Baby porridge - general principles and methods of preparation
Baby cereals are introduced into a child’s diet as complementary foods from 7-10 months. After all, it’s time for the baby to receive more complete and balanced nutrition. You can buy special instant baby cereals, but you cannot give “quick” cereals, such as muesli, with various fillings. They are not adapted for the stomach of a small child; they contain dyes, flavor enhancers and other food substitutes. What can cause allergies or stomach upset in your baby? It is best to prepare porridge yourself from natural cereals. And you can start with rice. This cereal does not contain gluten, is completely hypoallergenic, and does not irritate the intestines at all. And then gradually you can introduce porridges from other cereals into the menu. For children under one year old, porridge with a liquid consistency is cooked.
When should you give porridge to your baby?
The World Health Organization recommends breastfeeding children until they are two years old. This does not mean that the baby should not receive anything else besides milk; complementary foods are introduced at five months. Gradually the menu becomes more varied, and the portions become larger. The age at which complementary feeding is introduced depends on the individual characteristics of the child; some even at seven months do not want to eat anything other than milk and still feel good and gain weight.
When should you give porridge to your baby? If a child looks with curiosity at an adult who is eating something, then it is time to introduce complementary foods. The reflex of pushing out food with the tongue should be replaced by a swallowing reflex. The appearance of the first tooth is a signal that the baby is ready to grind and grind food. Some mothers introduce complementary foods at this time.
Baby cereals - food preparation
If you are preparing dishes for children, then the processing and preparation of products should be approached with special care. All cereals, except semolina, are sorted, i.e. inspected visually to prevent the ingress of foreign small objects, and then washed several times. If the dish includes vegetables or fruits, they must be thoroughly rinsed under water and peeled. And then, according to the recipe, they are cut into pieces or grated.
If there is a small child in the house, it is advisable to immediately buy a measuring cup with divisions so that it is convenient to measure the amount of cereal or liquid. For children under one year old, whole grains of any cereal must be ground to flour, and then the porridge should be cooked. It is convenient to use a coffee grinder for this. If there is no coffee grinder, then the finished porridge is rubbed through a sieve or ground with a blender and diluted to the desired consistency with water or infant formula (breast milk).
Baby porridge - the best recipes
What type of rice can be used for baby rice cereal?
Table of contents:
The type of rice that can be used ideally for homemade grains is short rice. Short rice cooks faster and is softer than long or medium grain rice. The only limitation is that it may become sticky and viscous when boiled and pureed or blended. You can use a mixture of different types of rice that you like, just use whole grains.
Brown Jasmine rice and plain brown rice make a wonderful porridge mixture, as does Basmati and plain brown rice. If you find that your baby doesn't like the formula, you may want to consider switching to plain brown rice until he gets used to solids.
Many parents believe that using 2 glasses of water and 50 grams of grain flour produces a good thin porridge.
Recipe 1: Rice porridge with apple for children
You can start introducing such porridge into your baby’s diet at six months of age. And older children will eat it with pleasure. Rice porridge can be cooked with or without apples. Children over the age of one year can cook rice in milk and add a little sugar, fructose or jam to the plate. Rice grains must first be ground in a coffee grinder or blender. Ingredients: 3 tablespoons rice, 250 ml water, butter, small apple. Cooking method
Pour the crushed rice with water, add an apple (you must first peel it and cut it into pieces). Cook the porridge for 15 minutes, then beat in a blender until pureed, add butter. If porridge is cooked for babies under one year old, you can add formula or breast milk.
Cooking features
If the baby happily accepted a new type of food, this does not mean that the mother can cook and offer porridge several times a day. This also does not mean that you can immediately prepare mixed porridges from two or more grains.
Do not rush to introduce another dish until the baby’s digestive system has adapted to the characteristics of the proposed cereal. The scheme for introducing cereals for the first complementary feeding looks like this:
- the first four days we add one more spoonful of porridge;
- from the fifth day you can offer 50 grams of the product;
- from the sixth day – 100 grams of product;
- on the seventh day you can eat 130-150 grams of new porridge.
Over the next week, the baby continues to get used to this cereal, and only after that can you start preparing another porridge. The introduction of a new cereal should also begin with five percent porridge, offering one teaspoon first. Next, you should reduce the portion of your usual porridge, increasing the portion of the new one: by substitution method.
What kind of porridge to cook – dairy or dairy-free? For the first feeding you should prepare cereals without milk.
Firstly, the baby’s digestive system cannot yet absorb casein.
Secondly, boiled whole milk changes its properties and is a big burden for the baby’s gastrointestinal tract. If you want to enrich the prepared dish with taste, add a little breast milk or mixture. But you shouldn't boil it.
Buckwheat
Buckwheat porridge for babies is one of the healthy and nutritious foods. How to cook a buckwheat dish? First, you should choose good quality cereal: light in color, not dark.
Dark buckwheat is bitter and little one will like it.
Next we do this:
- pour the ground cereal into boiling water (five percent porridge recipe);
- cook over low heat for about 15 minutes, stirring;
- cool the finished dish;
- add breast milk/formula.
Rice
Before preparing rice porridge, you need to choose the highest quality grains: they should be whole, not crushed.
Short-grain rice is suitable; it cooks well.
The porridge needs to be prepared in a special way: the rice grains are washed several times. For what? Firstly, rice is treated with a special composition for storage. Secondly, the grains should be washed to remove powdery white coating. To do this, put 2 spoons of grains in a saucepan and rinse them in seven waters: you need to pour and drain running water 7 times.
If you want to prepare complementary foods from whole grains, pour cold water over the cereal and cook for 16-17 minutes. First boil the mixture, then reduce the intensity of the burner and finish cooking the food over low heat. After cooling, puree the mixture with a blender and boil.
Recipe 2: Semolina porridge for children
Semolina porridge is recommended to be given to children from one year of age. Milk is diluted half and half with water. From the age of three you can cook porridge with milk alone. It is generally accepted that semolina is cooked for 10-15 minutes. During this time, it manages to boil well, but also loses a certain amount of protein and nutrients. Therefore, it is better to change the cooking technology: boil the porridge for two to three minutes, then remove from the stove and wrap in a towel for 10-15 minutes. During this time, the porridge will swell and become ready.
Ingredients : semolina - 4 teaspoons, 250 ml of liquid (125 ml of milk + 125 ml of water), sugar (fructose), butter - 5g.
Cooking method
Bring the liquid to a boil and add semolina. It is convenient to do this through a sieve. Firstly, the cereal is sifted in thin streams and no lumps are formed, and secondly, if there is any debris in the cereal, it will remain in the sieve.
Let the porridge boil for about two minutes, remove from heat and wrap in a towel or blanket for 10 minutes. Add butter, sugar or jam to the plate with porridge and mix well.
How to cook porridge for babies?
Pediatricians all over the world believe that you should start feeding porridge at five months. Naturally, you don’t need to put a full plate and stuff your baby with porridge until he feels sick. A new dish should be tested in the amount of two teaspoons. The purpose of complementary feeding is to introduce the little person to new food. Complementary feeding should not be introduced if the child does not feel well after vaccination or is ill.
Porridge is a source of carbohydrates, protein and minerals. From five months to three, children must eat porridge. The most delicious is semolina porridge, but doctors consider it harmful for children, especially for those who have not yet turned one year old. If your baby is constantly fed it, he will develop colitis or chronic gastritis. Semolina porridge interferes with the absorption of calcium and vitamin D.
Buckwheat porridge is considered one of the healthiest. It is easily digested by the child’s stomach and is the most nutritious. Buckwheat contains potassium, protein, magnesium, iron and phosphorus.
How to cook porridge for babies? This question is not difficult to answer. It is necessary to pour milk into a ladle, boil it, then turn the heat to low and gradually add the cereal. To prevent the porridge from burning, you need to stir it all the time. Recently, many mothers have been using multicookers, in which they can cook porridge for the whole family without any extra effort or wasting time.
Recipe 3: Oatmeal with banana for children
To prevent oatmeal from becoming boring, you can serve it with jam, honey or various fruits - banana, grated strawberries, or apple.
Ingredients : 3 tbsp oatmeal, glass of milk, ½ banana, salt, 1 tsp. Sahara.
Cooking method:
Boil milk (you can dilute it with water), add sugar, a pinch of salt, add oatmeal. Turn the heat to low and cook for half an hour. Allow the finished oatmeal to cool slightly, add the chopped banana and blend with a blender.
Recipe 4: Corn porridge with milk for children
Porridge for children over one year old. If you cook it for babies, you should first grind the cereal into flour in a coffee grinder or beat the ready-made porridge in a blender. If porridge is being prepared for children over one year old, add butter to the plate and sweeten with jam, sugar or honey.
Ingredients : 3 tbsp. spoons of cereal, 250 ml of water, 100 ml of milk.
Cooking method
Stir 3 tbsp in water. spoons of cereal, boil. Turn the heat to low and cook for 20 minutes. Beat the porridge in a blender (if necessary).
Next, pour milk into the mixture, bring to a boil and cook over low heat for 5-10 minutes. At the end, add a piece of butter, you can add a grated banana.
Recipe 5: Buckwheat porridge with milk for children
For children's porridges, it is better to buy unroasted buckwheat (light yellow-green color) - it contains more useful substances. But regular buckwheat will do as well.
Ingredients : buckwheat – ½ cup, water – 1.5 cups, ½ cup milk, 10 g butter, sugar and salt to taste.
Cooking method
Pour water over buckwheat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covering with a lid, until the water boils away, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat, wrap in a towel for 10 minutes to allow the buckwheat to melt. Add milk to the porridge, add salt, sweeten and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, add butter. Serve the porridge warm.
Secret No. 5: butter, salt and milk
When preparing porridge for a child, it is worth remembering that you cannot look up to an adult. For example, you should not add salt to your baby’s porridge - children’s kidneys are not yet able to cope with such a load. It is also not recommended to add butter - it is too heavy for the child’s digestive system. Additionally, it is better not to overload it.
For babies over 9 months old, you can prepare porridge with milk. True, you can only use low-fat milk. Moreover, it additionally needs to be diluted with boiled water in a 1:1 ratio.
Recipe 6: Millet porridge with pumpkin for children
When fresh, pumpkin is stored until spring without losing its beneficial properties. Therefore, during the winter months, it will help the child get the necessary vitamins. It is used to make casseroles, pancakes, and porridge. They turn out juicy and tasty and are liked by many children.
Ingredients : ½ cup millet cereal, a glass of milk, 2 small pumpkin slices (about a glass if cut into pieces), sugar and salt, butter.
Cooking method:
Pour water over the millet so that it covers the grain by about 2 centimeters. Cook for 15 minutes, turn off the heat, leave the porridge on the stove. At this time, you can start pumpkin.
Cut the pumpkin into small pieces, add milk and cook. As soon as it is cooked and becomes soft, it must be crushed and added to the millet porridge. Add salt, sweeten, if the porridge turns out to be thick, add hot milk and boil for 3 minutes. Add butter and serve.
