Mumsnet Talk

My baby started solids on new years day, and we've just started offering fingerfoods after a couple of weeks of fruit and veg mash with baby porridge, things like that. His favourite so far seems to be toast fingers with cream cheese. He likes me to hold them for him whilst he nibbles daintily on the end. I've been using the bread we use, which is a wholemeal seeded type, but I've noticed seeds in his nappy. Then I read somewhere that babies shouldn't have wholemeal things because it's too much fibre for them. Should I change to White bread?

He hasn't tried pasta or rice yet, but we use wholewheat varieties of those too. Do I need to change these as well?

I haven't heard this and used all types of bread with both DC. Provided you give plenty of fluids too he should be fine. Too much fibre is generally only a problem if you aren't drinking enough to 'bulk it up', then you might get constipated.

children under two should not have too much whole meal foods as it can hinder the absorbtion of other nutrients (iron for example) and does not have enough calories. once in a while or small amounts (weetabix for breakfast) is fine, though.

I think the advice is that you can give some wholewheat, but it is better to give a mix. A mix of different grains (some rice, some corn/maize, some wheat, some oats) as well as a mix of wholemeal and white. Like mousy said wholegrain stuff is quite bulky and filling with fewer calories and babies need high calorie stuff.

I thought wholewheat is bad too because they have too much roughage. But what I dont get is why so much of the baby rice cakes or breadsticks are wholemeal? Am I missing something?

a mix of white and wholegrain bread, pasta and rice is recommended and a fully wholegrain diet shouldnt be given until the age of 5. We use wholemeal bread (without seeds) and white pasta/rice although the dc's like wholewheat spaghetti

I'm interested in this too.

IIRC it's under 5 that the diet shouldn't be entirely wholegrain as children can fill up before they've had enough calories and too much bran can reduce the absorbtion of minerals. (There's info from the NHS here.)

However, there's a campaign called White Out in the US to get babies eating wholegrains rather than white bread, pasta & rice. Some paediatricians reckon that using only processed flours, rice etc mean children get used to a 'sugar rush' making obseity and a preference for non-wholegrain foods more likely in the future.

I wonder if this is affected by whether a child bfs or not? I understand the logic of not filling up with bulky, low-calorie foods, but my 2 y.o. has a big bf immediately before at least 2 of his meals so I would guess that wouldn't be a problem for him at those meals.

He does prefer wholemeal pasta and bread.

It's difficult - DS would rather eat what I eat, and I prefer wholemeal, and am on an 'eating plan' where I'm supposed to have wholemeal everything.

AngelDog I have the same dilemma with full fat dairy too. (The bit on how you are supposed to be on wholemeal, and he on white). When we make pancakes and muffins, am I supposed to use full fat milk? If so, then DH and I will be eating full fat too. And we really don't want that. I also don't want to be making a batch especially for DD.

I'm eating all white paste and rice, so don't have to face the wholewheat thing yet. The only wholeweat we eat is toast.

What age is your dd? From 2 years you can give semi skimmed milk although you could probably use it in cooking before that as long as her drink remains full fat milk (full fat milk is still fairly low fat at less than 4 % fat)

Seona 10mo. So I'm sure she's supposed to be having full fat on everything.

Thanks, all. It seems like it'll be alright in moderation then. He doesn't eat much of anything at the moment, but I'll make sure he doesn't have wheat more than once a day, and gets a mix of other grains too. The baby porridge and rice I've been giving him is made with brown rice and whole wheat, so I guess it's suitable in small amounts. He's enjoying his fruit and veg, anyway, and has more of them as he gets spoonfed purée, whereas the bread he has as a fingerfood so it tends to get thrown around!

I mentioned this to my health visitor the other day as well, and she seemed to think that brown bread was fine.

Thanks again.