Benefits of tomato
A medium size tomato meets 47% of our daily Vitamin C need and 22% of our daily Vitamin A need. Isn't this great? If you want to increase iron intake, always include tomato in your menu. Thanks to its Vitamin C content, iron intake will increase. Benefits of tomato are more than you can guess.
Tomato types are cherry tomato, garden tomato, pink tomato... All are nutritious for us and for our little gourmets. Of course if you eat it in its harvesting season. Tomato soup you will prepare from fresh tomatoes of the season will be a great meal for babies above 1. For tomato soup recipe click here.
In terms of its nutritional value tomato has a lot to offer. If you don't trust in products you buy, you may consider growing tomatoes on your balcony. At the start of summer season, you can find tomato seedlings and plant them in wide pots and place it on areas that receive sunlight. You should water the pot just enough to keep it moist. You will see how easy it is to grow tomatoes. Then again to plant tomato seedlings, to water them and to watch them grow, to take photos is both a fun and mind developing activity you can do with your baby.
Keep in mind
Tomato, pepper and cucumber are the healthiest snacks in summer both for us and for kids above 2. You can chop them in sizes that your little ones can hold on their own and give them in raw form and maybe you can prepare a dip sauce with yoghurt and cheese.
If you can find it, prefer tomatoes sold on branches. They would be fresher compared to others.
You don't need to keep the tomatoes in fridge after you buy them. Only cooked tomato (tomato sauce), chopped tomato or very ripe tomato should be stored in fridge.
You can prepare tomato sauce for the winter from the tomatoes you bought in summer and use this sauce in your dishes.
Place tomatoes on a vessel with root side down and keep them for two or three days away from sunlight.
You may steam it or sauté it with olive oil.
Children love ketchup. It is possible to make healthy ketch-ups at home with fresh tomatoes. For home-made ketch-up, click here.
Warning
You should be very careful when feeding your baby tomato. It should not be one of the first foods you give to your baby. Acid ratio of tomato may be too hard on your little gourmet at the beginning. This acid may cause small rashes around your baby's mouth or on his butt. Sometimes cooking the tomato can solve the problem. Cause cooked tomato loses its acidity and this prevents occurrence of rashes. Top all cooked tomato is more beneficial. Sometimes tomato may cause allergic reactions in babies. So it is better include tomato in your child's menu after he turns one
Also we should add this. Most of the babies that start eating tomatoes at the right time won't experience problems at all. When feeding your baby tomatoes, be careful to give fresh tomatoes at its harvesting season. Always cook it at the beginning.
Before introducing tomatoes, you should consult your doctor. And always check his body for rashes after you start feeding him tomatoes.
Nutritional value per 1 cup of (149 gram) chopped tomatoes;
Vitamin A 1241 IU
Vitamin C 18.9 mg
Vitamin K 11.8 mcg
Folate 22.3 mcg
Calcium 14.9 mg
Magnesium 16.4 mg
Phosphor 35.9 mg
Potassium 353 mg
Sodium 7.5 mg
Calorie 27
Protein 1
Sugar 4 g
Fiber 2 g
Omega 3- 4.5 mg
Omega 6 - 119 mg