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So DD is nearly 4 months and while i have no intention of starting solids until 6 months ive started to look at things while i do my grocery shopping just so i have a idea of what ill be needing to feed her...
ive noticed Raffertys have a 4+ months type of "cereal" stuff, and im unsure if im better off to stick with farax or is the raffertys one good?
are they same thing?
I think they're the same thing. But it's pretty gross stuff that rice cereal. Have you looked into Baby Led Solids at all?
Never used Farex, but my sons both liked the Rafferty's Garden. I started DS2 on the plain RG rice cereal when he was five months old (he was ready for solids then) and he happily ate it, and as he got a bit older I used some of the other RG cereal varieties. He had a huge appetite though, so once I knew his tummy could handle it, I put him on kiddy weetbix as he was going through a pack of RG cereal in about 3 days.
Both my girls would vomit after every meal of farex but they loved the rafferty's and didn't spew. I don't think there's a huge difference except for the taste. You can also try kids weetbix soaked in milk until they are reallllllly mushy. They worked for DD1 because rafferty's wasn't around when she first started. maybe buy both and give them a try? I ended up mixing the farex into mashed veggies and other meals which worked really well :) x
My DDs prefered the raffertys :D
nither of my boys liked farex, when my ds2 was young the shop started stocking rafertys, gave it a shot and he liked it, i didnt even bother with farex for dd1 just went to rafertys, but she preferd our food to hers, so still have unopened packs in the pantry!
DD refused to eat Farex but loves Raffertys
^^ yeah that. Alternatively, do your own purees. Easy as.:
Yup, agree with Heaven and Audax. Your baby can have what you have and you don't need to worry about that rice cereal muck. I always go with the thought "if I wouldn't eat it then there is no way I'm giving it to my baby" and I certainly wouldn't be passing any rice cereal past my lips! :D:
xxxx
i have a few friends who have done BLS, but i havnt looked into it a lot for us....:
i guess becasue i dont know where to start :redface:
wow thats a lot of rice ceral! :lol::
ive never seen kids weet bix, how is it different to normal weet bix?
:
oh dont worry rice ceral wouldnt go past my lips either!
thank you all for your replies!
id like to have her on some puree's so i know how much she is eating but id also like to encourage her to eat finger foods as well....
if i was to not bother with rice ceral what sort of things would i give her for breakfast?
assuming toast and vegemite isnt ok for a 5-6month old? or is it? :redface: god i have no idea!
Toast and vegemite is fab...... my DD loves that!! Has done for ages.
I just give DD normal porridge, we have that most mornings and I make it thick enough so that she can eat it herself - although she's now mastered the art of eating with a spoon, clever little buggar that she is! :)
the kiddie weet-bix as far as i know has less salt and sugar in it then regular.
i was told off by the mchn for using a small amount of vegemite to flavour his rice cerial, (only way hed touch it!) apparently the salt content is to much for them, tho it never done harm on any of my kids! (i think it would be unaustralian to deny her vegemite!;)
You can now get Vegemite for kids which is low in salt :)
They've thought of everything.
so toast and vegemite would be ok to start her on?
or would u start her on fruit and vegie sticks?
id try both, but be watchfull as toast can get very soggy from drool.
I sort of agree with this one. It is really important to avoid salt where possible and vegimite is pretty heavy with the stuff. Even though you only use a little, I figure it best to avoid it if you can so their palate does not get used to high salt taste too early. I do agree that it is un-australian to avoid vegimite altogether, I would just personally avoid it for a bit if I were you!:
And with the weetbix, the kids one is lower in salt and sugar etc which is a good idea to go for.
With packet rice cereal, remember that it has been fortified with iron as babies who are weaning do need to keep their iron supplies up. This can be a bit of a contentious issue as a baby who is still breast feeding should still be getting heaps of iron through breast milk - and in a more easily digestible form - so this iron is really unnecessary. The iron added to cereal is not absorbed by the body as easily and can lead to constipation in babies who begin solids with this cereal as a starter. I chose to avoid the processed stuff and make my own while keeping up the breast feeding as first choice and keeping up my own iron intake.
If you want to make your own rice cereal, make sure you have organic brown rice, toast some in a dry pan for a bit till it smells lovely and toasty then wizz it in a spice grinder to get it nice and finely chopped. Then cook it just as you would rice in a pot on a stove with water, enough to cover it well and simmer till all the water is absorbed and it 'tastes' cooked. You may need to add more water or keep cooking the water out until it is the consistency you want. I would make a batch every week and use it as the basis for all sorts of meals, mixing it with stewed fruit etc. We started with it just plain, I would either spoon feed or cook it up a bit thicker and just pick it up with my fingers and feed it to DD. She loved it, gobbled it up. The toasting makes it tastier and easier to digest.
Another good brekkie when they get just a little older is bircher muesli or porridge.
With BLS, check out an awesome book by Gill Rapley. It is completely inspirational! The tribal baby website is also a good resource, as are the ladies in the BLS threads. We did it with DD1 and it was fun, amazing, easy and liberating! DD2 however was a completely different baby and was much more keen to be spoon fed :rolleyes: so we have done a bit of a mix. I think the real thing is just follow your baby's lead. Let them explore food the way they want to - in a way that makes you comfortable!
ETA: Sorry, I missed all those replies about vegimite with low salt for kids! I was busy feeding DD in between beginning my post and hitting post! Great to hear there are alternatives to the high salt adult version.
great! thank you!!
looks like ill be reading up on BLS!!
Ha ha re: your earlier comment about my DS2 eating a lot of rice cereal. By the time he was about 7 months he was a regular garbage guts - would eat EVERYTHING thrown at him and howled the house down if he didn't get enough to eat. I just assumed the RG cereals didn't fill him up sufficiently. But I kid you not, we went through a pack of it roughly every 3 days, sometimes it would stretch to 4. And the kiddies weetbix is the stuff in the green box - lower sodium content and calcium and/or iron enriched I believe.
PS: I don't have a drama with BLS - works for some, but not all. Ditto, some mums swear by starting their bub on rice cereal, while other mums wouldn't dream of it. My boys were happy (and fuller, I believe) spoon-fed in those initial months, whereas any time they were handed food most of it would end up on the floor or squished under them in their highchair. Go with your gut, but RG was a hit in my household with both boys.
RG worked well for us until we added 'other' solids. We give DS both mush and finger foods and once we introduced more food he was backed up for days and days. I just bought the RG coz it was cheaper on the shelves and it stated that they use brown rice- I didn't see that on the other packets. We still have a nearly full packet in our cupboard now though- hmmmmmm wonder what i'll do with it?
You can add it to anything thats blended up. I used to add it to mashed steamed veggies or cooked mince for the girls.:
Good luck with BLS. Another thing to remember is to not stress too much about how much they are eating in the beginning. Make food fun otherwise it can become a real chore xx