Why infants and kids need to take Carrot?





My neighbour took her baby to the doc for the regular visit and as the baby is almost 6 months old, doc advised to start on carrots in his diet. And I too remember it pretty well, that I was also asked by the doc to give carrots either cooked and mashed or cooked and juiced without sugar or salt to my kids at that age.

This carrot juice is one of the three juices that every doc suggest for babies. Though the kids might have reddish or yellowish stools in the beginning, once they get used to this, their stools also becomes normal. When I was advised to give carrot juice to my kids, I asked the doc about the benefits and she did listed out a large number of.

Carrots give Vitamin A to us, but it is in the pro-vitamin form. When we take carrots, the body readily converts it to Vitamin A and that is called as pro vitamin. The carotene in the carrot, which gives the yellowish orange colour to it, is the reason for this pro-vitamin conversion.

Most of the doctors suggest to give the mashed carrots either directly or mixed with milk. When it is mixed with milk (made as carrot milk shake), the carotene utilization is maximized. Not just my kids, but even I was asked to take lots of carrots and carrot juice, to increase lactation. Cooked carrots make a great finger food for young infants and for kids who are getting teeth, raw carrots make a great teeth pacifier.

Even today, whenever my daughter takes curd rice to school, she prefers carrot salad either plain or added with cucumber.

Check here for Carrot Halwa and Carrot Kheer

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