peeling apples

[jen023]

As the title says, when did you stop peeling apples for your child?

DD just turned 2, and i gave her cut up apple, with skin on for the first time, she ate it, but i think some might of got stuck, she coughed a bit.
Maybe i should keep peeling it?

[FiveInTheBed]

I would instead encourage her to chew - to get her used to it, lots of goodness in the skin!

If she seems to choke - then probably peel a little longer. some apples are different, I have found my kids choke more on red delicious than royal gala

[cja]

I stopped when my 14mth old was quite happily chewing an apple quarter from an older friend.....she ate the whole things no dramas.

[jag5000]

I peel unless I buy organic apples that week.. always have since my kids were eating solids.

[cho]

Jag - is that to reduce the risk of them ingesting pesticides? Is washing not good enough? (not being sarcastic here :D)

[jag5000]

yeah, it is cho ... the wax coating that most apples are given are really good at holding pesticides. It's very very hard to remove that wax.. normal washing won't do it. If I ever really want to use non organic apples with skin I pop them boiling water for a minute to soften the wax then into ice cold water to refresh them.

[FiveInTheBed]

...apparently there is a special wash that claims to remove all pesticides!!

[BabelFish]

I stopped peeling them a couple of months ago (when DD was 9 months old) when she started nabbing them out of the fruit bowl and taking bites out :D.

I've always watched her very carefully (still do) and she's never had any problems. We use special organic fruit and veggie wash to clean them because the skins of fruits and vegetables are the parts that contain the most nutrients, so I'd like her to have them if she possibly can. You lose a lot of the goodness when you peel.

[Mrs Nietzsche]

I never peeled them (we did BLW)

[beck mum to zane and ty]

Nope don't peel mine. DS is 13 months. He actually eats the apple and spits out the peel.

[SassyMummy]

I dunno if I ever peeled it, apart from when I pureed it.

[Hollywood]

If it is a granny smith apple I still peel it because DS either gags on the skin or sits there spitting the skin out into my hand :rolleyes:.

But the apples with soft skin I don't, the red skinned ones are usually fine.

Re the pesticide thing, I heard once that the chemicals leach into the fruit anyway, so washing them doesn't fully get rid of them. So I heard, not sure how true that is ;)