Not everything that is useful for an adult can be given to a child. It would seem that what could be harmful in an ordinary cucumber, in this fresh, watery vegetable that contains a lot of fiber? Everyone enjoys crunching cucumbers, especially in late summer, when you can eat them straight from the garden. Cucumber is a vegetable whose freshness is easily determined visually, and there are practically no cases when a person was poisoned by cucumbers. However, it is not recommended to give cucumber to tiny babies who are fed mother's milk and are just starting to feed on other products.
Harm of cucumber for children up to six months
It is because of the high fiber content that cucumbers are not recommended for children under six months of age. Their intestinal system is not yet mature enough to process such heavy food. Therefore, even a cucumber mashed in mashed potatoes (including cucumber juice) should not be given to babies.
Pickled cucumbers (including lightly salted ones) should also not be given to babies. An excess amount of salt is contraindicated for a child's body. In addition, there is definitely nothing super-useful in a pickle for a child, so it’s better to wait until the baby reaches 2-3 years old and can enjoy a crispy pickle in moderation.
With rare exceptions, some mothers write that the child accidentally grabbed a piece of fresh or even pickled cucumber from the table, sucked it, and nothing happened to him. But these are isolated cases, and this does not mean at all that everything will work out the same way next time. It is better not to take risks and introduce cucumber into complementary foods for a baby who is not half a year old.
After six months
6 months is the age when babies start teething. During this period, he is ready to put anything in his mouth. Mom can help the child by giving him a piece of cold apple, carrot and cucumber as well. Only one vegetable or fruit should be given so that it is possible to trace the reaction of the child's body. The whole baby is unlikely to eat the entire piece of the product given to him, but some elements will enter the stomach. If after that the child does not have colic, constipation or allergies, you can safely add cucumber to the list of available products.
A piece of cucumber given to a child should not be too small so that the child cannot swallow it. A slice cut a little obliquely is the optimal size.
How often to give cucumber
Cucumbers should not always be in the diet of a six-month-old baby. It is enough to give him a couple of spoons of grated cucumber once a week. Or cut off a large slice of skinless cucumber for your baby to suck on, thereby soothing itching due to teething and enjoying a cool fresh vegetable. If you notice any changes in the baby's body, you should immediately consult a doctor to find out which product the reaction occurred to.
Cucumber is a watery vegetable rich in fiber and vitamins. This fruit is a frequent guest of any table. But many young parents are wondering at what age you can give a cucumber to a child. After all, despite the almost indisputable benefits of cucumbers, the children's stomach may not respond very well to such a novelty in the diet. Yes, and the question of the allergenicity of the product remains open. Therefore, for starters, it is better to find out all the features of this vegetable and determine the permissible age limits for its use.
So, let's figure out at what age you can give a cucumber to a child.
At what age can you give fresh cucumber to a child?
First you need to decide on a fresh vegetable. After all, with the advent of warm summer days, it is with fresh vegetables and fruits that you want to feed your child.
To the question of parents, at what age can a child be given a cucumber, pediatricians answer - after a year.
The underformed, delicate gastrointestinal tract of the crumbs is not yet ready for the tests that a fresh cucumber suggests for him. The fact is that a vegetable can cause bloating, diarrhea, or, conversely, constipation. And this means that offering the baby, even the most selective, plucked cucumber in our own garden, we risk provoking colic and upset stools.
As for allergenicity, the answer is twofold. If the fruit is grown in its own garden without the use of chemical fertilizers and other growth enhancers, then the cucumber can be called a low-allergenic product. But a vegetable bought in a store does not guarantee purity and environmental friendliness and can easily cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, if we talk about the diet of crumbs, then it is better not to experiment. It is better to offer store products to an older child (2-3 years old), whose allergic status is stable.
At what age can pickled cucumber be given to a child?
Of course, moms and dads ask this question too. After all, having found out at what age you can give a cucumber to a child in general, I want to know when it’s not scary to offer a pickled vegetable.
It is obvious here that when harvesting a vegetable, a marinade is used, which contains salt, pepper, other spices and spices. The taste of a pickled cucumber is harsh, with sourness, and maybe even peppercorns. This food is not suitable for babies.
You can give a child a pickled cucumber no earlier than 2-3 years of age.
And, then for these purposes it is worth choosing a home-made product. Mom should know what ingredients were used in the preparation of the pickled "yummy". And only in the case when there is confidence that the vegetable is prepared with cleanliness and taking into account the recommendations for the children's menu, you can give the baby a pickled cucumber.
How to give a cucumber to a child?
Having answered the question, at what age can a child be given a cucumber, I would like to pay attention to the variations in serving. After all, we have a very tiny baby, who is barely 1-2 years old. How to make familiarity with the new menu component as soft and safe as possible?
Here are some good tips on this subject:
- Choose a small fruit;
- You should not offer a large amount of cucumber, even if the baby really liked it;
- It is better to cut the cucumber into small longitudinal slices and peel;
- You should try the product first. Cucumbers come with bitterness. This can upset the little one.
- It is necessary to give the child a perfectly washed vegetable;
- You should not offer a crumbled, yellowish cucumber;
- You need to start with one small slice a day, and carefully monitor the child's condition for the first 2-3 samples.
- You can not combine dairy and sour-milk products with cucumber. If the cucumber is for dinner, then milk should be no earlier than for breakfast.
- Do not immediately offer your child a combination of vegetables (cucumber, tomato, cabbage). This is a high burden for the digestive tract crumbs.
Following these simple tips, you can introduce your child to a new vegetable on his menu without fear. We must be prepared that not every child will immediately appreciate the novelty at its true worth. Many children do not like cucumbers and only by the age of 3-4 do they realize that the first impression of a green, juicy fruit was wrong.
Every mother really wants to diversify her baby's diet and from time to time offers the child new products. It is important that the nutrition system of a growing organism is filled with all the vitamins and useful elements. With the onset of summer, cucumbers are among the first to begin to ripen, which you just want to offer your baby.
Why do children need to eat cucumbers and what are their benefits
Cucumber is an extremely healthy vegetable, which consists of almost 96 percent water, in which beneficial trace elements are dissolved. Cucumber can not harm the baby, because it belongs to the class of hypoallergenic products and does not cause food intolerance. Rather, on the contrary, the vegetable helps to improve metabolic processes in the human body, for example, it helps to best absorb animal proteins. It is for this reason that cucumbers go well with fish or meat dishes.
Cucumber pulp contains a large amount of fiber, and also contains essential oils, which greatly improves the child's appetite and improves the digestive process. Although the cucumber does not contain a wide range of vitamins, it contains a number of useful elements: iodine, sulfur, magnesium, potassium, etc.
Such a nutrient as a cucumber is extremely useful, especially for babies, since each enzyme in its composition contributes to the normalization of many processes in the child's body. So, for example, silicon is the main component for the health of the nail plates, hair, and bones.. Its deficiency in the body of a child leads to complex painful processes: hair loss, frequent fractures, joint pain, and so on.
Potassium, which is also found in cucumber pulp, is an equally useful and important component of baby food. It performs a regulatory function in the water-salt metabolism of the body of not only a child, but also adults. This regulation allows the organs and systems of the body to work fully, performing the appropriate tasks.
Sulfur, as a component of the body, is responsible for the regulation of metabolic processes, maintaining the homeostatic balance of all systems. Sulfur affects the immune system, strengthening it and toning it, contributes to a better formation of the baby's nervous system, and is also responsible for the formation of the muscular corset, which performs a shock-absorbing function.
Iodine is also important for the baby, taking not the last place in the regulation of processes. It is involved in the formation of the immune system, the system of neural connections, and also contributes to intellectual development. Scientists have proven that the lack of iodine in the child's body leads to disruption and inhibition of the intellectual functions of the brain.
At what age and how to give cucumbers to children
It can be answered unequivocally that children can and should even eat cucumbers as food, but the age at which a baby can begin to get acquainted with a vegetable is slightly blurred.
Doctor's opinion: it is best to start giving your child cucumbers from the age of one, since the product contains a large amount of fiber, and it can cause colic. The body of a baby up to a year is not yet able to process everything in a row, for this reason one should be extremely careful and selective.
However, if the child is already coping well enough with solid food, then the cucumber will not hurt at all. The fact is that this vegetable prevents the occurrence of allergies and food intolerance, for this reason pediatricians advise starting feeding the baby with zucchini, which are relatives of cucumbers.
It is best to give fresh cucumbers to children, since it is better not to use salinity at an early age in principle. Up to a year, a cucumber can be chopped in a blender and cucumber puree can be made. Older children will not only be tasty and healthy, but also interesting to try crunching a fresh cucumber. It is worth peeling only vegetables that were bought, and as for self-grown cucumbers, it is enough just to rinse them well under running water.
Subsequently, you can start using cucumber as the basis for a salad, adding more and more new ingredients to it every month. However, it must be remembered that the combination of cucumbers and tomatoes is heavy food for the children's stomach, for this reason, the tomato is introduced into the diet of small children last.
Contraindications for use
Avoiding the use of cucumbers is only for those children who have serious chronic diseases of the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract. It is also undesirable to eat cucumbers for nursing mothers, since some of the enzymes that are present in the pulp of the cucumber, getting into the milk, adversely affect the condition of the child. In particular, we are talking about poorly digestible components, such as fiber.
Cucumbers are a healthy vegetable that will not harm the baby, but will only strengthen his health and stimulate the body to full and proper development. You can eat these vegetables in childhood, but everything should be in moderation.
Cucumber is a very useful vegetable.
It is more than 90% water. In addition, cucumber contains potassium, vitamins B, A, K, PP, ascorbic acid, phosphorus, copper, fluorine, calcium, carotene and other useful substances.
This vegetable is very popular in our diet. But the question is: when to give a child a cucumber? After all, for a small organism, it is no less useful.
From what age?
In general, the first complementary foods should be introduced no earlier than six months, when the child’s digestive system is ready to digest and assimilate new types of food.
Is it possible to give cucumber to children as a first food?
Definitely - no.
At what age can a child eat fresh cucumber? It all depends on the type of food.
- If pedagogical, in which the baby simply gets acquainted with new food from the common table, then from the moment he shows interest in cucumbers;
- If complementary foods are chosen pediatric, involving a gradual transition of the baby to adult food, then not earlier than at 11 months (if later, it’s not scary). More about pediatric complementary foods >>>
Remember! Cucumbers for children under one year old should be administered from a very small portion, gradually increasing it, if there were no negative reactions from the child's digestive system.
How much and in what form do we give a cucumber?
Let's take a look at two main points.
- First: how many cucumbers can a child, especially if he likes them?
- Due to the fact that in large quantities cucumber can give a laxative effect, you should not “overdo it” with it;
- For a child under one and a half years old, a portion of 50 g per day will be quite sufficient;
- By the age of three, this number can be doubled;
- For the first sample, the cucumber must be washed well and peeled. If the vegetable is grown in season and on your own plot, you can not peel it;
- It is optimal to offer the baby a grated cucumber, especially if he does not know how to chew well or he still does not have teeth by this age;
- After a year and a half, you can give whole cucumbers.
By the way! After a year, you can offer your child simple salads with cucumber. For example, with the addition of eggs, herbs, a small amount of sour cream.
- The second important point is the desire of many mothers to treat the baby with a pickled, pickled cucumber (especially when it is not the season for fresh ones).
When can a child eat pickles?
Do not rush to accustom the baby to pickles.
Remember! Up to 3 years, a large amount of salt is very harmful for a small organism, first of all, it is a burden on the kidneys.
But the kids usually like these dishes very much. And, having tried once, they will beg for them all the time. Therefore, do not tempt the child with not very healthy food ahead of time.
And there are not so many benefits in salted, as well as pickled cucumbers: almost all vitamins die during the heat treatment process.
- You can give a taste of pickled cucumber in the region of 1.5-2 years.
Give later - only better. Marinades contain a large amount of vinegar and spices that irritate children's digestion.
If a child older than a year does not eat well, then you need to start not with what would be tasty to treat the child, but with the correction of his food interest. At the age of 1 to 4 years, this issue is resolved successfully and fairly quickly.
Choosing the Right Cucumbers
The choice of products for the children's table must be approached especially carefully, since any low-quality vegetable or fruit can cause indigestion.
To choose the “right” cucumber for children, consider the following:
- It is useful to give the child only seasonal cucumbers grown in the open field (or better - in your own area);
- Greenhouses may contain nitrates and other substances that can cause intestinal upset and even allergies;
- Imported ones are even worse - they are stuffed with special compounds so that they survive the long transportation and storage.
Therefore, in the winter, it is extremely undesirable to introduce cucumbers into complementary foods. And even more so - to replace fresh pickled ones, I pay attention to this again.
- Cucumbers should be medium in size, firm (not flaccid), have a matte skin and rich natural color;
Know! Deliberate gloss may indicate treatment with harmful substances that cannot always be removed even after thorough washing!
- Cracks, yellowness, damage, bruising, stains (and even more so - mold!) And other shortcomings - a reason to refuse a purchase in favor of the child's health;
- Also, you should not buy too large, overgrown and overripe cucumbers.
Allergy? For a cucumber?
Are you surprised? And this is understandable.
An allergic reaction to cucumber is an almost exotic matter. This vegetable is hypoallergenic and rarely causes negative allergic manifestations.
But that is why, if suddenly a reaction arose, parents for a long time cannot understand what exactly.
- Sometimes in children under 2 years old, it still occurs, so this possibility cannot be ruled out in your child. Especially if there are people in the family who are prone to allergies;
- Or, if you give the baby a cucumber too early, when his digestion perceives any new product as a potential “enemy”. In this case, an allergic reaction may also occur.
Here I would like to draw your attention to the following:
Recently, a reaction to a cucumber has become more and more common, as parents think, which is actually a protest of a small organism not against the vegetable itself, but against those harmful substances that were supplied to it during the growing process.
Therefore, the question of choosing the right vegetable is so important.
And, if suddenly negative manifestations, in the form of a rash, itching, runny nose or other signs of allergy, appear after the child has met the cucumber, you need to abandon the vegetable for 2-3 weeks.
I hope now you know everything about how to introduce a cucumber to baby food and not harm your little one. Accustom him to this wonderful vegetable correctly, and the benefits will be obvious!
In the summer, when there are so many fresh vegetables and fruits, I want to introduce them into the child’s diet as soon as possible so that he gets the maximum of useful substances and vitamins. We have already written about. Now let's talk about and about when you can give a cucumber to a baby.
Benefits of introducing cucumber to breastfeeding
- Fresh cucumber is rich not only in water, but also in mineral salts of iodine, potassium, silicon, sulfur, enzymes, fructose, essential oils, as well as vitamin C and carotene.
- Fresh cucumber juice can destroy certain types of bacteria, including staphylococcus aureus.
- Cucumber is a hypoallergenic vegetable (this is the question of whether a baby can be allergic to cucumber).
- Fresh cucumber has mild laxative properties.
Disadvantages of introducing cucumber into complementary foods for babies
- Fresh cucumbers in the diet of nursing mothers can cause digestive problems in babies.
- Cucumbers should not be consumed by children with chronic diseases of the digestive system and kidneys.
- The baby may choke on a small piece of cucumber, as it is slippery and smooth. This is especially true for salted vegetables.
- Store-bought or market-bought cucumbers may have a high nitrate content (read).
- The use of such a vegetable in a pickled form can cause diarrhea, swelling, severe thirst and a rash in the baby.
At what age can you give a cucumber to a baby
If we are talking about a fresh cucumber, then it is recommended to introduce it into complementary foods for babies after a year. An earlier acquaintance with this vegetable can lead to colic in a child.
As for pickled and pickled cucumbers, it should be remembered that vinegar and salt are used in their preparation, which are undesirable for the child's body. And the benefits of cucumbers in this form are insignificant, because there are almost no vitamins and other useful substances in them after processing. And, despite the fact that children often really like pickled and pickled cucumbers, you should not give them to them until they are 2-3 years old.
How to introduce cucumber into complementary foods for babies
Is it possible for a baby to have a fresh cucumber, and from what age can a cucumber be introduced into complementary foods for a baby
Wash the fresh cucumber well, peel and grate. If the child is already familiar with solid foods (most often the first children are given pieces of apples), then you can also offer a piece of cucumber.
First, give your child a small piece of cucumber to see how they react to this product. If the child has discomfort or pain in the abdomen, postpone acquaintance with cucumbers until a later period.
Also, children after a year can prepare cucumber salads, seasoning it with vegetable oil, or a cucumber and boiled egg salad. However, you should not offer a small child a salad of cucumbers and tomatoes, since this combination puts a lot of stress on the baby's digestive tract.
How to choose fresh cucumber for baby food
So, . For baby food, it is best to buy ground cucumbers. Choose dense cucumbers for your child with a rich color and matte skin. Don't buy soft cucumbers or cucumbers with bruises, cracks, or spots. Large, overripe cucumbers should not be offered to babies.
Baby eats fresh cucumber for the first time (Video)
If you want to discuss topics, is it possible for a baby to have a fresh cucumber, and at what age can a cucumber be added to a baby's complementary foods, or to find out if it is effective to soak vegetables to get rid of nitrates, visit our forum.
.png)
