Avocados have 5 essential nutrients for babies which are fiber, vitamin C, magnesium, folate, and vitamin K. It supports growth and bone health also the baby’s immune system.
After the baby achieves 6 months, needs to consume complementary food (MPASI) and one of them is avocado. Avocados have a soft texture, insipidity, sweetness, and a little bitterness.
Not only for MPASI, but we can get the health benefits of avocado for breakfast. According to a study of Nutrients, avocado contains low levels of phytate and oxalate than other sources of fiber like cereal, vegetables, and nuts.
It builds avocados capable to minimalize to loss of calcium and vital mineral caused by those substances. This is the health benefit of avocado for babies:
1. Healthy Digesting
When the first time bay is introduced to solid food, their digest will face with kind something new. Therefore, food have contain textures softly such as avocados.
This fruit has a high fiber and through it, is easy to digest and is automatically capable to maintain the baby’s digestion due to prevent it from getting constipated.
Constipation is one of the common problems found in infants aged 6 months and beginning MPASI. By eating avocados, babies or toddlers even infants can defecate regularly to prevent constipation which is hurting and fussy for them.
2. Prevent Inflammation
Baby is easily prone to inflammation, specifically in the part of the skin. It is because the baby’s skin is sensitive to weird particles and the environment around it.
Luckily, with the highest antioxidant in avocados, babies will be spared from inflammation. On the other side, antioxidants in avocados are capable to protect the baby’s skin from various things that can cause irritation.
3. Protect the Liver and Heart
Avocado is easy to digest as MPASI, but it doesn’t mean that only give a good impact on system digestion. If the baby consumes avocado regularly, will protect vital organs inside the body which are the liver and heart.
The next benefit of consuming avocado is building both the liver and heart strength and protecting from the risk of damage. It is because avocado contains good cholesterol to help heart vessels grow strong.
On the other side, avocados contain strong antioxidants called glutathione. This antioxidant capable to attack free radicals and viruses can be harmful to the body means avocados can lighten the work of the heart and protect from the risk of diseases such as hepatitis attacks.
4. Wound Healing
Since the baby is more active playing with and exploring various things around, give impacts the risk to get injuries and abrasions because falling or slipping more bigger.
Besides giving external medicine, wound and injuries can be healed quickly by giving avocado to consumed. Avocados can heal wounds safely then giving drugs can be containing chemicals giving a negative impact on the body.
The presence of vitamin K in avocado can help speedy to stop bleeding. Meanwhile, vitamin E inside helpful to the regeneration of dry skin during fast-covered baby injury with a new layer of skin.
5. Antioxidant
Babies easy to get illnesses because their body immune’s system is still weak. Luckily, avocados can protect it because of antioxidants. It has the function to attack the breaking of free radicals in the body. Otherwise, nutrients in the avocados can neutralize free radicals in the body.
6. Brain Development
Avocados have well-unsaturated fats for the body, which are omega-3 fatty acids, protein, choline, and antioxidant. This acid can increase the level of cholesterol the good for the growth of a baby’s brain development and has an essential playing role to increase intelligent baby in the future.
The baby aged 1 to 3 years around 30 to 40% of calories comes from fat while for babies aged up to 4 years, the requirement of calories from fat is around 25 to 35%.
Mostly of calories have to originate from unsaturated fats. 1 avocado contains 240 calories and 22 grams of fat with 19 grams of unsaturated fats and 3 grams of saturated fats.
Fat plays an important role in the growth of a child’s central nervous system. With the fulfillment of child fat, the nervous system can be growing up more optimal and can work properly. Avocados are supported with nutrients of fiber have a function developing of brain development and vitamin E to sharpen children’s memory.
Several studies explain that intake is sufficient of omega-3 and choline can build up babies smarter, quickly learn, and have well thought. Therefore, not only MPASI, avocados are suggested for consumption during pregnancy.
7. Baby Development
A baby with an intake of the highest food nutrients including avocados will be growing up well than a baby with nutrient deficiencies. Babies and toddlers commonly hard to absorb fat-soluble vitamins.
Many various nutrients such as monounsaturated fats, carbohydrates, protein, antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals play a role in the growth of babies development.
Those nutrients can be found in fruits like avocados. Avocado is the best fruit for babies specifically helping to growth of the brain because rich in unsaturated fats.
The baby isn’t recommended to do a low-fat diet because they need fat to grow and develop mainly in the golden age which is 1 to 2 years. Fatty acids in avocados can help absorb nutrition from the food that comes to the body specifically together consume.
By consuming avocados regularly, the baby’s body will easy to get the intake of daily nutrition needed to grow and develop well.
8. Prevent Anemia
Avocados contain folate acids, riboflavin, vitamin C, and vitamin B6. Vitamin C can increase the absorbing iron in the body. Folate acids and riboflavin are essential in processing the product of red blood cells in the body, known as hemoglobin.
Even so, vitamin B6 have playing a role to get results in hemoglobin due to distributing oxygen to the whole body. Giving avocados to babies prevents anemia.
9. Maintain Eye Health
Avocados contain vitamin A in the form of carotenoids known have benefit to help sharpen the eyesight of babies. There are 2 types of carotenoids which are lutein and zeaxanthin needed by the eyes to prevent occur damage from ultraviolet rays (UV) from sunlight.
According to Harvard T.H. Chan, carotenoids can be known to reduce the risk of visual disturbance and cataracts in children. Giving avocados regularly to babies to fill the carotenoids needed for babies to get the benefits of avocado for eyes health as a source of vitamin E.
10.Gain Baby’s Body Weight
With nutrients of calories, carbohydrates, and high fat, avocados are good to give to babies as an intake to gain and keep the body’s weight to keep healthy and stable.
Find more about the health benefits of avocado for weight loss or gain body weight. Avocados high in fiber and low in carbohydrates can prevent increasing the pressure of blood sugar. By consuming avocados regularly, babies not only get full but also balance in nutrients and avoid obesity.
11.Growth of Bones and Teeth
In terms of minerals, avocados contain calcium and potassium. Both of these nutrients in avocados have a function to build up and strengthen a child’s bones and teeth.
Not only that, avocados contain high vitamin K to help to increase absorb nutrients for bones. 100 grams of avocado containing vitamin K equivalent with 18% of daily needs.
12.MPASI
Avocados have the highest nutrients for babies than other fruits. Besides avocados, we can get the benefits of snakehead fish for babies. On the other side that avocados are rich in protein, fiber, niacin, thiamine, riboflavin, folic acid, and zinc. There are benefits of avocado as a complementary food,
- Increase the number of calories
Fat in avocado is a kind of healthy calorie to increase the amount of calories. For the growing up baby, the type of fat and calorie in avocado is good nutrition.
Avocado as MPASI for babies contains fat to help the growth of baby’s mental and physically also supporting their brain to develop properly. Meanwhile, monosaturated fat in avocado is a good fat helpful for growing up children and recommendation specific for babies aged 6 months or more and babies with slow weight gain.
- Increase immunity and improves the condition of the skin
Avocados also contain selenium, manganese, copper, and zinc which are essential to develop for baby’s growth. Vitamins in avocados are vitamin B1, vitamin B2, niacin, folate, vitamin B6, and pantothenic acid facilitating the baby’s proactive development. There are vitamins C and E to increase the immunity of the immune system and improve the condition of the skin.
- Helps the growth and development of a nervous system
Avocado is fruit free of sodium and cholesterol. Even avocado as MPASI for babies contains needed substances to increase health and helps the growth and development the nervous of system to support normal growth.
- Protect baby from irritation
Avocados have anti-inflammatory properties to control inflammation. Usually, inflammation occurs in babies caused by the entry of pathogens because of baby’s skin is soft and smooth, even a little scratch causing inflammation and injury. So it’s necessary nutrients in avocados to protect babies from irritating environmental factors.
- Neutralize poison
Avocados contain a lot of anti-oxidant to control the production of free radicals in the body. This anti-oxidant is capable to neutralize toxins enter to the body.
- Help heal rashes and wound
Avocado has rich in anti-microbial properties to increase the immune system of the baby overall. These nutrients help to recover problems in the body being healthy includes healing rashes and wounds quickly.
After the baby achieved the aged of 6 months, babies will be introduced to various foods such as MPASI. During this phase, mothers start to give vegetables and fruits.
One of the best fruit for MPASI earlier is avocado. Avocados have a smooth texture with the taste slightly sweet so easy to eat for babies. Before giving avocados as MPASI, mothers have to know how to select good avocados.
- Choose fresh avocado without chemicals
- Avoid avocado with a dark spot
- Choose an avocado with a dark skin color but have a soft texture when pressed
- Avoid an avocado that is too hard or too soft
how to serve it ?
After choosing the right avocado, the next step is to process it into a delicious and healthy MPASI menu. These are some of the complementary food recipes can try it
Avocado Cheese Puree
The combination of avocado and cheese is the right combination. Cheese has a savory taste but doesn’t contain salt. The nutrient in cheese doesn’t damage avocado nutrition.
Ingredients needed: 1 avocado, 1 piece of unsalted cheese, and olive oil
Process:
- Cut the avocado and remove the seeds, then scoop out the flesh using a spoon
- Puree the avocado and cheese using a blender
- Add water or breast milk, adjust the texture
- Add enough olive oil
- Cheese avocado puree is ready to serve
Sweet Potato Avocado Puree
Sweet potatoes have a naturally sweet taste suitable for processing with avocado
Ingredients needed: 1 avocado, 1 sweet potato, and breast milk, or formula milk in moderation
Process:
- Take the avocado flesh using a spoon
- In a separate place, steam or boil sweet potatoes until tender and cooked
- Smooth avocado and sweet potato blender that has been cooked
- Add breast milk or formula to adjust the puree texture want
- Ready to serve the baby
Banana Avocado Puree
Bananas are suitable as a complement to avocados. Bananas have high potassium and are good for baby health. Bananas also have a natural sweet taste that is delicious and filling.
Ingredients needed: 1 avocado, 1 ripe banana, and enough water
Process:
- Take the avocado and banana flesh and mash them with a fork
- Adjust thickness by adding enough water
- Ready to serve