Banana is an ideal fruit to introduce to babies as soon as they are ready for something other than milk. It is soft, creamy, and makes for an ideal first solid food. More so, babies seem to love the sweet taste of banana, making it easier to feed them.
Besides being delicious, banana is packed with a ton of nutrients that promote the healthy development of your baby. It is rich in potassium and contains other vitamins and minerals such as vitamins A, B, C, D, iron, magnesium, and calcium.
Banana also contains fiber making it easy for the baby to digest. In this article, let’s take a look at how to make a healthy and delicious banana meal for your baby. It is super easy to make, and your baby is sure to love it!
Steps to Make Banana Baby Food
By following these basic steps listed below, you can easily prepare a delicious and healthy meal for your baby. We have also listed other ingredients that can be added to enrich the already nutritious banana meal.
Step 1: Shop for Fresh Bananas
Make sure that you pick the right kind of bananas when out shopping. The best bananas are the ones that have a blemish-free yellow skin.
Overripe bananas will have too many brown spots and are past their prime while raw bananas will have greenish skin.
While fresh local bananas are available in the US in summer, you can buy imported bananas all year round at the grocery store.
Shopping at stores like Whole Foods that offer certain organic produce or buying from an organic farmer’s market is always a good option.
Step 2: Wash and Peel the Banana
After you buy the bananas, you must wash them clean by using a mixture of one part vinegar and three parts water. The vinegar helps to kill any bacteria that may be present.
Next, you can rinse them in cool running water, dry and peel the banana, throwing away the peel and the ends of the banana. Then go ahead and slice the banana into medium size pieces.
Step 3: Mash or Puree the Banana
You can puree the banana in a blender or food processor until it is smooth. A fresh banana will usually get light brown when pureed.
When you add the banana to the blender you can also add a little water to get the desired consistency or add breast milk or baby formula instead of water to make it creamy.
One medium-sized banana mixed with breast milk or baby formula yields about 6 to 8 ounces of puree. If your baby is 10 months or older, you can mash the banana with boiled potato to make for a delicious and healthy meal.
Step 4: Serve Banana Puree Plain or With Other Fruit
Banana puree can be served plain making for a sweet and tasty meal. However, you can also mash or puree other fruits and add to the banana meal.
Freshly made purees of fruits like avocado, peach, plums can be added. Berries are full of nutrients and you can slowly start adding pureed berries like cherries, strawberries, and blueberries to the banana mash.
Other ingredients that go well mixed in the banana puree are applesauce, oatmeal, and yogurt.
Step 5: Freeze the Leftovers
If you have leftover banana puree you can refrigerate it or freeze it for later use. Banana puree can be stored in the refrigerator for up to three days.
It is best to use BPA-free containers to store the puree. You can also freeze the puree for up to three months, and use it after thawing overnight in the refrigerator.
The Bottom Line
Banana baby food is not only healthy, tasty, and loaded with nutrients, it is also easy to make and babies tend to like it because it’s sweet. And it’s also easy for them to roll around in their mouth and swallow.
