Constipation: How to Safely Use Prunes for Babies

Katie Ferraro (1s):

So with prunes for sure, the sorbitol, which is a sugar alcohol, can help with constipation. But prunes are problematic because as a dried sticky fruit, they are potential choking hazard in that form for babies. But not if you stew and puree the prunes, which works great for baby led weenie. Hey there, I'm Katie Ferraro, registered dietician, college nutrition professor and mom of seven specializing in baby led weaning here on the baby led Weaning Made Easy podcast. I help you strip out all of the noise and nonsense about feeding, leading you with the confidence and knowledge you need to give your baby a safe start to solid foods using baby led weaning.

Katie Ferraro (41s):

All right, calling all of the Prunes fans. This episode is for you. I guess it depends on how old you are, but I totally remember 20 years ago when prunes got rebranded as dried plums. I was a brand new dietician, and I remember getting all this like education material from the prune board about what were now being called dried plums, which to be honest, I don't even think that I knew that prunes were dried plums. So I thought it was a good idea, but then apparently the rebrand didn't really work. So 19 years later, they went back to calling dried plums "Prunes", which is why today's episode is called "Prunes, how to Make Prunes Safe for babies to eat. ". But really they're just dried plums. And so today's BLW tip of the day is that prunes are a sticky dried fruit, and we don't feed or offer sticky dried fruits to babies because they are a choking hazard.

Katie Ferraro (1m 27s):

But hang tight, because in this episode, I'm gonna be sharing my easiest of all time homemade apple prune recipe, which if your child is experiencing any degree of constipation or you just wanna try out this food in a way that's safe for babies, you can do it using this recipe. All right, let's get into it. What's the deal with prunes? Now, as I mentioned, prunes are dried plums, however, not all plums can be tried, okay? Most prunes are made using the European plum varieties. But fun fact, 90% of all US grown plums are from California. And I have, this is disclosure. I have done work in the past with the print board. It's been a very, very long time, and never in the context of baby led weaning, but I'm always like, they should partner with parents because constipation is a real side effect of making the transition to solid foods, right?

Katie Ferraro (2m 13s):

And you know, or maybe you've heard that prunes can have a laxation effect, meaning they help you go to the bathroom. So parents will always ask me inside of my programs on our live office hours, they'll say like, okay, my baby's constipated. What can I do? Because I should, I give them prune juice? And usually we recommend against offering babies juice, right? Usually no juice before age one. And even then after age one, we really wanna minimize juice. We want your baby eating their fruit and not drinking it. But in a pinch, a little bit of, you know, prune juice to help with constipation is not a big deal, but your baby can safely learn how to eat prunes. Now, first of all, why would you wanna do that? Okay, prunes are important because they are a good source of fiber, okay? So they help promote regular bowel movements, and your baby's hopefully learning how to eat a wide variety of different foods, including different fruits and vegetables and whole grains that have fiber.

Katie Ferraro (3m 0s):

And so there's been a lot of research done about the effect of prunes and lowering post prandial glucose, basically blood sugar levels after you eat insulin spikes. But really we're not interested in that so much from an infant nutrition standpoint, because the notion being that your baby, unless your baby has, is already diagnosed with diabetes. And that's a totally different situation. And hopefully you're working with a dietician who specializes in diabetes for that. Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (4m 34s):

But back to your general neurotypical population, healthy babies can't have a variety of foods, and prunes are a good one, cuz they do contain fiber. They have vitamin K, which helps with blood clotting. They contain potassium, which is an electrolyte, which helps kind of keeps things moving and pumping in the right direction in the body. And then there's some thought that they contain these phytochemicals or these compounds that we find in plant foods that might have anti-inflammatory effects. But again, all fruits and vegetables have anti-inflammatory effects. But I would say the primary reason why you would want to incorporate prunes in your baby's diet in small amounts would be for this laxation effect. Okay, so multiple, multiple studies have proven the link between prunes helping with, you know, we say laxation is just getting things going in your gut, right?

Katie Ferraro (5m 15s):

And one of the reasons why is that prunes do contain a natural sugar. Alcohol and sugar alcohols and high quantities can cause diarrhea. So we don't wanna do any of these foods in high quantities, but they contain a sugar alcohol that helps kind of, again, get things moving in the gut. They are a good source of insoluble fiber. That's the type that adds bulk to the stool, okay? To help the stool pass easily through the GI tract. So goes without saying if things are stopped up in your gut, you wanna add bulk to the stool, which will then help kind of float it through the system. Insoluble fiber doesn't dissolve in water, so it can help soften stools. So it helps with constipation and it helps softening those hard stools. Okay? As I mentioned, there's a sugar alcohol in there, it's called sorbitol. It has these hyperosmotic properties that kind of assist in drawing water from nearby tissues into the colon, softens the stool, and then makes it easier for that to pass through the GI tract.

Katie Ferraro (6m 3s):

But why can't babies have prunes? Okay, well we don't offer sticky fruits. They're difficult to chew and can therefore potentially get stuck in the, the roof of the child's mouth or the baby's mouth or the sides can be very difficult for them to clear from their airway and could potentially cause a choking risk. Same thing with like raisins and other dried fruits. We don't offer them in their, their natural dried fruit sticky form, especially foods that are super duper high in fiber. If you were to feed like a lot, a lot, a lot of prunes, it could potentially have negative GI side effects. So a little bit of these things in moderation is fine, but we never wanna go to like, you know, mega doses of these foods and offering very high quantities or supplement versions of them because of course of the potential for harming the small baby's body.

Katie Ferraro (6m 44s):

Hey, we're gonna take a quick break, but I'll be right back.

Katie Ferraro (7m 57s):

Now, how can you make prunes safe for babies to eat? I always recommend making a homemade prune puree. Okay, I have a recipe in a blog post that's all about constipation. So if any questions about constipation, I'll link that blog post for you in the show notes for this episode. And if you scroll all the way to the bottom of that article, that's where the homemade apple prune puree is. But it's really easy to, to make, it only takes a couple of minutes. We're adding a lot of additional water in this recipe as well, which that kind of helps with constipation as well. And another thing I love about this homemade apple prune recipe is that you can use it in place of jelly for older kids if they like peanut butter and jelly. My kids freaking love peanut butter and jelly, but I think I've said it before the podcast, I can't bring myself to add jelly to their lunches because of all the added sugar, but I'll do whole grain bread, unsweetened peanut butter, and then a tablespoon or two of the apple prune puree.

Katie Ferraro (8m 48s):

It has the same consistency as jelly and the naturally occurring sugars in the fruits, the prunes, which are just the dried, dried plums and the apples kind of makes it a little bit on the sweeter side without having to add all the added sugars that we know we shouldn't be offering to kids. So if your child is having a little bit of constipation, I would suggest maybe trying out a prune puree. How do you feed it to your baby? Put it on a pre-loaded spoon. The baby can pick up the prune, puree off the spoon, bring it to their mouth. Try this interesting new flavor. There's actually a little bit of iron in prunes as well. And then also get some of that fiber and maybe help get things going in their gut. If you want to learn more about constipation and what's problematic, constipation versus what's typical constipation, and grab that apple prune puree recipe, I will link it up in the show notes, which you can find at https://blwpodcast.com/287.

Katie Ferraro (9m 41s):

Thank you so much for listening, and thank you also to our network partners at AirWave Media. If you like podcasts that feature science and food, and using your brain, check out AirWave Media for some other amazing audio experiences. My podcast home base, again is at blwpodcast.com, and I'll see you guys next time. Happy feeding and good luck with the prunes.