Feeding Your Baby Strawberries for Baby Food - Yummy Strawberry Baby Food Recipes for Your Baby

Strawberries in Baby Food, When Can Baby Have Strawberries?
Age for Introducing Strawberries: (10)12 months

The Goodness of Strawberries:

Strawberries are an amazing source of Vitamin C. With their bright red color, strawberries contain a high amount of plant phenols.

High in anti-oxidants, the strawberry is also said to have a protective factor against cancer.

When can my baby eat Baby Food Recipes with Strawberries?

All parents wonder about when is the right time to add strawberries to their baby's diet. Strawberries are a potential high allergen food and as such, they really should be avoided until 12 months of age; avoid them longer if your family has a history of allergies.

Please note that the recommendations for introducing allergenic foods to baby are changing! A 2008 study, and many studies done after, indicated that waiting to introduce certain foods to your baby may not prevent any atopic (i.e. ezcema) disease(s). Many are now suggesting that babies may be introduced to potential allergenic foods from the start (for those with no known history of food allergies).

 

"Although solid foods should not be introduced before 4 to 6 months of age, there is no current convincing evidence that delaying their introduction beyond this period has a significant protective effect on the development of atopic disease regardless of whether infants are fed cow milk protein formula or human milk. This includes delaying the introduction of foods that are considered to be highly allergic, such as fish, eggs, and foods containing peanut protein." Click to view report

Commercial Baby Food Contains Strawberries

So why do many commercial baby foods marketed as "Stage 2" contain strawberries? Beech Nut commercial baby food states:

"Fresh strawberries can sometimes cause food reactions in babies. Cooked strawberries, on the other hand, usually do not. That's because heat pasteurization destroys the substance responsible for reactions. So Beech-Nut includes strawberries – pasteurized for safety and good tolerance"

Pediatricians will say that it is possible that the strawberry protein <allergen> may be destroyed in commercial baby food processing. Whether or not home cooking of strawberries would reach temperatures high enough to destroy any protein is uncertain.

How to select and store Strawberries for yummy baby food recipes

Strawberries are very delicate. You should purchase them for use within a few days as the longer they are stored, the more they become bruised and softened. Choose strawberries without bruising, soft spots or cuts. Look for leaves that are a nice green color.

Strawberry Baby Food Recipes

Yummy Au Naturale Strawberry Puree

2 cups fresh strawberries

1. Wash strawberries and remove leaves and stems
2. Slice strawberries in half
3. Mash or puree as needed for your baby.

Mango-Strawberry-Banana Sundae Baby Recipe

1 ripe mango
1 cup fresh strawberries
1 large banana
1 container plain whole milk yogurt
1/2 package tofu

1. Wash, peel, de-seed and remove leaves and stems from fruits as required
2. Slice fruits into dices
3. Puree all fruits and tofu in a blender or food processor

In a clear bowl, add a layer of yogurt, a layer of fruit/tofu puree, another layer of yogurt and so on until all foods have been used up. Sprinkle with wheat germ for extra nutrition and serve to baby with her own spoon.

Foods Good to Mix With Strawberries:

Apples
Bananas
Blueberries
Kiwi
Mango
Papaya
Peaches
Yogurt

Here are a few medical and scientific references related to the destruction of a strawberry protein <allergen> below:

"People with birch-pollen allergy can develop a strawberry allergy due to the similarity between an allergen in birch-pollen and a strawberry allergen. This is called the birch-fruit syndrome with symptoms generally appearing within 5-15 min after consuming raw plum and comprising local reactions in the mouth and throat with itching and inflammation (called oral allergy syndrome, OAS). The allergen involved in this kind of allergy does not survive cooking. Therefore, people who react to this allergen can tolerate processed strawberry."Informal Database from the EU

"Biochemists at Lund University, Sweden, identified the protein with electrophoresis and mass spectrometry after analyzing large data sets using bioinformatics. 

The scientists found that the allergenic protein resembles a known allergen found in birch pollen. Birch-pollen-related food allergy is well known: food allergies can be secondary allergies for those with birch pollen allergy." Royal Society of Chemistry

We would encourage all parents to consult their pediatricians about introducing high allergen foods, particularly strawberries.

We note that it is known that cooking a food will often help a person be able to better tolerate it. The best example of this is the ability to digest cooked vegetables far easier than the ability to digest raw vegetables.

Milk proteins for example, may break down with cooking (such as when milk is used in a baked good or used to cook a hot cereal) and a person with a milk protein allergy may be unaffected by the presence of milk. With lactose, cooking and culturing of a dairy product actually helps to break down the lactose so that a lactose intolerant person may be able to consume the dairy product without adverse reaction.

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