Baby Rice Questions

[holliem91]

Hi everyone, sorry if i'm repeating another thread on here but I just have a few questions about baby rice.

I've just nipped to Sainsbury's and got the Aptamil Baby Rice for my little girl who is very nearly 6 months! On the back on the packet it tells you how to make it up but not the following... So my questions are:

How often did you give your LO baby rice in one day? Once, twice, three times?

Also, do I still give her a normal feed with her baby rice? And when? Before the baby rice or after?

FTM so I have no idea and any advice would be great! Also, how long after baby rice did you go on to try other things? What other things did you try? Unless you just skipped baby rice altogether and started on different things but i'm keen to hear people's weaning storiesI do have a weaning book but i'm just still so unsure of where to start!

Thank you!

Make up some baby rice - taste it yourself - gag - then bin it.

And then just give DC whatever you're eating but chopped/blended so they don't choke

The Ella's Kitchen book linked by a pp above is great. Explains what foods to give at what stage and has a weekly plan of each meal plus milk feeds. It really takes the stress out of it all. Good luck!

Sorry I got it mixed up! I meant the Annabel Karmel book, think it's called baby and toddler meal planner

Annabel Karmel lost me when her website recipes included salt eg. Salting water when cooking pasta- no need when cooking for children!

I know it seems like it should be complicated but I promise you are overthinking this. I started weaning dc3 last week and have successfully used the ‘Chuck them a bit of what you’re having’ approach again. Literally just slice whatever you’re having into strips that they can easily grab. Keep it low salt and avoid honey and round chunks (like grapes). That’s it.

So far my 6mo has enjoyed carrots, broccoli, avocado on toast, pear, toast with butter, crumpets, roast potatoes, yoghurt loaded on a spoon for her. No special prep No blending or separating out ingredients. Just a bit of what we’re having.

Tomorrow she’ll have bolognaise and next time I do a roast she’ll have roast chicken. It’s a bit messy but great to see them enjoying and exploring. Plus the time it takes to wipe up is time you saved on puréeing and faffing with special baby food.

OP I don't mean to sound harsh, but the vast majority of people here have said do not use baby rice, and there are several links to articles which explain why it is unnecessary. Very few people use it now. So Why are you still planning on using it?

I've used both of the books below if you're interested in looking at other options. But if you google Baby led weaning then there are loads of resources online.

If you're going for BLW then do a bit of research to learn the difference between gagging and choking. Basically gagging is ok, choking is not! But they are two different things and it will give you confidence to help your baby learn to eat food.

For some actual food ideas you could start with:

Breakfast: porridge fingers, fruit yoghurts, weetabix, a banana. Either let your baby put the food item in their mouth or give your baby a spoon and off they go! (Lots of Mess, so protect your floor! And be ready to wash your baby after).

Lunch and dinner: steamed veg (broccoli, carrots etc), roasted sweet potato, avocado, homemade vegetable muffins.

Your baby is ready when they can sit up unaided and hold their head up properly. As well as other signs.

Don't stop giving milk until they are taking a full meal. The saying goes 'food before one is just for fun'.

Baby Led weaning book:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Baby-led-Weaning-Helping-Your-Baby/dp/0091923808/ref=nodl_

Purées:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Weaning-What-Feed-When-your/dp/0241352487/ref=mpssa116?dchild=1&keywords=baby+weaning&qid=1597340328&sr=8-6

If you are on Instagram Joe Wicks has a great weaning page - weanin15

His Instagram was a god send to me last year and I really recommend his weaning cook book. Although plenty of ideas on his insta.

If you want actual up to date advice IRL just contact your health visiting team. Call them tomorrow and say your baby is almost 6 months and could you please have some advice about weaning as you are unsure. They have trained staff within the team specifically for this.

They will call you back and advise you, surely that is better than getting hundreds of different and varying opinions. It's nice to know what other parents are doing for sure, but a lot of the advice varies and contradicts.

The HV service is there for you and it's free - use it!

The good thing about starting around 6 months is that they're a bit more developed so you can move on to proper food straight away, either pureed or mashed if you dont fancy going straight to finger food.

Ds2 had carrots and lentils first I think. Ds1 was a fiend fir mashed avocado and they both loved banana (but it's a bugger for stains).

You can also introduce meat & fish more or less straight away so it's fine to mash or blend whatever you're eating (keep an eye on salt).

If you want porridge get own brand ready brek rather than baby porridge - identical but much cheaper.

I have the Annabel Karmel Baby and Toddler meal planner book. I like it as it does give you a timetable and sets out what to do week 1-4, weeks 5-8 etc with a limited number of recipes for each weaning stage. She starts off with simple fruit and veg purées then in stage 2 you move on to adding things like pasta, meat, fish. It’s more old fashioned than baby led weaning but I’ve been doing a bit of that too, using the Gill Rapley book someone else mentioned. The Annabel Karmel book gives allergy advice too, I think it’s worth reading about introducing the foods most likely to cause allergies. It’s not always as obvious as you might think, for example I was surprised that berry fruits can be more likely to cause an allergic reaction.

Never. We did BLW, but even if we’d done purées, I’d still have skipped it. It’s basically wallpaper paste! The ready brek suggestion is good, I mixed frozen berries through then nuke it to make “purple porridge” which always goes down well. If you mix it well after cooking, it’s pretty smooth and much tastier.

I would start by looking at the NHS website and calling your health visitor OP, they will be able to give you the most up to date advice. Readybrek, veg purées are a great way to start if you’re unsure. Start with something simple like carrot purée, then just keep trying baby on loads of different veg purées once they’ve built up a taste. Joe Wicks wean in 15 gives a really good 2 week plan of first tastes for starting weaning and the recipes are super easy. I know weaning is very daunting but honestly you’ll get the hang of it in no time

Definitely wouldn’t put the baby rice in a bottle as it can be a choking risk.