at what age do you start introducing citrus fruits and juices?

Anna - posted on 02/06/2010

Our pediatrician told us to hold off on that until a year for citrus since it's more acidic. That's what we did, and it seemed to go fine. Our son is now 13 months, and eats mandarin oranges at least a few times a week.

Melissa - posted on 02/06/2010

my son started teething around 6 months and that is when I got the safe feeders to put cold apple slices in. he LOVED it. now at almost 10 months he'll num and suck any little tidbit of fruit or veggie we hand him. As far as juice goes, he really doesnt like juice or water for that matter unless it is out of a big boy (open) cup.

Brieanne - posted on 02/06/2010

Brandis has a good point about the juice - especially if you haven't been giving it to her already. One thing about the juice though is that it can be counted as one serving of fruit a day - but shouldn't be used for more than one serving. I started giving cereal mixed w/ juice to my son when he was 4mo old - and something my sister did, which I wish I had - was mix 2oz juice w/ 2oz water so it wasn't so sweet. And if you do give him juice - it can only be clear juices - like white grape, apple, and pear. I'm really surprised your pediatrician didn't tell you all that when she was four months.

Brandis - posted on 02/06/2010

General recommendation is around 1. However it's not a big deal if you do it early- the main concern with citrus is that the acid can cause upset stomachs in babies and, in worst cases, digestive discomfort and really really bad diaper rash (we get that still with my 16 month old, but I give it to him anyway). I do LOVE those teething bag things, though- I think they're really called safe feeders or something like that. I got mine at Target. I used them a lot (hello ice cubes and frozen fruit chunks for teething? awesome!), but once when my oldest was only like 7 months old I wasn't thinking and gave her a piece of fresh pineapple in one (which is also a high acid fruit). She happily ate it... and a few minutes later she started screaming and screamed for like an hour:(

Now I'm going to get on my juice high horse. Here's my question- why give a kid juice? Juice, even 100% juice, is severely lacking in nutrition compared to actual fruit. And, because I am kind of a freak about it and this is one of my "issues" (all moms have them, this is just one of mine), I consider juice to be a gateway drug to soda, because kids get used to drinking something sweet instead of enjoying the natural refreshment of water. It's far healthier to give your child pieces of real fruit and water to drink. I do on very rare occasions give my kids juice, but only A) on special occasions, or B) when they're sick and I'm actively trying to get every ounce of Vitamin C into them as I possibly can. It's better than giving them soda or fruit flavored drinks, but not as good as water. Just "food" for thought!

Brieanne - posted on 02/06/2010

Caity - my son is 8mo old, and he's eating any fruit I can get my hands on. The newest is Mango. Gerber and Beech Nut stage 2 offer quite a variety. I'm not sure what the actual name is, but I found what I call "teething bags" at Babies R Us - they're little mesh bags w/ a handle that you can put different things in and let your baby suck on it. I've put orange pieces, pickles, ice cubes, bananas, strawberries, etc. in them. They get all the juice and nutrients, but nothing to choke on! I hope this helped.