Guest guest Posted February 6, 2004 Report Share Posted February 6, 2004 Hi All, This is essentially a reply to Lisa's cereal questions, but also applies to Melanie's musing on fortified baby foods (from a while back) and the recent vitamin D questions. Lisa, sounds like they didn't grind the grains enough. I grind mine at home in a coffee grinder until they are very fine, almost like flour. Then the cereal cooks up nicely and doesn't take long. Grains I have used are millet, quinoa, and amaranth. You can also grind up rolled oats if you think regular rolled oats are still too chunky for Baby. Keep in mind that quinoa must be washed before using, it has a natural insect-repellant coating of bitter tasting saponins. Just rinse it in several changes of water. THEN you have to toast it in dry skillet stirring frequently then let it cool before grinding. Several steps but worth it for a delicious nutritious cereal. I have never given my child any " fortified " foods or vitamin supplements. Usually foods are " fortified " to try to make up for the fact they have been so refined there is little nutrition left. Even after enrichment they still aren't as good as the original whole food. Baby vitamins were invented by formula companies to complement their less-than-ideal milk substitute. Artificially added iron is not very well absorbed at all and in fact interferes with the absorption of the iron in breastmilk. Iron in breastmilk is incredibly well absorbed. Naturally iron-rich foods suitable for babies include oats, molasses, potatoes, sweet potatoes, millet, quinoa, and raisins and prunes (of course babies can't chew raisins and prunes but you can whirl them in a blender with a little water and use the paste to sweeten cereal.) Feeding a vitamin C food at the same time helps optimize iron absorption. Our doctor suggested spinach juice as added insurance for iron intake as baby started to cut down on nursing. SOunds gross, but juice some baby spinach, carrots, some apple or pear and maybe some cucumber and it is really tasty and refreshing! We never gave vitamin D supplements either. When it was discovered Vitamin D was considered a hormone as it is made by the body. It is only naturally occuring in animal foods as only animals manufacture it. It is not naturally occurring in milk so don't count on your breastfed infant to get it that way (it is artificially added to commercial cow milk.) Where I live (Pennsylvania), 15 minutes of sunlight a day on the face and hands is all that is needed for a light-skinned person. It can be stored in the liver so if you make a lot over the summer it can last you all winter. Our baby was born in early summer, but none the less I made sure to get her sunlight every day that we could over her first winter. You can get it through a window but I would take your doctor to tast for not telling you the window MUST BE OPEN!! The right rays do not travel through glass. We have a bedroom window that faces south so every winter day that the sun was shining I would open the window and have some naked play time in the sunlight. Even on extremely cold days it was comfortable to have the window open for a half hour or so, I guess because the wind wasn't usually coming from the south. I don't know about requirements for more northern latitudes or for darker skinned persons, these may be cases where supplements would be needed. Jen Lisa Tigani wrote: >Hello: > >Question on infant cereal. >My daughter is 8 months now. I am still nursing a number of times a day. She >has been eating Healthy Time Organic Infant Cereal for about 2 months. I >can't find it anywhere now due to some problems at the company, I think they >are discontinuing it. Anyway, in my search for an alternative the salesclerk >at the health food store suggested I try just giving her regular grains >finely ground. This store has a grinder and will grind for you. Thought it >might work, however when she gave me the bag of ground spelt/kamut it looked >a little chunky to me. I am not a hot cereal person so figured maybe it >looks like this before cooking and will sort of dissolve more when cooked. >After cooking for almost a half hour, salesclerk said it would only take a >few minutes, cereal was still pretty chunky. I tried it with disastrous >results. Poor girl gagged and couldn't even swallow it. So I have two >questions.... >1/ It I take it back do you think they can grind it find enough for an >infant?? I mean they can grind it into flour so I guess they should be able >to but will she eat it. >2/ Also, I was wondering about " vitamins " . Most infant cereals around here >are fortified with iron...didn't know if just ground grains would suffice. >Salesclerk seemed to think since they were whole grains they would > " naturally " contain enough vitamins...She may be right but I am pretty sure >she doesn't have any children so not sure how familiar she is with the >special nutritional needs of infants. > >Thanks >Lisa > > > > > >For more information about vegetarianism, please visit the VRG website at http://www.vrg.org and for materials especially useful for families go to http://www.vrg.org/family.This is a discussion list and is not intended to provide personal medical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. > >edical advice. Medical advice should be obtained from a qualified health professional. > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 7, 2004 Report Share Posted February 7, 2004 Thank you for all that info. Very interesting, and the idea for the spinach juice sounds like a plan. I have a very hard time feeding my 1.5 y/o veggies right now, rather anything, but she will certainly drink anything. That might just work. Melanie , Jennifer Petrus <jen.petrus@e...> wrote: > Hi All, > This is essentially a reply to Lisa's cereal questions, but also > applies to Melanie's musing on fortified baby foods (from a while back) > and the recent vitamin D questions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted February 10, 2004 Report Share Posted February 10, 2004 A great book to get on making your own baby cereal is called " Super Baby Food " by Ruth Yaron. The entire book (except 1 page) is vegetarian. She has extensive instructions on how to grind, cook, and store your own baby food. I found it very helpful! http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0965260313/qid=1076435625//ref=pd_\ ka_1/002-8868007-9327227?v=glance & s=books & n=507846 Sheri Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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