How long does it take to cook the zucchini so that it remains. Delicate zucchini dishes. How to prepare complementary foods from zucchini

When the time comes for the baby to introduce adult food, young mothers ask themselves the question: “how to prepare zucchini for the baby’s first feeding.” Due to its beneficial qualities, pediatricians recommend introducing this vegetable first.

How and when can you start feeding your baby zucchini?

Doctors' recommendations have changed over the past decades regarding the age at which to start feeding infants. Previously, children started trying foods other than milk at 2 months because maternity leave ended earlier.

Currently, the view on introducing adult food to young children has been revised.

If the weight is below normal, doctors may allow feeding the baby after 4 months. In this case, porridge can also serve as the first adult food, as a product with a higher calorie content.

Zucchini is valuable because it contains the components necessary for proper nutrition. This is a dietary product that does not irritate the gastrointestinal tract and is easily absorbed by the body.

Useful properties of zucchini and its composition

Nutritional value of 100 g of product:

• calorie content: 24 kcal,
• water: 93 g,
• proteins: 0.6 g,
• fats: 0.3 g,
• carbohydrates: 4.6 g,
• dietary fiber: 1 g.

Zucchini contains:

Mineral salts	Microelements	Vitamins
potassium	molybdenum	provitamin A
magnesium	titanium	vitamin C
phosphorus	aluminum	B vitamins
calcium	lithium	nicotinic acid
sodium	zinc
iron
sulfur

5 rules for successful introduction of complementary foods

1. Zucchini puree for complementary feeding should be prepared immediately before meals.. How to prepare zucchini for the first feeding of a baby will be described below.
2. Zucchini is not an allergenic product, but all babies have their own individual characteristics of the body. Like any new product for a baby, this vegetable should be introduced carefully. Let's have it in the morning(for breakfast or lunch) so that you can observe the body’s reaction to the new product. You need to finish the meal with your usual food (breast milk or formula).
3. The consistency of the finished dish should be liquid and homogeneous, because the baby is still just getting used to solid food and before that he was eating only milk.
4. You need to start your first feeding with zucchini with ½ teaspoon of the finished product.
5. If no negative changes in the child’s condition have occurred (loose stools, skin rash, bloating, etc.), you can continue to introduce a new product, increasing its amount daily. The portion should be increased until it replaces 1 feeding (150 g).

Complementary foods should be introduced in small quantities and the child’s condition should be carefully monitored.

Give your child a zucchini dish once a day for breakfast.

Finish the meal with his usual food (breast milk or formula) until he is completely satisfied.

• On day 1 – 0.5 teaspoon of vegetable puree (3 g),
• Day 2 – 1 tsp. (8 g),
• Day 3 – 3 tsp. (20 g),
• Day 4 – 7 tsp. (40 g),
• Day 5 – 12 tsp. (70 g),
• on day 6 – 20 tsp. vegetable puree + 1 tsp. vegetable oil, which is added after the portion reaches 100 g (120 g),
• Day 7 – 27 tsp. vegetable puree + 1 tsp. vegetable oil (170 g).

How to choose and cook zucchini

When it comes to introducing adult food to babies, modern young mothers have an alternative: cook it themselves or buy ready-made ones.

In the latter case it is necessary carefully read the composition of the product and monitor the integrity of the packaging.

It is better to prepare food for babies yourself, so the mother will be confident in the composition of the product and its quality.

Of course, the ideal option is to grow vegetables yourself or entrust it to your grandmothers.

3 rules for choosing zucchini in a store

• You should choose a regular white-fruited variety of zucchini.
• It is advisable to take young fruits.
• On them there should be no damage: dents, cracks, etc.

5 steps for preparing zucchini for the winter

It is better to freeze zucchini grown in your own garden or from trusted farmers

In winter, you won’t find fresh young zucchini fruits in our stores, and even at an affordable price.

Therefore, for those who are going to prepare it for their little ones in winter, this Step by step instructions on how to freeze zucchini for complementary feeding:

1. We choose good fruits according to the rules described above.
2. Wash them, remove the peel and core with seeds.
3. Cut into small cubes or rings.
4. Place the pieces in a bag and flatten them so that they do not form a lump in the freezer.
5. Place the bags in this form in the freezer.

5 steps for making zucchini puree for babies

Puree made from steamed zucchini is healthier than puree made from the same “brothers”. It’s not okay to dilute puree with milk.

The first vegetable dish should consist only of vegetables and water without adding milk, salt, sugar, spices or fats.

The latter are added in the form of vegetable fats (vegetable oil, olive oil, etc.) when the portion reaches 100 g.

Having figured out which zucchini to choose and what to follow, now let’s look at the sequence of steps on how to prepare zucchini for the baby’s first feeding.

1. Before preparing zucchini for the baby's first feeding, it must be thoroughly washed under cold running water, peeled and rinsed again.
2. Next, you need to cut off the required amount of vegetable; in the first days you may need no more than 2 rings 1.5 cm wide.
3. Then comes the heat treatment: cook the pieces in water or steam until tender, so that they are soft.
4. Grind them until smooth using a sieve or blender.
5. Add the broth (if boiled in water) or breast milk/boiled water (if steamed) so that the puree becomes liquid and the consistency is no thicker than kefir.

Slightly different from breastfeeding. We advise you to familiarize yourself with these subtleties in more detail.

You can find out how much a newborn should eat in the first days of the week of life.

Unfortunately, not all foods can be eaten by a mother after the baby is born. Read about the month, permitted and prohibited products at the link.

How to boil and steam zucchini

The dish will be much tastier and healthier if it is steamed..

This can be done using a slow cooker, steamer, or regular saucepan with a steamer insert or colander placed over the saucepan and covered with a lid.

Cooking steaming retains vitamins and microelements in the product.

When steaming vegetables, their flavor is not cooked out, so the taste of the finished dish will be richer and sweeter.

Therefore, if you want to somehow diversify your child’s menu, you can alternate these cooking methods.

However, cooking in water has its advantages. After cooking, a vegetable broth remains, which can be given to the baby as an additional drink or diluted with vegetable puree.

Subtleties of cooking technology

Cook the zucchini for no more than 10 minutes; the remaining broth can be diluted with the finished puree.

How long to cook zucchini for first feeding?

• In water – no more than 10 minutes
• For a couple – 15-20 minutes.

How to cook zucchini for first feeding?

In the pan:

Place the fruit cut into medium pieces in a small saucepan and fill them with water so that it barely covers the pieces.

In the steamer:

In accordance with the instructions for the device, vegetables are laid out in an even layer in the steamer bowl in the “cooking vegetables” mode.

In the slow cooker:

Vegetables are placed in a special bowl for steaming in an even layer, the bowl is placed on a special stand in the multicooker.

In a steaming pan:

Pour some boiling water into the pan and place a steamer insert in the pan. There should be enough water so that it is just below the level of the steamer, - this way the vegetables will be steamed rather than boiled in water.

How we prepare zucchini for complementary feeding: reviews from parents

Maria, 26 years old, Moscow

Our son has always gained weight very well.

When he turned 6 months old, our local pediatrician said that it was time for us to introduce complementary foods. I recommended starting with vegetables; the first we had was zucchini.

So that the new item on his menu would not be a shock to my son, I diluted my zucchini puree with milk. I always ate everything with a bang!

At the beginning, when the portions were small, I ground the zucchini through a sieve, pressing on top with a large spoon. In the first days, 1-2 centimeter circles of zucchini were enough for me.

Anna, 30 years old, Kostomuksha

I have two small children 1 year and 9 months apart. I started feeding both of them with zucchini when they were 6.5 months old. We started later because we were vaccinated and got sick at the turn of 5 and 6 months.

With my eldest son, all this fuss with preparing a spoonful of puree seemed somewhat complicated to me, and then I found a store-bought puree from one manufacturer, which has the normal composition: only zucchini and water (other manufacturers contain milk in the composition).

With my youngest daughter, I, as an experienced mother, prepare food for complementary feeding myself. I buy a lot of zucchini during the season, freeze them and take the required amount out of the freezer before cooking. I steam them – it makes them tastier and sweeter.

I prepare it for 2 days: for today and tomorrow, I pour it into baby food jars, scalded with boiling water. I put the cooled jars in the refrigerator and simply reheat them before eating.

Veronica, 20 years old, Tomsk

We started eating zucchini at 5 months. I cooked the zucchini in a small saucepan. I made the puree in a blender with the resulting broth.

When they began to eat a decent portion, on the advice of the pediatrician, I added olive oil.

We were advised to wash down a full portion of vegetables with water, and when we start eating porridge, wash it down with milk.

conclusions

Zucchini is the best product to start introducing your baby to adult food. It's better to cook it yourself puree for the first feeding can only contain zucchini itself and water and/or breast milk.

It is imperative to achieve a liquid consistency and uniformity of the finished product. Complementary foods should be introduced in small amounts and be sure to carefully monitor the child’s condition.

This video clearly shows how to prepare the first complementary foods from fresh and frozen zucchini for a child.

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Do you want to get healthier and lose weight this summer? Then master the dietary recipe - boiled zucchini. Step-by-step recipe with photos. Video recipe.

The most budget-friendly and healthy way to cleanse the body with vegetables is to go on a zucchini diet. Young zucchini removes toxins and excess fluid from the body and normalizes the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract. In addition, they help remove cellulite well without any effort, which will especially please the female sex. They are prepared in a variety of ways, which allows the vegetable to be considered a universal product. They can be found in a variety of first and second courses, appetizers and salads. But the simplest and most dietary way to prepare zucchini is boiling. So today we’ll talk about how to properly cook boiled zucchini at home. It's delicious, simple, budget-friendly and hassle-free. A great snack for any occasion. This is the ideal balance of low calorie content and the ability to keep you feeling full for a long time. Therefore, boiled zucchini will become an indispensable product for those who want to maintain normal weight and are struggling with extra pounds.

In addition, it is worth noting that this option for preparing zucchini can be used not only as an appetizer on its own, but also as a side dish or as an ingredient for a salad. Before serving, they can be supplemented with spices, sauce or sprinkled with lemon juice. Even such a simple and dietary dish can be served in an original way.

• Calorie content per 100 g - 24 kcal.
• Number of servings - one zucchini
• Cooking time - 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• Zucchini - 1 pc.
• Salt - 0.5 tsp.

Step-by-step preparation of boiled zucchini, recipe with photo:

1. Wash the zucchini and dry with a paper towel. Cut them into pieces of any size that you want to see on your plate. Although you can cook the vegetable whole. But then it will take longer to cook and, when cut, may fall apart into shapeless pieces. Choose young fruits, because mature ones need to be peeled and large seeds removed. Ripe milk squash has a thin skin and small seeds.

2. Pour water into the pan and add a pinch of salt.

3. Bring water to a boil and place the zucchini pieces in it.

4. Bring to a boil again and reduce heat to low. Cover the pan with a lid and continue cooking the zucchini for 5 minutes.

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Zucchini is one of the first to be introduced into complementary foods, and it can be prepared not only in the form of puree, but also in the form of juice. The latter is good because it increases appetite, has mild diuretic properties and is simply very useful. And this product itself is rich in copper, potassium, vitamin C and carotene, has antianemic, antiallergic diuretic, choleretic and restorative properties, and can enhance intestinal motility. Experts also recommend introducing zucchini in the form of puree into the first complementary foods, since it is easily digestible due to the content of a large amount of pectin substances. It is also capable of purifying the blood and normalizing water-salt metabolism.

You probably know that for the first time introducing a baby to adult food, you need to start with a single-ingredient and easily digestible product. And nutritionists almost unanimously call the hero of this article the main contender for this responsible role.

Zucchini is a hypoallergenic complementary food!

By introducing zucchini into complementary foods, you provide hypoallergenic and gentle nutrition for your child (of course, for this you need to cook it correctly).

We have already listed the main advantages of this product. But since we are talking about the very first adult food in a baby’s life, let’s talk in more detail about why experts recommend zucchini as complementary food for a baby.

Its unique property is the ratio of sodium to potassium (1 to 100). The last element regulates the body's water balance, normalizes heart rate, has a positive effect on muscle and nerve cells, strengthens the immune system and improves oxygen supply to the brain, and also supports the body in treating allergies.

For the first 4-6 months, the source of microelements and vitamins for the baby is mother’s milk (for breastfeeding, natural feeding) or an adapted formula (for artificial feeding). But a growing person needs more and more nutrients. And here the first complementary food comes to the rescue - zucchini, which absolutely anyone can cook.

As you know, this vegetable is a type of pumpkin. It has a famous Italian relative - zucchini, which is dark green with stripes or specks and has a spicy taste. Another “brother” is squash, it has the shape of a flower.

And the most familiar to our eyes is the white-fruited one. It began to be cultivated in India and Central America about 5 thousand years ago, and even then they noticed that this fruit helps prevent many diseases, and if you cook it correctly, you will get a dietary puree or other dish.

Since the vegetable contains enough water, a wide composition of mineral salts and little plant fiber, it puts a negligible load on the intestines, does not irritate the stomach, and is easily digested. Moreover, it removes excess water from the body, and with it toxins.

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How to cook?

The first adult dish that you have to cook for your baby should taste like mother’s milk or formula, that is, be sweetish with a pleasant aroma. Although you should not expect that the baby will immediately gobble everything up and demand another portion of zucchini puree - complementary feeding is a delicate matter.

By the way, this fruit should be given not only during the period when the baby is introduced to adult food, but also later. After all, you can prepare many completely different dishes from it. This is cream soup, saute, famous caviar, salads, mousses, ... Children really love zucchini pancakes, but all this, of course, will come much later, when your child grows up.

You can make many dishes and drinks from zucchini.

When it’s time to introduce juices, offer your baby a freshly squeezed drink - zucchini as a complementary food for your baby will also demonstrate its best qualities here. You need to drink it at least half an hour before meals and a maximum of 10 minutes after the spinning process itself.

When your baby can handle multi-ingredient drinks, you can prepare a zucchini-apple (beetroot, carrot) cocktail.

And for older children, it is good to give a mixture of zucchini and orange or celery juice.

Before preparing zucchini for complementary feeding, be sure to rinse it in running cool water.

If the child is less than a year old, peel off the skin and wash the vegetable again.

If you are going to give the fruit raw (so that the baby can chew it), rinse it with boiling water.

How long to cook?

How long do you need to cook baby squash to make puree? 6-10 minutes.

For a child, it is better not to boil zucchini, but to steam it

Although it is best not to boil it, but to steam it. It’s both tastier and, most importantly, healthier.

It must be remembered that the hero of this article gets along well with almost all products except milk. Therefore, if they are present in the child’s menu, their intake should be divided into a time interval of 6 hours.

But you can combine it with meat (proteins), olive oil (fats), dough (starch), herbs and other “residents of the garden” without fear.

By the way, this can be used to advantage if your child has favorite dishes. Let's say a toddler likes an apple. We bake zucchini cubes with apple chips and watch with what appetite the little ones gobble up the vegetable we need!

The shelves of modern stores are literally filled with all kinds of baby food from various domestic and foreign manufacturers.

However, if you decide to make complementary foods yourself, you may have questions about cooking, for example, how much to cook zucchini for a baby. In this article we will understand the intricacies of the process of cooking vegetables and give some important tips.

Zucchini is deservedly considered one of the best vegetables for early complementary feeding. The puree made from them has an extremely delicate consistency, and therefore the baby does not have any problems eating it.

In the first weeks of introducing complementary foods (usually this happens when the child reaches six months of age), the baby is given a monocomponent puree. This means that it contains nothing but zucchini.

A little later, other vegetables are added to the dish - carrots, potatoes, and so on. Such additives significantly expand the list of useful properties of the dish, however, even simple zucchini puree has many qualities.

• Zucchini contains calcium. This mineral is necessary for the active development of the child’s bones. In addition, the health of the baby’s nails and teeth depends on this element.
• Zucchini is also rich in magnesium. It, like calcium, promotes skeletal growth and also additionally activates the work of enzymes in the digestive system.
• Phosphorus, contained in significant quantities in zucchini, has several beneficial properties. This trace element promotes normal digestion, helps the body recover faster, and also plays a vital role in brain development.
• Products containing vitamin C have an immune-strengthening effect on the body. This substance is also found in zucchini and belongs to the category of antioxidants. Eating these vegetables for a child allows him to get sick less often and better resist any diseases.
• Zucchini is a storehouse of B vitamins. These compounds are vital for the health of the baby, since without them many processes in the body cannot take place. In addition, B vitamins have a positive effect on the development of the baby’s brain and its intellectual abilities.
• An undoubted advantage of zucchini is also its ease of digestibility. Even if the baby is worried about digestive problems, zucchini can be given to him without fear. Additionally, this vegetable normalizes the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and strengthens it.

How to properly cook zucchini for an infant and how long does it take?

There are many ways to prepare zucchini for babies. You can cook it in a small amount of water in a saucepan or slow cooker, or simmer it with milk in the oven. In addition, if you have a double boiler, you can make zucchini puree using it.

The cooking time here depends entirely on what specific kitchen utensil you decide to use.

• In a saucepan or multicooker bowl Zucchini cooks very quickly - it only needs to be in boiling water for 10-15 minutes.
• If you decide to stew a vegetable inside the oven, then at a temperature of 200 degrees you will need from 40 to 50 minutes.
• For owners of a steamer You will also have to wait a little - steamed zucchini becomes quite soft after half an hour of cooking.

Monocomponent vegetable purees are usually given only at the very beginning of introducing complementary foods; later they are replaced by dishes consisting of several products. Naturally, this also affects the preparation time of vegetables.

So, if you decide to add potatoes or carrots to the zucchini, the cooking time in the pan will be about half an hour. First, the potatoes themselves are boiled for about 20 minutes, and then the zucchini is placed in the pan. Next, everything is cooked for 10 minutes and after cooling, you can make puree.

Onions give vegetable puree a brighter taste, but there is no need to include it directly in a child’s meal. You can simply add half an onion to the water with the zucchini, and remove it after cooking.

Delicate foods like cauliflower and broccoli do not affect the cooking time of the squash. They themselves are soft and take the same amount of time to cook as an oblong vegetable.

What's the best way to cook zucchini for young children?

As you can see, there are a lot of ways to prepare zucchini for babies, but which one is optimal?

Pediatricians and nutritionists agree that steamed vegetables are the healthiest. This method of cooking preserves almost all the nutrients and beneficial substances in the zucchini. In addition, the vegetable remains tender, but not watery.

When cooking in a pan and baking, the temperature of the zucchini is too high, so that almost all the vitamins disappear from it. This is especially true for vitamin C - it is most sensitive to heat treatment.

Of course, this does not mean that you cannot boil zucchini in the standard way. It will still retain some of the nutrients, but there will simply be significantly less of them than with steaming.

• Choose only young fruits for your baby; otherwise, you must peel the zucchini and remove the seeds.
• If there are dents on the surface of the zucchini, it is necessary to cut out at least 1 centimeter of the pulp in this place to prevent harmful substances from entering the finished dish.
• Before cooking, the chopped pulp should be kept in water for half an hour - this will remove all pesticides from it.

• Do not overcook the vegetable - this will destroy all the beneficial substances in it.
• When adding cow's milk, remember that this product is introduced into complementary foods much later than 6 months, so for very young children, puree is prepared only with water.
• Zucchini should be stored in the refrigerator. Here they retain their freshness for 3-4 days. It is better not to freeze zucchini - the vegetable loses its taste and the child will most likely refuse it.
• To steam zucchini, you need to warm up the steamer and at the same time prepare the vegetables. Having cut them into cubes, you need to place everything in a small bowl, pour a little milk or water into it, and also sprinkle semolina on top of the zucchini. We put the bowl in a double boiler and cook for half an hour, after which we blend everything until smooth with a blender.

Now, knowing how much to cook zucchini for a child, you can prepare complete baby food at home. The main advantage of this method is that you can be sure that what you have in front of you is a completely natural and fresh food.

The main requirement for food for infants is not taste delights, like “adult” dishes, but safety and benefits.

Starting from 6 months, the baby’s first complementary food in his life is introduced into the menu, so it is important to know how to cook zucchini correctly and exactly how much for such a child.

The answers to these questions depend on the species and varietal characteristics of the vegetable used, the age of the baby and what exactly will be prepared from it.

A wealth of taste and benefits in one product

Boiled zucchini for a child is an incredibly healthy product, a real storehouse of minerals and vitamins that are vital for a small growing organism. There are enough of them in other vegetables, but many of them are allergenic, that is, they can cause irritation, but not zucchini.

Zucchini complementary foods for babies are highly recommended among the first. Boiled zucchini pulp is very tender and tasty, moreover, the ratio of potassium, sodium and other elements in it is ideal.

A baby who receives squash complementary foods gets everything he needs, which means he develops well. The pulp of this vegetable is easily absorbed by the child’s body; moreover, the fruit has a weak diuretic effect and helps improve immunity.

Babies who are only a few months old are not yet ready to eat “like an adult”, so they react very painfully to the slightest feeding disturbances. Everything that is quite edible for an adult is completely unacceptable for a baby.

For example, we adults can heat-treat slightly stale vegetables and eat the resulting dish without hesitation. But children should absolutely not be given such vegetables; everything should be exclusively fresh and natural.

The fruits that end up on a child's plate should not contain even a trace of nitrates, so it is best to use gifts from your own garden beds. As a last resort, buy them in organic food departments.

The ideal option is freshly picked young fruits, but you can also prepare frozen ones, but again, they must be picked from your own garden bed or purchased from a trusted supplier.

But it doesn’t really matter which zucchini (white, yellow, zucchini) the baby’s first “adult” dish in his life will be prepared from, because they are all tasty and healthy. However, the flesh of emerald green zucchini is more tender (it is better to cut off the peel before cooking), and the yellow one is more nutritious.

Zucchini (and other) complementary foods must certainly be fresh, so prepare only one portion so that the baby can eat it all at once. Under no circumstances should you reheat frozen baby food that was not eaten last time, especially if the baby is not even a year old!

The first treat that can be offered to your beloved baby at the age of 5-6 months, in addition to breast milk, is puree from boiled zucchini pieces. The composition of this dish is extremely simple - vegetable pulp and filtered water.

No fat, salt or other flavoring fillers! If your baby is not enthusiastic about a new food, you can add a little breast milk or infant formula to it.

When the child is 7 or 8 months old, then you can gradually give him lightly salted cream of squash soup with homemade chicken broth. If the soup base is milk, adding a small amount of sugar is acceptable.

Another option for cooking zucchini for a one-year-old child at home is to steam it in a milk-egg sauce. You can read more about this in a separate post on our website.

One of the best ways to prepare zucchini for a child at home is to bake it with other vegetables in the oven or slow cooker. But such a treat is acceptable for children 1.5-2 years of age.

For very small babies, the first zucchini “delicacies” can be offered exclusively in boiled form.

How long does it take to cook zucchini for an infant?

The answer to this question depends on how we are going to cook it. So, a whole young zucchini (without skin) is cooked in a saucepan on the stove for 15-20 minutes, from the moment the water boils. To cut the cooking time in half, you need to finely chop the vegetable.

To cook half a kilo of zucchini cubes using a multicooker in the “Baking” mode, it takes 10 minutes.

In a double boiler, zucchini takes longer to cook - 20 minutes, but retains all the vitamins.

1. First of all, a carefully selected (without damage) young and fresh vegetable must be thoroughly washed. If your baby is less than a year old, then be sure to remove the skin from the fruit and rinse it again under running water.

* If the baby wants to gnaw on a piece of zucchini (not earlier than 9 months of age!), a slice of the fruit should be doused with boiling water;
* Steaming the dish turns out to be healthier.

1. Cut the vegetable pulp into small slices (the smaller the slice, the faster it will cook) and place in boiling purified water. There should be enough liquid to completely cover the slices. Cook over low heat, preferably covered, to preserve the vitamins.
2. When the zucchini pulp softens well, turn it into a homogeneous puree (without lumps) using a blender or a regular fork. The ideal consistency is like kefir. If it turns out thicker, you can dilute it with breast milk or formula, which the baby usually eats.

For older children, you can add a drop of cold-pressed olive oil or just a little butter to the puree and add salt, but less than you usually salt yourself.

It is important not only to know how to cook zucchini for a child, but also how much of the finished dish to give. The first portions of zucchini complementary foods at 6 months of age are no more than half a teaspoon.

You need to prepare the first “adult” treat in your baby’s life on a one-time basis. Knowing how long to cook zucchini for a baby, it’s easy to create a feeding schedule so that it is convenient for both mother and baby.

And one more thing: if the baby eats vegetable puree reluctantly, but is already familiar with the apple, you can try giving it along with your favorite fruit.