When it comes time to introduce your baby to a wider variety of nutrients, it may be difficult to determine what foods are best for your baby. Luckily, baby food can be made from a wide variety of different fruits and vegetables. It may be worth choosing a fruit that is sweet and easy to digest when you introduce your baby to solid foods – such as bananas. How to make baby food using bananas is an easy and nutritional option whether you’re at home or on the road.
In this article, you’ll learn how to prepare a ripe banana to serve your baby, the health benefit of bananas for babies, and you’ll find a recipe on how to make the best banana dish for your little one.
How to Serve Bananas to Your Baby
Bananas are a classic, easy ingredient to incorporate into different foods or to prepare just as a quick homemade snack on the go. They’re also a favorite fruit for many kids. However, before your child is ready to peel a banana on their own, you’ll have to introduce the fruit to them in a way that’s more palatable for them as baby food. The best way to serve bananas to a baby of at least 4 months is by pureeing the fruit.
Banana puree is a very common baby food that is served to infants everywhere. After all, ripe bananas are very soft to begin with, making it easy to turn the fruit into baby food. Your baby will be sure to enjoy the sweet flavor and creamy texture of banana puree.
If you see containers of commercial baby food from bananas in stores, don’t bother buying them. Bananas are not only an inexpensive fruit, but they’re a fruit that many people always have at home, making the puree a great recipe to make in a pinch. Making banana baby food is so simple that it can be made at home in minutes with minimal effort. All you need is a fork to mash or a blender to puree the sole ingredient – banana!
Choosing Ripe Bananas
Banana puree is extremely simple, which is why the quality of the bananas you use is so important. Stay away from under-ripe bananas that are too green. Your puree will not end up as creamy, and your baby might have some trouble digesting it. You’ll want to use a banana that’s ripe and sweet, but not overripe. In other words, try not to use bananas that would either find themselves in the compost bin or hidden away in banana bread. The right banana for baby food should have just a few brown spots across the peel. Stay away from bananas with large brown spots that may be mushy on the inside.
Benefits of Banana in Baby Food
Bananas are a great choice for a first food for your infant due to their sweetness and their nutritional content. Some of the benefits of baby banana food include:
- Easy to digest: Perfect to introduce to your infant as baby food when they transition from milk to solid food.
- High in dietary fiber: The high level of fiber makes bananas great for regulating your baby’s digestion and can help with constipation and regularity.
- High in potassium: This essential mineral regulates water balance and acidity level.
- Versatile: You can mix bananas with anything to change up your baby’s food, as the sweet flavor of bananas pairs well with fruits and vegetables that are less sweet.
What to Mix with Bananas in Baby Food
Bananas are very versatile and can easily be combined with other foods and incorporated into other baby food dishes. You can put them into any baby recipe you make to add sweetness or change the consistency. Since babies tend to like the flavor of bananas, it’s also a great fruit to use to mask the taste of other foods, such as veggies that your baby may not like.
You can mix bananas with:
- Baby cereal or oatmeal
- Fruit purees
- Veggie purees
- Yogurt
- Avocado
How to Make Baby Food with Bananas Recipe
Basic banana puree is very simple: you essentially just blend some ripe bananas together. However, you can customize the recipe by adding different spices and combining the bananas with other fruits and vegetables, as long as your baby is able to digest them.
Here is a simple but customizable recipe for banana puree baby food.
Ingredients
2 medium, ripe bananas
- Slice bananas and add to blender
- Blend or puree the ripe banana in a food processor until smooth and serve or store
Storage
- Refrigerator: Store the mashed banana in an airtight container to keep overnight.
- Freezing: Use an ice cube tray to freeze banana puree. Put the banana puree into the ice cube tray and place it in the freezer. When they’re frozen, remove them from the ice cube tray and place them in freezer bags before putting them back in the freezer. Frozen banana puree should be consumed within 3 months. Thaw the homemade baby food in the refrigerator before serving.
Tips
- It’s always best to purchase organic produce to serve your baby. Be sure to thoroughly wash your bananas once you bring them home from the grocery store and use vinegar to remove any unwanted bacteria.
- If you prefer a thicker consistency, mash with a fork instead of pureeing. Just make sure you don’t leave any large chunks. As your baby gets older, it’s better to leave a chunkier consistency.
- You can add cinnamon to the banana puree for additional flavor, or you can also add other spices. Use nutmeg, ginger or vanilla, or combine them all for a more aromatic banana puree.
- Do not add sugar to your baby’s banana puree. If you use ripe, sweet bananas, there’s no need for additional sugar at all.
- Mix banana puree with yogurt to give your baby some extra nutrients.
- Add formula, not only to get your ripe banana mixture to the right consistency and creaminess, but also for the additional sustenance.
- Babies may get constipated if they eat too many bananas, so make sure to give them variety in their baby food as well.