All about Sweet Potatoes for Baby

Sweet potatoes are not only sweet in taste, but also offer sweet benefits for baby’s health. No doubt, this amazing food is recommended to be one among several options of first foods for baby. The main important nutrients contained by sweet potatoes are vitamin A, vitamin C, calcium, folate, potassium and beta carotene.

Nutritional Value

A medium baked sweet potato contains 22 IUs vitamin A, 39mg vitamin C, 76mg calcium, 12mcg folate and 950mg potassium. Besides, it contains 108mg phosphorus, 2.97mg niacin, 13.5mg magnesium, 72mg sodium and 1.38mg iron. Additionally, sweet potato contains copper, selenium, zinc and manganese but in very small percentage.

Baby First Food

As a first food for baby, sweet potato is great compared to others due to its sweet taste, plenty nutrients, highly palatable, fiber content and good benefits for bowel health. On buying sweet potato, you can either choose organic or non-organic, because study shows that sweet potatoes are included in the list of the least contaminated foods with pesticides.

If you have extra sweet potatoes you won’t cook near in advance, make sure to keep them in cool and dry area. Even, it’s better not to put it in the fridge.

How to Serve It

There are many different ways to serve sweet potatoes. You can try and play with creativity to make it interesting and mouth-watering for your baby. Try various recipes instead of cooking it the same way day by day.

The basic method to cook sweet potatoes is baking. It is claimed to be the best way because it will bring the natural sweetness out and keep the good flavor without causing great nutrient loss. If you want another good method, try to peel and cube sweet potatoes and then steam or boil them.

Combining Sweet Potatoes with Other Foods

There are many different recipes of sweet potatoes out there and you can combine other foods or ingredients to make the foods more delicious for your baby. Some foods you can possibly mix with sweet potatoes are such as baby cereal, apples, peaches, pears, carrots, green beans, peas, pumpkin, brown rice, chicken, beef and even yogurt.