Is it ok to give a 7 month old fruit puree everyday?

I

idoll

Registered User
Hi,
I give my 7month old daughter mix fruits puree with mix grain or semolina cereal everyday. Is it ok to give her fruits everyday? Or should I stop?

I started her on solids at 6 months with 1 and then 2 meals a day gradually. I am giving her cereal with fruits(cherries,blueberries,apple,prunes,banana and pear puree) for lunch and cereal with veggies(pumpkin, French beans, less peas and broccoli puree ) carrot sometimes for dinner and top up with BM..
Now im thinking of increasing to 3 meals a day.
Please advise..
Thanks
 
Why not?
My daughter's been eating some form of fruit every day since about five or six months, and she's over a year now.
So long as it's all natural and not sugary.
Soon you can give baby a piece of banana and let her try to hold and bite it herself!
This is what she eats now
* Breakfast - oatmeal with pureed or fresh fruit. Milk. Sometimes a piece of bread
* Lunch - congee with chicken and vegetable
* Afternoon snack -- some diary (usually yogurt) with pureed or fresh fruit
* Dinner -- Meat, veg, starch
* Bedtime -- bottle of milk
 
Gracey, thank you very much, that really helped:)

Liquorice, i asked because I been told fruits have a cooling tendency and can cause colds etc and also read one mother had mentioned in one of the baby forums that she will not give her baby fruit everyday.. Also many a times my daughter wakes up in the night with a blocked nose but she is fine in the day. Didn't understand that, So I thought its better to confirm before I continue
Also the mothers Ive spoken to give 1-2 fruits a day and I was giving 5-6. Should I reduce the number of fruits or its ok?
 
Hi iDoll -- Are you Chinese? Because the "cooling" belief is Chinese. (I'm Chinese, too).
I probably wouldn't give her fruit 5 or 6 times a day. Like I said, she gets a little with breakfast, and a little with her snack, so twice a day.
The Chinese would stay away from mangoes, loong-an (sorry, don't know how to spell in English) and pineapples for small babies.
But other than that, I think you're OK with neutral fruits like bananas, pears, plums, applesauce, melon, blueberries -- basically the fruits you mentioned in your email.
 
idoll said:
Gracey, thank you very much, that really helped:)

Liquorice, i asked because I been told fruits have a cooling tendency and can cause colds etc and also read one mother had mentioned in one of the baby forums that she will not give her baby fruit everyday.. Also many a times my daughter wakes up in the night with a blocked nose but she is fine in the day. Didn't understand that, So I thought its better to confirm before I continue
Also the mothers Ive spoken to give 1-2 fruits a day and I was giving 5-6. Should I reduce the number of fruits or its ok?
Click to expand...

Maybe try checking with the Mother and Child Health Clinic nearby you because they will give you booklets that explain what kinds of servings of different foods children should have at certain ages. That is probably a better and more balanced guide for "what your child should eat" than TCM at this point.

And also, the truth is that even according to TCM, not ALL fruits having cooling properties. Fruits like apples actually have WARMING properties. Also, the belief that if you "get cold" you'll "catch a cold" doesn't really hold true.

My own daughter (who is 1/2 Chinese) ate berries and a few other types of fruits several times/day (with at least 3 meals) from the time she started having solids at 7-months-old until now and she's 18-months-old. She's only had about two colds her entire life and they were both brief. I doubt her fruit consumption habits have anything to do with her catching a slight illness once in awhile.

Why does your child get a stuffy nose at night? I even get a stuffy nose at night if I sleep under an air conditioner. How about the air quality in your house? Do you have an air purifier? Hong Kong's air quality is off the charts on the pollution index so her stuffy nose could very well be just breathing polluted air during the day and then it settling into her nasal passage while she sleeps at night. There are multiple causes for stuffy noses including other allergies (pet air, dust, mites etc.).

Feeding your child fruit is a great way to make sure he or she gets the micronurients he/she needs to grow healthy and have a good immune system to fight disease. If anything, try to avoid processed snacks (like crackers, bread).
 
Gracey, I don't give her fruits 5 times a day but 5-6 fruits mixed once a day. And no, im not Chinese:) im Indian.. And this is Indian belief too!!

Thanka2, thanks for your advice and for reminding me about the mch booklets, will surely check those. And her nose isn't very stuffy but it seems like its slightly blocked, she goes back to sleep pretty easily. I yet havent figured what is causing it though.. But it seems to be getting better by the day..

Another quick question, inspite of giving her prunes and pear puree everyday she is constipated most of the time.. I have also started giving her water twice or thrice a day and little after her meals too, since a month maybe. But nothing seems to be helping!!
I feel its because she is holding it in anticipating the pain and that in turn is making it worse, im not sure though. Is it ok to use glycerin suppository twice or thrice a week?
 
i would not be giving such a young one anything to aid except prune juice/water (unless advised by a dr). the bowels need to be exercised and if you are helping them along 2-3 times per week, she could very well have problems for the rest of her life.
 
Sorry iDoll! How interesting that "cooling" is also an Indian belief.
And sorry I misunderstood you. I thought "Wow. Five servings of fruit a day. Crazy!"
I think mixing different fruits is fine. A Chinese mom friend of mine gives her baby a big bowl of fruit salad every morning with many different kinds of fruits.
For constipation, have you tried more green veg? Like very finely chopped cooked baby spinach? Boil broccoli put through a blender with some rice / potato? More whole grains? More water?
Like Carang, I wouldn't give suppositories so young. The bowels have to be trained to work for themselves.
 
Gracey, no problem:) and my elders also advise against giving babies fruits in evening and night to avoid the 'cooling' caused by fruits. And I'm already giving her broccoli in the veggies and homemade whole grains cereal for dinner..
And yea I know I shouldn't be using suppositories so often but I feel so bad seeing her trying so hard that I was hoping someone would say its ok..

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it's not. you could be creating a lot more trouble for her in the future.

just keep her hydrated and offer a little prune juice.
 
Thanks carang, I do agree with you, but I hate to see her like this:(
I'm not using suppositories unless its really required..
I'm already giving her prunes and pear puree in the mixed fruits. Should I increase the quantity then??
making a new batch of fruit puree and this time I'm adding papaya and removing the apple.
So it'll be cherries, blueberries, papaya, melon, pear, prunes and banana. its ok??
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idoll said:
Another quick question, inspite of giving her prunes and pear puree everyday she is constipated most of the time.. I have also started giving her water twice or thrice a day and little after her meals too, since a month maybe. But nothing seems to be helping!!

I feel its because she is holding it in anticipating the pain and that in turn is making it worse, im not sure though. Is it ok to use glycerin suppository twice or thrice a week?
Click to expand...

Is your daughter on formula? If your daughter is taking formula it is totally almost "normal" that she's going to get constipated. My son had problems with formula so we switched him to a goat's milk (goat's milk is most similar to human milk--far more so than cow's milk) formula and that completely cleared up his constipation.

Definitely DO NOT give her a glycerine enema! Those things are PAINFUL and you're going to create an even worse problem. Switch your daughter to a brand like Karihome goat's milk formula and see how things go. If need be, giving a simple water solution enema (you have to buy proper enema supplies and make sure you use distilled, boiled water with a bit of salt in it) is acceptable to give to a child but I wouldn't do glycerin at all.

Also, try adding real maple syrup to those fruit purees. My aunt who had 6 children swears by maple syrup for constipation--some people would say do corn syrup but maple syrup is at least nutritionally better for a baby. Try adding 1-2 teaspoons to her fruit puree and see how it goes.
 
I also second Gracey on green vegetables. I used to make a "green smoothie" for my son when he was little that he actually loved. I would blend organic frozen spinach (Waitrose brand at Park n Shop) with apple (or pear), tiny bit of ginger, celery and a cucumber. If your child is REALLY having constipation problems go get some flaxseed or chia seed powder (Green Dot Dot usually has flax seed powder and I recently bought chia seed powder at a health food store in Causeway Bay--CitySuper has whole chia seed) and add a bit of that to the mix. You won't ever have problems with constipation again. My son loved this sweet green drink and I'd feed it to him with a spoon.

Again, I would check and see if in your own belief system "all fruits" are considered "cooling." In TCM, all fruits are not considered cooling and some have warming properties. I think it's much better to give greens before a child sleeps than sugary fruit anyway. Greens have a nourishing and calming effect on the body's organs which in turn helps us sleep better. I was recommended greens (dark greens such as broccoli or spinach) before sleep my a psychiatrist here in HK at one point as I was having sleeping difficulties. Works really well!
 
Wanted to add...we tried and tried with prune juice and it never helped my son's constipation. We used a good, sugar-free brand (Sunrasia) and never had any results with it.
 
thank you, I do agree with you'll on not using the suppositories. And I'm already giving her greens with mix cereal for dinner.
 
Thanka2 my daughter is on BM and not on formula at all. And yes prune juice doesn't seem to be helping at all. I guess ill try maple syrup or chia seeds.
I really like the idea of your green smoothie. I'm thinking ill start her on that but maybe after shes little older. At what age did you start that for your kids?
And yes not all fruits have cooling properties. I've bern told mangoes pineapple etc have warming properties
 
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I see, idoll. It seems strange to me that if she's on BM she would truly be constipated. How much solid food does she intake each day. Besides fruit, what else are you feeding her? If you're giving rice cereal, which brand are you using? How much BM does she drink/day and are there any other fluids in her diet?

I started doing the green smoothie with my son when he was about 8-months-old. I would have started it much sooner (when he started having solids at 5 months) if I had known about it. There is nothing harmful to babies in it and it's a great way to get them a lot of fresh veggies and fiber.

Oh, in TCM, pineapple has cooling properties and thus I always got reprimanded for eating it while I was pregnant at my work. (I still ate it with no problems). I ate lots of mangoes right after I gave birth and credit them with giving me my energy back--so my experience with mangoes has been really positive.
 
She has 2 meals lunch(holle brand semolina cereal and mix fruits) and dinner(homemade mix cereal and veggies).
Already mentioned which ones earlier. She has apprx 1-2 ounces at each meal and i top it with BM immediately or little later depending on how hungry she is.
Other than water that i mentioned before im not giving her any other liquids.
And I have absolutely no idea how much BM she has, but she gets hungry every 3-4 hours plus she sleep feeds once or mostly twice in the night too..
 
Ohh and about the pineapple being hot or cold ill double check with my mother, but as far as I remember i think its hot, I could be wrong..
 
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