Sweet potatoes are rich in several essential nutrients like potassium, calcium, and vitamins A, C, and B-complex. All of these are important for your baby’s growing body and brain. And sweet potatoes are simple to make!
Here are steps to cook sweet potato for your baby:
Step 1: Wash, peel and cut your sweet potato
If you’re using frozen sweet potato, you can skip this step. But if you’re using fresh sweet potato, rinse the sweet potato with water, peel it, and cut it into small chunks.
Step 2: Boil the sweet potato
Place the sweet potato chunks into a medium pot, cover with water and bring water to a boil. Reduce heat until the sweet potato is soft (about 15 minutes). Drain and let cool. As a tip, to speed up the cooling process you can rinse the sweet potato with cold water.
Step 3: Puree or Serve as a Finger Food
For a smoother texture, you can puree the sweet potato in a blender. Add water, breast milk or infant formula and blend until it is smooth. If your baby is already enjoying soft finger foods, you can simply offer him or her bite-sized pieces of soft sweet potato.
That’s it! Enjoy! And remember, talk to your child’s pediatrician or health care provider about any questions or concerns.
To learn more, check out these additional resources related to this topic:
- More bite-sized videos about introducing first foods – 1,000 Days
- Foods and Drinks for 6 to 24 month olds – Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
- Starting Solid Foods– American Academy of Pediatrics’ Healthy Children