Weaning a baby onto solid foods is a big step for parents. The press is constantly telling us that the next generation will be fat, they will have a poor understanding of food and that we need to teach children from an early age to eat a large variety of different foods. The last thing which any new parent needs to hear is that there is arsenic in baby rice. Baby rice is usually the first solid food giving to children because there is so little in it – it is very hard to even be allergic to baby rice, and now we have read headlines ‘arsenic in baby rice is discovered’.
The advice used to be to wean your baby at four months; this has now been changed to six months. Since we are weaning our children later their intestinal track is more developed and they can therefore move from liquid to solid food quicker. This is important in deciding how to wean your baby and what foods to give.
If you are about to wean your baby and do not know how to progress after to current stories of arsenic in baby rice, then there are several things to consider. Firstly, remember that our parents didn’t use baby rice and we are all okay. Your baby will still be getting the majority of their nutrients from their milk, breast or formula. Weaning is about teaching your child to chew, to sit at a table, and to enjoy food. None of these will be achieved by a diet of baby rice. Baby rice is just used as a bridge to family eating, a bridge which many believe is unnecessary, as is proven by the rise in popularity of baby lead weaning. Baby lead weaning is the other extreme, where no food is pureed and the child learns to hold the food and feed themselves from the beginning. So arsenic in baby rice is not really a problem, you can simply remove this from your babies diet and there will be no harm.
If you in the process of weaning your baby and want to stop the baby rice because of the information now released concerning the levels of arsenic in baby rice, but feel that your baby still needs very runny food, there are other alternatives. Vegetables purees can be made as runny as your baby likes them by simply adding milk; if your child is six months or over, you can add cows milk – a simple solution. Equally you can make porridge to replace the baby rice, and this too can be made suitably runny using expressed breast milk or formula.
In summary, as a mother it is scary to read about arsenic in baby rice, but you do not need to use it. Also it is important not to let a story about arsenic in baby rice ruin the fun which you and your baby should share when they start to eat, these are important steps for you both and they should be enjoyed.
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