Red cabbage offers a lot of health benefits to your child including the boosting of immunity, strengthening bones of your little one, fighting any sort of inflammation and combating the chance of any kind of chronic illness. Rich in essential nutrients, red cabbage also helps in the keeping and maintaining of a healthy gut for your child. This kind of cabbage comes with a lot of essential bacteria which in turn boost your kid’s digestive potency and helps him/her to lead a healthy life. According to some child nutritionists red cabbage is a better alternative to green cabbage, for your child, due to its more nutritious values.

Giving Red Cabbage to Your Child

Though it is true that the nutritious value of red cabbages can stay intact if consumed raw and fresh, but in case your child is below 5 years old, it might not be a good idea to offer him/her with raw red cabbage. In that case you can always red cabbage slaw, braised red cabbage and steamed red cabbage. However, study shows that steaming of the red cabbage results in significantly greater retention of vitamin C and free radical-scavenging activity, while stir-frying and boiling, lead to significant loss in the nutrient content. For that reason, it is advisable that if you decide to add red cabbage in your child’s diet, then you must without hesitation mildly steam the vegetable so that the nutritious value of the same remain intact and also it becomes easily digestible for your little one.

Green Cabbage Vs Red Cabbage for Your Child

A very common question might arise in your mind and also in the minds of the other parents reading this blog, is that why red cabbage in particular and why not the more abundantly available green ones? While it is true that both the kinds of cabbages are helpful for your child, the red ones have more nutritious values. For example, red cabbage contains about 85 percent of the daily vitamin C your child needs while the green version provides 47 percent. Moreover, research also found out that red cabbages contain more vitamin C when even compared to oranges. Moreover, red cabbages are also rich in nutrients like Vitamin A (10 times more when compared to green cabbages), iron and plenty of antioxidants offering plenty of health benefits to your little one.

Health Benefits of Red Cabbage

Nutrition rich red cabbages are always a good choice for your child. The presence of the vital vitamins along with antioxidants makes it a top rated vegetable, health-benefit wise, to be included in your child’s daily platter.

Boosting the Immunity: Red cabbages are super-rich in vitamin C, which is an important anti-oxidant boosting your child’s overall immunity. It stimulates the activity of white blood cells, in your child’s wee body thereby forming the first line of defense for the immune system to work. In his/her early growth and development stage, your child is exposed to different levels of challenges pertaining to foreign bodies and objects. For that reason, since red cabbages are one of the few vegetables in the world which are blessed by an abundance of vitamin C, it is important that you feed your child with it on a regular basis.

Protects Guts: Ensuring a strong gut for your child is quite essential as he/she starts growing up and starts experimenting with new foods. Khimchi, made from red or purple cabbages contain various essential bacteria which will trigger digestive functions in your child. Other essential potential health benefits that your child can gain from the consumption of red or purple cabbage khimchi are anticancer properties, anti-obesity benefits and constipation relief.

Better Healing: A study published in Research in Pharmaceutical Science revealed that red cabbages  contains inflammation-fighting phytonutrients and hence will contribute by quickening the healing process of any swelling or injury, your child might be suffering from. Sometimes wounds take longer to heal and it might make your child a bit irritable. However, the regular consumption of red cabbages will in fact trigger the healing process.

Strengthening Bones: Just like green cabbages, red cabbages are also rich in vitamin K and for that reason the amount of a specific protein required to maintain bone calcium, thus reducing the risk of osteoporosis. Since your child is in the early growth stages, his/her skeletal tissues are being formed on a regular basis. Therefore, the consumption of food alternatives like red cabbages, which are rich in vitamin K, definitely helps in  the process of bone tissue growth and also at the same time makes sure that your child do not face any sort of bone related disorder in future.

Precaution

Although red cabbages are mostly healthy vegetable, without any known adverse side-effects, sometimes too much consumption might cause stomach upset for your little one. For that reason it is important that you discuss the serving and the interval of feeding, with the pediatrician before introducing the same.