After trying bananas out for the last week, we decided to give rice cereal a try. Following the directions at WholesomeBabyFood.com, I made some. You know, from scratch, from this recipe. By the way, brown rice is better than white rice since it contains the bran and the germ while the packaged stuff is usually just white rice, since it has a better shelf life that way.
Swistle would be so proud! I was reading her site when she talked about making your own babyfood and she made it look so easy that it would be kinda silly to not do it. Misty also made Oliver's food, so between the two of them I guess it's gonna be home cookin' for the wee ones.
Of course I photographed it for you!
First, I pulverized the brown rice in a coffee grinder that I use as a spice grinder until it was a fine powder. Then I sifted it into a bowl through a strainer, just to be certain I didn't have any large grains left behind. Turns out that there were some, so I recommend that step.
I took 1/4 cup of the rice powder and tossed it into a pot with 1 cup boiling water and whisked away for about 12 minutes. Whisking means few to no clumps and a nicer texture. I also added a few tablespoons more water as it appeared to be getting quite thick and since everything takes longer to cook at this elevation, more cooking time seemed to be a good idea, too.
At this point, I had a pretty thick porridge that appeared to be ready. I removed it from the pot so it wouldn't burn from residual heat.
A fair amount of it, too, so I just scooped about a tablespoon's worth into a small glass dish and thinned it out with breastmilk.
Then I got my test subject ready with a bib. He seemed game to try it.
Did he like it?
I'd say so!
After a few more of these faces,
our bowl looked like this:
He liked it so much that I gave him a second helping, but stopped there, so that his tiny tummy wouldn't explode.
Then we thinned out the remaining porridge with fresh (not previously frozen) breastmilk, poured it into ice cube trays and stuck it in the freezer. Tomorrow, we'll just pull a cube out and let it defrost in the fridge and be ready to go. Logan will appreciate it.
Here he is, pondering his future and how long he will have to wait for more yummy cereal.
Tomorrow, little hungry one. Tomorrow.
9 comments:
So you'll have to tell us if it helps him sleep longer!
That's what my mom was told by her ped. She put rice cereal into Justin's bottle pretty early on and cut a larger hole in the nipple (*gasp!* I know! a bygone era indeed). I think it worked too, if I remember correctly.
Yum!! No wonder he can't wait to eat, you people do good food!!
Twelve minutes of whisking seems like...twelve minutes of whisking. I wonder if I could cook the brown rice first, in my rice steamer, THEN put it through the blender? Or maybe that would be way too gummy.
Swistle: I don't know. Always worth a try, though. Tge site recommends short grain brown rice, but I just had long and that worked fine. Maybe after it had cooled and then a bit more cold water would help? No reason to not experiment - rice is cheap!
I was breastfeeding at the same time, so no bigger on the time.
Val: Nope. He fell asleep for 30 minutes right after these pics, but didn't sleep through the night. *weep* One day...
Oh and Val? In Eric's baby book, it says he was fed rice cereal at five WEEKS. The stuff they used to do back then!
Best part was the comment: "He doesn't seem to like it." Heh. I bet!
Wow, you are a better woman than me, Hatchet, grinding and whisking and... wait a minute, you have time to COOK! How fantastically liberating is that?!
Oh, please let me know if it helps them sleep longer. PLEASE.
By the way, I know you mentioned bottles earlier... I have some bottles I LOVE. You may have heard about them - Adiri. They were created by a mother who got sick of watching her child "drink or drown" with regular bottles. It looks and feels incredibly similar to a real breast (if only she'd make pacifiers) and the flow is just like a breast. The kid really has to work to get the milk out, so there's no problem with nipple confusion. I've been using them since Will was born and he won't use anything else.
Hey Ali! Never heard of those bottles, but we'll look into it here.
Unfortunately, no extra sleeping because of the cereal, but I'm not letting hum chug it, either. I suspect he'd eat more if I let him, but haven't figured out how much is "too much" yet. Kind of afraid to sice it would involve hurling on me, I'm sure of it!
OMG! You are my hero. Making organic baby food from scratch with twins. And here I thought I was special when I made cupcakes from a box.
Don't worry, Hava! You'll get into your groove and do all kinds of bizarre things. I didn't make baby food the first time with Caitlin and there was just one of her! I just thought it was too hard or something.
Now, other than I always have a twin strapped to me, I'm home full time and it seemed kind of silly to not make it. The cereal does take a lot of whisking, though.
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