what cereal when weaning

[mimm]

Have been weaning ds using GF book. Can anyone tell me where to get pure organic gluten-free cereal? They all seem to have added fruit etc. Thank you.

the beech nut range are very good - i used to get it in my local independent chemist. they do rice but also oat which is gluten free and nice and benign for little ones.
if your chemist doesn't stock the range they should be able to order them in for you in a day

I weaned via GF but admit to using babyorganix oat and apple cereal for breakfast instead of the oat cereal with pureed fruit. I used this brand as it is the only one that desn't contain suger etc.

mimmm - I was also keen to use gluten free cereal and also didn't want added fruit - I wanted to add my own fresh fruit. I ended up starting my dd on baby rice and then moving her onto quinoa and millett porridge ... I know it sounds a bit exotic and hippyish, but it was in fact very easy to make up for her. I got organic quinoa flakes and millett from our local health food shop and then used to put a level tablespoon of the quinoa, and a level teaspoon of the millet with about 3 oz of milk and simmer it in a little saucepan for about 5 minutes until it was a nice porridgy consistency and then stir in some fruit. My dd adored it. Also quinoa is a wondergrain - being a comlete protein. Now I AM sounding like a healthfood crazy nut, I will stop here!

I should also have said that although oats are gluten free they contain something which is rather similar to gluten and which some babies are allergic to. Given my atopic history I held off the oats until about 9 months, and now I alternate oat porridge with the wacky quinoa one. Such caution is not necessary for most babies. I also make the oat porridge myself - much cheaper to buy a big bag of organic porridge oats and boil up in some milk.

It's not organic, but Readybrek is great IMO. Ds has always loved it - even has it for supper some nights.

My dd adores readybrek too - the nursery keep commenting on the huge portions she packs away! It's not gluten free of course.

VERY interested to read about quinoa and millett and will be rushing to health food shop asap. I am determined not to give my baby gluten until she is a year old and I also want to be cautious with cassein. I don't really understand why you can give dairy products but not ordinary milk, it seems a bit inconsistent. Anyway, I won't be giving any dairy or gluten until she's a year old as I think she can manage perfectly well with rice and potato and now these two new exciting things. Agree with Pidge that is not necessary for most babies but with autism in the family and the possible links with the immune system and haveing an immune system disease myslef I don't want to do anything even slightly risky for us. I'm sure most of you don't need to worry about this

The diff between giving dairy products and milk is only that until age one milk is still the key source of nutrition. Cows milk isn't harmful, it's just not as nutritious as breastmilk or formula. So a child given lots of cows milk as the mainstay of his diet instead of formula or breastmilk will miss out a bit on nutrients. As yoghurts etc are just part of the diet, with milk forming the mainstay until one (ideally) they aren't as important. Once the child is mainly living on solid foods they are likely to get all their nutritional needs met via their diet and so milk of any kind is less important (though not unimportant, of course). That's all the advice means. Oats aren't gluten free but their gluten is very different to that in wheat and many coeliacs can eat it. Several studies show that people with gluten intolerance are fine with and benefit from oats - though of course, if you have a diagnosed coeliac disease you should talk to your dr first. Oat and wheat gluten are quite different. Rice cereal is gluten free (eg baby rice).

Thank you so much for the helpful advice. JulieF - did you find the baby barley that GF recommends?

The diff between giving dairy products and milk is only that until age one milk is still the key source of nutrition. Cows milk isn't harmful, it's just not as nutritious as breastmilk or formula. So a child given lots of cows milk as the mainstay of his diet instead of formula or breastmilk will miss out a bit on nutrients. As yoghurts etc are just part of the diet, with milk forming the mainstay until one (ideally) they aren't as important. Once the child is mainly living on solid foods they are likely to get all their nutritional needs met via their diet and so milk of any kind is less important (though not unimportant, of course). That's all the advice means. Oats aren't gluten free but their gluten is very different to that in wheat and many coeliacs can eat it. Several studies show that people with gluten intolerance are fine with and benefit from oats - though of course, if you have a diagnosed coeliac disease you should talk to your dr first. Oat and wheat gluten are quite different. Rice cereal is gluten free (eg baby rice).

Davros - if you're anxious about allergies etc I can really recommend the Suzanne Olivier book. It's just been republished

IMO her nutritional advice is pretty sound. It's a bit extreme for most people to follow to the letter, but Annabel Karmel is useless if you're concerned about allergies. What I did was to tread a path somewhere between Karmel and Olivier, and (even if I say so myself) I think my dd has a super super diet. I avoided wheat and gluten until 10 months, no dairy except yogurt until 12 months and she is a super eater - not fussy at all. And so far, no allergies or eczema either.

Of course, you have to make your own decisions. Not saying anyone is wrong at all to exclude gluten just that oats are different to wheat and Ok for many but not all people with gluten problems. Information only, really.

Aloha - thanks for that stuff on oat gluten - you read really confusing stuff about this. I knew that oats had something like gluten but some people call it gluten and some people say it's different!! Now it makes sense that it probably is gluten, but very different to wheat gluten. And you're right that oats are a great food for many people who are wheat intolerant.

Very interesting, thanks for the info. I will have a look on Amazon for the book and ALoha, I now understand why dairy is OK but cows milk discouraged until later. I'd always assumed it was because of allergies etc not because of place of milk in diet. THanks again.

Has anyone mentioned salt yet? Most of the cereals nowadays contain salt. I thought I was being really good giving my dd Weetabix and Bran Flakes every morning, but they are actually quite high in salt. The only one that isn't is Shredded Wheat and that's too stringy for her.

REady Brek - no added sugar or salt (Weetabix has both but less than many other cereals).
I also did millet porridge before 6 months - not really for any health gain, mroe to instill a bit of variety rather than endless baby rice! It makes a porridge very like oat porridge in textrue and taste.

Mimm, no sorry I failed competely on the barley. I did introduce pearl barley when she was able to tolerate more lumpy food but she never took to it.