Rant & Ravings on Baby Rice!

Hi y'all

This post is for all mums out there that as soon as the los turned 6 months went out and got all the weaning gadgets and gizmos. And then find out that on top of the list of baby-absolutely-loathes-items is BABY RICE! Meanwhile you have bought like 3 packs and they are now looking at you and consuming counter /cupboard space!


Yes baby rice! It is marketed as a cereal, just add milk it says on the pack...happy baby picture on the front! Yum yum!! What a scam!

So my experience is this....

my baby will have it as a cereal but we take like an hour to finish 2 tablespoons... plus i have never been able to get the consistency right.... 1 spoon to 8 spoons of baby's usual milk it says on the pack.... easy peasy you think! now if you are using breast milk. Thats not very straightforward.

Is the rice spoon heaped or level It doesnt say.

You see i tried level spoon rice and i had a very watery soup with 8 of the same spoons of milk. erhm am i supposed to use a spoon now or do i use a bottle Tried adding more rice.... it lost taste, adding more milk ...... back to the same watery problem.If i use heaped spoon it kinda becomes too tasteless. And round and round we went.

Solution: ok where is my baby cup, we had it like a drink! i cant shout.

Note: if using formula you may not have this problem, depending on how much milk you are willing to use to make it have a nice taste.

Now when i used formular to make it here is the experience.... the formular 1 scoop to 30 ml water right? That means two 15ml table sooons of water per scoop. Now to make the rice as per package instructions..... one tablespoon of rice = 8 tablespoons of milk = 4 scoops of fomular per baby rice.... considering that is essentially a 120ml bottle of milk, that i am now going to gamble on baby rice only for my daughter to take one spoon, squeeze face and spit it right out... in this harsh economy?. i rather just give her a 120 ml of formular and everyone is happy biko!


I am sure i cannot be the only one to have expereinced such frustrations!!

So as you can guess i kinda gave up on the bland powderiness of baby rice until.......


I realised it is magnificent in EVERY OTHER THING but as a cereal! Below are 6 uses i have  discovered baby rice  is  great for:

• Need to bulk up fruit purree...... add baby rice.
• Added a bit too much water when blending baby food.... add baby rice to thicken it back to desired constitency.
• You know how annoying it is when you buy hipp or cow & gate or other ready-made meals and you want to replicate that creamy texture?  Yes, your home blender will NEVER make it as smooth but in order to get that thickness that holds well on a spoon, most.... about 95% of baby food contains potato, cornstarch or...... you guessed it. RICE FLOUR... which is essentially baby rice. It doesn't usually need to be stated in the title as long as it is below a certain percentage.... so when you see stuff like chicken and sweetcorn and peas.... you will find on the ingredient list the percentages of the main ingredients listed but in additon most will contain rapeseed oil and a thickener that is either potato, cornstarch or rice.    Now you can add potato or cornstarch to thicken but that needs to be cooked through to thicken it up and it usually if you remember at the start of the cooking, or reheating post-blending.... tedious . All you need is baby rice.... no need to cook through
• It  also works well WITH other normal cereals like cornflakes and  rice cripsies (you know the cerials that still hold their shape and  dont turn  into a mush  like golden morn or  weetabix)   i find  adding a spoon or so of baby rice gives it a creamier texture which is  quite nice for babies  that  will usually  drink all the milk and spit out the cornflakes back at you.  Note:  I also find it useful to  break up such cereals  to reduce the  size before  adding to milk. 
• You can also use Baby rice  as a  swallow:  just mix it with water and microwave or  steam to form a  more solid  consistency (its should be no different to using   rice flour to make  "swallow",  just do NOT mix normal rice flour into  your  baby's food  as it is  raw and needs to be  cooked through.  (Banga soup and baby rice  was  quite  a hit with my dd)
• I also add it  to  other sauces or   foods  when i want to substitute it for whole rice, like Thai red curry with veg and  rice, or  lentils with mixed veg and  rice  ( I will  put  up recipes for these soon)

So there you have it..... now go dust out the packs of baby rice you have at the back of the cupboard. And start using them up. Waste not, Want not it is said.  Do let  me know if there are any other uses for  baby rice you have  discovered.