Fibrous foods for baby are the nutrients that often get overlooked by parents when planning meals for their infants. Most are probably focusing on protein, calcium, and iron, but the fiber is just as important as these mentioned nourishments.
What’s fiber anyway? Fiber is indigestible component that naturally presents in plant-based food. It can be found in vegetables, fruits, grains, and legumes. This nutrient is important because it helps the digestive system to run smoothly. Aside from that, consuming foods rich in fiber helps to prevent nutrient deficiencies, since majority of high fiber foods contains a lot of antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals as well. The daily recommended fiber food consumption for babies is around 55 to 100 grams.
Below is the list of the best fibrous foods for baby:
Oatmeal
The easiest meal to consume by babies to add fiber into their diet is oatmeal. Oatmeal can be consumed by infants as young as 6 months. One serving of cooked oatmeal provides 4 grams of fiber for the babies. To earn more health benefits, it’s recommended to choose organic oatmeal.
Whole Grain Cereal
During their first year of life, baby cereal makes a significant portion of baby’s diet. This is why it is suggested to select cereal with rich fiber contents. Some of the great options are barley, oat, or brown rice cereals.
Apples
Most parents give apple as the first fruit to ever be consumed by their infants. Apple offers natural sweetness and easily digestible. One small apple contains approximately 3.6 grams of fibers. It makes an excellent pick of fruit considering that it also has other beneficial nutrients.
Bananas
There’s probably no more favorable food to add sweetening to infant foods without sugar compared to banana. One medium-sized banana offers 3.1 grams of fiber, so it is an ideal healthy snack for babies to increase their fiber intake.
Avocado
Avocado is a staple ingredient in a lot of healthy recipes, due to its creaminess and healthy fat contents. It is a favorite fruit to add to breakfast meals by so many people all over the world. Babies can gain 5 grams of fiber from a half cup of avocado. It is truly a perfect fruit to add to high fiber pureed foods for baby.
The best way to incorporate fiber-rich foods into a baby’s diet is by adding them gradually. Keep a note that even though all the fibrous foods for baby in the list above are healthy, sudden consumption or too much of them may cause abdominal pain, bloating, or gas on infants.