Rice cereal

S

sblossom

Registered User
Just curious.. Why can't babies start with congee? Just plain rice boiled v softly in water? Or is there something special in store brand rice cereal? I have yet to start my baby on solids so just wondering.
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I think you can, if you want. Rice cereal and congee are mostly the same thing (probably different texture). Most commercial baby rice cereal are iron enriched. Also usually baby rice is given mixed with the baby regular formula or breastmilk, so it would be easier for the baby to take it, given its familiar taste.

Also I like starting with baby rice, cause when the baby starts on solid, he would usually take just few teaspoons at a time. It is more convenient and easy to mix baby cereal with milk rather than cook just a small little portion of congee for every feed.
 
and some commercial rice cereal are organic (and as Gataloca said, iron-fortified). so i personally prefer the commercial ones to home-made congee.
 
i started with rice cereal but there was no way my LO was going to eat it, then tried congee and she loved it (for a month or so) now she won't touch it and only eats pasta / rice with meat sauce and she's only 9mths! my LO really has a mind of her own! my 1st started with rice cereal and loved it - so i stuck with that for her first year...think you have to go with the flow in a sense.
 
This is a good thread, i'm going to start mine with rice cereal soon. Allow me to ask this question, do you all mommies think it is better to spoon fed or bottle fed those rice cereal?
 
If you are breastfeeding then it is a good idea to introduce rice cereal first as it is fortified with iron and starting at 6 months, your baby will need external sources of iron. I think if your baby is on formula, it doesn't matter as much as formula has iron in it already. For my second little one, she is 5.5 months old and I just started her on rice cereal a few days ago. After she gets used to this for a week or two, I plan to let her try congee too. But even if I start congee, I will continue to give her rice cereal (so 2 separate mini-meals) because of the iron issue. This is what I did for my son and it worked out ok so I will do this for my daughgter now.
 
our baby is 5.5mths now and has started staring at us intensely when we are eating, planning to start rice cereal for him over the weekend, any suggestions on which brand to choose? we have the sample packs from nestle but heard from some friends healthy times is good? does it matter is it says rice cereal or brown rice cereal?
 
We use healthy times because it was recommended by our pediatrician.

Forgot to say in my last post that spoon feeding is definitely better than bottle feeding. Babies need to learn to eat with a spoon.
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I wanted to feed more natural food to my baby, as I am breastfeeding, so I got him a box of Organix Baby Rice cereal (green box, can be found on ParkNShop). It is made of brown rice, and has nothing added in it (not even iron). If you want iron enriched, there is one from Nestle (I think) in a blue box.

For flavor, I just add my own pureed fruit/veggy in the cereal.
 
I gave my LO Bellamy's Rice Cereal until recently, iron-fortified. Once you add egg yolk/meat into baby's diet, then homemade rice cereal is good too. I ground up some barley rice into powder (using my blender spice mill attachment) and so far so good.

spoon feed for sure. the first month or so baby is really learning to eat in a different way. purees with a spoon.
 
blessed said:
our baby is 5.5mths now and has started staring at us intensely when we are eating, planning to start rice cereal for him over the weekend, any suggestions on which brand to choose? we have the sample packs from nestle but heard from some friends healthy times is good? does it matter is it says rice cereal or brown rice cereal?
Click to expand...

I think i have those sample packs of rice cereal too from nestle. Once i look carefully that it is manufacture from Helongjiang in China, i dont want to give it to my baby. I'm not those everything organic kind of mum if you know what i mean, but from Helongjiang, no. I think i'm fine with places like Shanghai or Beijing.

If yours are not from Helongjiang, then i think it should be okay.

I'm not trying to scare anymum out there not to give nestle rice cereal, but Helongjiang this place i just doesnt want to risk.
 
As others have said, rice cereal is vitamin fortified so that's why it is better than congee.

That said, rice is one of the foods that can cause constipation (the four main ones are Banana, Rice, Apples and Toast - hence the "BRAT" diet for helping with diarrhea) - and if your baby is prone to constipation, you might prefer to start on another grain, such as oats. My 8 month old has been VERY constipated since starting solids and I'm still trying to fix that problem by altering her diet, but personally, I think it's probably better to just start with oat from the beginning. Constipation is a VERY common problem with starting solids...
 
thanks ladies, i've got both the oat & rice cereal from healthy times... look forward to trying it out... spoon feeding time shall begin =)

@taysty - i've checked my sample pack from nestle and they are from helongjiang, also checked the nestle tins from supermarket & they are from the same area, so healthy times it is...
 
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