To ask whats wrong with baby rice??

[havinhoops1974]

i've seen alot of hate for the old baby rice , I used a mixture of rice, mashed up food in a mini blender

I did get my wrist slapped by a HV for using rusks even though they are sold as ba by food aarrggh !

can someone fill me in whats so bad about them??

[Snowboarder]

I know baby rice tastes like crap but it has arsenic in it? Seriously?!

My son hated baby rice and I couldn't understand until I tasted it. Now I taste everything I feed him and wouldn't give him anything that I wouldn't like to eat myself. Has worked so far.

[Maisiethemorningsidecat]

There's nothing wrong with it - some people just get very upset about minor things in life.

[CaptainNancy]

tyler was joking surely?

[SardineQueen]

I didn't use it because it smelt horrible and I didn't want to feed the children anything I wouldn't eat myself!

[SardineQueen]

Ambrosia rice pudding OTOH is delicious and full of lovely ingredients and more or less the same sweetness as breast milk!

I used plum porridge which smelt yummy, mashed up bananas, mashed potatoes, pureed carrots, apples and stuff, then went onto the same food as we were having pretty quickly.

[tyler80]

Not joking, google it. Same reason rice milk shouldn't be given to under 5s.

Whilst it's not a level that is immediately harmful it's enough of a concern for me to think that giving baby rice for every meal is best avoided. And for most it's easily avoided.

[tilder]

I had a quick look and found this and this on arsenic in baby rice. Take from it what you will. There are also various newspaper articles, but I avoided those...

[CaptainNancy]

That's what we had sardinequeen- but as coraltoes says it is *42% rice!

tyler- I had heard about not giving rice milk to under 5s, but I assumed it was something to do with the processing. It would appear not. The telegraph article sounds quite alarming, but it sounds as though further research (which would have been completed by now I presume) would have led to a withdrawal of products if they were found to be harmful.

[tyler80]

Basically there are no guidelines based on infant exposure, hence no withdrawal. The fact that the levels are allowed to be higher than that allowed in water is a concern to me when you think what a significant part of a young babies diet it can be.

As a once in a while thing it wouldn't bother me (aside from the aforementioned taste issue), but not all the time when there are alternatives.

For some it may be the lesser of two evils, small theoretical risk versus starving unhappy baby.

[forrestgump]

lol at sinister - such a roll of eyes on some of these answers.

[CaptainNancy]

What on earth is that kiss for sinister?

[starrywillow]

I think baby rice mixed with fruit puree and milk tastes delicious. :9

[fatlazymummy]

It used to be thought of as a good weaning food because it is easily digested. All my babies had it for a little while, and would also give it again if I was having another baby [which I'm not]. As others have said it is ground up rice. I also mixed it with other foods.

[Ghoulwithadragontattoo]

Rice is the staple food for most of the world's population so is ridiculous to suggest it is not something to give to babies.

[Ghoulwithadragontattoo]

As for saying it's not nutritious- the mind boggles.

[SardineQueen]

captainnancy - true! It wasn't rice itself I objected to - but the smell of the baby rice. It smelt horrible - god knows what they'd done to it

[Proudnreallyveryscary]

There is fuck all wrong with baby rice and I've got the dc to prove it.

[AnxiousElephant]

What rusks or rice?

Baby rice is completely unnecessary if babies are weaned at 5-6 months because it is expensive and they can have normal family rice.

Rusks are full of sugar and because many babies don't have teeth when they are weaned, parents don't brush the gums where they come through. Often they come through rotten after being fed them for months without brushing. I have to say that it also encourages babies to develop a sweeter tooth than they have already! This means getting them to accept savoury non fatty/ sugary food is more difficult i.e. veg.

[Notnapping]

On my local fb site they were encouraging a mother of a 9 week old to wean onto baby rice so she was filled up

she did apparently the baby loved it

I bit my tounge

Very hard

[stillstanding]

But it's ok if the baby "loves" it, no, notnapping?!

I don't care one way or another on this particular issue (ie if someone wants to feed their baby baby rice or not) but I always laugh when I see "but the baby LOVES it" in relation to something. Like the baby knows best. Or as if a 9 week old has the ability to love something or not.

[yesiAMwonderwoman]

"baby led weiners" @ Sinister

[TheControversialJessie]

My mother got very, erm, upset when I told her I'd given my six-month-olds some baby rice with milk.

She said, "but you don't know what's in it! There could be anything in it these days! Why can't you just get some rice, if you want to give rice? Or grind up your own rice?"