Healthy Popsicles for Baby – Nutritious Frozen Treats WITHOUT The Sugar!
A healthy popsicle (or lollipop) makes a great way to cool down baby on a hot day. It’s also a tasty way to numb sore gums when your little one is teething!
If you’re thinking that your baby is too young to handle a popsicle, then you can simply try holding it for him, or simply crushing it in a bowl and serving it with a spoon.
These sugar-free popsicle recipes for baby are designed for little ones from at least 6 months of age, who have already been safely introduced to all their ingredients.
Totally Tropical Popsicles for Baby
This recipe may be designed for babies – but its creamy deliciousness makes it ideal for EVERYONE to enjoy. In our house, we get through a LOT of these in the summer months! They taste decadent and luxurious but have absolutely no added sugar and are sweetened only by fruit.
1 large mango or 2 small mangoes, peeled, stoned and roughly chopped (more mango info here)*
2 very ripe bananas, roughly chopped
3/4 cup (6 fl oz) coconut milk
*You can use canned mango instead if necessary – use 1 can, preferably packed in juice not syrup, and drain well.
- Using a food processor or hand blender, whiz everything together until completely smooth.
- Pour into popsicle/lolly molds (this mixture made 8 finger popsicles in our molds).
- Freeze until firm (ours took 6 hours).
Peachy Popsicles for Baby
2 fresh peaches, peeled, stoned and roughly chopped*
8 fl oz (1 cup) natural yogurt (here’s a recipe to make your own)
1 very ripe banana
*Use canned peaches instead if necessary – use 1 can, preferably packed in juice not syrup, and drain well.
- Follow the directions given in the Totally Tropical Popsicle recipe (above). Again, this recipe produces around 8 popsicles.
Other ideas…
- Combine equal quantities of fresh strawberries with fresh melon – the sweetness of the melon counteracts the tang of the strawberries!
- Blend strawberries with milk for a simple, creamy frozen treat.
- Try these plum popsicles
- Try these kiwi popsicles
from our blog:
a frozen blueberry treat…
The Magic of Momsicles
Momsicles are homemade baby food in every sense – because they are simply popsicles (or lollies) made from breastmilk!
Mummy Nadia from Brighton in the UK told us:
“I made some breast milk lollies for my little girl when she was 7 months old and teething. She couldn’t manage the stick, so I tried crushing them and feeding them to her with a spoon. Because she was teething and her gums were sore, she wasn’t keen on accepting the spoon – so I put the frozen breastmilk in her mesh feeder, instead!
It worked like a charm and now she gnaws away happily every time I offer it to her.”
This is an excellent tip!
A Teething Feeder (from Amazon) is ideal for babies of this age, who are a little too young to cope with a regular ‘Momsicle’.If you’ve never used a feeder before, the idea is that you place your baby’s food (or, in this case, momsicle) in the bag and all that goes into his mouth is whatever he can suck or gnaw through the mesh.
This makes it easier to give your little one foods that may otherwise present a choking hazard (like apples).
How to Make Momsicles
Simply fill an appropriate mold with breast milk and freeze until firm.
You can use regular popsicle (or lolly) moulds, although we suggest using molds that will produce a small popsicle. Large molds will require a lot of breast milk to fill and may be difficult for your baby to handle – meaning that much of your precious milk may be wasted.
Some parents make momsicles using a small container like the lid of a baby milk bottle, then putting in a dummy (or pacifier) and leaving it to freeze. This is a great method, as it is easier for your baby to hold on to the pacifier than it is to a regular stick.
If you are planning on using a mesh feeder for your momsicles, then simply freeze expressed breastmilk in an ice cube tray and the cubes will be just the right size to pop into the bag.
More momsicle magic
- Momsicles aren’t just great for teething babies – they are also ideal if your baby is a little under the weather and seems reluctant to feed. He may be much more receptive to sucking on a cool, sweet cube of your milk!
- On a hot day, when frequent fluids are essentials, momsicles are a great way to get extra breastmilk into your little one.
- Some Mums find them really useful at family mealtimes, because they provide the perfect diversion for babies who seem interested in ‘big people food’, but are not quite ready to move on to solids.
- Have you stored lots of frozen breastmilk for your baby, only to find that he refuses to drink it once it has thawed? (Yes, some babies DO object to drinking frozen breastmilk and prefer fresh – we can offer one of our brood as an example!) Then try offering your supply as momsicles and see if he’ll accept it that way – it worked for us and avoids wasting your valuable milk.
Another sugar free fruity treat…
More delicious baby food recipes and tips…
Baby Dessert Recipes from Our Readers
