Baby Rice.. Is It Worth It?

[Lovelise]

Hi all,

I'm a first time mum and my LO is approaching weaning age. I decided to try her on a little baby rice to see how she got on...

It felt like I was feeding her milk with a teeny tiny spoon. Not easy and a little awkward.

She got on better with the consistency of mashed banana with milk but the taste was a little strong.

Did you persevere with baby rice or did you go straight to other foods? What foods did you start your LOs on?

Baby rice is really just filler and had no nutritional value so it's probably better to just give veg.
We did BLW starting at 6 months. DS took to it really well and it was so easy. I recommend the Gill Rapley book if you're interested.

In all honesty, we only bothered with baby rice if it was being made up with my expressed milk, or as a thickener for something else - which was very handy. Otherwise, we gave fruit puree at first.

DD used to love banana & fromage frais. If you microwave the banana first then mash it, then add the fromage frais, it purees very easily. You could add a pinch of baby rice to thicken it if you want.

I also used to batch cook fruit purees without sweetener, just with apple juice if it was a bit tart. Eg pears, raspberries, strawberries - whatever was in season & affordable. Strain it & freeze in a baby freezer pot, the ice cube type ones are fab for this stage. Once it's frozen, decant them into a freezer bag or box & seal to prevent water loss. Much cheaper than bought purees.

I also did rice pudding according to the pack instructions, with normal pudding rice, whole milk, and organic unsulphured dried apricots. That froze really well. It could be blended to a puree or left with some texture.

You could try baby led weaning too - we didn't at first & I kind of regret it now, I wish we'd at least tried it alongside spoon feeding, as it would have been helpful not to have to physically feed her every mouthful at every mealtime.

Baby rice is very useful - in mashed up curry, or mixed with flour and apple juice to make biscuits! As a food stuff the only nutrition comes from whatever you mix it with, the only "benefit" is that it takes longer for the stomach to break down so the baby feels fuller for longer - but that means they're taking in less of the nutrient-rich stuff (milk, of whatever variety you use, and actual food) they need to grow and develop.

DS started on stuff like sweet potatoe, parsnip, pear etc at 5.5 months and had finger foods alongside from 6 months. Once I'd introduced all the food groups (did them separately in case of an intolerance) he has eaten whatever we do since, so around 6.5/7 months (he's rising 2 now and I'm dreading the teenage years, the amount he eats already!)

My Ds was thought to have a milk intolerance ( fine with breast milk) so we simply did mashed veg and fruit, mixed with a little bit of breast milk.

I liked to use baby rice as a thickener with pureed pears, that was about it. Who knew how liquid like pureed pears ended up?! My 3 all loved it.

My baby didn't take to baby rice, at all. Much preferred porridge.

We went straight to foods- I waited until they were grabbing food out of my hands then moved onto BLW.

Mine just ate the same as us from day one. No mush, no puree. DD's first solids were a roast in fact.

How old is your baby OP? Most six month/nearly six month babies have absolutely no need of a bland flavour like baby rice and wouldn't find banana too strong a flavour -though of course, they might not like banana!

I didn't bother with baby rice

Didn't bother with it, waited until DD was 6 months, and offered her something from my plate at lunchtime (I think it was a raspberry) and she took to it from there. Certainly no issue with flavours - she ate a bit of naan bread with curry on it in the first week of eating solids!