Rice is one of the first solid foods in general. There is plenty of rice cereal product existing on the market promising most important vitamins, nutrients and taste for your babies. However, until we get a product like this the actual content of the nutrients we are expecting to have in rice is pretty much low.

That is the reason, why I preferred to make my own rice porridge for my daughter at home.

Brown rice is a whole grain food, packed with flavor and with protective nutrients. But the sugar-stabilizing fiber and the essential fatty acids are stripped out to make polished white rice, along with most of the magnesium, iron, B vitamins, and lignans, and half of the phosphorus and manganese. To make baby food rice cereal, white rice is even further processed. And this depleted, out-of-balance, processed white flour becomes the eagerly-anticipated first bite of solids for most babies in the US. (ttps://drgreene.com/ebooks/white_paper_white_rice_cereal.pdf)

I would like to add, I introduced the whole grains after my daughters 2nd birthday. The intestines are coated by epithelium which could be damaged by whole grains having them eaten sooner. It helps us, adults, to detox, however kids not so much. Therefore, the best way is to cook a rice porridge from white rice and not use a processed rice baby cereals products.

How to prepare – Introducing rice for the first time

There is no need to prepare a big portion of rice as the baby is only trying and testing it. We introduced cerealduring the 2nd month of starting solids.

Re-heat or not?
I would not suggest keeping the rest of the rice for another day. In general, the rice should be served as soon as it has been cooked. For older kids and adults – If you don’t want to serve the rice directly when cooked, cool it down immediately and store it in the fridge for maximum 1 day. Before serving heat up to body temperature and serve immediately. The reason behind it is that if rice is left standing at room temperature, the spores can grow into bacteria. These bacteria will multiply and may produce toxins (poisons) that cause vomiting or diarrhea. The longer cooked rice is left at room temperature, the more likely it is that the bacteria or toxins could make the rice unsafe to eat.

Rice porridge

Print

Prep Time 9 hours

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 9 hours 20 minutes

Ingredients

• 2 tbs white basmati rice
• water (bottled nursery water)
• Few drops of high quality oil of your choice. We used most of the time hemp seed oil, but you can also use olive oil, pumpkin oil, rapeseed oil or flax seed oil.

Instructions

1. Rinse and wash the rice, place the rice in a glass food storage container to in the water overnight.
2. Before cooking, drain the water. Put the rice and fresh water (the amount of water should be 3 till 4 times more than rice) in the pot.
3. Cook it until the rice is very soft and there is still some water left.
4. When cooked,mix it with hand mixer. When cooled down, before serving add few drops (3-4) of good quality oil.