At what age can you give the child pasta?

Pasta quite often appear on the table of our compatriots, because they quickly prepare and combine with many other products. You can make a tasty dish for lunch or dinner from pasta in just a few minutes, adding cheese, vegetables, eggs, meat and other ingredients. And therefore, when a small child grows up in a family and starts to try food from the common table, mothers are interested in how old it is to enter pasta into the toddler menu and how to cook them for the child in order not to harm the baby’s health.

• Pasta contains a lot of carbohydrates, which give children energy for full development. Also, pasta are a source of amino acids, among which there are irreplaceable.
• The composition of pasta contains vitamins of group B, as well as such minerals as calcium, phosphorus and potassium.
• Most kids like the taste of pasta, so dishes from them will help moms in a situation when the child’s appetite is poor or the baby is not gaining weight well. Especially useful in this regard and nutritious egg pasta.
• If a child doesn’t like any products, in combination with pasta, he may not give up on them, for example, cottage cheese, if it is added to the noodles.
• Macaroni can be included in diet with diarrhea, because they have some fixative effect. Usually, when upset, vermicelli is added to the soup, and as a side dish they offer no more than 1 time per day.
• Pasta is very diverse in its composition. If before it was possible to purchase only pasta, the main ingredient of which is wheat flour, now supermarkets offer buckwheat, rice and other types of pasta.
• Due to the dense texture of the dish with pasta will stimulate chewing and help move from wiped dishes to food pieces.

• In the presence of gluten intolerance, pasta made from wheat flour is contraindicated in children. All doctors warn about this, among them Dr. Komarovsky.
• As macaroni belongs to high-calorie foods, they should not be given too often to overweight children. With excess weight, a portion of pasta is reduced and give this product no more than 1 time per week.
• Due to the high content of carbohydrates, pasta is limited in the nutrition of children with diabetes.
• Pasta is undesirable in the diet of babies who have a tendency to constipation.
• It is not recommended to give quick-cooking vermicelli to children, as much of the nutrients in this product are lost during production.

In the departments of food stores for children, you can now find pasta for babies under one year old. They differ from traditional pasta in smaller size and greater softness after cooking, so kids easier to chew and swallow them. You can try these children's pasta from 8-9 months. From 10-11 months they can be added to the soup, which is fed to the child in one of the daytime feedings.

If a child tries out children's pasta for the first time, a small amount of a new product is enough, for example, one teaspoon. It is best to cook for the baby pasta in the morning, so that during the day you can track down a possible negative reaction to the new dish. If the crumb has tolerated pasta well, their number can be increased by offering such a product up to two or three times a week. If the pasta appeared allergic, they are excluded from the diet of the child.

If the pasta is chosen for a child under one year old, they must be marked with the recommended age of consumption. Such pasta is made by Heins, Semper, Bebivita and others. In their assortment there are not only dry macaroni, but also with sauce.

As for traditional pasta, which is eaten by adults, for baby food you should buy pasta made from durum wheat. Ordinary white flour pasta will stick together during cooking and will be boiled soft. So look for information on the composition of the product on the pack, paying enough attention to this.

Now in many shops you can find painted pasta for children. The packaging of such products contains macaroni green, yellow or red.

Another popular version of children's pasta is represented by figures. To make it more interesting for a child to eat, pasta is produced in the form of transport, letters, asterisks, shells, animals. Such products like most kids and are most often used for soups.

Pasta for children under 2 years old is advised to be given as a separate dish (without meat or fish), filling them after cooking with butter or vegetable oil. Duration of cooking should be clarified on the package, but try not to melt the pasta. Ideally, they should be quite soft, but still elastic.

The process of making pasta for a child is usually as follows:

1. Take a large saucepan and fill it to three-quarters water.
2. After boiling water, add salt to it, and then drop spaghetti into boiling water, vermicelli or other pasta.
3. To prevent water from pouring over the plate, do not cover the pasta with a lid.
4. Every 2-3 minutes pasta should be stirred.
5. To ensure the readiness of the product, you can try the pasta.
6. Putting them in a colander and wait until all the water is drained, return the pasta to the pan and add butter or sauce to them.

Small pasta can be included in the recipe for children's soups, for example, add vermicelli to chicken soup or give the child a milk soup with noodles. For children over 2 years old, macaroni can be prepared with cheese, scrambled eggs or boiled meat (children's version of pasta in a fleet style).

Also, many children love to eat boiled macaroni and sausages. This combination is allowed from 2 years of age, provided that the sausages are non-greasy. Cooking baby pasta dishes with minced meat should be after 3 years.

Sauce or gravy helps to diversify the boiled macaroni, and the sweet version of the dish is obtained with the addition of honey or jam. Many kids like the casserole, in which the pasta is mixed with cottage cheese.

Boil 100 grams of noodles and drain in a colander. Rub 100 g of cottage cheese through a sieve, combine with noodles, add one raw egg, sugar and salt to taste, and then mix. Put the mass in a greased form, smooth and grease its surface with sour cream. Bake in the oven until cooked.

Boil 50 grams of pasta in salted water until half cooked, and then fold to a colander. Beat 1 egg and 100 ml of milk, add 10 g of grated cheese, mix and pour the resulting mixture of pasta. Place the mass in a heat-resistant form, sprinkle with a little grated cheese on top and bake in the oven for 10 minutes.

Boil until ready 100 grams of vermicelli and cool slightly. Peel a large apple and grate it on a fine grater. Mix boiled vermicelli and grated apple, add one egg and a spoonful of sugar. Mix the mixture thoroughly, spoon it in a frying pan with a spoon and fry on both sides until cooked. In such a recipe, an apple can be replaced by dried fruit steamed in boiling water - raisins, prunes or dried apricots.

For older kids, we offer a dish from the doctor Komarovsky's piggy bank. See the next video for cooking.

For more information about the benefits and dangers of pasta, see the program "To live healthy."