Health
Prune Puree For Baby | The Picky Eater
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My prune puree for baby recipe will quickly become one of your little one’s favorites. With a perfect creamy texture and sweet taste, it’s packed with vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber that help keep baby regular. Plus, with my simple recipe, learning how to prepare prunes for baby is easy!
![Prune puree for baby served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/prune-puree-for-baby.jpg)
![Prune puree for baby served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/prune-puree-for-baby.jpg)
Ah, prunes. Prunes get such a bad rap – but they’re actually quite delicious! They’re basically just dried plums that look like massive raisins and babies love the flavor.
You can easily make just plain prune baby food, but I found that the addition of some Fuji apples adds another dimension and makes it taste even better. It’s one of my most popular baby food recipes!
🥄 When Can Babies Eat Prunes?
Babies can start eating prunes as soon as they begin solids, typically around 4-6 months of age. I generally recommend my homemade prune puree after your baby has tried about 4 to 5 mild vegetables like carrots, sweet potatoes, green beans, and peas.
This helps your baby get used to less-sweet first foods. Babies are already familiar with sweet tastes from breastmilk and formula, so it’s important to introduce vegetables early to ensure they don’t reject them later on.
When I started solid foods for my kids, around 6 months of age and after they had already had a bunch of veggie purees, I gave them small amounts of this prune baby food to help keep them regular.
👶 Does Prune Baby Food Help With Constipation?
Yes, my apple and prune puree can help your baby when constipated. Prunes are high in fiber and they also contain sorbitol, which helps get things moving by pulling water into the digestive tract. In fact, I like using pureed prunes better than prune juice since it works just as well but won’t typically cause diarrhea the way prune juice might!
I recommend starting with 2-3 tablespoons of prune puree for baby constipation and increasing as needed. It typically takes 12 to 24 hours for the prune baby food to take effect.
My prune baby food recipe is delicious and a great first food all babies love, with no added sugar. It’s also a fantastic mix-in for oatmeal, yogurt, and other veggies for toddlers and older kids.
I’ve found that homemade prune baby food can be healthier than store-bought baby food pouches, as it contains no added sugar, fruit juices, artificial colors, or flavors. Prunes are a great addition to your baby’s diet as they are full of antioxidants and fiber, as well as an excellent source of Vitamin A, Vitamin B6, potassium, and Vitamin K (source).
Plus, all that dietary fiber helps to keep your baby regular. My prune puree is a natural remedy for constipation that works well for the whole family.
And I promise, learning how to make prunes for baby is so easy! My simple baby food recipe is made with just three ingredients and comes together in 30 minutes or less.
But the best part is that it’s fantastic for busy parents. I would often make a big batch of my prune puree for baby to store in the refrigerator or freezer for months – so I always had some homemade baby food on hand when I needed it!
Latest Recipe Video!
🥘 Ingredients
My prune recipe for baby uses simple ingredients easily found at your local grocery store. See the full recipe card at the bottom of the post for the exact amounts and nutritional information.
![Ingredients for prune baby food recipe on a white background.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ingredients-for-prune-puree-for-baby-recipe.jpg)
![Ingredients for prune baby food recipe on a white background.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/ingredients-for-prune-puree-for-baby-recipe.jpg)
Organic Prunes: I recommend using dried prunes with no added sugar (you should only see one ingredient on the package – prunes!). You can also use fresh prunes, as a prune is simply a dried plum.
Organic Fuji Apples: Fuji apples, with their sweet flavor and pinkish flesh, pair perfectly with prunes. While you don’t have to include apples in my prune puree recipe, they help mellow out the flavor for babies. It’s important to choose organic apples since they’re on the EWG’s Dirty Dozen list.
Water: Used to cook the fruit and give this apple prune puree a smooth consistency that your baby can easily eat.
🔪 How To Make Prune Baby Food
Anyone can learn how to make prune puree for baby with my simple recipe. Watch my video below to see the step-by-step instructions in action!
Prep The Fruits: To begin, I wash the apples, cut them in half, and remove seeds and stems. Then I cut each half into 4-6 pieces and remove the pits from the prunes. Next, I put the apples, prunes, and water into a large pot, cover with a lid, and turn the burner on high.
![apples and prunes cooking in a large pot](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-3-768x1024.jpg)
![apples and prunes cooking in a large pot](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-3-768x1024.jpg)
Cook: I cook the fruit for 8 minutes until tender, stirring occasionally.
![apples and prunes cooking in a large pot](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-4-768x1024.jpg)
![apples and prunes cooking in a large pot](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-4-768x1024.jpg)
Puree: Once cooked, I pour everything into a blender and puree the fruit until smooth. For babies 4-8 months, a totally smooth puree is the ideal texture. Once your baby gets older (9-12 months) you can make a chunkier puree.
![finished puree in a blender](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-6-768x1024.jpg)
![finished puree in a blender](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/prune-baby-food-puree-Step-6-768x1024.jpg)
Store Or Serve: After it’s blended, I pour the smooth puree into ice cube trays and allow it to cool. Then I cover or wrap the trays and pop them in the freezer. You can also serve some of the puree to your baby right away.
![Prune baby food puree served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/apple-and-prune-puree.jpg)
![Prune baby food puree served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/apple-and-prune-puree.jpg)
My #1 Secret Tip for my prunes baby food recipe is to use a really good blender, preferably a high-powered blender like a Vitamix. This is so important to getting that perfectly smooth consistency that your baby will love!
If you’re just using a regular blender or a food processor, you’ll get a slightly grainy consistency which is still fine for your baby to eat, but may not be as easy for them to eat as a super smooth puree.
Other Tips To Keep In Mind:
- Use Pitted Prunes: Save yourself time by using pitted prunes so you don’t have to remove the pits yourself.
- Keep Skins On: I always keep the skins on when making this recipe. If you remove the apple skin, you will lose some of the fiber and nutrients. The skins will blend easily once cooked down – your baby won’t be able to detect them in the puree.
- Blend In Batches: If you’re making a large quantity of prune puree for baby you’ll need to blend it in batches to avoid overloading the blender and ensure a smooth puree.
- Freeze For Later: I highly recommend making a large batch and using baby food freezer containers or ice cube trays to store for later. This will save you time and last you for several months.
📖 Variations
Mash: If your little one is older, instead of pureeing, you can mash the stewed prunes for baby and leave them chunky. They can then feed themselves and chew with their gums. I would do this for my kids once they were about 10-12 months old.
Breast Milk Or Formula: Before serving, stir in some breast milk or formula for added calories and nutrition. Do not add breast milk or formula before freezing or storing in the fridge (as it will spoil) — add it right before serving. When using a formula, I recommend using one of these organic baby formulas, which are a close formulation to breastmilk.
Baby Food Combinations: You can easily make prune puree combinations for baby by mixing it together with some other baby food like pureed banana, peaches, nectarines, or even pear puree.
Add Spices: If your baby is ready for more flavor, try adding a pinch of cinnamon, cardamom, pumpkin pie spice, or nutmeg. My kids loved this puree mixed with cinnamon and nutmeg.
🍽 Serving Suggestions
While I created this recipe for little ones, my baby prune puree is really versatile and doesn’t have to just be for infants!
Baby Led Weaning: There are a lot of great options when deciding how to serve prunes to baby for self-feeding. Spread a thin layer of the puree on toast or soft bread. Another great idea is to mix the puree with mashed vegetables or fruits, creating a nutrient-packed meal that is easy for your baby to pick up and eat.
Toddlers: When my kids were toddlers, I’d mix this into simple oatmeal, yogurt, or other fruit purees. Prune puree can also be added to baked goods like my peanut butter muffins and vegan chocolate chip muffins.
Older Kids & Adults: Use it as a topping for these air fryer pancakes or vegan protein waffles. It’s also a great addition to smoothies like my apple carrot smoothie or banana smoothie bowl.
🧊 Storage Directions
Fridge: Once cool, I transfer the puree to an airtight container and place it in the fridge. It will keep for up to 5 days.
Freezer: For longer storage, I let the baby food cool completely before transferring it to an ice cube tray with a fitted lid and then pop it in the freezer. You can also wrap it in plastic wrap to prevent freezer burn. Once frozen, I pop out the cubes and store them in a freezer bag.
Defrost: When ready, I thaw the cubes in the fridge overnight in a small bowl or warm them gently in the microwave until they reach room temperature, making sure they’re not too hot for my baby.
❓Recipe FAQs
Yes, you do need to cook prunes before feeding them to your baby. Prunes are thick and sticky, and difficult to chew. By cooking the prunes, you make them softer, and easier to mash in their gums. I recommend cooking and pureeing your prunes with water so that your baby can easily swallow them.
When introducing prune puree to a 6-month-old, I recommend starting with 1-2 tablespoons per serving, which is typically enough to help with constipation and provide nutritional benefits. You can gradually increase the amount as your baby gets used to it.
My prune puree for baby is not a choking hazard, but whole or dried prunes can be. Always serve prunes in a pureed form for babies, and ensure they are soft and easy to swallow. For older babies and toddlers, make sure prunes are chopped into small, manageable pieces to avoid choking.
![Prune puree for baby served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/prune-baby-food-puree.jpg)
![Prune puree for baby served in a white bowl.](https://pickyeaterblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/prune-baby-food-puree.jpg)
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📋 Recipe Card
Prune Puree For Baby
My prune puree for baby recipe will quickly become one of your little one’s favorites. With a perfect creamy texture and sweet taste, it’s packed with vitamins, minerals, and dietary fiber that help keep baby regular. Plus, with my simple recipe, learning how to prepare prunes for baby is easy!
Servings: 16 ounces
Calories: 77kcal
Shop Ingredients on Jupiter- Use baby food freezer containers or ice cube trays to store this baby food. That way you can make one large batch that will last you and your baby for several months!
- Use a good blender, or food processor to easily blend the fruit puree.
- Use pitted prunes to save yourself time from removing the pits yourself.
- If you remove the apple skin you will lose some of the fiber, so keep the skins on! They will blend easily once cooked down.
- Thaw in the fridge the night before use, or thaw by putting the ice cube in a bowl over a bowl of hot water on the counter to defrost.
- Spice up your baby’s food! Add a pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, or allspice to this recipe!
- 1 ice cube = 1 oz of food
- Adapted from BabyLove
Serving: 1ounce | Calories: 77kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 1g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Sodium: 2mg | Potassium: 189mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 14g
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Health
Walmart Is Selling a $300 Power Tower for Just $128, and Shoppers Say It's 'Surprisingly Sturdy'
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When building a home gym, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by all the equipment options, especially when you’re working with limited space and a tight budget. But when you focus on versatile gear and hunt for deals, creating a useful setup is easily doable. Thankfully, Walmart has been slashing prices on a ton of fitness equipment, including its bestselling adjustable dumbbells and even a complete home gym system. Now, it’s reduced the price of a popular power tower by over $170, and it even ships for free.
The Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower is on sale for $128, a 57% discount on its normal price of $300. This incredibly versatile workout station has earned nearly 250 five-star ratings from Walmart shoppers who’ve praised its “strong and sturdy” build and “quality fit and finish,” and it’s currently one of the top 5 bestselling models on the site.
Pooboo Body Champ Multifunction Power Tower, $128 (was $300) at Walmart
Don’t let the brand’s bizarre name fool you—this power tower is a well-made piece of gym equipment. It features steel construction and is rated to hold up to 480 pounds (the tower itself weighs 66 pounds). A nearly 42-inch H-shaped base gives it excellent stability, so it won’t wobble or shake when you’re exercising, and anti-slip feet on the bottom keep it securely planted on the floor. It’s also adjustable (from 71.4 inches to 94 inches) to accommodate users of varying heights. And, once it’s set up, you can use it for a huge range of exercises, including dips, pull-ups, chin-ups, push-ups, vertical leg raises, knee raises, and more.
According to Walmart reviewers, the Pooboo Body Champ stands out for its solid build and usefulness. “It’s a surprisingly sturdy piece of equipment,” a shopper said. “Everything about this fitness tower is perfect. I originally purchased this with the intention of only doing pull-ups on it, but after quickly assembling the power tower, I came to realize just how versatile it is. It has cushions for knee and leg raises, it’s sturdy, and the perfect width for dips.” Another shopper agreed, saying, “This was a much-needed addition to my home gym.”
“This thing is amazing and worth every penny,” said another, who added that it’s “easy to install and can hold a lot of weight.”
At just $128, this Pooboo power tower is a screaming deal, and it’s sure to get lots of use during your workouts. But this discount won’t last long, so grab one today before the price pumps back up.
Health
Alzheimer’s Drug May Save Lives Through ‘Suspended Animation’
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By Lindsay Brownell | Wyss Institute Communications | Harvard Gazette
Could buy patients more time to survive critical injuries and diseases, even when disaster strikes far from a hospital
Donepezil, an FDA-approved drug to treat Alzheimer’s, has the potential to be repurposed for use in emergency situations to prevent irreversible organ injury, according to researchers at the Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering at Harvard University.
Using Donepezil (DPN), researchers report that they were able to put tadpoles of Xenopus laevis frogs into a hibernation-like torpor.
“Cooling a patient’s body down to slow its metabolic processes has long been used in medical settings to reduce injuries and long-term problems from severe conditions, but it can only currently be done in a well-resourced hospital,” said co-author Michael Super, director of immuno-materials at the Wyss Institute. “Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.”
This research, published Thursday in ACS Nano, was supported as part of the DARPA Biostasis Program, which funds projects that aim to extend the time for lifesaving medical treatment, often referred to as “the Golden Hour,” following traumatic injury or acute infection. The Wyss Institute has been a participant in the Biostasis Program since 2018, and has achieved several important milestones over the last few years.
Using a combination of predictive machine learning algorithms and animal models, the Wyss’ Biostasis team previously identified and tested existing drug compounds that had the potential to put living tissues into a state of suspended animation. Their first successful candidate, SNC80, significantly reduced oxygen consumption (a proxy for metabolism) in both a beating pig heart and in human organ chips, but is known to cause seizures when injected systemically.
In the new study, they once again turned to their algorithm to identify other compounds whose structures are similar to SNC80. Their top candidate was DNP, which has been approved since 1996 to treat Alzheimer’s.
Achieving a similar state of ‘biostasis’ with an easily administered drug like DNP could potentially save millions of lives every year.
–Michael Super
“Interestingly, clinical overdoses of DNP in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease have been associated with drowsiness and a reduced heart rate — symptoms that are torpor-like. However, this is the first study, to our knowledge, that focuses on leveraging those effects as the main clinical response, and not as side effects,” said the study’s first author, María Plaza Oliver, who was a postdoctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute when the work was conducted.
The team used X. laevis tadpoles to evaluate DNP’s effects on a whole living organism, and found that it successfully induced a torpor-like state that could be reversed when the drug was removed. The drug, however, did seem to cause some toxicity, and accumulated in all of the animals’ tissues. To solve that problem, the researchers encapsulated DNP inside lipid nanocarriers, and found that this both reduced toxicity and caused the drug to accumulate in the animals’ brain tissues. This is a promising result, as the central nervous system is known to mediate hibernation and torpor in other animals as well.
Although DNP has been shown to protect neurons from metabolic stress in models of Alzheimer’s disease, the team cautions that more work is needed to understand exactly how it causes torpor, as well as scale up production of the encapsulated DNP for use in larger animals and, potentially, humans.
“Donepezil has been used worldwide by patients for decades, so its properties and manufacturing methods are well-established. Lipid nanocarriers similar to the ones we used are also now approved for clinical use in other applications. This study demonstrates that an encapsulated version of the drug could potentially be used in the future to buy patients critical time to survive devastating injuries and diseases, and it could be easily formulated and produced at scale on a much shorter time scale than a new drug,” said senior author Donald Ingber, the Judah Folkman Professor of Vascular Biology at Harvard Medical School and Boston Children’s Hospital, and the Hansjörg Wyss Professor of Bioinspired Engineering at Harvard’s John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences.
This research was supported by DARPA under Cooperative Agreement Number W911NF-19-2-0027, the Margarita Salas postdoctoral grant co-funded by the Spanish Ministry of Universities, and the University of Castilla-La Mancha (NextGeneration EU UNI/551/2021).
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This story is reprinted with permission from The Harvard Gazette.
***
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Health
Can Stuff in Rosemary Extract Fight Cocaine Addiction?
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Researchers have discovered that an antioxidant found in rosemary extract can reduce intakes of cocaine by moderating the brain’s reward response, offering a new therapeutic target for treating addiction.
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The study in the journal Neuron describes researchers’ focus on a region of the brain called the globus pallidus externus, which acts as a gatekeeper that regulates how we react to cocaine.
They discovered that within the GPe, parvalbumin-positive neurons are crucial in controlling the response to cocaine by changing the activity neurons releasing the pleasure molecule dopamine.
“There are currently no effective therapeutics for dependence on psychostimulants such as cocaine, which, along with opioids, represent a substantial health burden,” says corresponding author Kevin Beier, an associate professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of California, Irvine.
“Our study deepens our understanding of the basic brain mechanisms that increase vulnerability to substance use disorder-related outcomes and provides a foundation for the development of new interventions.”
Findings in mice revealed that globus pallidus externus parvalbumin-positive cells, which indirectly influence the release of dopamine, become more excitable after being exposed to cocaine. This caused a drop in the expression of certain proteins that encode membrane channels that usually help keep the globus pallidus cell activity in check. The researchers found that carnosic acid, an isolate of rosemary extract, selectively binds to the affected channels, providing an avenue to reduce response to the drug in a relatively specific fashion.
“Only a subset of individuals are vulnerable to developing a substance use disorder, but we cannot yet identify who they are. If globus pallidus cell activity can effectively predict response to cocaine, it could be used to measure likely responses and thus serve as a biomarker for the most vulnerable,” Beier says. “Furthermore, it’s possible that carnosic acid could be given to those at high risk to reduce the response to cocaine.”
The next steps in this research include thoroughly assessing negative side effects of carnosic acid and determining the ideal dosage and timing. The team is also interested in testing its efficacy in reducing the desire for other drugs and in developing more potent and targeted variants.
Scientists from the University of West Virginia and the University of Colorado participated in the study.
Support for this work came from the National Institutes of Health, One Mind, the Alzheimer’s Association, New Vision Research, BrightFocus Foundation, and the Brain & Behavior Research Foundation.
Source: UC Irvine
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Previously Published on futurity.org with Creative Commons License
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