Baby rice or normal porridge

[ecwinters]

Hi
My DS is 5.5 months and I am about to start weaning him.  I plan to try a mixture of mostly baby led weaning but also some purees depending on what he likes.  He is VERY interested in the porridge I have for breakfast.  Can I make him some, with breastmilk or do I need to give him special baby porridge or rice?  Should I puree the porridge to make it smoother or will the lumps be OK?  I reckon he'll mostly just play with it anyway at the moment!

Many thanks.

[creations]

Assuming you have regular/plain porridge oats then it's fine to give him those (and I'd choose that over baby rice which has little nutritional value).  I wouldn't suggest using any of the flavoured oats which are available off the shelf due to added sugar and salt.  The quick oats such as Ready Brek Original are fortified so there are a range of extra vitamins added, you might consider those if they are available where you live (again the flavoured packs have sugar added so I'd avoid those for a young baby).

It's fine to offer him the regular oats but if you would be happier to begin with a smoother mix you can whizz the oats when they are dry which will make a much finer porridge.

There are also a few recipes for finger foods made with oats, porridge fingers, oaty chews or oat biscuits (sugar and honey free) or oat muffins if you want more finger food ideas.

You can also soak oats overnight in milk which makes them nice and soft, rather than cooking them into porridge which might be easier when making a very small amount.

It's ok to use cows milk in preparing foods but obviously breast milk has more nutrients for baby and tastes sweeter too.

hope this helps

[ecwinters]

Thanks that's really useful. We think he might be dairy intolerant (it makes his reflux worse if I eat dairy products) so will go slowly on introducing cow's milk into his diet. 

[creations]

Ah ok. So, you can make the porridge with breast milk if you're able to express.  And things like the porridge finger, soaked porridge or oaty chews can be made with water. There's a recipe idea here, they re fine with water instead of milk and oil instead of butter:
Re: Finger Foods (6 months+)

[aisling]

I made my own porridge but in the early months (6-8) I didn't use oats.  I ground up into a powder in my blender, organic brown rice.  Then in a pot on hob/stovetop I mixed in breastmilk  and water with the homemade brown rice powder and stirred and stirred until like porridge.  Ds didn't just have for breakfast with fruit, I also used it at lunch or supper with avocado or veg or small chicken pieces etc.  He loved it.  Was told by my friend a naturopath that organic brown rice was the easiest to digest especially ground fine.

[ecwinters]

Thanks so much everyone!  I put some oats in the blender today and they worked really well.  I will look at making some of the recipes too once we're a bit further on.  Thanks.