Rice cereal, living in Italy, going mad!

[mandybagpuss]

Hello all, I am very confused I am weaning my almost 7 month old twins, they were premature so corrected age almost 6 months, anyway. I live in Italy where the babies doctor has told me to drop one bottle a day, only at lunchtime, then replace with rice cereal and fresh vegetable broth with olive oil and grated parmesan. This is how they do it here apparently, anyway naturally the babies are horrified by these new tastes, they take 9 ounces of formula 4 times a day, now 3 times as I am dropping a feed. Do babies have to have rice cereal? they dont seem to like it much and has made them constipated, anyway what I mean to say is what exactly should babies eat at 6 months? And how much quantity? They seem to like jars better, or fresh pureed veggies, is that enough? Without the cereal I mean, sorry no HVs here so I am clueless. Oh and why only at lunchtime? Cant they eat at teatime, Id like to go out in the day occasionaly lol, ta xx

Pureed veg is fine and then maybe some pureed fruit, why not try making some porridge with the formula milk and oats - you can blend it if it is too lumpy and can add fruit puree to it. Have ypu tried adding fruit or veggies to the rice cereal? This might work because TBH it does taste very bland. I dont see a problem with them eating at teatime really but I am not an expert! HTH.

Puree fruit/veg is fine - eg carrots beans etc.. You can make it yourself - just boil/microwave and blitz in a food processoer with a bit of water to stop it being too dry and freeze in small freezer tray portions or just give jars - check they are just veg though with nothing added. I'm not sure how good Italian jars are.

I weaned ds by giving him breakfast only for a couple of weeks. I think we started with oats/porrige mixed with milk or water or puree veg. Yes puree veg for breakfast - he was fine with it.

Tbh though ds loved fresh broth with veg and parmesan in it as well which I started giving at tea time after a few weeks. After he was 8 months old, I added very small pasta to it You can buy 'pasta glutinata' for babies in Italy if you want to avoid gluten or just buy the small pasta used in minestrina. If you cook that in a good broth it gves a great mushy baby food.

You can tell my family is Italian
I did make the broth myself but it is really easy - just boil up some meat and/or veg for a while (1-2 hrs), strain the liquid off and freeze in small portions. Then when you want to make their food get the frozen broth, put in a pan, heat up - when boiling add the pasta and cook for 3-5mins - mix some puree veg and parmesan (or not) if you want and volia - really easy meal.

I think luch time is recommended so that any new foods, if the baby is going to react to them (allergies, stomach ache, constipation etc) will happen in the afternoon rather than the middle of the night iyswim. Personally I never bothered with rice type cereal stuff, just straight on to pureed veg and fruit.

baby rice is useful as a starter food as you can mix it with their usual milk to make something a bit more substantial.

I think you are doing well by blending vegetables.
After a week or so you can increase their food intake to two meals a day - the thing is to do it gradually and not introduce too much change at once.

Thanks everyone for the responses. I guess its all trial and error.They will most likely be eating me out of house and home soon. I will get those veggies on to boil pronto. xx