There are new holistic foods and treatments popping up for infants each and every week. With the advent of the Internet, parents can search and learn about infant nutrition until the cows come home. As such, a new trend has emerged in feeding your little one – bone broth for babies.
The thing is – this trend isn’t all that new. Ancient civilizations knew about the vast benefits of feeding babies bone broth. Many of these societies even used this nutritious elixir as the first food for infants. Bone broth is safe, healing, and natural for your baby to digest.
Ready to learn more about bone broth for your baby? Keep reading below.
What is in Bone Broth for Babies?
First and foremost, let’s talk about what bone broth is. You need to know what you’re feeding your infant before anything else. Bone broth is simply a broth or soup made from organic bones of beef, chicken, fish, or turkey. Often, spices and vegetables are added to the mixture for flavor and nutrients.
The ingredients sit in a crockpot for 12-48 hours, as the nutrients seep out of the bones and into the soup. Many common nutrients, minerals, and vitamins found in this elixir simply cannot be found in other foods feed to babies, especially things like collagen and gelatin.
The Benefits of Bone Broth For Babies
The benefits of feeding your baby bone broth are numerous. However, before you do anything, you should consult your child’s doctor. Once he or she signs off, you can feed your little one these soups and find the various benefits, like:
- Easy to Digest: As babies have an ever-developing digestive system, it’s typically difficult for a newborn or infant to digest foods that humans can. As such, many babies miss out on important nutrients like iron. These vitamins and minerals not found in breast milk can be found in a nutritious bone broth. Bone broth is easy to digest and offers babies a lot more nutrients.
- High Bioavailability: While many foods offer great nutrients, bone broth has one distinct advantage: the vitamins and minerals found in this elixir are easily digested and offer high bioavailability. Your baby will absorb these nutrients easily and benefit greatly.
- Prebiotic: Babies have guts and digestive tracts that are not fully developed yet. As such, a parent needs to help develop a child’s gut. Many recommend yogurt or kefir as a baby’s first food for this reason. However, bone broth offers similar benefits, as the elixir will improve the good bacteria in your child’s stomach and more.
Full of Nutrients: As babies are notoriously fussy eaters, it can be difficult to get them the perfect nutrient profile. Many babies only want a couple of spoonful of “people” food before whining. If you can ensure that little amount of food is bone broth, you’ll be sure your little one is getting a ton of vitamins, nutrients, and collagen.
How Much Bone Broth & When?
Before you start pumping your baby full of bone broth on the regular, you need to know some more information about the process. You don’t want to put too much of a good thing into your baby’s stomach and upset it.
As such, we wanted to create a protocol for parents looking to improve their child’s health with bone broth. First and foremost, you should never feed your child bone broth before six months. The six-month mark is the bare minimum to have your child eating bone broth.
Between the ages of 6 – 18 months, the bone broth will offer great benefit to little ones. But how much? At first, your baby may reject bone broth. This is normal with any first food. Never force them to eat it. If they don’t want it yet, then stop. Try again a few days later. Nearly every baby will begin happily consuming bone broth after the 3-5th try.
You’ll want to start with just one tablespoon for your baby after they’ve begun to consume a little solid food. You can up this to three tablespoons once they become adjusted to the broth. Do you make your baby food? I recommend adding bone broth to your homemade pureed veggies. They get the nourishment and theres no struggle. In fact, if they could talk I imagine they would say it improves the taste of the veggies.
Pro-Tip: The easiest way to feed bone broth to your baby is through a medical syringe. Just suck up 1-3 tablespoons and shoot it into your baby’s mouth – if they’re ready for it. Remember never to force feed them!
A Perfect Bone Broth For Babies Recipe
While there are striking similarities to bone broth recipes for adults and babies, there are a few minute differences. Mainly, the amount of spices and seasoning in the recipe. We don’t want anything like ginger or too many onions in a recipe for young ones. However, some say it’s recommended to add ginger to a babies diet around 10 months old, but in small quantities.
So without further ado, here’s a perfect bone broth recipe for babies:
Ingredients:
- Two pounds of organic bones
- Two diced carrots
- One diced onion
- One knob turmeric
- Two celery stalks
- Two tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ½ teaspoon of unrefined sea salt
- Water
Directions:
- Place all ingredients in a large crockpot or slow cooker except water.
- Once all ingredients have been added, fill the pot until all the bones are covered with water.
- Turn the pot to medium for 2-4 hours. Then change to the low heat setting.
- Let the broth cook for 12-48 hours. Ideally, 24 hours should work well.
- After the designated time, turn the pot off and let the broth sit for a couple hours and cool.
- After cooling, drain the broth through a sieve into a large container.
- Serve some delicious and nutritious bone broth to that young one of yours!
- Store in airtight glass containers in refrigerator.
P.S: Most babies won’t consume all the broth within 5-7 days. As such, you’ll need to buy a pressure canner and some Mason jars. This will ensure you can preserve the soup and its nutrients properly over time.
Bone Broth For Babies: What Parents Need to Know
Bone broth can be one of the healthiest first foods for your little one – if you do it correctly. Use the guide above to add this nutrient-dense elixir to your baby’s diet. There aren’t many first foods out there that will offer more benefit to your baby’s health!
