Home made baby rice cereal
Posted 10:16pm Mon Jan 21st, 2008 by BJMing
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I'm planning to start my baby on solids soon since he will be reaching 6 months in a fortnight's time, and want to start off with rice cereal. I want to make the baby rice from scratch using rice instead of going for the boxed type.
I heard that babies can take brown rice and millet. However, the brown rice we get at home (in the UK) looks different to the brown rice available in Beijing (called 'cao mi'). Can babies also take 'cao mi'? As for millet, is that 'xiao mi'?
My Chinese friends feed their babies congee. I was wondering whether this is a substitute for baby rice.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
we've fed our baby rice congee with no problem. The "cao mi" here is indeed brown rice and there should be no problem feeding it to your baby, but just be careful and feed the little one a tiny portion at first to see if his/her digestive system has any reactions.
constipation can be a problem when introducing new foods so remember to start with small portions.
I've read that any sorts of grains make fine meals for babies but that you should hold off on wheat for a while because apparently there can be some allergic reactions.
One idea my wife picked up and has been a great timesaver is to make a batch of baby foods -- we often use boiled sweet potatoes or regular potatoes, mashe 'em up, let it cool and then portion it out into ice cube trays and freeze them. You then have a couple of weeks of baby-portions ready at hand for you to heat up for the little one.
PS a lot of the powdered baby rice mixes have sugar in them ...
another fun trick: rather than mashing up a banana, just peel one half way and use a baby spoon to scrape a little off the banana and feed it to baby directly. Our baby didn't like bananas at first but now enjoys them.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
I make almost all my own baby foods, but I have read in many places and was told by my pediatrician, that it is very important to feed the baby iron fortified rice cereals.
We use Earth's Best and Healthy Times Organic:
Whole Grain Brown Rice
Oatmeal
Barley
Mixed Grain
But make my own for Millet, and all vegetables.
We use organic vegetables, which are so easy to get in Beijing it is very convenient. If we can't get organic, we use the bags off frozen vegetables you can buy in the supermarket, as they have more nutrients than fresh vegetables since they are frozen sooner after they are picked (strange as it sounds, it is true!)
The general rule of thumb is '3 day wait' try a new food, wait 3 days to see a reaction, if no reaction, try another new food. Then eventually you can start combining foods, etc...
But you do need to be careful about the nitrate levels in carrots, and either start these a bit later or use jars for carrots.
You can get a lot of great information from this site:
http://www.wholesomebabyfood.com/
There is information on the order to introduce food, how to make and store food, and great recipes for older babies and toddlers.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
Thanks for the tips!
I also heard that boxes rice cereals contain sugar. crj, do the ones you recommend have added sugar? And can I get them in BJ? As for the millet porridge, should I ground up the millet first before making the porridge, or make the porridge then put it through a blender? Do you know when I can introduce millet to my baby? I heard that millet is a good source of iron which is why I'm thinking about making my own cereal instead of going for the boxed type.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
Hi BJ Ming
The organic Earths Best and Healthy Times have NO sugar, but they do have added iron (which is why we use these instead of homemade!). You can buy them at Lohao City, Jenny Lou and Nicks, but availability varies, Lijia Baby also has them and you can order them.
I introduce grains in the following order:
Organic whole grain brown rice
Organic oatmeal
Organic barley
Organic millet (which I make as it is not available otherwise)
The millet, I make first, then blend, then put in covered ice cube trays in the freezer and then move to a zip lock bag and use one by one as needed.
Good luck!
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
I just nipped over to the Pacific dept and saw the range from Healthy Times. Checked the label and indeed they don't contain any sugar. I'll give them a try.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
I just nipped over to the Pacific dept and saw the range from Healthy Times. Checked the label and indeed they don't contain any sugar. I'll give them a try.
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Re: Home made baby rice cereal
Jenny Lou's in Shunyi sells Earth First organic rice, oatmeal and multigrain cereals, no sugar added and iron-fortified. They also sell Earth First and Gerber jarred foods, though they ain't cheap - perhaps have a few jars on hand for emergency purposes? We also puree our own foods and freeze in ice cube trays - it's alot easier than making from scratch every time.
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