raw vegetables too in advance causes them to lose their vitamin qualities, due to oxygenation and light. Admittedly, if you live in the city, it is difficult to pick a fruit to eat it directly, but be sure to buy relatively fresh food, without forgetting to place them in the vegetable drawer of the fridge!
What about the seasoning? Try to introduce these new foods without seasoning them so as not to mask the taste. Salt as little as possible (or even not at all!) And serve like this! Subsequently, you can add an oil rich in omega 3 such as olive, rapeseed or soybean oil. Walnut oil can also be considered, but it has a more pronounced taste. No vinegar at first, it’s way too acidic for a small stomach! Another seasoning solution: a little lemon and plain yogurt, for example, to serve with the cucumber.
Dare to mix!
To pique baby’s curiosity, let’s be smart and mix textures and flavors. Some colors open up the appetite more like red, orange or yellow (beetroot, tomato, pumpkin, red cabbage) while green is often less attractive. Let’s avoid presenting a piece of dry carrot directly: we grate it, we put a little olive oil in it, and we make it into the hair of a man on the plate, to which we add 2 slices of radish to make the eyes, and voila, voila, that’s good More fun ! Because for a child, what is not beautiful is often not good.
Let’s also think about alternating: once raw vegetables and fruits, once cooked, once a little of both… This is important both from a taste point of view and to avoid digestive disorders. You taste everything and you get used to the palate to different flavors. And in this beautiful season, do not hesitate to go on a picnic with small crudités to eat as a starter, well washed and cut into sticks: carrots, cucumbers, radishes, baby will be delighted to be able to do like the grown-ups!
You can also introduce, without overdoing it, vegetables that are more difficult to digest such as peppers, cabbage, onions, celery, turnips, fennel, mushrooms, blueberries, raspberries …
What about raw and frozen vegetables or fruits for our infants?
Take it or leave it with frozen fruits and vegetables? To take, of course! You can give it to your little one in peace: frozen raw vegetables have exactly the same nutritional intake, only their taste can be a little different. Obviously, the goal of all this is to gradually get baby used to eating like us!