Alternative to sugar (obv not honey)

[Mombojombo]

Is Agave nectar ok for babies? I'm trying to find ways of making things like crumble suitable for DS (7.5mo) - got a stack of rhubarb out of my parent's garden and want to make one dessert for everyone, not separate for DS. What about fruit sugars? Anyone have any good ideas? Thank you thank you!

Surely a little sugar is better than chemical sweeteners?

For the fruit bit you could add apple juice or similar though?

I think stevia is now allowed on the market.

It is a natural herb which is extremely sweet and the big sugar conglomerates had it banned profit issues.

It will grow happily on a windowsill but you can buy processed stevia.

I thought agave nectar was sweeter than 'sugar' though. Normal 'sugar' is simply fructose derived from plants then IMO it is the same as agave nectar that is....fructose derived from a plant.

Honestly OP....relax and add the usual amount of sugar to your crumble. It wont turn your DS into a sugar craving loon...honest!!

Rhubarb crumble is the best though!!

As long as its not a major part of his diet the odd bit of home made crumble won't do any harm

I cant see the point of using something like Agave nectar to replace sugar derived from beet or cane - Surely it is just the same as sugar? Fruit and vegetables have sugar in them already anyway. It's the constant bathing of teeth in sugary and acidic drinks such as fruit juice that will rot or erode them, not eating a small amount of sugar in food that is chewed and swallowed quickly, rather than sucked over long periods (boiled sweets). Why not simply omit sugar from the crumble topping and add some to your own dish afterwards if you want it sweeter? The rhubarb filliing shouldnt need a lot of sugar if the rhubarb is young and has thin stems. You can always use dried fruit or a sweet spice like cinnamon or ginger to sweeten the filling if you want to totally avoid sugar in the dish.

Or as someone else said, you could add apple juice (though that will make it a bit liquid and is very sugary anyway) or you could mix the rhuarb with a sweet eating apple (i.e. Cox, Pink Lady).

just stick with normal sugar and give your dc only a small portion.

or use applejuice and bananas to sweeten it and to take the edge off the acidity.

prunes make things sweet and might be nice with rhubarb.

HairyBabysmum normal sugar isn't fructose - it's sucrose a disaccharide made up of one fructose and one glucose bonded together. That splits almost instantly in the mouth/gut to become seperate glucose and fructose. It's why agave syrup tastes sweeter because fructose tastes sweeter than glucose or sucrose. So they are different - and fructose doesn't cause an insulin spike (because it has to be handled in the liver, so actually causes stress on the liver - that may or may not be a good thing on balance, arguments abound.) But anyway it doesn't change your conclusion to just eat a regular crumble.

Agave syrup and beet sugar are processed in pretty similar ways, there's just a different source material and they stop the processing a little earlier so it's not a pure white powder.

I would say crumble is already absolutely suitable for babies made with any sugars, you could use a fruit sugar (which is just fructose) as it does taste sweeter so you can use less, but that's only really relevant if you have a very sweet tooth so make it extremely sweet and want to limit your own calorie intake. Baby isn't going to be eating much, it's low in fat and protein for a baby - some custard will help balance it out a bit more but it won't matter.

With sugar being "evil" almost exclusively for tooth decay and generating a "sweet tooth" as gourd says a bit of crumble won't cause a problem a bottle full of fruit juice all day might.

I don't see a problem with sugar either. I remember a link on Aitch's babyledweaning.com facebook page. It's Michael Pollen on eating well (maybe and may not be for a baby, can't remember). He said if we limit treats like cakes and puddings to homemade only, then it is easy to keep them as special treats. There's nothing inherently wrong with puddings. The problem is the food industry creating all the food products that make them so available, and so easy to get. If you go buy muffins in Asda, you can get 4 large ones for a quid. If you have to make it yourself, it's highly unlikely you'll be baking 6 or 12 of them everyday!

Same with fruit juice. They are actually really really sweet, and a lot of them uses concentrate to make them sweeter than it would if you try juicing the real thing yourself. I've bought a juicer many moons ago, and I have to say, I didn't get much use of it . It's too much hard work to get one glass of juice out.

No, there's nothing wrong with a little treat and I'm not being neurotic about it!! Just wondered if there was an alternative to refined sugar. Just a question! Reason I asked was the look on DS's face when I gave rhubarb sweetened with orange juice. Still a bit tart! I won't change my crumble ingredients then.

Actually rhubarb is pretty tart even with a bucket of sugar! I made one recently and DD didn't like it. It's much better if I mix some apples with it.

DD pulls a face when she eats tart things raspberries, grapefruit etc. but she still chooses to eat them unsweetened. I'm not sure we should really associate a pulled face with a need a sweeten.

DD is the same with frozen desserts. She pulls a face if I gave her some ice cream or frozen yoghurt. But she keeps eating them as well.

Maple syrup a la Annabel Karmel?