No matter what is on your baby’s menu, jar food or homemade baby food, the texture of your baby’s first foods should be super easy to digest, super smooth and unlikely to cause any allergic reactions.

There are three best foods for baby to start with.

First, rice cereal, as we mentioned in our previous post, rice cereal is considered as the best human food for baby to start with. If you like to make it from scratch, here is the recipe for Home-Made Baby Rice Cereal.

Second, root vegetables such as sweet potato or yam and carrot, or butternut squash. These veggies have naturally sweet flavor. Their texture tends to be very smooth once are pureed.

Third, digestible fruits such as apple, pear, banana and avocado. If you make your own baby food, in the beginning, it is recommended to steam apple or pear for about 5-8 minutes, and then puree it with its juice together, add some water if needed. Banana and avocado have to be very ripe and soft since they do not require cooking.

Always remember to give your baby new food one at a time for 2-4 days because you have to make sure your baby is not allergic to the new food. In addition, never sweeten and add salt into baby’s food, because your baby may just want sweet food later on if you tempt baby with sugar in the beginning, and salt is harmful to baby’s kidneys.

For baby between four to six months, short grain white rice is the best choice because it is shorter and sticker and is quite easy for baby to digest. If you buy a big bag of the short grain white rice from supermarket, except making baby cereal, you can always use them to make rice puddings, rice balls or sushi. Botan or Nishiki are the two major rice brands.

Here are two simple homemade rice recipes:

• With Rice Cooker
  • 1 cup of rice, 4-6 ounces of water (or as instructed in the rice cooker manual, usually 1 cup of rice yields 2.5 to 3 cups of cooked rice);
  • Place rice and water into rice cooker until it is cooked;
  • Place cooked rice into food processor or blender;
  • Add water/breast milk/formula accordingly until rice is smooth.
• Without Rice Cooker
  • Boil rice and water in a pot;
  • Simmer it for about 20 to 30 minutes, keep stirring;
  • Once rice is cooked, add water/breast milk/formula accordingly;
  • Place them into blender;
  • Puree it until smooth.

You may want to use just one type of rice to make the cereal today and use three types of other rice altogether next time.  It is your call, as long as your baby digest them well, any combination goes.

Homemade rice cereal can be stored in the fridge for up to maximum 48 hours. You may also pour them into ice trays, cover and freeze them overnight. Once they are all frozen, pop cubes out and store them in a container and label with the date.  They can last in freezer for one month. However, you probably will find the texture of thawing frozen cereal is quite different with freshly made ones. Simply just add some water/breast milk/formula as needed until it is smooth again. BUT, never refreeze unfinished portion into freezer again.

Homemade baby rice cereal is not everyone’s cup of tea, you may want to try to make some and see how it works for you.  Making baby food from scratch is a fun process. Enjoy!!!