Recipes · Sick-Day Food
Frozen Fruit Popsicles
Reader ratingsRipe banana and strawberries blended with water and frozen into pops: a cold, soothing way to get a little fluid and fruit into a child (or adult) whose throat is too sore for much else.
Safety
- Children under 4 can choke on chunks of hard frozen fruit or ice, and sticks can injure a young mouth. Blend until smooth, stay with the child while they eat, and skip ice pops for babies under 12 months.
- Pops are comfort and a way to get some fluid in, not a treatment for dehydration. For diarrhea or vomiting, use frozen oral rehydration solution instead, and seek care for signs of dehydration (very dark urine or none for 8 hours, no wet diaper for 3 hours in a baby or toddler, no tears, sunken eyes, unusual drowsiness).
- Get urgent care for a sore throat with a muffled “hot potato” voice, drooling, trouble opening the mouth or swallowing saliva, or any trouble breathing. If the pain is severe or not settling after a few days, ask about a throat swab, since strep throat can need antibiotics.
- Strawberries and bananas can trigger oral itching or hives in some people, and banana can cross-react with latex allergy, so use fruits your child has eaten before. Do not add honey for children under 12 months.
Why it’s good for you
Whole-fruit pops give you water, natural sugar and vitamin C in a cold, soothing form, and most children will eat one when they refuse everything else.
Evidence
Traditional use
Long history of use; little or no direct research on this preparation.
No trial has tested ice pops for a sore throat or for hydration during illness. The closest research is a small 2025 trial of 48 children after tonsillectomy, in which those given ice cream had lower pain scores at 6, 12 and 18 hours and took their first drink sooner, but that was after surgery and ice cream is a different food. Cool drinks and ice lollies appear in health-service sore-throat self-care advice, but the research is thin, so treat pops as comfort and a way to get fluid in, not as a treatment.
General information from research and traditional use — not medical advice, and not a treatment for any condition. If you are pregnant, nursing, taking medication or managing a health condition, check with your clinician first, and seek care for symptoms that are severe or do not improve.
Ingredients
Instructions
- Blend the banana, strawberries and water until completely smooth. Taste: ripe fruit should be sweet enough, and if it is not, add another half banana rather than sugar or honey. For a sore throat, pour the blend through a fine sieve to remove the strawberry seeds.
- Pour into ice-pop molds (about 3 oz each), or small paper cups, leaving 1/4 inch at the top. Add the sticks and freeze for 4 to 6 hours or overnight.
- To release a pop, run the outside of the mold under warm water for 10 seconds, then pull gently.
- Hand over one pop at a time, and let it soften for a minute first, since rock-hard pops can hurt a sore mouth. Offer a few sips of water between bites.
Tips
- For vomiting or diarrhea, freeze the Oral Rehydration Solution instead. Fruit pops add fluid and sugar but not the salt that is lost, and high-sugar drinks can make diarrhea worse.
- Skip acidic fruit such as pineapple, citrus or kiwi if it stings a sore throat or mouth.
- Wrap leftover pops in parchment, or freeze the blend in an ice cube tray and pack the cubes in a bag. They keep for up to 2 months.
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