To cook purchased baby cereal, just follow the instructions on the package. At home, cooking cereals for a baby is much more difficult. You need to know which cereal to choose, how to properly process it and what to serve with.
Porridges in the menu of small gourmets appear one of the first. And this is no accident, because in cereals there are a lot of B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, zinc, carbohydrates and fats.
But in order for the crumbs to assimilate them and extract the maximum benefit from the dish, the preparation of porridge requires careful preparation, and cereals – preliminary processing.
Fun start
First of all, the cereal should be thoroughly washed in warm water at least 3 times. They do not wash only semolina, Artek small wheat groats, oat flakes of the Hercules type and buckwheat. Then the cereals are dried and ground in a coffee grinder or blender to turn it into powder.
Cooking porridge for babies at the initial stage is recommended on water or on a vegetable broth. Breast milk or infant formula are not suitable for this: most of the useful substances that make up their composition are destroyed during boiling. Cow’s milk, even diluted with water, will not work either: the baby’s stomach will not cope with it, and many children are allergic to this product.
Little tricks
If a little finicky from the very beginning did not like porridge, some tricks will help to make the dish more attractive. If you cook porridge in water, add breast milk or the usual mixture in an amount that is equal to half the volume of one feeding in an already prepared dish. If you decide to cook porridge with a vegetable broth, use vegetables that the crumbs like, be it zucchini, cauliflower or broccoli. As for sugar and salt, try as long as possible to do without these unsafe seasonings.
Otherwise, the baby may have a craving for sweet and salty, which certainly will not benefit him. To make the porridge tastier, you can add 4-5 g of butter to the plate, but if the child has a food allergy, it is better to use 1 tsp. vegetable.
Breeding rules
It is important to prepare porridges for crumbs strictly according to the recipe, observing all the recommendations of nutritionists, because an improperly prepared dish can cause digestive upset or malfunction of the digestive tract.
First, the so-called 5% porridge is introduced into the diet of crumbs. To cook it, you need to take 5 g (1 tsp) of chopped cereals and 100 ml of water or vegetable broth. After 1-2 months, you can move on to a denser version – 10% porridge. In this case, 10 g of cereal is taken per 100 ml of liquid.
Buckwheat and rice are poured into cold water (they boil longer), and the semolina and oatmeal, which are cooked faster, are put in boiling water. Cook porridge for at least 15 minutes over low heat, stirring constantly to prevent lumps from forming. Like any other type of complementary foods, porridge is introduced starting with 1/2 tsp.,
