First Time Parents Guide on Vegetables and Fruits for Baby

The doctor will probably recommend beginning strained vegetables and fruits shortly after your baby is started on cereal and or meat. This is likely to be within the baby's second or third month, the introduction of individual varieties being interspersed with that of new varieties of cereal and meat.

The chief contribution of vegetables and fruits is a variety of vitamins and minerals. However, individual items might vary greatly in which and how much of each nutrient they provide. In general, green and yellow vegetables and yellow fruits have high vitamin A values. Most fruits and vegetables contain some vitamin C but citrus fruits are the best contributors of this vitamin. Green vegetables supply appreciable iron. Used in wide variety, vegetables and fruits are among the best sources of trace minerals.

Serving your baby many kinds of vegetables and fruits helps build good food habits. They provide a wide variety of taste experiences when food acceptances are most easily established. This is especially beneficial in later life when parents no longer control a person's diet. Back in 1933, when "baby foods" were new, Dr. Manuel Glazier of Boston reported on a study made on 231 babies to determine what happened when strained vegetables and fruits were fed as early as one month of age. Even young babies digested the strained foods easily. Dr. Glazier concluded,". . . that the study showed the group fed solids early in infancy had better nutrition and better food and bowel habits and fewer food dislikes than the group fed solids in later infancy." The past thirty years have substantiated his findings.

Its a good idea to start with the plain strained vegetables and fruits before introducing those that are mixtures. And, as suggested under cereals, each new product should be tried three or four days, as the only new food, before moving on to another.

No less than two different servings of strained vegetables per day, at least one of them "green or yellow"is a good dietary pattern. in addition, you will want to include at least one, but probably more, strained fruits per day. A word of caution: perhaps you'll discover, as many parents have, that your baby accepts fruits more readily than vegetables. Be careful not to let this result in an overuse of fruits to the exclusion of vegetables which generally have higher nutritive values. In such cases it might be better to serve the vegetables first, while the baby is hungry, withholding the fruit until later.

Too much Fruit Juice can be Bad for Kids

Kids love fruit juice. But that tasty package of vitamins and minerals has a price. Juices is loaded with natural sugar, so drinking too much can cause obesity, stunted growth, digestive problems and tooth decay.

If children eat full meals on top of that juice, they risk obesity. If they full up only on fruit juice, failing to receive nutrients from a well balanced diet, they may face malnutrition or short stature.

Too much juice also means too much sorbitol, one of three natural sugars in most fruit juices. Our intestines can't absorb it, so it ferments in the colon, causing stomach aches, gas and sometimes diarrhea. White grape juice provides one alternative: it doesn't contain sorbitol.

Here are some tips from experts:

• Limit preschoolers to 4 to 6 ounces of juice a day - 8-12 ounces for older children and teens. Make sure what they drink is 100 percent juice, not a fruit flavored beverage.

• Dilute juice with club soda or mineral water.

• Milk and water are still excellent choices for kids. You can try spicing up water with lemon or other fruit.

• Limit carbonated drinks. By the time kids turn 13, they are drinking four times as much carbonated drinks as fruit juices.