Baby rice

[lucidlady]

Ive seen a few threads where baby rice seems to be regarded as a bad thing. DD is 22 weeks and we're going to be weaning her soon, so I wanted to find out why baby rice should seemingly be avoided?

maybe its because it is bland and like wallpaper paste. I did use it as it was good for thickening runny purees and for bulking them out a bit.

Because there's no use for it.

Just feed them proper food

It depends on what you think is the aim of weaning. I see it as introducing adult food - tastes and textures. I don't mind how much DD eats. As a result I see no use of baby rice. It's bland and disgusting. I only give food I will eat to DD. And baby rice isn't what I will eat.

Obviously I also think its a load of crap you need to ease baby into stronger tasting food. It is believed it takes about 10-15 times to introduce a new taste to a baby. So if they refuse the first time, you just keep offering.

Not bad, just a bit pointless.

This is broadly the case against....

basically there is just no point in it!

if you wean at around 6 months you can just use pretty much whatever food you eat.

baby rice has no texture and no taste and as such has no real benefit in weaning your baby IMO

Baby rice was useful in the days when people weaned babies at 3 or 4 months (or earlier) and they weren't really ready for food so essentially you had to give them thickened milk to slurp. Most 5-6 month olds are ready for finger foods though, or normal family foods mashed and spoonfed.

baby rice isn't a bad thing, it's just a thing.

the average weaning age in this country is 13 weeks. there is no evidence of harm in weaning past 17 weeks if you live in the Uk (conclusion of millenium cohort study, review by european food safety..). thickening breastmilk/formula with baby rice does make a higher-calorie food, which many find useful.

yet some people on here still treat the ebf till 6 months thing as though it was carved in rock and handed to Moses...

The average age of baby sleeping through in this country is 6 weeks. The average age a baby can crawl is 22 weeks. The average age they can walk is 14mo.

It's pretty easy to throw around enough random statistics.

I am in the very early stages of weaning my DS. He is 13 weeks old (today!) and he has been on baby rice since 11 weeks and 4 days and he loves it.

There is a point to baby rice - it gives them a different, thicker texture to have in their mouth that isn't too surprising for them.

As for being bland - what the hell do others mix it with???? On the packet I have (Heinz) it says 1 teaspoon of rice to 4 teaspoons of their usual milk. Either some people have their own ideas without actually tasting baby rice or have a different brand that doesn't mix with milk, because baby rice is NOT bland, unless their breast milk or formula is!

I have tasted baby rice and it is certainly not bland. It tastes like his normal milk, hence the reason why he takes to it because it is just the texture that has changed, not the taste. Once he is used to that, I will be introducing other purees - single fruit and vegetables first.

I have every intention of doing some sort of 'baby led weaning' when I give him finger foods at 6 months - by that time he will be used to a range of tastes and it will be textures and lumpy bits we concentrate on.

Yes, it is pretty easy to throw around statistics, but statistics serve a purpose. They tell you what a lot of people do and believe. The guidelines for weaning have changed so much over the years which actually leads many people to think that these guidelines are just rubbish and the only purpose they serve is to confuse, brain-wash and fit in with the 'times' or the 'trend' of that time.

Afterall, they are guidelines and advice - NOT instructions so therefore people should be left alone to read, ponder and take on board any advice and make decisions about THEIR child in a way they see fit. In my opinion (and it is just my opinion - feel free to disagree but it won't change me!) too many mothers don't follow their own instincts and gut feelings and spend too much time doing what the WHO and government tell them to do rather than use their own intelligence. If that means you firmly believe that baby rice serves no purpose and that EBF until 6 months is best, then fine, DO IT!

OP- Some peope hate baby rice for many reasons that are valid to them. Some like them. Read what people say and form your own judgement. Don't be frightened to do what you want to do based upon your own research and motherly instinct. Whatever your decision, you are not wrong in doing it.

Willsmum babies don't NEED introducing to thicker textures so they're no a surprise though.

You can't really BLW at 6mo if you've already been giving purée for 15w, the idea is you start to wean at around 6mo when baby shows the signs of readiness and can do it themselves.
I assume there's a health reason for and that you've had medical guidance to wean at 11 weeks as the earliest recommended age now is 17w due to gut maturity?

But your whole premise on "it gives them a different, thicker texture to have in their mouth that isn't too surprising for them" doesn't stand, Willsmum. I can't remember what I gave as DD's first food, but it's something I normally eat. It's probably chicken or carrot or broccolli because I eat them a lot. She's not surprised by the thicker texture at all. She picked them up and really chew into them just like she would for her toys.

willsmum I'm not being judgey, but can I ask what made you wean early? I'm planning on waiting until DS is 17 weeks and then see what the situation is like then.

There really do seem to be two schools of thought on the weaning.

I have tasted baby rice and I like it! The only food I don't like is custard!

11 weeks ffs. Guidelines don't change all the time, and they've always been at least 4 months for a reason. But yes, as a mother you can take any stupid risk you want with your baby's health.

CherryBlossom I'm sure the current recommendation is from 17 to 26 weeks, though a preference for closer to 26 weeks. So it's wise to wait till 17 weeks and see how it goes.

And the posters here aren't just making it up when we throw around the 26 weeks number. It's actually the current advice by NHS. You can ignore it all you want. Just like if you think exercising for 150min is non sense, or that the alcohol guidelines are far too low for a normal adult. We just need to make sure we made our choices after being informed.

Here is the NHS advice on weaning

www.nhs.uk/start4life/Pages/no-rush-to-mush.aspx

(The birth to 5 online seems to have moved. But if you are in England, you should have been given a hard copy by your HV).

Link again

www.nhs.uk/start4life/Pages/no-rush-to-mush.aspx

The guidelines don't change very often at all. I've got 2DC, the eldest is nearly 8 and the guidelines are and have been 6 months for the entire time. What's confusing about that?

As for introducing a different texture, what's that about? DD had just milk until she was 23 weeks when she stole and ate a ham sandwich. The different texture didn't seem to bother her at all. In fact she gobbled it up as quick as she could and then started eating everything we ate.

Agree with Rita you are entitled to take risks with your babies health if you choose, most of us prefer not to though.

OP have your read YouLaugh's link? Have you read this on babyled weaning too and MN has some good information on weaning here and some great recipes here.

Nine good reasons not to use baby rice here: www.analyticalarmadillo.co.uk/2011/12/nine-good-reasons-not-to-use-baby-rice.html
AA

If your not BLW then I think it's great! DS was screaming everytime I ate when he was 17 weeks old and and I physically couldn't breastfeed him enough, hee was waking more than 15 times a night too. I wanted to hold off on giving him actual food and didn't want to give him formula. For us it was a great introduction to food for DS, helped up stave off 'proper' weaning for a few extra weeks and it was a nice easy passage from baby rice, to special baby porridges that have a bit of flavour to eventually bland vegetables and beyond! He now loves chilli and korma curries at 7 months so it's fine :)

"It's actually the current advice by NHS. You can ignore it all you want"

if you are going to tell a woman who is fed to the teeth with BF her child every 2 seconds she has to stick it out rather than wean, you have to give a bloody good reason.

there is no reason not to wean at 17 weeks in this country. this has also been recognised by the NHS, and if you read the detail on the guidelines instead of repeating the 26 weeks things parrot-fashion, you'd notice it.

the NHS adopted the WHO guidelines without any review of relevance to this country, or any new evidence being brought out - the WHO guildelines are based on a general review of many studies, most of which were not developed european countries.

I don't see a problem with babyrice as a thickener for runnier purees - the organic wholegrain is ok, surely?

I am learning to take "research" with a pinch of salt in my old age too - they are currently starting research into the rise in allergies amongst children, based on weaning - they are looking into weaning before 6 months actually decreasing the rise in allergies. I think this was based on a rise in coeliac disease in Sweden, and then a change in weaning guidelines resulting in a decrease......I may have got the country wrong (blame babybrain!), but the research angle right.

The whole thing about arsenic in rice in that article is irritating - I'm sure that you could analyse all sorts of foods that young babies are given, and the contents could be frightening - I was reading some BLW forum today and it suggested taking the skin off sausages for babies!!!!! Sausages for a baby??????? Good God - the salt content alone would horrify me!

I am increasingly fed-up by people implying that baby-led weaning and breastfeeding being the only way to feed your child.I'm not necessarily saying that anyone on this thread is saying that, before I get jumped on!

There are pro's and con's to any way of feeding your child - my DD1 was weaned with purees, moving quickly on to finger food, and she eats ANYTHING.

I do quite like the idea of baby-led weaning - scares me to death with the choking part, but am sure that isn't much of an issue when you get stuck into it. I think it's more inconvenient for me - DD2 is now 5 and a half months, rejecting purees, so I'm quite happy to try BLW - but now I have to REALLY think about mealtimes - my DD1 will eat spicy foods, and has a great diet, but the thought of tailoring this for the baby fills me with dread. However, it will probably work out fine.

ah sorry onelittlebabyterror ..that 'you' in my post should be generally applied.. i see you recognise in that same post the 17-26 weeks detail!

just some people on here get very strident about 26 weeks, and although it is fine to eBf that long, and there is no (nutritional) need to do otherwise, there is also no proven harm in weaning earlier (after 4mths)

11 weeks? Oh my goodness. I was weaned onto baby rice at 10 weeks in the (late) 1970s, but I can clearly remember looking at my own children at 10 weeks and wondering how on earth that could be right. It makes sense to me that babies are ready to wean at different ages, but there is a huge difference between (roughly) a two month window (starting from four months), and starting a full six weeks before that. I thought that research did suggest that pre-17 weeks could be damaging?

Don't forget rusk in bottles!

I thought that research did suggest that pre-17 weeks could be damaging?

you're talking some fairly marginal things ....but some research in the Uk/Europe does, yes. not in the realm of 'stupid risk' though - that's just scaremongering.

rusk in bottles is a choking hazard regardless of age....