Your baby doesn't want to know anything about the fruit? Tricks to accept it better

The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Spanish Association of Pediatrics (AEP) recommend maintaining exclusive breastfeeding for the first six months of the baby's life. Then we can start with complementary feeding from that age by introducing other foods such as meats, vegetables, fish, eggs and fruits, as indicated by pediatricians.

But alas the fruit! How many parents suffer with it? There are many babies who never accept it and desperately turn to the pediatrician asking for alternatives but… is there any teacher advice? In the end the best is patience and perseverance, but you can always look for Tricks for the baby to eat fruit. We tell you some!

  • Starts introducing the fruits little by little: As happens to all of us, your baby may not like all fruits. So if you give them a try little by little you will be able to detect if any dislike you more than the account.
  • The banana, plan A: it is usually the fruit that best accept so try to start with it. There are babies who can even spend time eating only banana and gradually introduce small amounts of other fruits such as apple, pear, orange ... According to the Valencian Association of Primary Care Pediatrics you have to use ripe fruit avoiding in case of constipation the banana and the apple to give way to other more laxatives such as pear, orange, plum or kiwi.
  • Eye with the orange: it is usually one of the most difficult babies accept for its acid taste. There are babies who like to eat banana, pear and apple and yet reject orange. If you want to give it to him in juice, many pediatricians recommend that you do it better with a spoon to avoid cavities that can be caused with bottles.
  • Another trick is that crush the fruit with a spoon, especially the banana: in my case one of my twins did not support the fruit. It was a real suffering. I was desperate. I asked the pediatrician for advice, I tried porridge made by me, baby pots ... of everything. And in the end the solution was this. I took a banana, crushed it, offered it and liked it. So we were almost a week. Little by little I mixed it with pear and apple porridge and thus ended up taking all the fruits.
  • Try that the fruit is at room temperature: You have two options, or do not store it in the refrigerator or take it out in the morning so that it is ready for the snack. If you have forgotten, some people have the porridge or the piece itself, but this can cause you to lose some vitamins.
  • Add milk: with my oldest son they recommended it to me so that when recognizing the taste of milk the fruit would be more palatable and the truth is that it worked very well. With my twins the truth is that I have not succeeded with this trick. I was still breastfeeding so I extracted milk and mixed it. You can try every day with a fruit because it probably varies the flavor of the mixture depending on the fruit.
  • That eating is not a dislike: my daughter was to see the spoon and start crying. Before even touching his lips he was already crying. After talking to his pediatrician he made it clear to me "the food should not cause you a dislike". So the day I saw that he ate a couple of tablespoons I was so happy and if I didn't want more or saw that he was giving an arcade, he just stopped and gave him his chest. And so little by little until I got him to accept all the fruits and eat to snack a whole plate.
  • Let him become familiar with the fruit: it is positive to let as the sentences grow on the high chair and let them touch and suck the pieces. I usually put a plate with assorted pieces To suck them for a while. Half end up on the floor, the other half spread over his clothes and face, but some end up in his stomach. The important thing is that they know what they eat. In my house, banana and tangerine are favorites.

Do you know the BLW (Baby led weaning) system?

This system is based on starting the complementary feeding at 6 months in the form of whole foods, instead of crushed, offering them to the baby. The idea is that they have an elongated shape so that the baby can handle the pieces better. Remember that even at this age, he does not know how to make the "clamp" and will take the pieces into handfuls. Ideally, you offer ripe and soft fruit in slices and some of them can be: banana, pear, apple, tangerine, watermelon ...

There are some that are hard as can be the apple, that does not mean that you can not offer it but that you will have to do it in a different way. For example, roast or compote to avoid the risk of drowning, at least until the baby grows a little and learns to chew better, about a year or so.

As my pediatrician said, in the end it is a matter of patience and although not all fruits may please them, sooner or later they will end up accepting them. The important thing is that they become familiar with the different foods without causing a drama. Do not forget that the main food, as indicated by the World Health Organization, should be milk until the baby is two years old or older. So, this phase you can take it easy and let your little one gradually accept this new change in their diet. And you, have you got your baby to eat fruit? How did you do it?

In Babies and more | What do I do? Do not want to eat fruit or vegetables, fruit porridge: a matter of patience