12 to 24 months old: At this age, serve cucumbers cut into thin rounds or bite-sized pieces. If you are comfortable with their eating skills, this is also a great time to move back up in size to spears, too. Coach the child to take small bites by modeling taking bites yourself in an exaggerated way.
When can babies have cucumber? Your cutie can eat cucumber anytime after she starts solids, usually sometime around 6 months. If you're introducing solids in the form of purées, your baby can try cucumber puréed along with other fruits and veggies.
When you first introduce cucumber to your baby, remove the tough outer skin and seeds. Not only does the skin pose a choking hazard, but it also leaves you susceptible to ingesting pesticides without proper cleaning. As cucumbers age, the seeds become bitter, so it is best to remove them before eating.
A baby's digestive system may not be mature enough to digest some contents of cucumber. Raw cucumbers may cause abdominal discomfort even if they eat fresh veggies and fruits. So, you can add cucumbers in pure form after boiling them to avoid abdominal gases and other discomforts.
By cutting off the ends and rubbing them together, you can enhance this reaction and prevent the cucurbitacins from spreading to the rest of the cucumber. The best way to do this is to do it before you peel the cucumber (if you are peeling it at all) and then give it a quick rinse to remove the white fluid.
Cucumbers are beneficial for kids because they contain a great deal of water, which helps kids stay hydrated. It also helps keep body temperature stable and prevent constipation. Cucumbers have vitamin K, which the body uses to clot blood to stop bleeding. They also contain calcium, iron and vitamin B.
Children younger than 24 months old should avoid added sugars. Foods high in salt (sodium), such as some canned foods, processed meats (e.g., lunch meats, sausages, hot dogs, ham), and frozen dinners should be avoided. Some snack foods and store-bought packaged toddler foods are high in salt.
12-18 months old
Cut into small pieces (perfect for utensil practice!) Soft and large so the child has to take bites, such as a whole ripe banana. Sliced or shredded. Cook resistive foods requiring a lot of chewing until soft or serve in ruler-thin slices, shreds, or diced.
Cucumber water is a simple beverage made by soaking cucumber slices in water for a few hours or overnight. Drinking cucumber water not only tastes delicious, but it comes with numerous health benefits, such as improving water intake, skin health, and blood pressure.
The light-white or clear coating of slime you may find on your cucumbers is a sign that the rotting process has begun, and it's just matter of time before they totally spoil.
Some babies without teeth have a strong bite with just their gums and can get them off fairly early, too. In any of these cases, simply shredding meat or grating cucumbers can make them safe.
Raw tomatoes and whole cherry tomatoes can be a potential choking hazard. Stick with bigger tomatoes cut into age-appropriate sizes for younger babies. Your cutie can graduate to cut-up cherry or grape tomatoes once she's able to pick up small pieces, but you should never serve the whole fruit to kids under 4.
Before you start cutting your Cucumber, make sure you thoroughly wash it with cold water. Lay the Cucumber flat on your cutting board, and using a santoku knife, trim off each end of the Cucumber. Break the Cucumber down into more manageable pieces–we recommend cutting it into 3 to 4 pieces.
Best Tips for Cutting Food for Kids
Offer larger pieces so they can practice taking bites around 16/18 months. For raw veggies and hard fruits (like apples), start with shreds, then matchsticks, and paper thin pieces. Save baby carrots and other very hard raw veggies until age 4+.
12 to 24 months old:
At this age, serve cucumbers cut into thin rounds or bite-sized pieces. If you are comfortable with their eating skills, this is also a great time to move back up in size to spears, too. Coach the child to take small bites by modeling taking bites yourself in an exaggerated way.
Chop off both ends of the cucumber. Holding the cucumber down on the cutting board, use long strokes from end to end with the peeler to create long, thin strips. Alternatively, for rounds: Hold the cucumber steady in one hand and run the peeler along one of the cut ends of the cucumber to create thin round slices.