Is Baby Rice necessary?

[naturemum]

My DS is 21 weeks old and I'm starting to consider all the options for weaning. Have the Annabel Karmel Superfoods book (and saw her presentation at the Glasgow Baby Show!) however I'm still not clear on Baby Rice.

Would rather get son started on nice fresh fruit and veg (organic) but wondered whether baby rice was essential?

Is there a nutritional benefit?

i think it's more to do with it being a mild taste to start with. I think but could be wrong. Don't think it's very nutritional from what i've read on here.

it is for the mild taste. I never used it with any of mine. I did fruit and veg, thought babies should have a more interesting introduction to food than bland rice.

naturemum, baby rice is convenient, that's all. It tastes of nothing and the texture is nothing. There's nothing especially wrong with it, but fruit and veg are fine and many parents prefer to start on something that's more like real food.

21 weeks is a bit young for any of it, of course...but you knew that :)

no its vile

Used it for ds , as a first taste , but went straight onto fruit and veg with dd although kept some baby rice to use as a thickener. Many claim to contain added vitmains but whether they are in a sufficiently easily digestible format to be of real benefit I'm less sure.

I thought it was great to get them used to using a spoon and I mixed it with pear or apple purees.

And when I moved onto stronger tastes like brocolli etc, I used the rice as a mixer initially.

I gave dd2 what we were eating from 5 months

I followed Gina Ford religiously from 4 months with dd1 until I went back to work at 6 months and MIL installed some sanity into the proceedings.

dd2 was again 4 months but kind of followed her book again but not to the letter.

I couldn't see the point in giving my baby something that looked and tasted like wallpaper paste, when I could be introducing her to stuff that tastes nice.

I found it useful to thicken some runny purees like pear.

I used to start on baby rice but with added fruit or veg puree mixed in to give the food some taste

With both dd & ds they took some and then promptly spat it out. I weaned them both initially on Danone baby yoghurt

I only used it once with ds1 after finding he much preferred pureed fruit and veg (surprise surprise!) so I didn't even buy any with ds2.

Hi - thanks for all your feedback. I might buy some for thickening purees for example but I think that I will start with pureed fruit and veg.

I want him to get used to the exciting flavours of fruit and vegetables from the start. He is exclusively BF so is already enjoying the variation of flavours from my milk.

tiktok - I'm not planning to wean him until 6 months - was just getting my head straight before I go for the plunge!

It's a good thickener though.
Boots Organic one v popular in this house mixed with fruit.
Fruit alone sometimes too runny or sharp.
I did it from 4 months though .