What vegetables can babies eat as complementary food? The best time for babies to eat vegetable puree

Vegetables can provide a lot of trace elements for human nutrition. Eating vegetables regularly can ensure good health. So when can babies start eating vegetables? Which vegetables are better to make into vegetable puree to add to baby's complementary food? Let's take a look~

What vegetable purees can babies eat?

1. Carrots

Carrots are one of the most nutritious vegetables. Carrots contain the most carotene among all vegetables. A large part of the vitamin A people need is converted from carotene. Vitamin A mainly helps improve the body's immune system function, avoids respiratory and urinary tract infections, and greatly promotes the growth and development of babies.

2. Lettuce

The characteristic of lettuce is that it contains a lot of water, and is rich in dietary fiber, B vitamins, vitamin C, vitamin E, etc., which can help the baby enhance immunity and resistance to disease. The minerals calcium, iron and copper in lettuce can also help promote the baby's bone and tooth development, and prevent rickets in children.

3. Tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, and are known as the natural storehouse of lycopene. Tomatoes are also rich in vitamin C and vitamin E, which can improve the baby's immunity and prevent melanin deposition, keeping the baby's skin pink and tender.

4. Pumpkin

Pumpkin is rich in nutrients, containing carbohydrates, vitamins, rich proteins, and 17 kinds of amino acids needed by babies. The zinc in pumpkin can also help the synthesis of human nucleic acid and protein, helping babies grow and develop better.

Babies should not eat 4 kinds of vegetables

Amaranth

Amaranth contains relatively high nitrates, and babies have more bacteria in their mouths, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus, Bacillus, etc. These bacteria are more common in the mouths of babies under 1 year old, and they can easily convert nitrates into nitrites, so babies are at risk of nitrite poisoning and thus get cyanosis.

These bacteria are harmless to babies and help them digest food, because the acidity of their gastric juice is too low and they cannot digest many foods. Why is it that adults are less likely to have this phenomenon? Because adults do not have these bacteria in their mouths and their gastric juice is more acidic.

Beetroot, spinach, broccoli

In addition to amaranth, vegetables with high potassium nitrate content such as carrots, beets, spinach, broccoli, etc. should also be fed to very young babies as little as possible.

Foods that babies cannot eat

Meat

Egg white

The protein molecules in egg white are small and can sometimes pass through the intestinal wall directly into the baby's blood, causing the baby's body to have an allergic reaction to foreign protein molecules, leading to diseases such as eczema and urticaria. Egg white should not be given to the baby until he is one year old.

Seafood

Shellfish such as crabs and shrimps can cause allergic symptoms in infants and are not recommended for feeding before the age of 1.

Vegetables

Vegetables high in oxalic acid

Vegetables such as spinach, leek, and amaranth contain a large amount of oxalic acid, which is not easily absorbed in the human body. It will affect the absorption of calcium in food and can cause poor development of bones and teeth in children.

Indigestible vegetables

The digestive function of infants is not fully developed, so it is best to wait until the baby is older before feeding him vegetables that are difficult to digest, such as bamboo shoots and burdock. In addition, vegetable stems that contain too much fiber should not be fed to babies.

Beans

Beans contain factors that can cause goiter, and babies are more vulnerable to damage during their growth and development period. In addition, beans are difficult to cook thoroughly and are prone to allergic and toxic reactions.

The best time for babies to eat vegetable puree

Vegetable juice can be made by boiling fresh vegetables with water, which contains a large amount of vitamin C and other water-soluble vitamins dissolved in it.

Vitamin C has the function of maintaining normal physiological functions of the human body, promoting health, and enhancing the body's resistance. Lack of vitamin C in the body can cause scurvy. For infants who are breastfed within 4 months, as the vitamin C content in the mother's diet directly affects the vitamin C content in breast milk, as long as the mother eats more vegetables and fruits rich in vitamin C, the baby does not need to be fed with vegetable juice; while for babies who are bottle-fed, as the vitamin C content in milk is extremely low, they should be fed with vegetable juice frequently to supplement vitamin C.

Vegetables also contain many inorganic salts that are closely related to the health of infants, such as calcium, phosphorus, iron, etc. Since these nutrients are insoluble in water and cannot be taken in from vegetable juice, it is necessary to make vegetables into puree or minced vegetables to feed infants.

After 4 months, breast milk can no longer meet the needs of growth and development for breastfed babies, and complementary foods must be added. Therefore, no matter which way the baby is fed, he should often eat some vegetable puree when he is 4-6 months old.