Choosing baby food must be based on the age of the baby. This is adjusted to the baby’s ability to receive food. The mother should consider the appropriate kind of food to be given to the baby because it can affect their growth and development. Entering the age of 6 month, baby needs to be introduced with other foods than milk from their mother (weaning food).
Weaning is the process of replacing your baby from milk to solid food. Weaning helps baby to lay foundations for having a healthy eating habits. Besides that, giving weaning food for baby also will provide adequate nutrition needs for the baby. The first stage of introducing solid food to your baby, as a mother you have to choose the best and appropriate first solid food for your baby.
The main thing to note when you want to give weaning food for your baby is considering whether the baby has ability to digest it. In addition, you’d better make your own weaning food for baby. Rice cereal becomes one of the options for weaning food. Besides rice is very beneficial for body health, benefits of cereal are also should be considered.
Nutritional Facts of Rice Cereal
For a serving size 100 grams of rice cereal contains:
- 86 calories
- 10 g total carbohydrates
- 6 g sugar
- 0.1 g fiber
- 3.6 g protein
- 3.3 g total fat
- 1.8 g saturated fat
- 0.3 g polyunsaturated fat
- 0.8 monounsaturated fat
- 10 mg cholesterol
- 47 mg sodium
- 180 mg potassium
- 3 % vitamin A
- 11 % vitamin D
- 6 % vitamin B
- 5 % vitamin B6
- 19% iron
- 15 % calcium
- 5% magnesium
Health Benefits of Rice Cereal for Babies
Here are the lists of health benefits of rice cereal for babies:
1. Keep Babies Hydrated
Rice cereal helps babies to get much energy. Besides that it will help to launch the blood flow in the body. High amount of water in rice cereal can help to prevent the babies from dehydration. Babies’ body which get sufficient supply of energy and water will prevent from the attack of virus or bacteria.
2. Prevent Constipation
Rice cereal is full of good bacteria that help the growth of intestinal bacteria, as well as soften the feces because of high water content. In addition, eating rice cereal also reduces abdominal pain caused by constipation.Â
3. Maintain Babies’ Weight
Obesity can do harm for people including babies. Eating a bowl of rice cereal can help babies to maintain their weight. It is low in calories and high in carbohydrate. So it will make the babies feel full quickly yet prevent them from hunger in which it is one of the benefits of carbohydrates.
4. Fever Treatment
Eating rice cereal not only prevents the babies from hunger, but also provides energy to fight off infections. It has immune which is able to enhance immunity system and its antioxidants properties will help to fight fever. You may also read benefits of onion for cold and flu symptoms.
5. Treat Stomach Upset
If the babies have indigestion, eating a bowl of rice cereal is one of the best ways to combat abdominal pain and any other stomach upset. This is because rice cereal is easily digested and helps the absorption of nutrients, as well as promotes healthy digestion.Â
6. Treat GERD
GERD is gastrointestinal reflux disease or colic. Rice cereal can be used to thicken formula milk for babies who have GERD. One of the GERD symptoms is babies prone to spit up excessively.
7. Fortified Iron
There are many health benefits of rice cereal for babies. Rice cereal help to ensure babies get adequate amounts of nutrients. Adequate nutrients are needed for babies’ brain development.
8. Easy to Digest
Rice Cereal has smooth and not too solid texture, so it is easy to digest for babies who are slowly transitioning from breast milk to rice cereal. You may also read another natural way to treat digestion problems benefits of bird’s eye chili
More benefits of rice cereal
Here are the lists of health benefits of rice cereal for babies:
- Help Increase Calorie Intake
- Help Babies Sleep Better
- High in Nutrition like Vitamins and Minerals
- Contain low fats
How to Make Your Own Rice Cereal for Your Baby
What You Need
- 1/4 cup of organic brown rice
- A cup of water
- Blender (Or using others food processor)
Ps. Use brown rice because it has more natural nutrients than white rice
Related articles:
- Benefits of cereal
- Benefits of fruit and fiber cereal
- Benefits of brown rice for health
- Benefits of brown rice for dogs
What You Have to Do
- Using food processor like blender, you can also use mortar and pestle, and grind the grains brown rice until it becomes powder. It only take some minutes if you use blender.
- Boil a cup of water on the stove with lowest heat. After the water is boiled, pour the powder of brown rice into the boiled water and then stir it carefully.
- Keep the heat on the lowest heat and keep stir the mixture of brown rice powder with water to prevent it sticking in the bottom of the pot for about 10 minutes.
- After 10 minutes, after the brown rice powder with water is well mixed, then rice cereal is ready to serve for your baby.Â
Precautions and Warnings
Although rice cereal gives many benefits for the health of baby, but it can become an adverse effect to babies as well.
- Aspiration
A medical expert explained that if rice cereal added into babies’ milk bottle will lead to lung problems if the mixture of milk and rice cereal comes back up from the stomach into the lungs.
- Constipation
Even it can prevent constipation, but in some babies it can be very constipating. Babies’ digestive system are used to digest milk since birth, if you give rice cereal for babies without considering the appropriate time, this can cause digestion problems like constipation.
- Allergies
Just like the other foods or medicine, rice cereal can cause allergies for some babies. However, rice cereal doesn’t carries high risk of allergic reaction like wheat and dairy (milk).
- Gas problems
Gas is symptoms of an adverse effect of rice cereal to babies. The symptoms can be your babies getting bloating, vomiting, constipation, diarrhea, watery eyes, etc.
You may get recommendation from your friends or family members that adding rice cereal into a milk bottle will help your babies have a better sleep. But you have to take a note that that recommendation is not based on research or science. Giving rice cereal to babies before the appropriate time to give weaning food is only make problems to the babies. If you wanted to know more detail information about giving rice cereal for your babies it is better for you to go to pediatrician to ask for advice.