At what age can mushrooms be given to children?

Many adults like dishes with mushrooms, but with the appearance of a child in the family, mothers often do not dare to cook mushroom soup or potatoes for mushrooms for the family, knowing that the baby will certainly want to try such food. Opinions about the age of inclusion of fungi in the children's diet differ from parents and doctors. And if the attitude towards forest mushrooms is quite wary of almost everyone, then the possibility of children using champignons is controversial.

Some argue that these mushrooms are much easier to digest forest and can be included in the children's menu, if you choose and cook them correctly. Others believe that children do not need any mushrooms, even champignons. Let's see when it is possible to prepare a kid with a mushroom dish and whether such mushrooms are useful for children.

Because of the potential problems with assimilation, many adults attribute mushrooms to junk food, which should not be offered to children at all. However, high-quality mushrooms food value is quite high. They give the human body plant proteins, fiber, vitamins C, PP, D, A, Group B, calcium, easily digestible fats, potassium, phosphorus and many other compounds. In addition, champignons are a source of enzymes and organic acids.

The restriction in the use of mushrooms in childhood is connected not only with the content of chitin in such a product, which is not digested and prevents other nutrients from assimilating. Forest mushrooms absorb many substances from the soil, including dangerous ones. But, if we are talking about champignons purchased at the store, this lack of mushrooms is excluded. For this reason, the inclusion of mushrooms in the diet of children is permissible a little earlier than the mushrooms collected in the forest.

Read more about the benefits and dangers of champignons described in the video:

Some doctors do not recommend giving any mushrooms to children younger than 10-14 years old, but many pediatricians, including Yevgeny Komarovsky, believe that it is permissible to try champignons from 2 years of age. All the doctors are unanimous - it is unacceptable to offer mushrooms to a one-year-old child.

A child who is 2 years old can be given mushrooms that are grown industrially. At first they are included in the children's menu in small quantities, for example, as part of a sauce or in the addition of several mushrooms to the main dish. Over time, you can cook the child peeled and well-cooked pieces of mushrooms. The frequency of eating meals with mushrooms for a child under 5 years old (for example, at 4 years old) is limited to 1 time per week.

Many doctors recommend to move familiarity with any mushrooms, including mushrooms, at the age of 7-10 years. They associate such a recommendation with the fact that the school-age children have already fully formed the digestive system, so there will be no problems with the digestion of mushroom dishes. If the child has any problems with the gastrointestinal tract, the introduction of fungi in his diet before the age of 10 is highly undesirable.

Children should be given only mushrooms from the store, because such mushrooms do not absorb harmful compounds from the soil, like wild plants. Buy for baby food small mushrooms light shade. Refuse to buy dark, slippery or flaky champignons. It is also not necessary to acquire unnecessarily large mushrooms, since they are overripe and contain less nutrients.

If you buy packaged mushrooms, carefully read the information on the package - the date of gathering mushrooms, the date of their packaging, as well as the expiration date. When you bring the mushrooms home, be sure to remove from the film and store in a refrigerator for a maximum of 24 hours. If you are not going to cook anything with them right away, you can send the champignons to the freezer, where they can be stored for up to 1 year.

Many adults also like a variety of pastries with mushroom stuffing, but for the children's menu it is not recommended, because the combination of mushrooms with dough is rather hard to digest. Offer pancakes, pizza or champignon pies to children only from the age of 14.

For such a dish, take one onion, one potato and one medium carrot, as well as about 500 g of champignons. The process of cooking the soup will be as follows:

1. Pour 500 ml of water into the pan, put the container on the stove and wait for it to boil.
2. While the water is warming, clean the vegetables and chop them finely, and then lower them into boiling water.
3. Leaving the onions, carrots and potatoes to boil, wash, peel and chop the mushrooms.
4. Dip the champignons in the vegetable broth, cook the soup until all the ingredients are cooked over low heat.
5. After removing the pan from the stove, use an immersion blender to make a cream soup.
6. Salt the finished dish to taste, and sprinkle with herbs and season with sour cream. It is delicious to serve with dried in the oven wheat croutons.

Most kids like this soup, but it’s impossible to give it to a child who has never tasted mushrooms. Let the baby first get acquainted with the mushroom dishes in the form of sauce.

The sauce prepared from champignons allows you to add a new flavor and pleasant taste to the usual dishes of chicken, potatoes or rice. This recipe is suitable for children older than three years:

• Wash, peel and boil 8-12 small champignons in 500 ml of water.
• Cut one cleaned onion and lightly fry in a small amount of vegetable oil, then add to the broth.
• In a dry frying pan fry a tablespoon of flour. When it acquires a golden hue, salt and, with constant stirring, pour hot mushroom broth into the fried flour.
• Boil the sauce for about 10 minutes, then remove from the heat and add 2 tbsp to the dish. spoons of butter. If desired, chopped greens can also be added to this mushroom sauce.