Date Syrup for Babies – Natural Sweetener for Infant Food

Babies develop an instant liking for any edible item that is sweet in nature. But using and giving them everyday sugar or jaggery may not be the healthiest way to satisfy their needs. New moms are generally advised not to give sugar to babies up until they turn a year old. But, once your little one turns a year old, you can introduce them to the delicious sweetness of dates by making a delicious date syrup. Although it’s a natural sweetener, make sure not to add it to everything as it’s not recommended to enhance the taste of food items to get your baby to eat them. Let your child enjoy the natural flavours of different foods and dishes.

Benefits of Using Date Syrup for Infants

Date syrup is a natural sweetener that can be used in baby food, but there is more to it. Dates have many advantages and health-related benefits, which find their way to the child through the date syrup. Find out how the date syrup benefits a child:

• The presence of fibre helps in reducing constipation faced by your baby, as well as help in stimulating the bowels naturally.
• The nutrition present in dates is quite expansive. They are rich in vitamin A as well as multiple minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, and iron, which help in reducing anaemic tendencies.

How Can Date Syrup Be Used?

Tasting a small portion of date syrup will make you aware of its delicious flavour. Using it intelligently with your kid can help in a multitude of ways. Since it is a safe and natural way to sweeten any food items for your child, you can use it in many preparations.

• Adding date syrup to milk can enhance its taste. Some do believe that chances of iron absorption may reduce since adding date brings about a combination of calcium with iron directly. Therefore, you could get your doctor’s opinion before adding date syrup to your baby’s milk.
• If your little one has started eating portions of bread or roti, or dosas, and pancakes, you can use the date syrup to coat them before feeding to your child.
• While preparing any desserts for your little one or family, opt for date syrup instead of sugar or any other sweetener.
• Even simple preparations such as purees or porridges that are cooked for the baby can make use of date syrup as a sweetening agent.

Homemade Date Syrup Recipe for Babies

Rather than purchasing date syrup from the market, you can make it on your at home without any hassle. Here is a simple and quick recipe to make date syrup for your baby.

Ingredients

• A cup of water
• A cup full of dates

How to Make

• Wash the dates and deseed them.
• Once deseeded, chop them.
• Put these chopped dates in a bowl and add boiling water to it.
• Cover the bowl with a lid and leave it for a couple of hours so that the dates get soft and tender.
• After the dates are soaked well, take them out and mash them.
• Take another bowl and place a muslin cloth onto it tightly and pour the mashed dates into it squeezing well.
• Add water to the squeezed pulp as required.
• Put this in a pan and bring it to a boil. Let it continue boiling over medium heat until the solution starts thickening. Stir occasionally to avoid any chance of burning the base.
• Once it starts getting thick and dark in colour, resembling honey, you can turn off the flame. Allow the solution to cool down. Get a glass jar and pour the date syrup into it, closing it tightly.

Preparation Time: Total preparation time to prepare the ingredients is no more than 10 minutes.

Total Cooking Time: The total time to prepare the final date syrup can range from half an hour to 40 minutes.

Serving Portion: This recipe can help you obtain around 50ml of syrup with ease.

Tips To Remember

• Date syrup usually lasts for about a week. So prepare the amount accordingly.
• Thickening continues even as the syrup cools. So take it off the flame at the right time.
• Avoid using date syrup repeatedly with the child, or he will develop a sweet tooth.

Using date syrup with milk for babies is a wonderful way of enhancing the flavour as well as providing them with good nutrition. But it is suggested that you use it in moderation and after consulting with your doctor.

Also Read: How to Give Almonds to Babies & Their Benefits