Baby Food With Avocado

Avocado is a great food for babies. It’s a good source of vitamins and minerals, and it contains healthy fats and fiber.

Babies need more nutrients than adults do, because they’re growing so fast. They also have different nutritional needs, because they’re still developing their immune systems. Avocado can help with both of these things, which makes it a great choice for baby food.

Since avocado is rich in nutrients, it can be used to help support your baby’s growth and development as they grow older. This includes their brain development, which means that avocado can help with cognitive skills like language acquisition and memory formation in your baby.

The healthy fats found in avolos are also important for babies who are breastfeeding or on formula feeds; the fats help support brain cell development in infants as well as their overall immune system function throughout childhood years into adulthood life stages!

Baby Food With Avocado

Avocado baby food is a good first-go of solid food for babies for a few reasons. They contain 20 vitamins and minerals, including folate (remember that from prenatal vitamins?), potassium (even more than bananas!), iron, zinc, and vitamins A, C, E, and K, plus several variants of vitamin B.

Contents

• 1. Avocado fruit puree
• 2. Avocado green vegetable puree
• 3. Coated avocado slices
• 4. Avocado banana smoothie
• 5. Avocado sweet potato puree

In addition, avocados are packed with protein, fiber, and healthy fats without any cholesterol or sodium and very low saturated fat. Babies need fats to keep growing, and avocados are one of the fattiest plant foods, and most of that fat comes from oleic acid, a major component of olive oil.

Conveniently, they’re also soft and easy for babies to gum and swallow, and they’re easy for you to mash with a fork or puree in a food processor. Avocados are also easily combined with other healthy foods for simple baby foods.

So, which avocado baby foods should you make at home? Here are seven simple recipe ideas for your little one to enjoy.

1. Avocado fruit puree

Puree avocado in a food processor or small blender with a sweet fruit, and your baby will gobble it up. Here are some fruits that make a good combination with avocado:

• Banana
• Apple
• Pear
• Kiwi
• Pineapple
• Strawberry

With these purees, as with any baby food purees, you can add water, breastmilk, or formula to change the consistency. Avocados are rather firm and will make a whipped consistency, but if you add liquid, they will thin out. The thinner the consistency, the easier the puree is for a baby to swallow.

There is no need to cook avocados, but with harder fruits like apples, you may want to steam them first before pureeing.

The amounts of each ingredient are up to you. You can add one whole avocado in with half an apple of steamed slices with a little water, or you could throw in one to 10 strawberries, depending on what you find your baby prefers. Will it be 10%, 50%, or 90% avocado? Your choice!

2. Avocado green vegetable puree

Go green! These vegetables make nutritious and delicious combo purees with avocado:

• Peas
• Broccoli
• Kale
• Spinach
• Asparagus

As with fruit purees, add liquid as desired.

3. Coated avocado slices

If you’ve ever tried serving your baby raw avocado, you know it’s very slippery. If you cut the avocado into slices for your baby to grasp and feed themself, you can coat the slices in a breadcrumb mixture made of crumbled baby crackers, puffs, or wafers. This will make it much easier to grasp without slipping and makes nice use of the dust at the bottom of the puffs container.

4. Avocado banana smoothie

Of course, you can DIY any smoothie recipe, but here are a few avocado combos great for babies:

• Avocado, banana, spinach, and yogurt
• Avocado, banana, blueberries, and baby oatmeal
• Avocado, banana, mango, and peach
• Avocado, banana, and strawberries

You get the idea. You can mix and match all you want. Pop it all in the blend with your choice of liquid (water, breastmilk, or formula) and you’re done! You can add flax seeds or chia seeds into any of these recipes for extra nutrition or maple syrup for extra sweetness.

5. Avocado sweet potato puree

Sweet potatoes are cheap, naturally sweet on the little one’s taste buds, and easy to cook and puree. After you cook 2 cups of diced sweet potatoes, mix them with the pulp of one avocado in a blender and add 1 cup of water at a time, until you get the thickness of the puree you’re looking for.

6. Avocado blueberry muffins

If you’re ready to go more complex, go all out by baking avocados into muffins using this recipe. You’ll get 36 mini muffins that store in a Tupperware on the counter for a week. This one is best for older babies who can chew beyond purees.

7. Avocado egg puree

For this nutrition powerhouse meal, add a hard-boiled egg (never serve raw or undercooked egg to a baby) to a half of an avocado with a tablespoon of water (or breastmilk or formula) and blend. For even better consistency, take out only the hard-boiled yolk to puree and set the hard-boiled whites aside for another recipe.

Feeding a baby raw, mashed avocado is certainly good introductory food, but with these combinations, you’ll be deepening the flavors and increasing the nutrition, all while helping to avoid a picky eater by giving a diversity of tastes in each meal. An avocado can freeze for up to a month before losing its nutritional value and taste, so store the extra puree in ice cube trays and defrost as needed.

How early can avocados be introduced to baby?

You can go ahead and give your baby their first taste of avocado right around 6 months old, which is the same time that you’ll likely be introducing fruits, vegetables, and solid food other than rice cereal.

Since avocados can turn brown so quickly, freeze them right away if you’re not going to serve them immediately. And don’t forget to sneak yourself a taste while you’re cooking, too!

avocado for baby benefits

The fruit is easy to prepare and rich in fiber and the healthy fats that babies need to support digestion and brain development. Avocados are also a rich source of growth-supportive B-vitamins like folate and B6, and contain vitamin E as well as zinc to fuel immune health.

What Is Avocado Fruit?

Avocado is a dense fruit that is in high demand for its health benefits. Nowadays, it is very easy to find this fruit in supermarkets. It resembles a large berry and has a pulpy mass on the inside, which gives it its creamy texture and rich taste. Avocados normally ripen after plucking. The best of the lot can be easily identified by checking the colour and by touching it to determine its ripeness. A ripe avocado is supple and soft and can be easily mashed into a pulp that can be consumed by infants.

Nutritional Value of Avocado

The fruit is not only tasty because of its rich, creamy texture, but is also healthy because it is nutrient-dense. A serving of avocado contains mono-unsaturated fat, vitamins like B, K, C, E, and micronutrients like potassium, phosphorus and selenium. The fat content in it includes oleic acid, linoleic acid, palmitic acid, and saturated fat. It is considered a rich fruit, and its versatility adapts to many flavours. Although it has saturated fats, it is a no-cholesterol food item that is also low in sodium content.

VITAMINS: (one cup pureed)Vitamin A – 338 IUVitamin C – 20.2 mgVitamin B1 (thiamine) – 0.2 mgVitamin B2 (riboflavin) – 0.3 mgNiacin – 3.9 mgFolate – 205 mgPantothenic Acid – 3.3 mgVitamin B6 – .6 mgContains other vitamins in small quantities

MINERALS: (one medium)Potassium – 1166 mgPhosphorus – 124 mgMagnesium – 67 mgCalcium – 30 mgSodium – 18 mgIron – 1.4 mgAlso contains small amounts of selenium, manganese, copper and zinc

Is Avocado Good for Infants?

As adults, we are well aware of the health and nutritional benefits of avocado. So, it often finds its way into our daily diet. However, when your little baby reaches out to taste this fruit, you may wonder if babies can eat it. The answer is yes! The fruit provides a healthy dose of nutrients (mentioned above) and is highly recommended in the diet of infants and growing children.

There has been some confusion regarding the safety of avocados for very young children, though, considering it is fatty food. The fact remains that although avocados are laden with fats, these are all healthy fats, which are essential for growing kids.

Also, the taste and the texture of this fruit make it a great choice for a balanced, healthy diet for infants as young as 4-6 months. This fruit can easily be mashed and served alone or in combination with other foods. The taste is not overpowering, and it adapts to different flavours easily and appeases young taste buds.

When Can You Introduce Avocado to Your Baby?

Infants undergo a lot of physical and mental growth in the first year of their life. Avocados can be introduced as one of the first foods for your baby as its nutritional value contributes to the development of the brain, too. Hence, you can introduce the fruit as early as when your child is 4 to 6 months old, and make it a regular component of his diet. Begin with avocado puree, which can either be bought from the baby food section of a supermarket or made at home. Homemade avocado baby food is a better bet as it is fresh and healthier. Your baby will then gain heath benefits which we shall talk about now.

Health Benefits of Avocado for Infants

Avocado has the following health benefits for infants.

• Of the different health benefits of avocados, the most important one is that it contains a large quantity of fats that aid mental and physical growth in babies. Growing children need fat for their brain to develop properly. Avocado offers healthy fats that can fulfil this need. The mono-unsaturated fats in avocados are good fats that are very beneficial for a child’s overall development.
• Apart from containing good quantities of minerals like phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, calcium, sodium, and iron, it also contains small amounts of selenium, manganese, copper, and zinc that are essential for overall development. Different vitamins are available in abundance in this fruit, including vitamins B1, B2, Niacin, Folate, B6, and pantothenic acid that facilitate proactive development of the baby. It also has vitamins C and E that boost immunity and improve skin conditions.
• The nutrients aid in the development of the central nervous system and ensures normal growth.
• This fruit is free from sodium and cholesterol, too. So, it won’t add to health issues such as high blood pressure and heart diseases in your little one’s adulthood.
• Avocado has anti-inflammatory and anti-microbial properties and can protect your child from common health conditions and strengthens the immune system. It also promotes restoration of the body to health, through correction of skin rashes, cuts and wounds.
• Avocado contains plenty of anti-oxidants that control the production of free radicals in the body. This property neutralises toxins that make their way into the baby’s body.
• Avocado consumption aids digestion and is good for the overall health of the liver. It is recommended in children who are recovering from diseases like jaundice and hepatitis.

With so many health benefits, avocado cannot be left out from your child’s diet. If you’ve been wondering how you can feed this healthy fruit to your little one, the next section of this article should prove to be helpful.

How to Feed Avocado to Your Baby

It is not always easy to introduce new foods to your little one. Here are some pointers that will help you introduce this healthy fruit to your baby and then continue having it on his diet plan in various other forms.

• The best way to introduce the fruit is to feed your baby avocado puree/mash. The recipe for avocado mash is given in the article below. You can add some breast milk (or cow’s milk if you’ve introduced it) to adjust the consistency of the puree.
• Although avocado presents no choking hazards, it is important that you puree it for very young children. Serve it as a soft mash when your child has no teeth. You can slowly give it with more textured pieces once your child is a little older. After your little one begins to chew his food, introduce it as small cubes that he can easily disintegrate and swallow.
• Diced avocado is great finger food for babies. It is not messy and is easy for children to eat and digest. Diced avocado can be another option for food on the go if you store it properly to prevent oxidation

Feeding babies is easier said than done. Read on for some tips and recipes that can make your life easier when introducing avocado into your child’s diet.

Tips for Feeding Avocado to Your Baby

One advantage of using the avocado fruit as one of the first baby foods is that the fruit is resilient to pesticides and chemicals used during crop cultivation. It is, therefore, considered a safe food for your child, even when it isn’t organically cultivated. Here’s what you need to keep in mind when choosing, storing, and feeding this healthy fruit to your munchkin.