Toddler obsessed with bananas! Is it bad?

[Secretlifeofme]

My 18 month old is allergic to lots of things (dairy, eggs, nuts, soy, fish, legumes, tomatoes) and we don't live in the UK so it's a lot more difficult to get hold of safe replacements for her. As a result, her diet is quite limited, basically to meat, veg, fruit and grains. She has oat milk for porridge and I still bf her at night and in the morning, but I worry quite a lot about her nutrition and she takes Wellbaby supplements for iron and calcium on the advice of our doctor.

She isn't massively fussy, but does have some days where she refuses what I offer, and it's difficult sometimes to know what to give her instead. Something she will always eat, however, is a banana! Now she has banana every day in her morning porridge (to which I add coconut milk and chia seeds for extra fat and protein). My question is - Is it bad for her to have 2 bananas a day? She would probably have them for every meal and snack if I let her

Poor little bean.

Bananas are a superfood. They are fantastic and packed full of nutrients and flavor. There are worse foods for her to be addicted to. I've seen raw vegans who eat several bananas a day and are perfectly fine, just ensure she gets her protein and calcium too and you'll be laughing.

I think as long as it doesn't make her constipated it's probably fine, plus bananas are all different sizes - one giant banana is probably the same as 2 "lunch box" bananas.

Thanks for your replies :) she doesn't seem to get constipated, luckily. I'm more worried that she will develop a strong preference for sweet foods if I keep giving her loads of sweet bananas.

While I'm here, can I share a typical day of her food? The cultural norms here are different and sometimes I feel I don't know if she's eating enough/the right foods. So today she had
Breastmilk on waking at 6am
Breakfast - Porridge with banana, coconut milk and chia seeds. About an American cup measure full, roughly
Morning snack - a plum and a piece of baguette
Lunch- Half a mashed avocado on wholemeal bread. Another plum
Afternoon snacks - a chia seed rice cake, a banana (!)
Dinner- couscous with chicken, spinach and carrots (prob about three quartets of a cup). A tangerine,
Breastmilk at bedtime.

Do you think this is ok, considering that she also has supplements as I mentioned above?

Hopeful bump

Your menu sounds absolutely fine to me. I don't think she needs breastmilk anymore tbh, she's getting plenty of nutrition from her meals (assuming she's eating something at every meal and that's not just what you're serving up!)

2 bananas is too much even for some adults. This is because of the potassium content. I'm not sure how much is suitable for an 18 month old but at that age the maximum I ever gave my dc was half a banana (perhaps being cautious as I know two people who've been hospitalised with high potassium and both were told to reduce /cut out bananas).

Her diet sounds great! My DS loved bananas (still does) and would eat as many as he could get. He was and still is in rude health!

Just watch out for fruit because of their natural sugars. Just make sure her teeth are well cleaned morning and night .

I was just coming on to say beware of the potassium content in bananas but @Goodtohear beat me to it. I would say 1 banana a day is enough, but I have no nutritional background.

There's a big difference between being told to cut down on bananas when you already have high potassium (likely for another health related reason) and bananas causing the high potassium.

My son is largely built on bananas and oats and he is nearly 13.. if your daughter is well, I think it's fine. Her diet looks incredible to me (my son is autistic and has a restricted diet, I would cry with joy if he ate what you described) :)

Just to quantify that:

Recommended intakes for potassium range from 2000 mg per day for a toddler to 2300 mg (girls) to 3000 mg (boys) per day for teens and 3400 mg per day for adults.

The average banana, weighing 125g, contains 450mg of potassium.

So even if she ate three or four per day, every day, she would be well within the recommended dose.

How much of each piece of fruit are you giving? If whole fruits I make that 8 portions of fruit 2 bananas at toddler age is 4 portions. Plums are 1 each and a whole tangerine is 2. I know you are limited by food but one portion of fruit is an the size of their hand.

Does your daughter having those allergies mean you can’t eat those foods as well so as to be able to breastfeed her?

There was a time when my son around the same age maybe 1 to 18 months that he got so fussy and was so hard to feed that I thought stuff it I will just give him what he does like (which wasn’t bad anyway). So he lived on a diet of mashed banana, puréed cooked apple, baby rice, baby breakfast cereal, farleys rusks and petit filous and occasional bites on bits of toast. No more tears, no more stress for me, meals became pleasant again and he progressed onto other foods over the course of the passing months. He still loved his milk too and so was all fine.

Thanks so much for your replies! It's good to have the info about potassium, thank you @Techno56. And you're right @CatRatSplat, she is having a lot of fruit! With that in mind, I changed the menu today slightly :

Breastmilk on waking
Breakfast : porridge with apple
Snack: grapes
Lunch: chicken with couscous carrots and spinach (leftover from yesterday)
Snack: cucumber
Dinner : carrot, chia and sweet potato soup with bread.

The other thing I worry about is fat. Not sure she is getting enough, but can only really think of coconut and avocado as good sources of fat for her :( does anyone have any ideas?

Oh sorry, forgot to mention the breastmilk at bedtime too. And no, luckily she doesn't seem to react to anything in my milk @DownWhichOfLate

Fat? Olive oil used to make soup (fry onions) or used in her supper in another way?

Yes I do that @Mosaic123, thank you, always chuck loads of olive oil in whenever I cook for her. Do you think that's enough?

Could try fatty pieces of meat such as boneless thigh chicken instead of breast? I think today was a better balance of fruit, but I appreciate you are limited. Think portion sizes (her handful) and variety of fruit is good too, roll on the summer berries

Can you keep a record of what she has for, say a month and then get an appointment with a paediatric dietician?