Age Suggestion
6 months
Iron-Rich
No
Common Allergen
No
You may introduce dragon fruit as soon as your baby is ready for solids, which is generally around 6 months old. Dragon fruit is soft and should be relatively easy for your baby to hold and eat.
Dragon fruit is the edible flower of a cactus that is native to the Americas. Today dragon fruit is mainly cultivated in Florida, Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Caribbean. With thick, brightly-colored skin and a soft, white seedy interior, dragon fruit is most similar in texture to a kiwi—with a less distinct taste. Dragon fruit comes in purple, white, and yellow varieties.
Whatever the type, make sure to serve dragon fruit when you have time to clean up afterward. The seeds are clingy and tend to end up between baby's fingers, in their hair, and everywhere else.
Yes. While dragon fruit doesn’t have many calories, it contains a fair amount of antioxidants, carotene (for healthy eyes and immunity), calcium, iron, B-vitamins, and vitamin C—all critical nutrients for babies 6 months and up.
Dragon fruit, if ripe and prepared in an age-appropriate way, should not pose a choking risk. As long as your baby is ready for solids and you are creating a safe feeding environment, your baby can eat dragon fruit.
For more information, visit our section on gagging and choking and familiarize yourself with common choking hazards.
Allergies to dragon fruit are rare, though people who are allergic to kiwi, as well as people with Oral Allergy Syndrome (a food-related allergy that causes reactions to foods with similar protein structures to pollen) may be allergic to dragon fruit.
Every baby develops on their own timeline, and the suggestions on how to cut or prepare particular foods are generalizations for a broad audience.
Serve dragon fruit, peel removed, in large half pieces or quarters. Once your baby develops a pincer grasp, cut up the dragon fruit into small pieces. Warning: dragon fruit seeds have a static cling-like ability and are very hard to clean up!
Offer bite-size pieces of dragon fruit. This is a great time to practice with forks too.
At this age you may notice your child is able to take accurate bites and to tear foods efficiently. If you feel ready, you can go back up in size and offer spears of dragon fruit or continue with bite-size pieces.
How to cut a dragon fruit for babies
How often should you offer solids? See our sample feeding schedules for babies of every age.
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