Updated: July 19, 2023
We’ve received two messages over the last fortnight asking if instant mashed potato is suitable for babies.
One was from Melissa in Brighton, England, who wanted to use our homemade Tuna Fish Cakes recipe but wanted to save a little time by cutting out the preparation of the mashed potato.
Truly fresh produce is, of course, always the best choice for your baby and is generally more nutritious than foods that have been processed in any way.
Nutritionally speaking, instant mashed potato isn’t vastly different from freshly made mashed potatoes – the problem lies more with the additives that most instant mashed potatoes contain.
Nutrients in instant mashed potato
Prepared potato granules (with milk and butter added) actually contain MORE vitamin C than freshly prepared mashed potatoes (34% compared to 21%), MORE vitamin A (7% compared to 5%), MORE calcium (7% compared to 5%), but LESS iron (2% compared to 3%) and LESS fibre (7% compared to 13%).
Both contain the same amount of protein, but the amount of fat and saturated fat in the potato flakes is significantly higher than in the home-prepared variety.
But many varieties of instant mashed potato contain ingredients that you really don’t want to be giving to your baby, including salt, preservatives and – in flavoured varieties – artificial colours and even corn syrup!
So making your own mashed potato really does have the edge over using the instant variety – but, as parents of 5, we REALLY do understand that time constraints sometimes do make culinary short-cuts seem quite appealing!
In our opinion, a good option is to prepare mashed potato in ‘bulk’ and then freeze some for future use (yes, freezing may cause a little nutritional decline, but the result is still preferable to additive-laden instant potato).
Admittedly, mashed potato can be a little watery when thawed, but we find it absolutely fine if it will be disguised by other ingredients (in the fish cakes, for example).
Or you can do what we do and reheat it by spreading it in an oven tray and baking it. This method seems to ‘dry it out’ perfectly!
Learn more about using white potato in your homemade baby food recipes