Rice Cereal: Is it making our kids fat?

Joanna - posted on 01/31/2011

Can anyone give me a quick tutorial on making your own cereal? I see you blend it up and then cook it on the stove, but how do you cook it? How long? Do you mix in breastmilk as it's cooking, or after?

Charlie - posted on 01/31/2011

We used brown rice cereal too or Rafferty multigrain cereal all organic !

Rebecca - posted on 01/31/2011

This is the cereal we would use. It's basically brown rice grits. If you don't want to bother grinding up your own and just want to get it done for you, this could work. We take a bit of it and would mix it with some breast milk/or formula to thin it out when she was young. I love it, it's a great hot cereal for me too. I've seen it in a lot of places, in the states, in small town Ontario/British Columbia. It's kind of a staple for us.

http://www.arrowheadmills.com/product/ri...

Lady Heather - posted on 01/31/2011

Really? I guess I never looked for it at a grocery store. I bought brown rice cereal from the health food store because I was already there. It's still sitting in my cupboard somewhere at the back. HA.

Julianne - posted on 01/31/2011

Most baby cereals are made with white rice. I personally have never seen any brown rice baby cereals, im sure they do exist. This smallish town doesnt have them.

Rebecca - posted on 01/31/2011

There is a difference between white rice and brown rice cereals as well. I can't eat white rice, period. It is too starchy and eventually, when it hits your system, converts to sugar quickly. I personally, did the whole grind the brown rice down in the food processor and then cook it. Or there is a great brand of adult cereal called Rice and Shine, the ingredients are just brown rice-period. We'd feed her that. She didn't really dig it as much as like pear mush or anything like that.

Of course, I'm not saying that you can't make your kid white rice cereal...some bodies are different, I'd take my cue from my kid.

Processed baby cereals, while not a great idea, I'm not sure about it being the main reason kids get fat.

Sharon - posted on 01/31/2011

I started both of mine on rice cereal. They weren't on it for long as I introduced fruits and veges fairly soon once they got the hang of eating from a spoon. I didn't feed willy-nilly either, we had a schedule for feeding solids that brought the kid's meal times in line with our own. So far my kids are not showing signs of weight problems. I think that the cause of childhood obesity is part of a bigger picture and not just one thing we might feed our child.

Stifler's - posted on 01/31/2011

Logan loved rice cereal but he moved on to Weetbix pretty fast as it's $2 for a huge box of them and 1 or 2 weet bix is the same as half a cup of rice cereal madeup or more. he'd eat a box of rice cereal a week for breakfast at 7 months.

ME - posted on 01/31/2011

Never thought that feeding my kids nutritionally empty food made any sense, so, despite being told to do so by pediatricians, I never did it...Mayah (1) wouldn't eat it if I tried to feed it to her either...she HATES baby food...I don't think rice cereal is our biggest problem, but I also have no problem with it if we stop suggesting it new parents...

Lady Heather - posted on 01/31/2011

I think overall diet and how the kid is being fed are probably more important than whatever cereal they are getting. But I didn't like rice cereal as a first food. Freja didn't like the taste and I didn't like the fact that she didn't poop for a week. Well I guess she probably didn't like that either. We gave up on it right away and just stuck to fruit and veg for a while.



I guess the problem with rice cereal is it's seen as good for baby so parents might feed too much or too soon. But there's no way to say for sure that these same parents aren't doing other unhealthy things that might be leading to obesity.



I was totally unaware that there was such a thing as white rice cereal. Why on earth would we strip the grain that we are feeding to someone who has no idea that white rice exists? My daughter doesn't eat white pasta because she doesn't even know there is white pasta. It's pretty easy to get them to eat their whole grains when they've never had anything else and I'm pretty sure the baby isn't going to complain about the colour.

Stifler's - posted on 01/31/2011

i went to 6 week mother's group run by allied health here. they taught us about when and what solids and toys and talking and reading and baby massage. everyone should be mandated to go to one of them.

Julianne - posted on 01/31/2011

@ marylea, i did the same thing with oats barley and other grains :D oatmeal is her favorite as well

Marylea - posted on 01/31/2011

When you think about what rice cereal is why would you want to feed it to your kid. Its cook rice that's been dehydrated and turned to powder and then you reconstituted it with water. Taste the stuff, it’s awful. Also read the ingredients. I was surprised to see how salt is in many of the brands. My daughter hated the stuff and it made her gassy and constipated. So I would make my own. She preferred oatmeal so I'd blend oats in the blender until they were powder then cook them on the stove. You can do the same with rice or barley. Being overweight is such a problem in this day and age and I think that rice cereal is just one of the contributing factors. My daughter was born premature so she’s small for her age but I’m shock at how fat a lot of the babies her age are. My cousin had her son (held till term) on a few weeks after I had my daughter. He was an average sized baby, by the time he was 3 months old he weighed 21 lbs. It was gross. He’s finally started to slim down now at 20months old but he’s still quite chubby. I think that over feeding your child should count as abuse. A young child is counting on their parents to feed them right and keep them healthy. Anyway that’s just my opinion.

Marylea~

Julianne - posted on 01/31/2011

i don't like arrowroot biscuits, the second ingredient is sugar, that i believe is a contributing factor. I think a large portion of people just don't know how to feed babies, they need healthy foods for their poor little tummies. Not just because it instills good eating habits, but also too much junk at once hurts their bodies. Not just when you feed it to them, but possibly the rest of their lives. They have a virgin gut and need to be introduced slowly to all foods. Not bombarded with sugary multi-ingredient foods. We need a nutritionist in the maternity ward explaining this to new moms.

Stifler's - posted on 01/31/2011

Rice cereal? More like chocolate custard and strawberry rice cream dessert that people feed their baby as a snack or as a meal. That and arrowroot biscuits to shut them up every 5 minutes.

Laura - posted on 01/31/2011

The only way my boys would eat rice cereal was if I mixed it with the fruits and veggies. My boys have always been in the 90th + % for both height and weight but are really skinny. I really don't think rice cereal is to blame when you see kids eating fast food all the time and fats, and candy and then sit in front of the tv all day long playing video game or what ever. Personally I think if kids did more physical activity we would see their weight to done dramaticly.

Bonnie - posted on 01/31/2011

Both my kids started with rice cereal, one is smaller for his age (at least I think) and the other is not. It's difficult to tell the difference between a hungry child and just a cranky child, especially when you are a new parent. Unless you go through every other option first and then try feeding if nothing else works, it is difficult to tell.

Julianne - posted on 01/31/2011

I agree jaime its numerous things that cause this problem, we cant just blame one and be done. This is most definitely a factor though.

Jaime - posted on 01/31/2011

well it's a fact that there are a ton of overweight people in the world now, so that's got to come from somewhere. not everyone "turned out fine." i dunno that it's the rice cereal's fault, but you never know. you can't really blame one food for the way people grow. there are a lot of different factors to look at. you've got to look at all sides before you claim one thing is the answer to all the questions.

Katarina - posted on 01/31/2011

I could see a lot of our parents saying that we all turned out fine and we all ate rice cereal. That all these studies now are "silly" (as my mom puts it) and the way were were raised and they were raised worked until now.

Julianne - posted on 01/31/2011

rice cereal is the worst first food, it develops a taste for high carb/low nutrient foods, when we are suppose to be developing a taste for fruits and veggies.

Teresa - posted on 01/31/2011

My girls ate rice cereal starting at 3.5 months. We used it as 'filler' to thicken up all that super soupy baby food. They only ate at meal times (breatfeeding was scheduled 'snacks') and were mostly done w/ rice cereal (other than thickening up 'homemade' yogurt) before a year. They are 58-60ish pound 9 year olds now.



My son ate rice cereal maybe a dozen times and is an almost 30 pound almost 3 year old.



What and when you feed your child as a whole has a whole lot more of an effect over them than just eating rice cereal.

Jaime - posted on 01/31/2011

i don't get it, just feed your kid when it's hungry, and not just because it's screaming. should work, right? but i wouldn't know, first-time mom with a three-week-old so right now just trying to feed her on a schedule and she seems to be doing fine. will see when she gets bigger i guess, lol.

but i gotta agree with Dr. Besser, it's probably got more to do with how the parents feed the kid than what. the whole feeding a kid because it's upset causing eating disorders later in life, i can so understand that.

also think whole grains is healthier than grains stripped just so they look better (bah, that's dumb to me)...