baby rice and vitamins - confused!

[unclefluffy]

My 24 week old is getting her first taste of food at the weekend. Mum friends have urged me to try baby rice. I had a look and it's fortified with thiamin (vit B1). Anyone know why? Surely she'll get all the vitamins and minerals she needs from breast milk for a while yet?

I was thinking of starting with banana or carrot or something. Should I get some cereal in too?

Also - I eat porridge for breakfast (cooked with water, milk on top). Would that be a suitable weaning food?

Maybe I need to get a book! I clearly know nothing!

Baby rice is nothing but wallpaper paste.
Porridge better or real food.Look into baby led weaning-a fancy way of saying that your kid shoudl eat what everyone lese does.No need for puress or jars or baby rice which as well as everything else, is an extraordinary rip-off.

Baby rice is pointless.
I spread porridge on a plate and as it cools it sets. Pull a chunk off and hand to baby.
Banana, break in half, hand to baby.

Have fun!

it is fortified because rice is low in it. not because your baby has to have extra of it. there is v little difference between wall paper paste and baby rice. in fact it was used as mortar on the Great Wall.

give porridge as pp said

Yes - main nutrients still come from bf - first stage weaning is really just about introducing first tastes. My dd is 6m so I am on this journey again too.

Annabel Karmel's Baby and Toddler Meal Planner is v useful - i've used it for all 3. Baby rice is a good thickener but a rotten 'first taste'. Go for a little pureed cooked carrot or sweet potato and then maybe some pureed cooked apple or pear at first, thickened with a little rice. I had a nappy disaster with banana too early but they are all different!

baby cereals are very finely milled so i am only using them up to 7months and then switching to ready brek and weetabix which are apparently fine (according to Annabel!).

Good luck - expect baby to take tiny amounts after all the fuss in getting it ready. Best advice is to freeze it in ice cube trays at this stage - one butternut squash has lasted us a fortnight!

Babies like solid porridge? Excellent! I didn't really feel very attached to the idea of baby rice.

I used to love Weetabix too - maybe this is an excuse to eat retro breakfast cereals!

i discovered that lentils are a food thickener the other day.

My DD2 had a load of butternut squash and loves everything. All three had mix of rough purees - including purees of whatever we were eating - and chunks of soft things - some they could muck about with and some I shovelled in. Baby rice is weird. Would you eat it?

Me, SJG? No it didn't appeal! I can see why actual rice would be problematic for a while yet, but I wasn't taken with the idea of baby rice - it's just that when everyone mentions it, you wonder if there's something to it!

Foxy, that's a good idea. I thicken my soup with lentils (when I remember).

So... We have porridge oats, bananas, carrots and apples in the house. I guess that's heaps to be going on with!