How about adding bananas into a daily meal for your baby? It might be anticipated to choose first-ever solid food for the new baby. Bananas are a wonder food as they are easy in digestion, soft, and packed with many minerals and vitamins. This fruit has a natural sweetener making it the baby’s favorite one in their initial months! It is also a fantastic option to create a mixture of rice cereal and bananas to give a full nutrient proportion to the babies.
Mashing a banana and serving it in a bowl acts as a perfect option to give a kickstart to your baby’s daily routine. It is rich in nutrients and aids in the overall development of the kids. Owing to its creamy and sweet texture, babies have a great time enjoying it. Sneaking out on the pros of bananas can impart a host of positive effects discussed below.
What Makes Bananas Apt for Babies?
Yes, bananas have many minerals and nutrients that energize your body and give a boost of essential carbohydrates to small babies. Bananas have a host of vitamin B6, folate, potassium, and Vitamin C, ensuring a healthy gut system. Babies need a powerful dose of nutrients, and banana works wonders in offering them good skin health, bone health, and iron absorption.
The research states that a serving of 1 banana for a 6-month old baby can impart more antioxidants than any other berries, herbs, or veggies. Nutrients in bananas deviate based on the ripeness of the fruit. Not all bananas have a considerable amount of fiber content that is enough for the growing baby. You need to choose bananas that can provide a healthy digestive system. Lesser ripe bananas have a higher range of prebiotic fiber than ripe bananas having more soluble fibers.
Irrespective of the brightness stage, bananas always serve as an excellent inclusion for the baby’s diet and make a perfect snack if paired with other fats or healthy proteins. You can also pair it with nut butter thinned using yogurt to eliminate the risk of choking hazards in kids. Also, check out our blog on are bananas good for jaundice patients or not.
Why Can Banana be Harmful to Babies?
There is no doubt that banana is packed with nutritional benefits and has minimum flaws in it. However, bananas that are conventionally grown get sprayed with pesticides and can harm the environment and health of the people. It is possible to eliminate the risk by discarding and peeling off the banana skin. There is also a growth in demand for this fruit that is cultivated sustainably. Banana is a good option for babies, but only when you make efforts and find fruit free from pesticides.
Bananas for Babies- What’s the Nutritional Value?
The total fat content in bananas constitutes 0.3 g, and sodium is 1 mg. The potassium range in it is 306 mg, dietary fiber is 2.6g, while the sugar level is 13.6g. Besides, you can get 1.1 g of proteins and 9.46 mcg of Vitamin A in it. Iron count here is 0.28 mg, Vitamin C is 4.76 mcg and Vitamin B6 is 0.44 mg. The magnesium proportion in bananas is 35 mg.
What is the Right Age to Introduce for Babies?
As per the doctors, parents can introduce their kids to bananas from the age of 6 months. It’s the tentative time when your baby starts munching on the semi-solids. Having a small banana each day for a 6-month old baby is a great option. You can begin by feeding 2 tablespoons of mashed bananas as it’s the easiest option to digest. After they are familiar with this, you can switch to other serving ways as well. Meanwhile, you can also read our related article on the benefits of eating red bananas in detail here.
Top Health Benefits of Bananas for Babies
Banana is always the first choice for babies when parents introduce them to solid foods. It is backed by a plethora of reasons detailed below.
- High Fibre content- Bananas are high in fiber and help in keeping you fuller for a long time. It is also efficient in clearing bowel movements in adults.
- Rich in Nutrients- It is an impeccable fruit loaded with the goodness of iron, folate, potassium, magnesium, calcium, Vitamin B6, and niacin. This aids in gaining healthy weight for babies along with a reduction in the calorie density count.
- Gives Strong Bones- Calcium and Potassium content in bananas enhances bone-strengthening in babies.
- Aids Brainpower- Bananas have folate that triggers brain development and enhances better memory power.
- Better eyesight- The presence of Vitamin A in bananas provides better vision and helps protect the cornea.
- Aids in Constipation- Due to their high fibre count, bananas help in regulating bowel movements and cures constipation problems in small babies.
Right Method of Giving Bananas to Infants
Banana for a 6-month baby- Peel off the banana skin and cut it into multiple pieces. Now mash it and eat it with a fork. This helps in making bananas softer and easy to swallow.
Banana for a 9-month baby- By this time, babies are graduated enough to eat pureed foods and gulp their small bites. Hence, it becomes possible to have small chunks of mashed bananas.
Banana for a 1-Year Baby- Peel off the banana and allow them to eat it by themselves. Enjoy watching them.
Never give raw bananas to small babies as they are tricky to digest. Choose bananas that are yellow and apt for babies who are on their semi-solid diet. Even kids having cough or cold can also eat bananas but ensure if they are allergic to them or not.
Wrapping Up
Having one banana per day is not going to harm your baby by any chance. Avoid too much of it and restrict the moderate quantities of the same. One small banana is apt for them as too much of it can deteriorate the child’s health. It might also lead to constipation as there is pectin fiber in it. Besides consuming raw bananas, you can also prepare vegetables out of them.
Try out innovative and experimental recipes for your little ones. Exciting options to try out are Banana Milkshake, smoothies with strawberry, or banana porridge for babies. Banana is an incredible fruit loaded with a multitude of benefits, and you must go for it!
