I started feeding Darius porridge on the 30th Jan 09 (Dar @ 6.5mths). It has been fun preparing the foodstuff for him, figuring what to introduce and making changes to his feeding schedule.

"What's this strange taste?"

The first two days, he didn’t quite like it. He spat them out and did not want to eat anymore after a few mouthfuls, crying and protesting. Then, I fed him porridge which was a little dry and gooey and he began to swallow each mouthful. I realised that he does not like too watery porridge. Now he eats every mouthful seated on the high chair, with a serious expression looking at me singing.  I have to press down his mouth to feed with the safe munchkin spoon though because he doesn’t want to ‘ah’ for me.

"Nah, I'm not opening my mouth..."

Each meal lasts for 10-15mins. Sometimes he gives a yucky expression if he’s trying out new food, but he’ll finish the servings I give him without much complaints, just quietly looking at me or his music toy.

The ‘Super Baby Food‘ book is now my food bible where I would refer to it constantly. I keep going to the index and looking up the particular kind of food before I do any preparation. It’s full of information on the food to feed to my baby according to his age, what nutrients each food contains, how to prepare food,  store food, great tips on kitchen cleaning, items to use for cooking, how each kind of nutrient is useful for the body, even about how eating helps the development of the baby, etc.

The Super Baby Food Diet has Super Porridge as the main meal. Super porridge is whole grains cooked into cereals + Beta-carotene fruits and veggies (Vitamin A – e.g. papaya, sweet potatoes, carrots, veg/fruits that are orangey) + Vitamin C fruits/juice + Super green veggie + Brewer’s yeast with Vitamin B and Some vitamins/iron supplements.

At 6.5 months, Darius is only eating two servings of food twice daily. He can’t eat some beta-carotene veggies nor super green veggies yet. Brewer’s yeast is also a no-no. So now, he’s only eating rice porridge + a Vitamin A/C veggie or rice porridge + a Vitamin C/A fruit.

For porridge(whole grains)

I fed him white rice (started with thai rice, now Jap rice because we saw one pack on offer and bought it) grind into powder first before throwing into a medium slow cooker to cook for at least two hours which will have two servings for the whole day. Two tablespoons of ground rice makes about 1/2 cup of cooked cereal.

His cereal serving size is about 1/4 cup of cooked cereal now (45ml measured with my pigeon feeding set). The second serving I put into a small ez-lock airtight container to store in the fridge. Sometimes, if I make more, I store more of them into the fridge in the serving size. So when it’s time for his meal, I just have to microwave the portion for him to eat. At most, I’ll only prepare for the next day portions because I prefer feeding him fresh from the cooker.

Adding iron sources

This is where I deviate from the book which advocates all vegetarian. At my mum’s advice, I added threadfin fish or lean meat(pork) to his rice porridge.

“Meats, poultry, and fish contain iron in the heme form, which is best absorbed by the body. (Iron is used to make haemoglobin, which carries oxygen in the blood). Iron is also found in nuts, whole grains, beans, and some vegetables, but this is less well absorbed than the iron from meats.”

Iron is important for the baby’s growth, that’s why you would often see ‘iron-fortified rice cereals’  or milk powder with that states ‘infant formula with iron’.

I let him eat the threadfin because once it’s cooked, it ‘dissolves’ easily into small bits and it doesn’t have as much fishy smell as other kinds of fish.  He doesn’t eat the meat though because his body might not be able to digest properly now. I only add them for the taste and to get some nutrients into the rice as otherwise it’s too plain. I was hesistant about adding meat but when I first fed him plain porridge, he didn’t quite like it and there’s not much nutrients since the germ is removed. Brown rice would be more nutritious. After I started adding some meat for taste, he ate with a scrunched face but begin to like it more and feeding became a breeze as he does not spit them out anymore.

Organic or Not

I just gotten some organic brown rice and millet from a natural food store and will cook it for him soon. To me, organic or not organic is not exactly a concern but if I specially buy it (not from what we are eating), I might as well get organic ones.

The author shared that organic foods are better for the baby because it does not have pesticides which in a small amount may still get concentrated in his small body and make him ill. So if we don’t use organic foods, be sure to wash thoroughly with a vegetable/fruits detergent to get the pesticides or other chemicals out. The good thing about organic rice is that, we don’t need to wash much with water to get any pesticides out as washing too much results in the loss of Vitamin Bs.

Veggies/Fruit Food Cubes

So far, he has tried papaya and sweet potatoes. I just started him on 1 food cube of mango yesterday mixed with the fish porridge. His face really scrunched up on eating it which made me laugh. I guess it was because it was his first time tasting sour food. He still guai guai finished the servings though.

The food cubes were prepared by steaming the sweet potatoes with the skin intact to prevent loss of nutrients, pureed with blender or mashed, strained to get choking bits out and finally poured into ice-cube trays to freeze immediately. Standing at room temperature and exposure to light destroys vitamins.The trays were covered with a plastic freezer sheet and aluminium foil to prevent freezer burn and loss of nutrients. Then, when they are frozen, they were transferred into lock-lock airtight containers and labelled.

1 Food cube from ice-cube tray = 1 ounce or 2 tablespoons, which is just right for a baby’s servings.

One food cube of a veggie and one food cube of a fruit are then taken out and put into corelle dishware to thaw in the refrigerator for the day. Otherwise, I’ll put them into the microwave to heat a little but not too much as warmth and light destroys vitamin C.

Vitamin C goes with Iron

We must make sure to include each meal with some vitamin C because it boosts the absorption of iron into our body but Vitamin C is water-soluble so it must be taken daily as the body does not store it. Right now, Darius is not suitable for citrus fruits yet so no fresh orange juice for him. Papaya is a rice source of both Vitamin A and C and mango contains Vitamin A, C and D.

Vitamin A

It promotes growth and repair of body tissues. Helps the baby to maintain good eyesight, preventing night blindness(eyes unable to adjust to bright light and darkness). Beta-carotene is a nutrient converted by the body into Vitamin A but does not cause toxicity with excess unlike vitamin A supplements.

So now my daily routine of Solid Food Feeding for Darius at 6.5 months is:

• Upon wakening: Milk Feed of 4 ounces.
• 0715-0730hrs: Prepare porridge with correct amount of water (2 tablespoons of dry grain plus 1/4 or 1/2 cup water (jap rice need more)), put into slow cooker. Take out one small slice of fish or lean meat to thaw in microwave. Then, add the meat into the porridge.
• 0730hrs: After the porridge is done, take out 1 food cube of sweet potato (A Vitamin A veggie) and 1 food cube of Vitamin C fruit and thaw in separate dishes with a cover on top in the fridge. DO NOT thaw in room temperature as light & warmth destroys Vitamins and also bacteria may grow.
• 0930hrs: Porridge is ready. Serve 1-2 ounces. Beta-carotene veggie Foodcube is mixed into the porridge. Plus 10-20ml of water after feed. The remaining keep into the fridge in ezlock container.
• 1030hrs: Milk Feed of 5 ounces (sometimes may only finish 4 ounces).
• 0130hrs: Milk Feed of 5 ounces.
• 0400 or 0415hrs:  Porridge at 1-2 ounces plus 10-20ml of water after feed. Fruit Food cube is mixed into the porridge or separately given if first time testing.  (I decide the amount of ounces based on his appetite. He was eating 2 ounces for a week but yesterday he didn’t want to finish his milk so now I decrease his porridge to 1 ounce)
• 0500 or 0515hrs: Milk Feed of 4 ounces.
• 0730hrs: Milk Feed of 5 ounces.
• 0830 – 0900hrs: Bedtime
• 1100hrs:  Dream Milk Feed of 5 ounces.

He is still supposed to drink at least 32 ounces of milk to 40 ounces but he can’t always finish them at 5 ounces after eating his solids so he usually drinks about 27-29 ounces a day.

I don’t feed him milk together with his porridge meals because it’s too much for him to eat at one setting. He does not want to lie down and drink properly and may feel full as he has just finished eating the watery porridge for 10-15mins. I wait about 1/2hr -1hr to give him his milk feed.

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