High Potassium Foods

After introducing cereals, the next food to introduce to baby is fruits and vegetables. Fruits and vegetables contain many high potassium foods. It is good to introduce high potassium foods to baby, since the habits begun at this age carry over into older age.

Begin Building Food Habits

You can begin to allow baby to choose between a few foods as you introduce one food at a time. Recent studies have shown if babies choose foods at these early stages, they tend to continue these foods as they get older. This is why it is important to introduce high potassium foods at an early age. It creates a habit that they will continue as they get older. If the wrong foods are introduced at these early stages, they will continue to eat them. Introducing sweetened and salted foods will tend to carry over into childhood and adulthood. This may be partly responsible for the recent increase in childhood obesity and diabetes.

At 4 to 6 months the baby begins to have better control of the tongue. Until this age the baby has had little control and does mostly a pushing motion with the tongue as a reflex to aid nursing from the breast or bottle. That's why so much food winds up anywhere but in the mouth. At 6 to 7 months, begin the baby fruits and vegetables. The food should be strained, unsalted and unsweetened.

The recommendations from the Institute of Medicine for sodium and potassium intake can be found at this table. For an infant 0 to 6 months old an adequate intake of sodium is 120 mg per day, and for potassium 400 mg per day. For the 7 to 12 month old an adequate intake of sodium is 370 mg per day and potassium is 700 mg per day. Remember, breast milk has potassium also.

The Table

The table has the fruits generally recommended by pediatricians. These are also high potassium foods with the favorable ratio we have discussed in the past. They are low in sodium (salt) and unsweetened.

The weights all are grams except for the potassium and sodium, which are milligrams. The calories, protein, total fat, carbohydrate, sugar, fiber, potassium and sodium values given are for 100 grams of food.

The serving size and weight for a baby differs from 100 grams, so we have listed the serving weight and the common measurement that corresponds to that weight.

K is potassium. Na is sodium.

Except for the potassium to sodium ratio and the amount of potassium per serving (which we calculated), the source of data is:

USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Reference – Release 22