Is baby rice cereal cooked? How to store baby rice cereal?

New mothers lack the basic knowledge about rice cereal that babies often eat, so they don’t know how to prepare it when eating it, and are unfamiliar with how to store it after use. So the following editor will teach you how to make baby rice cereal.

Is baby rice cereal cooked?

Most baby rice cereals are cooked and only need to be soaked in warm water or warm milk. They do not need to be boiled. However, there are also baby rice cereals that need to be cooked before consumption. It depends on the parents' choice. For convenience, parents generally choose cooked baby rice cereal.

Infant rice cereal can be divided into ready-to-eat (products are heat-processed and cooked, and can be eaten with warm water or milk) and non-ready-to-eat (products are not cooked and must be cooked before eating) according to the degree of maturity. Ready-to-eat products can be eaten with a proper amount of warm water; for non-ready-to-eat products, the color and smell of the rice cereal should be selected according to one's own conditions and needs, and the product must be cooked before eating.

In addition to choosing the right rice noodles based on the degree of maturity, parents should also check whether the nutritional ingredients indicated in the nutritional information are complete and the content is reasonable. The nutritional information table generally indicates basic nutrients such as calories, protein, fat, carbohydrates, vitamins such as vitamin A, vitamin D, some B vitamins, trace elements such as calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorus, or other added nutrients.

How to store baby rice cereal

[How to store purchased baby rice cereal]

After opening the package of purchased baby rice cereal, it is usually stored at room temperature, away from light, in a dry and cool place. Never store it in the refrigerator. If you put it in the refrigerator and take it out again and again, the temperature and humidity difference inside and outside the refrigerator will easily cause deliquescence, caking and deterioration.

It is also important to note that for canned baby rice cereal, the plastic lid must be tightly closed after each opening, and the bag of bagged baby rice cereal must be tightly tied after each use. If you want to store the opened bagged rice cereal in another container for easy storage and removal, it is best to store it in a clean and sealed container. The container must be clean and dry before use, and no water should be brought in.

In addition, storage also has time limits. The baby rice cereal you buy has clear regulations on the packaging, such as use up within one month after opening. If it exceeds one month after opening, it should be discarded. And the expiration date on the package is the date when it is unopened and stored in appropriate conditions. Once opened, this date cannot be used.

[Storage method of homemade baby rice cereal]

In order to ensure the food safety of babies, many mothers make their own rice noodles for babies. If you make too much rice noodles at one time, you must store them well. Generally, you need to wait for the rice noodles to cool down after grinding and frying. If you don’t eat it immediately, you should immediately pack it in a clean food-grade ziplock bag or store it in a clean and sealed container so that you can take it out later. Remember to store it in a cool place to prevent moisture.

Mothers should be careful not to make too much rice noodles each time. This kind of homemade rice noodles will not last long and are prone to insects. They should be eaten up as soon as possible. When the rice noodles clump, and the clumps are large, hard, and cannot be broken by squeezing, it means that the rice noodles have deteriorated and should be discarded.

How to prepare baby rice cereal

Baby rice cereal should be prepared according to the instructions on the outer packaging. Some rice cereals need to be prepared with milk powder, and most rice cereals need to be prepared with warm water. However, it is generally not recommended to use boiling water, because boiling water can easily destroy the nutritional value of the rice cereal.

Prepare utensils: sterilized baby bowl, chopsticks and spoon.

Modulation steps:

Method 1: Add 3-4 spoons of warm water to 1 spoon of rice flour, let it sit for a while to make the rice flour fully moistened by the water, and stir it in a clockwise direction with chopsticks to make it into a paste. (As the baby grows older and continues to adapt to complementary foods, the amount and proportion of rice flour can be slowly increased to increase the consistency.)

Method 2: Feed infant formula milk powder and infant rice cereal in a 1:1 ratio (i.e. one spoonful of infant formula milk powder plus one spoonful of rice cereal mixed with 30cc of warm water) or 2:1 ratio to your baby. This method not only enhances the flavor of the formula milk, but also increases its nutritional value.

How to feed baby rice cereal

When you first start feeding, use a spoon or your fingers to place the rice cereal on your baby's lips. This way, the baby can use his or her usual sucking technique to suck the rice cereal into his or her mouth. Once the baby is used to it, start with 1-2 spoons each time. After the baby has adapted for 2 days, if the baby does not have vomiting or diarrhea, you can increase the amount to 3-4 spoons. After the baby has adapted, you can slowly increase the amount.

Note: Please put complementary foods in bowls or cups and feed them to your child with a spoon instead of a bottle. This will help your baby adapt to the adult diet as early as possible and reduce the dependence on breast milk or formula milk. It will also help the rice cereal to mix well with the salivary amylase in the saliva to facilitate the absorption of starch, so as to avoid the salivary amylase not being able to work completely when feeding with a bottle because the food is passed through too quickly.

Precautions for eating baby rice cereal

1. Pay attention to time

Mothers can put baby rice cereal before or after any feeding. In other words, you should pay attention to complementary foods from the beginning and add them at the same time as milk, and avoid adding them between two feedings.

2. Pay attention to concentration

There is no exact data on the ratio of rice flour to water. It depends entirely on the baby's age and adaptability. When the baby first starts to use rice flour, you can make it thinner, and then gradually make it thicker.

3. Pay attention to water temperature

If the water temperature is too high, the nutrition in the rice noodles will be lost easily; if the water temperature is too low, the rice noodles will not dissolve, and will clump together, which will cause indigestion for babies. The more suitable water temperature is 70 to 80 degrees Celsius. The hot water in the water dispenser used by ordinary families should be no problem for soaking rice noodles.

4. Pay attention to the amount of food you eat

When we first added rice flour, we let him eat less because some children are allergic to rice flour. Eating less can avoid these problems. Start by adding about 5 grams, which is a small spoonful. One spoonful is about 2.5 grams. One or two spoonfuls can be mixed into a paste and given to the child. Before feeding, give him a little paste to let him taste it.

5. Be careful when using a spoon

The main purpose of adding complementary foods is not to supplement nutrition, but to let him learn to eat, let him learn to use his tongue and mouth to continuously squeeze, and use the movements of his tongue and mouth to chew and swallow food. This is the process of eating, so when feeding rice cereal to the baby, use a small spoon instead of a bottle.

6. Pay attention to adding auxiliary materials

After the baby gets used to rice noodles, you can add animal blood from chicken, duck, pig, etc., as well as lean meat, fish paste, pork liver paste, chicken liver paste and other iron-rich and easily absorbed foods, which can be directly added to the rice noodles. Note that no seasoning should be added to babies under 1 year old.