What could be better than a serving of ice cream on a hot summer day! It refreshes, delights with its pleasant taste, gives physical and emotional pleasure. No wonder everyone loves him. Quite often the question arises, is it possible to give a treat to children and at what age this product is acceptable. We will talk about this in this article.
Benefit and harm
Ice cream is a product of milk processing, and therefore there is essentially nothing harmful in it. There is calcium, amino acids, milk protein, vitamins. But this is only at first glance. Good ice cream made from milk, cream, butter can really be healthy, but there are a few "buts".
Natural ice cream in retail sale today is almost impossible to find. Even expensive varieties, whose producers position their goods as "exclusively natural", are cunning: without preservatives, their products could not be stored for a long time even in the freezer.
98% of ice cream types contain palm oil and other vegetable fats, which should not be present in ice cream initially. Thus, ice cream is not only fatty, but also very sweet. Sugar and fat is a combination that is difficult to digest and assimilate in a child's body, and therefore the question of the age at which this delicacy can be given to a child is very reasonable.
Cow protein at an early age often causes allergies in children: their bodies simply cannot break it down. Large quantities of cow's milk are usually not recommended for children under 3 years of age. The issue of sugar consumption is also quite acute, because the child's pancreas can hardly cope with the task of producing insulin for the breakdown of glucose. In addition, sugar is harmful not only for the child's appetite, but also for the health of his teeth, metabolism in general.
Understanding this, the reasonable age from which a child can be given ice cream is 3 years.
The baby does not need ice cream at all. There is nothing in it that would be necessary for the health of a young child, but it may well harm the child.
In practice, most parents start giving their child ice cream well before the age of three. They may argue that nothing pathological is happening to the child. Indeed, not all children are allergic to cow protein, and one portion of a cold treat is unlikely to have a negative effect on dental health. As with many other foods, ice cream needs to be handled individually.
Dangerous treats can be for children with diabetes mellitus, with diseases of the pancreas, with obesity, with lactase deficiency. For such children, the treat must be approved by the attending physician. The parents give ice cream to the rest of the children at their own will and decision. We can only hope that the decision will be balanced.
The opinion of Dr. Komarovsky
The famous pediatrician Yevgeny Komarovsky claims that everything should be in moderation, including ice cream. If you treat your child with this delicacy no more than twice a week, there will be no harm.
According to the doctor, ice cream is not only a pleasant sweetness, but also a great benefit if you eat it in small pieces with a small spoon. This is a delicious way to prevent diseases of the oropharynx, tonsillitis and tonsillitis. When consumed wisely, ice cream helps to strengthen local immunity and strengthen the lymphoid tissue of the tonsils. This method of hardening the throat is especially good for children who often suffer from respiratory diseases.
But you definitely need to know the measure - one serving for a child should not exceed 100 grams of a delicious treat. Plain white ice cream should be preferred, with no additives, colors, chocolate or canned fruits.
For information on how you can harden your throat with ice cream, see the program of Dr. Komarovsky.
How to choose?
Purchased ice cream for a child should not be crystallized, heterogeneous. Nuts, glaze, caramel and other "delights" are best left for adults. They will not be of any use to the child. Considering that it is almost impossible to find ice cream without natural milk preservatives in stores, it is worth trying to prepare the dessert yourself at home.
The so-called popular today "Soft" ice cream is contraindicated for children at any age and in any health condition. There is no milk in it at all.
For it, only vegetable fats and dyes are used, as well as flavor enhancers. A full-fledged natural ice cream simply could not be maintained in such a semi-melted state, in which the mixture resides in soft ice cream machines.
If you buy factory-made ice cream, pay attention to the integrity of the package. If it is violated, no one will give you guarantees that the child will not also receive food poisoning.
Homemade ice cream
If you are determined to pamper your child with ice cream, but want the benefits of such a treat to be more than harm, let's learn how to make ice cream yourself.
There are quite a few recipes for making this dessert. But since we are cooking for our little ones, we will focus on the classic white milk ice cream.
Sundae, which implies the presence of butter and cream, is too fatty, and milk ice cream will be a great alternative for those children who are very reluctant to drink regular milk.
Low-fat homemade ice cream
For cooking we need:
- two and a half glasses of milk (this is about half a liter);
- a glass of sugar;
- 4 chicken eggs;
- a little vanillin, if the child is not allergic to it.
First you need to sift granulated sugar through a sieve, pour it into a non-metallic bowl and carefully introduce the yolks previously separated from the proteins into it. Stir everything thoroughly until smooth, to a white mass.
Heat the milk, but do not boil; if there is a kitchen cooking thermometer, measure the temperature of the liquid - the milk should be about 80 degrees.
Transfer the sugar and egg mass to an enamel bowl and, gently stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula, pour in the hot milk in a thin stream. Put the saucepan over low heat and, like a custard, stirring until thickened. No need to boil.
As soon as the mass becomes thicker, it must be removed from the heat, strain through a sieve, put into molds, and cooled to room temperature. Then you can put our homemade ice cream in the freezer. After a few hours, the dessert is ready to eat.
If you want to treat your child to popsicles, there is nothing easier - you can add chopped berries, pieces of apple, apricot - what the child loves to the milk mixture that we have already made before freezing.
Curd mousse
Ice cream is a great way to "deceive" a child for his own good. So, you can feed the cottage cheese to someone who does not eat cottage cheese. To do this, prepare curd mousse in a blender (mix curd, some sugar, vanilla, some milk). When the mousse is smooth, like a curd cream, add some berries to it and put in molds. After five minutes, the mass can be put in the freezer, and after another 4 hours the dessert will be ready.
You can add fruit to curd ice cream.
For information on how to make ice cream from low-fat cottage cheese, see Dr. Komarovsky's program.
Fruit ice
Of course, making homemade popsicles is easy. Use your own freshly squeezed juices. They just need to be frozen. An hour after placing the mold with juice in the cold, place sticks in each mold, and add more juice on top. After a few hours, the dessert can be offered to the child.
You can see a master class for making fruit ice from kiwi and strawberries in the next video.
Find out if your child's weight is normal using the following calculator.
